Agendas you never seem to be able to complete?

[MantaRevan]

Curious about people's experiences with some of the agendas in the game. Some seem near impossible to fulfill. Pedro for instance, is someone I can't imagine ever remaining on good terms with. If I'm focusing great people, then he's not going to like me, which is pretty much a requirement to be competitive in the culture or science victories. If I'm not going for that, then I'm going for domination, in which case he'll hate me for being a warmonger. He might like you if you go hardline for religion, but religion is unreliable, so you need to keep one of those other options open. Seems like a lose-lose. What are your experiences with the different agendas in the game?

 

[Returning Lurker]

Stupid freaking Barbarossa and his stupid freaking Iron Crown. I will NEVER be able to satisfy that because it just feels so unnatural to let my envoys stand around in the palace courtyard doing nothing but drinking my good wine and crashing in my expensive guest rooms rather than sending them out to do that thing I pay them to do (drinking other people's good wine and crashing in their expensive guest rooms while simultaneously not causing an international incident), especially when the game keeps nagging me to send out my envoys with flashing lights and a big fat screen every time I want to ignore it. On top of that the nature of City State quests means I'm bound to accidentally complete one some day or will be forced to complete one to make progress towards victory (even if I'm not doing it for the city state) and the moment I get that single free envoy or invest the envoys that have been crowding up my throneroom into a city on the exact opposite end of the world that Barbarossa has never even heard of I am forever on his naughty list. And there's nothing you can do to fix it! You can't unsend envoys, it's not like with Catherine or Hojo where you can actively do things to make ammends, or even with Teddy and Gandhi where EVENTUALLY if you stay on the up and up for long enough they will forget your past infractions. Nope, once you get out one envoy you might as well burn your German embassies to the ground and send Germany a diamond encrusted statue of your middle finger pointing at a crude crayon drawing of their miserable little empire that you've taken the libery of spitting on, because you will never be friends again no matter what you do.

 

[Rosty K]

Saladin's one is hard to meet for me, as I'm intolerant of other religions in my lands.

 

[king of nowhere]

at deity you get very few great people, so pedro is your friend.

to be friend with barbarossa, you can declare war on every city state you meet.

the most disagreable leader I met is gorgo: she will declare war on you at some point, then she'll refuse peace unless you are killling her, and even then she'll onky make peace if you give her equal conditions. and then she'll denounce you for yielding peace too easily. you can be friend with gorgo, but once you are at war with her once, you'll never live it down the whole game.

 

[bite]

China, Brazil & Germany, I will never be able to be friends with them

 

[Rosty K]

China

Oh, yes, the fat Son of ... Heaven goes without saying, of course

 

[Returning Lurker]

to be friend with barbarossa, you can declare war on every city state you meet.

Barbarossa doesn't like people who conquer city states, his agenda explicitly states that he "Does not like Suzerains of city-states, or civilizations who conquered city-states." He wants you to ignore them entirely so that HE can conquer them, which is virtually impossible with quests and just all around annoying anyway.

 

[stinkubus]

If you improve a single amenity you get on Montezuma's bad side, but I think it's good for the game that there are civs which are difficult to ally. It ensures conflict.

 

[Kimiimaro]

Me: "And Colosseum is completed! Hurray!"
Qin Shi Huang: "Why did you build the Colosseum before me, you evil Player?!"
Me: "I need it. Would you please stop complaning? It's not my fault you can't use your ability properly to build Colosseum before me."
Qin Shi Huang: "You are seed of evil. You must be destroyed."

Me: "Oh, I can get Gustave Eiffel now and build that Hermitage now!"
Pedro II: "What are you doing? That engineer should be mine!"
Me: "Sorry, but what could I do? I'm building a wonder and you don't even have any points towards that goddamn engineer!"
Pedro II: "I must do that, for sake of progress if nothing else. You must be opposed."

Me: "This is my twentieth envoy to Zanzibar. I hope Pericles will stop sending his envoys here."
Pericles: "That city is ours! I would suggest you don't interfere!"
Me: "That Zanzibar is MINE! I found it first!"

Mvemba a Nzinga: "Why are you not spreading religion to me?!"
Me: "Goddammit stop telling me I'm not spreading Catholicism to you! You are on the freaking other side of planet, and I found it two turns ago! I don't even have faith to buy missionaries."
Mvemba a Nzinga: *Throws his staff on ground*

Harald Hardrada: "Why don't you have a navy?"
Me: "Maybe because I don't have access to the sea?"
20 turns later:
Harald Hardrada: "Why don't you have a navy?"
Me: *Facepalms*

Trajan: "Your territory is small! Are you so scared of expansion?"
Me: It's turn 30, I have two cities, you have only one. You are the one with small territory!"
Trajan: "Alea iacta est!"

