AI Tendencies / Personalities

[vorlon_mi]

Do any of the sponsors have tendencies or flavors? In the other Civ games, certain leaders -- such as Montezuma or Shaka -- are always warmongers. Others love to build world wonders. Has anyone noticed a trend, or read the appropriate data files, for the leaders in BERT?

In my current game, Brasil has been my buddy since we met. Russia / Slavic Federation has declared war on me in every game where he appears. Fielding / ARC has been cooperative for 100-150 turns, but I'm starting to worry that she might backstab me as the victory approaches.

Related question about declaring war: Kozlov declared on me, I defeated his forces, and we agreed on peace terms. About 5 turns later, I could see that he was massing a counter attack, and tried to declare on him to get the initiative. No, the game said, you can't declare until 8 turns have passed.
So I wait the full 8 turns, declare on him, and take one of his three cities. Chungsu takes another, leaving only his capital. I have better things to do, so I get him to peace with payments of energy and diplo capital. One turn of peace, and the very next turn Kozlov gives me the "We have cowered in fear long enough" and declares on me. No 8 turn limit for the AI, apparently. Alright, little guy, you started this but I will finish it. Lined up my ships around his coastal capital and eliminated him from the game.
Does the 8 turn limit only apply to the human player?

 

[legalizefreedom]

It seems like this research was done, but I don't recall where. Seems like there were some hidden tendencies for each leader, but most are random to make it unpredictable, including Affinity affinity ;-)

 

[Guide-on]

Unfortunately, you are right. If any modders are listening, they should make their leaders heavily flavored toward specific affinities. I understand that corporate will not provide any more help.

P.S. If corporate is even still listening, Please let us know.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Reviving my old thread, rather than starting a new one ...

I enjoy (not love, but enjoy) the shift in diplomacy as I get ready to build my game-winning wonder. Two of the AI will always object to it, likely to declare war to try to stop me. I haven't yet discerned a pattern in who will (basically) denounce me.

1. Sometimes, it is the second- and third-place AI. Or the first-place, if I am second, in score. That often means I need to move troops and prepare for a larger scale, multi-front war.
2. Sometimes, it is a strong AI and weak one. That makes my war prep easier.
3. A few times, it is a pair of weak AIs, so that I don't have to change much at all.

Have any of you noticed a pattern? Do the objecting AIs have a conflicting affinity, or the same affinity and consider me a competitor towards their VC? Any hints that might predict which AIs will object?

 

[vorlon_mi]

Reviving my old thread again... sorry.

In my last 3 games, where I was going for an affinity victory, the objectors all had a conflicting affinity. In one game, I had only one objector because ... not sure? Either all the remaining AI had the same primary affinity as I did, or the other potential objector had been eliminated. Or both.

I'm not sure if that's actual data or just coincidence. I haven't played any Contact victories lately to collect data there.

 

[legalizefreedom]

I have never noticed a pattern of who gets pissed or how pissed they get. Just seems random. To be fair, I've never really tried to look for a pattern though.

 

[vorlon_mi]

A little more data for the trend... Last night, as I started the Supremacy victory wonder, both the objectors were definitely Harmony. Al Falah, who was also high score and further away (meaning a more complex war) was also Supremacy and said not a word.

 

[legalizefreedom]

That might just be random. I've often seen same affinity sponsors agro at the victory wonder.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Over the weekend ... Around turn 305, I had finished the pre-requisites for both a Contact Victory and a Purity/Promised Land Victory.

I saved the game and did a little experiment.
Al-Falah 16/9/8 (Harmony/Purity/Supremacy)
ARC 5/8/12
FI 7/14/6
Polystralia 7/14/6
Brasil 13/6/6

Started the Beacon -- Both Arshia (AF) and Elodie (FI) objected
Stopped and reloaded the save
Started the Exodus Gate -- Both Arshia and Suzanne (ARC) objected

No clear pattern for the Contact victory condition. I was #1 in score, while AF was #2 and Hutama and Elodie traded back-n-forth for #3
I expected ARC to object to the Promised Land victory, since she was clearly pursuing Supremacy.

