Request of advice about tourism and diplomacy

[Valynor]

i'm playing my first game with BNW, I did try years ago civ v vanilla and did'nt like it.
Now the game is definitely more interesting.

Large map, random leader and map type, I got Isabella on Pangea (not the best map for conquistadores I think). No NW near my capitol. Anyway playing om monarch it was'nt too difficult to be leader in tech since 1000 AD. I was plannng to go for the new cultural win working on wonders and great works, but, because of my tradition opening I was stuck with 4 cities. So, around 1400 I decided to take two cities I liked from Boudicca. War went well but now nobody likes me anymore and seldom I can arrange a trade. i'm the host of the world congress as well and that does'nt help. Being the runner, my interests conflict with most of the others.

The question: do I have to give up the cultural win, since I read that for tourism to work I should have the other civs open borders to me, what at the moment seems unlikely? Can I do something to ease the tension? Or should I go the painful path of conquering all their capitals?

 

[mrwho]

Taking two cities away from an AI isn't enough in and of itself to have the AI irreversibly hate you, so much so that they won't even consider open borders. What else did you do to provoke them? If you've only taken two cities and done little else to provoke the AI then I'm sure you'll be able to get open borders with them. You might just have to give up more than you'd like.

Open borders isn't an absolute must for a culural victory, though. Whilst it's very useful, there are other modifiers that also boost tourism in a target civ to the same extent that open borders does. Establishing trade routes with them, sharing an ideology or religion, having a diplomat in the capital of a civ with a different ideology, taking order and being happier than a target civ, etc. Whilst open borders are very useful they're not absolutely necessary.

Being the host of the World Congress is very good as it allows you to propose some crowd-pleasing measures. If you're going for cultural victory then Arts Funding and Historical Monuments will probably please a lot of AI. Those two proposals are, for whatever reason, very popular. And, if you're propose they're all but guaranteed to go through, so unless it's against your interests then vote up the other proposal to gain favour with the AI who proposed it. Meanwhile it may be a good idea to gift a few spare luxuries to AIs with high culture to make them like you, as long as your GPT and happiness is strong enough. Also, have spies or diplomats in cities and whenever you see a notification that civ x is scheming over civ y, click on the notification and inform the target AI for a nice diplo boost.

 

[Rathelon]

Sounds like he probably was making unpopular proposals in the World Congress as well.

 

[Valynor]

Thinking about it, I'm sure proposing twice the plus 3 culture for WW was'nt very smart.
I'm gonna try the proposals you advice and take some unfair trade once or twice if I can.
Then I've yet to see how the whole ideology thing works, maybe it can help too.
Thank you all

 

[mrwho]

Thinking about it, I'm sure proposing twice the plus 3 culture for WW was'nt very smart.
I'm gonna try the proposals you advice and take some unfair trade once or twice if I can.
Then I've yet to see how the whole ideology thing works, maybe it can help too.
Thank you all

World Ideology is a bad idea if the entire world hates you, unless the AI have more or less all happened to pick the same ideology. If you want to get open borders it's probably best to not propose those divisive measures. The reason why Arts Funding and Historical Monuments are so good is because the AI seems to love them. Occasionally an AI may be opposed to Arts Funding but that's massively outweighed by those who like it, and I've never seen anyone opposed to Historical Monuments; everyone loves it. They also help you with your cultural victory so it's a win-win really. If you don't know, you can mouse over a proposal before you propose it to see who would like it and who wouldn't.