Cleopatra: "Your army is weak!"
Me: "And what?"
Cleopatra: "I have had enough with you! May Amun-Ra guide us!"
Me: *Bombs her huge army of chariots with three frigates and two archers*

Victoria: "Hey, you have a city where I don't!
Me: "Not my fault!"
Victoria: *screams and gives an angry look at me*

 

[Rosty K]

If you improve a single amenity you get on Montezuma's bad side, but I think it's good for the game that there are civs which are difficult to ally. It ensures conflict.

Not always. If he already has that (you are on the same continent or he traded it from someone), he'll be happy.

 

[Orange1861]

"
Me: "Oh, I can get Gustave Eiffel now and build that Hermitage now!"
Pedro II: "What are you doing? That engineer should be mine!"
Me: "Sorry, but what could I do? I'm building a wonder and you don't even have any points towards that goddamn engineer!"
Pedro II: "I must do that, for sake of progress if nothing else. You must be opposed."

Yep, this is usually the story of my relationship of Pedro, now when I see him I denounce him in the next ten turns and hope his enemies love me as a result.

 

[Victoria]

I rarely play religion so mvemba easily.... most of the others if you catch them early enough and can get the +9 then the +18 it far outweighs the -6 you get later.
Play style also, I very rarely build wonders until late game so Qin is often a friend.

Denouncing the friend of a civ is a worse negative

 

[MantaRevan]

I've actually made fast friends with Montezuma in my game. Paradoxically, sharing a boarder with this aggressive AI actually seems to be a good thing, because close geography means that you are likely to share some of the same resources. Also, I discovered that his agenda applies to strategic resources as well, when he asked if I wanted my people taken as slaves after hooking up an iron mine.

 

[Victoria]

Monty is a funny one because at the beginning if you hold off on getting a luxury you get +12 with him and very likely friends. Then when you get your luxury you are -6 for taken as slaves and +9 for friends... as long as you can keep that friendship you are OK. A great guy to go to war with as a joint venture early which is another +5 too.

Nowadays I will always try to go to war with a civ in a joint, even in ancient times.

 

[Siptah]

China and Brazil are the worst for me. All others are depending on the circumstances. But I always build wonders and always compete for Great People.

 

[Sagax]

I struggle to figure out Gilgamesh - how are you supposed to satisfy his agenda? He never cares when I'm allied with another civ for the majority of the game, and if I'm supposed to be allies with him then it's a pain trying to figure out how to please his hidden agenda...

 

[Rosty K]

I struggle to figure out Gilgamesh - how are you supposed to satisfy his agenda? He never cares when I'm allied with another civ for the majority of the game, and if I'm supposed to be allies with him then it's a pain trying to figure out how to please his hidden agenda...

That's how it works though. Declare friendship with him once, and you're his best buddy forever. He doesn't care about you being friends with others.

Speaking of this... Did anyone check what happens if you declare a surprise war on Cyrus himself?

 

[Victoria]

Yes I did... +12 with him
I only just got DLC's and when him and Trajan appeared next to me and he was not gearing up he was dead meat. I suspect his second agenda was technophile or culture freak because he just did not tool up at all. These 2 secondaries turn a potential monster into a faceroll

 

[Tacgnol]

It's very doable but my vote for most obnoxious goes to Alexander.

All he cares about is war, he will denounce me almost immediately, keep it up as long as I am at peace and then 1 turn after I go to war he salutes me for fighting for my people, and within 5 turns of making peace tell me that I'm worse than deserters and traitors.

Most of the agendas like Pericles are fairly doable to meet if you try, Alex's really isn't without playing a domination game in which case his opinion doesn't matter. For the other leaders with nigh-impossible agendas like Barbarossa and Monty you generally get 1 notification the first time you break it and then just denouncements, with Alex it's every. single. time. you declare war or make peace. Not sure what the difference between him and Gorgo is but she seems to at least respect you for a while once you've won a war or two, Alex it's literally just whether you're at war that turn or not.

 

[Victoria]

You can match any civ and the primary and secondary agendas can really mix things up which does give Catherine an edge of sorts.
I think I agree that Alex is just ugly all round

I was playing dom a few days ago with Aus. Trajan has Dawinism so I kept him alive all game just to have a buddy.

Darwinism, Gorgo, Alex, Cyrus and Trajan are all good Warmonger ones

Bottom line I do guess I struggle with Pedro most.