Al-Falah was truly puzzling in this game. All of the other AI leaders picked an affinity and stuck to it.
Arshia started Harmony and pushed it all the way to 15. I planted spies to watch for the start of the Mind Flower.
Shortly after reaching Harmony=15, I got the notice that Al-Falah had researched the tech for a Warp Gate (Supremacy)... huh?
I brought my spies back to HQ, since I had chosen the national security policy which gives +1% to wonder construction for every agent at HQ. Seven or eight agents was a nice boost. By the time she gathered herself to declare on me (2 turns before I completed my Exodus Gate), she had pumped up her Purity affinity. Indeed, as I counter-attacked and laid siege to Ard, she was already building an Exodus Gate... wth?
Talk about switching up the affinity goals!

Geography may have played a role, but not a big one. Al-Falah was my next-door neighbor to my east; I settled all my cities to the west so as not to ruffle feathers. ARC was on the other landmass, dozens of tiles to the southwest. LegalizeFreedom, you may be right. It may be randomly chosen from those with contrasting affinities.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Conducted a similar experiment tonight. I am playing Brasil, and on turn 269 I checked the objectors for both Contact and Supremacy victories.
The AI in this game are:
Al Falah 3/4/8 has been a punching bag this game; 3 or 4 cities, with one getting attacked and reclaimed
ARC 5/6/15 keeps expanding, took a city from NSA and 2 cities from KP; #2 on the score list
NSA 9/5/4 forward settled on Fielding, lost that city, and has been trying to get it back. only 3 cities total
KP 4/8/3 expanded to 4 cities, has lost all but her capital. Soon to be defeated by Lena
INTEGR 3/8/3 moderate expansion, 5-6 cities, has not done much but attack nearby aliens. Fought some skirmishes with ARC
PAU 14/8/11 this game, Samatar is a monster of expansion. At least 12 cities, maybe more. No wars that I can remember. Forward settled Kavitha on her land mass (after turn 200) and held onto the city. #1 on the score list

I saved the game, then planted the Beacon. The top 2 factions in score -- Africa and America -- objected
Restored from the save, then started the Emancipation Gate. Africa objected again, along with INTEGR.
This supports my hypothesis from an earlier post, that objectors are likely to be favoring a different affinity than the human player.
Africa ran up their Harmony affinity first, while INTEGR has been emphasizing Purity. Both ARC and Al Falah are following Supremacy, same as I am.

The other interesting observation from this game concerns forward-settling. In most of my games, Samatar is pretty peaceful and gets "Cooperating" status with multiple factions. His capital is on my land mass, some 20-25 tiles to the west of mine. Early in the game, as I was settling my 2nd and 3rd cities, I placed one of them about 4 tiles west of my capital... much closer to my capital than his. Africa pipes up to complain. When I settled a 4th city, nearly due south from my capital but a tile or two west, he complained again, even though we were Cooperating. Around turn 100, he invades me!!

After shutting down my exploration and expansion to fight him off, I decided I wasn't having fun. I went back to the turn 40 save, before I had settled the city that first angered him. I settled the next 4 cities to the EAST, some in the ocean to the east. Nothing west of the "longitude" of my capital. Samatar was quiet, "Cooperating", and proceeded to drop lots of cities to his west. At this point (turn 269, starting the gate), I have a huge navy and a decent sized army. I took out Kozlov (my neighbor to the south, a little bit east) around turn 250 with my navy. The ships and planes are all on station in home waters, waiting for the orders to invade northern Africa, while the gate is constructed.

Moral of the story: sometimes, the AI gets really angry if the player settles in their direction.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Update from tonight's play: I'm playing as KP, going for a Transcendence victory. 14 cities, 4 conquered, with 25 accelerator buildings completed.

The AI have been beating each other up pretty well. Elodie eliminated both PAC and PAU; I took out NSA as they were close to my core cities.

