1st game [both games in Vanilla Civ 4]: I chose China / Qin Shi Huang and was aiming from the very beginning to get my first-ever Diplomatic Victory. After I built the UN, I was also the biggest civilization, then Hatshepsut (who nearly everyone loved) was next, then Cyrus (who nearly everyone hated) was next. The three of us were very close in size and there was a big gap from 3rd to 4th. I kept getting voted UN Secretary but didn't have to votes to win since Hatshepsut was on such good terms with everyone that several other civilizations would abstain no matter what I did.
My solution? Cede a city to Cyrus - thankfully there was one he was willing to accept from me. That bumped him up to 2nd place and knocked Egypt down to 3rd, so the next vote for Diplomatic Win was in-between Persia and I instead of Egypt and I. Everyone voted for me since they all hated him and I got the win.
2nd game: I was playing an OCC and I screwed up a bunch. I started falling behind and could that one of the AIs would easily launch a Spaceship and win, so in desperation I started building the UN while giving free stuff away to get on good terms. Once again, Hatshepsut was in the game and was beloved by everybody, and this time I couldn't even get voted Secretary. Montezuma had pissed everyone off and wasn't far behind her, so I bribed him to go to war with America. My plan was to then declare war on Monty as the USA was in the middle and would thus shield me from harm. And since the bonus for "mutual Allies in war" with USA is bigger than the penalty for "you asked someone to attack us" I was hoping this would push him to better relations and swing his Secretary votes over to me (since he was the only one abstaining while everyone else had picked sides between Hatshepsut and I).
It initially worked better than I expected. With time running out for me to win, Montezuma captured 2 cities from Roosevelt which made him the top civ instead, so now the Secretary vote was between me and Monty. Every single civ in the game voted for me since everyone loathed the Aztecs. Except, the big chunk of US culture vanishing from the map prompted Egypt to settle a new city in the gap that Monty hadn't expanded into yet. It was only one turn before the vote proposal, but it was enough to bump Hatshepsut back into 1st place and make the Diplomatic Victory vote between me and her instead of me and Monty, which split both ways and nobody won the vote, so there went my last chance.
My solution? Cede a city to Cyrus - thankfully there was one he was willing to accept from me. That bumped him up to 2nd place and knocked Egypt down to 3rd, so the next vote for Diplomatic Win was in-between Persia and I instead of Egypt and I. Everyone voted for me since they all hated him and I got the win.
2nd game: I was playing an OCC and I screwed up a bunch. I started falling behind and could that one of the AIs would easily launch a Spaceship and win, so in desperation I started building the UN while giving free stuff away to get on good terms. Once again, Hatshepsut was in the game and was beloved by everybody, and this time I couldn't even get voted Secretary. Montezuma had pissed everyone off and wasn't far behind her, so I bribed him to go to war with America. My plan was to then declare war on Monty as the USA was in the middle and would thus shield me from harm. And since the bonus for "mutual Allies in war" with USA is bigger than the penalty for "you asked someone to attack us" I was hoping this would push him to better relations and swing his Secretary votes over to me (since he was the only one abstaining while everyone else had picked sides between Hatshepsut and I).
It initially worked better than I expected. With time running out for me to win, Montezuma captured 2 cities from Roosevelt which made him the top civ instead, so now the Secretary vote was between me and Monty. Every single civ in the game voted for me since everyone loathed the Aztecs. Except, the big chunk of US culture vanishing from the map prompted Egypt to settle a new city in the gap that Monty hadn't expanded into yet. It was only one turn before the vote proposal, but it was enough to bump Hatshepsut back into 1st place and make the Diplomatic Victory vote between me and her instead of me and Monty, which split both ways and nobody won the vote, so there went my last chance.