Turn 270 report -
FI 6/6/16 She started building her gate around turn 257
AF 12/6/4 She had completed Decode Signal at least 30 turns ago, but started her Beacon around turn 261
INTEGR 6/14/6
Polystralia 4/5/10 Was beat up pretty hard by Al Falah, losing a couple of key cities

The objectors? Franco Iberia (not a surprise) and INTEGR (small surprise). I'm moving my land troops away from Al Falah, my neighbor to the northeast, towards INTEGR, who is massing troops near our shared order in the west.

I've just realized that I no longer care if Arshia lights up her Beacon. Once ignited, it will take her 40-some turns to finish. My Mind Flower will connect sooner than that, with my array of accelerator buildings. I need to worry about Elodie, both from "destroying her gate" view and "fending off her attacks." In the far eastern ocean, I grabbed Nhiet Tinh -- an aquatic city that Duncan had taken during one of his adventures. It was his last city which I conquered. My supply lines are long, so I have debated about whether to defend it, or concentrate my navy in the east to attack Elodie.

Key Observation: objectors held differing affinities from mine, AI who was similar affinity to me did not object.
-------------- Addendum, 13 Aug 2023 ---------------
Elodie finished her gate on turn 283; I destroyed it on turn 293.
Arshia finally finished her Beacon on turn 300! Must not have had much production in the city where it was built, taking ~40 turns to finish. She built it in the water (?) which makes it more vulnerable.
Since my Mind Flower completed on turn 289 (27 turns to build), I was not worried about the AF Beacon. My MF took 19 turns to connect with the cosmos.

Indeed, I did a bit of a Machiavelli -- I allied myself with Al Falah. That meant that she declared on the two objectors, bleeding off some of their troops and even trading a couple cities back and forth. As a result, neither INTEGR nor FI ever invaded my turf... other than a stray submarine.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Latest set of data, supporting two of our hypotheses:

• When going for an affinity victory, the objectors are usually following a different affinity
• When going for a contact victory, the objectors are random

I'm playing as Africa, going for a Purity victory. Started building the gate on turn 261, finished it on turn 274.
At the time I started, my affinities were 10/16/9
The opposition:

• Al Falah 3/9/5 Did not object
• ARC 3/5/6 My neighbor to northwest
• PAC 7/5/4 Objected, but she was reduced to one city at the time, because she kept warring with Duncan
• NSA 3/6/9 Did not object. Hung on through tough times around turn 100, then started settling like crazy about turn 200
• Brasil 5/6/12 Objected. My neighbor to the northeast, with 3 large cities plus those he conquered from Lena

INTGR spawned within 10 tiles of Brasil, so she was doomed. Friendly enough to me, but overwhelmed.
KP was my nearest neighbor, due east. Around turn 70, she forward-settled me, planting a city right on a peninsula that allowed ships to pass through from west to east. I waited for her outpost to become a city, then declared and took it. She kept refusing peace offers, so I took over her 4 cities and their surrounding land.

I had great luck in exploring Progenitor sites, so I had one piece of the signal. In parallel with the war effort and digging myself out of the Unhealth Hole, I built the Transcendental Equation and Decoded the Signal. Saved the game, started the Beacon on turn 268 to see who objected.
To my surprise, the objectors were ARC and Al Falah. Neither of them were bothered by my Exodus Gate (Arshia was also Purity), and neither of the gate objectors cared much about a Beacon. I reloaded the save and carried on with the Purity track.

Based on intel from my spy satellites, Brasil had already sent an invasion force of 10-12 units over the rough terrain, closing on my northern border. He had fought others in the preceding turns, but my gut told me that his troops (mostly level 2 promotions) were coming after me. I declared on him as soon as he objected. strafing his troops with Level 3 aircraft. I had actually planned for the possibility that he would object; I planted new cities on my northern frontier around turn 230, so that they could serve as forward airbases. Consistent with my experience in other games, the objectors never agree to peace. I conquered the Brasilian cities and INTGR cities with Level 3 tanks and air power.
I was sending my navy to take out PAC, who was down to a OCC. But before they could arrive, she had declared on NSA (again) and Duncan took her out.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Wrapping up a game last night as Al Falah, going for Supremacy. I started near the north of a large land mass, Fungal Terran planet.
ARC was my neighbor to the southeast, but she only settled 3 cities. During my expansion, I took ARC out around turn 220.
Slavic Federation was my neighbor to the southwest, with PAU very close, due west. As usually happens, Samatar was willing to be Cooperating early on, so I kept expanding away from him. NSA started near some islands on the west coast of the other land mass; Duncan was willing to be Cooperating around turn 150 and stayed there for more than 100 turns. KP was the power on the other landmass, eventually invading and overrunning NSA. I backstabbed PAU around turn 170, taking his original capital and his biggest cities.

At the time I started my Emancipation Gate, where I was 8/11/16,

• NSA, still Cooperating but reduced to one city, 8/4/6
• Kozlov, Neutral and also reduced to one city, 8/5/6
• Chungsu, 8/6/5, OBJECTED
• Polystralia, Cooperating, 3/8/5
• KP, Cooperating, 5/11/3, OBJECTED
• PAU, at WAR with me on my west coast, 3/4/6

KP makes sense, as she was both 2nd place in size and score as well as developing a different affinity.
Why did Chungsu object while SF and NAS did not? All 3 had level 8 in Harmony. Perhaps relative strength? Chungsu had 3 decent sized cities. I half expected Polystralia to object, since they were pursuing Purity just as KP was. Definitely seems to have a random component, along with a higher affinity different than mine.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yesterday, I finished a Soyuz game as INTEGR going for a Purity / Promised Land victory. This game had a few interesting twists getting to the final victory. Other than an early/mid game war (around turn 135-140), I focused on expansion on my Lush Terran planet. I shared a big land mass with Brasil (neighbor to the east and southeast), KP (due south), and PAC (far southeastern corner). On the other land mass were Polystralia (most of the north, but west of me), ARC (southeast corner of that landmass), Kozlov (far southwest), and NSA (off the coast, due south of the other land mass).

By turn 160, both Polystralia and ARC were tending towards Supremacy; all of the others were balancing their affinities. Brasil forward-settled a city 4 hexes from my easternmost city, so I beelined Robotics (for planes) and prepared to invade him. This timing was earlier than I usually mount an offensive invasion, so I had more modest goals: take the nearest city and another, then consolidate. That worked; around turn 150, he offered a peace deal that included his southernmost city, on the other side of his capital. I accepted, wondering if I was making a mistake. Sure enough, around 10 turns later, he DOWs again and takes back Santo Adriano. I take one of his northern cities and begin marching on Cidadela. He makes peace with me, so I expand into the sea north of my land mass. He had also declared on PAC, who conquered Santo A, starting to raze it. I waited the requisite turns and declared again, taking his capital while his forces were further south trying to take back his burning city.
All the while, Slavic Federation kept making incursions into the ever-increasing yellow empire Polystralia was building across the north of their land mass and into the large ocean. And losing! By turn 200, Kozlov was down to a OCC, made peace with Hutama, but PAC came over to take out his last city. As we turned the corner to turn 230, finishing up the last tech and topping up my affinity, we were down to 6 factions, all of which were cooperating with me. This time, I even built the Crawler wonder in my capital, for the boost in building my gate.

Starting the gate on turn 243, the following affinity status:

1. Polystralia, highest score, 4/6/12
2. PAC, 3rd place score, 10/7/5
3. Kavitha Protectorate, 4th place score, 12/5/4
4. ARC, 5th place score, 3/5/10
5. NSA, 6th place score, 2/3/6

And the objectors were... KP and PAC, the two factions who built up Harmony.

Now the twists! Around turn 250-255, PAC declared on NSA and took all of his cities. Daoming had spread out over the southern end of our land mass (which intersected the southern ice) and into the sea to her east. Thus, my navy, which had been massing in my western waters, could not reach PAC by coming around the "bottom" of our land mass. They could reach all of KP's cities, most of which were coastal. Since (in my experience) the objectors will never settle for peace even when down to their last city, I would need to go through and recapture the former NSA on my way to the PAC home ocean. My land forces swept thru the former Brasil territory, conquered Mandira, then turned southeast towards Tiangong.

But around the same time, Hutama declares war on ARC. In a coordinated invasion like I've never seen the AI do, he took out *all 3* of ARC's cities (all coastal) in ONE TURN. Poof, ARC was gone.

I finished my gate on turn 257 and brought in settlers a bit slowly. I wanted a good score for my personal HOF, but I was still looking over my shoulder at Hutama. By turn 250, he had researched Hypercomputing for his Emancipation Gate, but was still 12 on his affinity.
About turn 260, he lowered his opinion of me from Cooperating to Neutral... then a few turns later to Sanctioned. Brought planes back from the invasion of PAC, which was nearly done, and bought a few more ships in the north, to defend my home waters.

Won a Promised Land victory on turn 278, with only two of us left standing: Polystralia and INTEGR.
Objectors were following a different affinity than mine.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Latest installment - filling out my spreadsheet for every affinity victory with every leader... Purity, with ARC.

I started near the northern edge of a large landmass: thin, narrow ocean on the east side with a much larger ocean on the west side. Ice blocked the connections to the south, but a tiny narrow passage allowed ships (not just subs) to make their way around to the north. My neighbors on the same land mass were: Al Falah, spreading out to my west; Slavic Federation, to the south, beyond a bunch of mountains and canyons; Chungsu, with a couple of cities along the far southeastern coast. On the other landmass, PAC and KP were sharing the northern coast; Franco-Iberia in the far south, adjoining the narrow western ocean; INTEGR along the coast of the eastern ocean. Their landmass also featured a large area of rugged mountains and canyons in the center. Most of the military action would be naval in this game.

I planned to have a lovely railway along the northern coast of my landmass for the Earthling Settlers -- a northern Maine / Newfoundland / Norway sort of a settlement. Although I sent out several explorers, and visited 4 Progenitor sites, I didn't find as many resource pods. Just to spite me, I got the quest for more resource pods after nearly all of the world was mapped. Both KP and I found parts of the Signal in expeditions. We both built the Transcendental Equation.

Mid-game, the various Ai were following different agendas. Both FI and INTEGR settled just a few cities, 3 and 4 respectively. Kozlov kept DOW'ing on anyone and everyone, including me twice. The mountains kept him from threatening my southern cities, while my planes and navy repelled his trickle of ships. SF did squeeze in 8-9 cities in and around his southern coastline. Daoming, on the other hand, followed through on her wars, scooping up all but two of KP's cities. Al Falah was expansionist, planting more than 10 cities on our landmass and in the water, plus two more on the other landmass.

End-game: I put my focus on Purity techs, reaching level 15 affinity before I finished Nanotech. I also built Crawler and the artifact wonder Machine-Assisted Free Will in my capital. I was able to get the Industry virtue that boosts wonders as well. I started the gate on turn 287, while one of my second-tier cities started to Decode the Signal.

Al Falah 15/6/5 #1 in score, cooperative with me
ARC (me) 10/17/9 #2 in score
PAC 14/6/6 #3 in score, cooperative
FI 5/6/11 Cooperative
SF 3/10/5 Sanctioned; he offered to be Neutral serveral times, but since my friends hated him, I declined
Chungsu 7/4/4 Cooperative
KP Eliminated on turn 274, was 3/6/7 and Cooperative when she lost
INTEGR 3/8/5
The objectors were: Al Falah and Chungsu, both following Harmony/ Not PAC, which surprised me.
3 turns after I started my gate, Arshia DOW'ed me. She had a large navy and level 3 tanks, so she overwhelmed one of my small coastal cities. I took it back, with air cover and land forces. I finished my gate in only 15 turns, on turn 302.

Around turn 310, I finished decoding the signal. I saved the game, placed the Beacon, and noted the objectors. I then reloaded the save without the Beacon and continued. Two *different* factions objected to the Beacon: PAC and SF.

Comparing these objectors to my previous post. we have two cases where Harmony-favoring AI object to a Purity victory condition.
Random objectors to a Contact victory.

My last bit of end-game excitement came as I finished off the AF cities on my land mass and headed south to take care of Chungsu, who had still not DOW'ed me even after I finished the gate. PAC was on the warpath, also declaring on both AF and Chungsu! Her land forces were heading for the two AF cities on the other landmass, while her navy was besieging Jeongsang. If I let her finish them off, I would miss out on the spoils of war! My ships were faster/more effective in finishing off Chungsu, but the last two AF cities were landlocked. I purchased tanks and sent them across the wide western ocean. When they were close enough, I took out the last two cities with bombing from my two carrier battle groups.

 

[legalizefreedom]

I'm more than halfway through an INTEGR Purity game. I should probably start filling out your spreadsheet. I'll at least let you know the objectors and their affinities.
I'm doing pure Purity. All upgrades strictly purity and victory will be purity.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Started the Purity gate on turn 248

INTEGR (me)
10/16/12

African Union
10/6/3

Slavic Fed
5/9/5

Al Falah
5/6/15

Commonwealth
6/4/3

Kavithan
4/12/4

Franco-Iberia
5/5/9

North Sea
6/3/4

@vorlon_mi , based on your research I was able to successfully predict the objectors. African Union and North Sea Alliance. I had been allies with the Commonwealth (and their juicy trade route deals) since the beginning. They were not that strong due to war. I met North Sea later and while I was cooperative with everyone except the Slavic Fed (they DOW'd me early and were mixing it up with most everyone), my relationship with North Sea wasn't stellar.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Oddly enough it was Franco-iberia (5/6/10) along with North Sea (7/3/4) who went down to Respect 1 after the gate was finished. I'm still Cooperating with everyone except Slavic Fed with a high Fear rating keeping the 1 Respect sponsors in check. A couple others confronted me also, but it amounted to their Respect rating falling from 9 to 7, which doesn't mean much at the moment. I'm sure one of the no respect sponsors will find a way to DOW before I get everyone settled.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Franco-iberia (supremacy) did indeed DOW me probably around 10 turns later, but never seriously threatened any units or cities before I got everyone settled for the win.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Slavic Federation, Soyuz, pursuing Purity victory, Arid Protean planet. This is the one related to my question in "Quick Q&A"

Prologue: Twists, surprises... this is why I love this game. Just when I think that I have some trends figured out, it changes and surprises me.

Early Game: A protean planet has one large landmass. After restarting twice, I ended up at the far northwest corner of the land mass. NSA started almost due south of me, on the southwest coastline of the large landmass. Al Falah (also on the southern coast) was just east of NSA. Brasil was due E of me, but probably 30 tiles E, so I could expand to the east and south for a while before he objected to my settling pattern. Hutama was on the northeast corner, Chungsu began on an island group in the middle of the large ocean. Poor Lena! INTEGR started on a one-tile island, between Chungsu and Polystralia.

First Surprise - Early Conflict: In most of my recent games, Polystralia is willing to be my friend for many turns. In this game, I met Hutama on turn 52, but he conquered Weltgeist on turn 114. I tried producing multiple exporers, but my exploration was slowed by fairly aggressive aliens. Hutama nearly alwasy talks trash to me about my military strength, but usually it's all talk. This game he declared war on my on turn 123! When he lowered me to "Sanctioned", I switched up my research to aim for Robotics. Air cover can fend off ships and Hutama's supply lines were looooong. FI and Brasil were the early score leaders.

Second Surprise - Early Beacon: Brasil must have found part of the Signal in a Progenitor site; he completed both parts on turn 195. He decoded the Signal on turn 212 and my spy revealed he was building the Beacon around turn 232. Since most of my military units were naval, to fend off two DOW's from Hutama, It took me some time to build a sizeable land force for invasion across the great desert plains between us. I've reached level 13 in Purity by turn 230, so I won't be able to beat him to victory.

Diplomacy Gambit: Both Franco-Iberia and Brasil were pursuing Harmony as their dominant affinity, while Al Falah was pursuing Supremacy. Based on the tendencies I've been writing about, I expected the objectors to be Brasil and FI. Arshia was Cooperative with me, with Respect = 9. While both of us were at peace, I elevated our relationship to Allied, moving my troops toward Brasil just after he completed the Beacon on turn 240. I declared on turn 255, so she joined the fight, opening a southern front to occupy some of his troops. I took his capital, rejected a peace offer, and destroyed his Beacon on turn 273.

Hutama still was belligerent and successful, wiping out INTEGR and taking Chungsu's expansion cities. Elodie was marching towards Transcendence, getting all the techs back on turn 244. According to my spies, she didn't start building the Mind Flower until turn 260 or so.
I completed my wonder-enabling tech on turn 264, starting to build my gate on turn 267. I needed to lay out my magrails for the settlers to travel on.

Third Surprise - Objectors:

• Al Falah 4/6/9, still allied with me
• NSA was dead by turn 250; affinity was 8/3/2 when he was defeated
• FI 16/5/3, cooperative with me
• SF (me) 6/15/2
• Chungsu 5/9/5
• Hutama 3/12/3, had been Sanctioned for the last 50 turns
• INTEGR dead since turn 150 or so
• Brasil 12/7/6, cooperative up until I declared on him on turn 235

Elodie objected (as expected), but so did Arshia!

I started moving my navy across the ocean to prepare for war with FI, shifted some of my level 3 tanks south for a later ground assault. My first carrier battle group had been in the north sea, bombing Brasil to support destroying his Beacon. A second carrier battle group headed west, while I used my productive aquatic city to build up a third.

Late Game Wars and Victory Wonder Races: Elodie finished her Mind Flower on turn 278, while my Gate needed ~10 more turns to finish. She needed 41 turns to connect, but the better news was that she built it only 2 tiles away from the coast. It would be easier to destroy. Both Brasil and Hutama were willing to go to Cooperative by turn 280: Brasil had 0 respect but level 7 fear; not sure what changed Polystralia's mind.
As I sent some tanks through "Lesser Brasil", I noticed he started construction of a second Beacon. I didn't really care; if he could finish it, ignite it with smaller and less productive cities, it would still take 40-some turns to connect.
Often when I pursue affinity victories, I wage war until the objectors are utterly defeated. This game, I wondered if that was the best path. Franco-Iberia had 9 large cities (pop => 9) while Al Falah had 13 or so. I decided to finish my gate and sprint to settle the Earthlings. No one was close to my homeland. I wasn't sure how long the "Allied" status would last with Al Falah.

Fourth Surprise: Amazingly Strong FI Capital. Elodie had settled about 3 tiles off the coast. One of my ranged ships (with the buff to get range 3) could bombard Le Coeur, but only one. The city was size 17 or so, but the city defense number was the highest I had ever seen... 199.6!!
My earliest bombing runs, while also hitting the Mind Flower, were chewing up my planes. In keeping with my "sprint to settle", I took all the other cities, leaving Le Coeur for last.

My gate finished on turn 288. Al Falah had sent a small group of level 2 tanks into my territory, finally declaring on my on turn 290. My domestic air force made short work of her tanks, so I began making more planes and shifting them across the continent, with stops in my Brasilian cities, ending up in conquered FI cities. Nearly every conquered city was a puppet. They were so large, the period of disorder would not end before the settlers were all here. Elodie went out in a blaze of glory. One ship bombardment; air strikes from 12 healthy aircraft; 4 tanks in position, with only two needed for the victory. Arshia began pummeling Deepcastle (that I had picked up along the way) with a sizeable navy.

Reijnaldo ignited his second Beacon on turn 303; but I won the final race, settling my last Earthling on turn 309.

Conclusions:

1. With a decent starting location, the AI will certainly build victory wonders
2. The objectors had a different affinity than mine, but not exclusively Harmony factions object to Purity victories.
3. I never confirmed that anyone else objected to Elodie's MF or either of Reijnaldo's Beacons.