Bribery for Diplo Victory

[Ruby Lady]

I have been a lurker on this board for some time and finally decided to post...

I've been playing for a couple months and just made the move to regeant. I must say it was a bit of a shock for the first little while, getting used to the more aggressive AI and such. I chose to go for a 20k culture victory, but by the time I reached the modern age I still had about 5000 points to go so I changed to head directly for Diplomatic Victory. I was playing Persia and was significantly ahead of the rest of the rest of the pack in terms of technology but had finished my last game by space race so I wanted something different. I had declared no wars for the entire game, keeping the peace by trading my large number of luxuries and staying out of MPPs. Despite all of this there was a good number of the civs annoyed or furious with me by 1978, so to win the election I gave every tech I had to each civillization except for the Celts who would be running against me and succeeded in winning a majority. My question is whether its considered unclassy to win with such blatant bribery? Not that it matters much now, but I was just curious. Sorry for being so long winded.

 

[wilbill]

Hi, Welcome To CFC!!

I think bribery to get a diplo victory is like a lot of Civ gambits - it's only "unclassy" if you think it is. If I'm actually going for a diplomatic victory I won't bribe anyone for votes - that'd seem a little cheap to me. But sometimes I'll take a diplo victory just because I want to end the game; in that case I may spread a little gold around. It's up to you.

Congrats on the first Regent win, too.

 

[norwegianviking]

Bribary? Use it all the time! Especially when dealing with civs i've warred with in the past!

Oh, and welcome to civfanatics! [dance] (wow, that's the most smileys i've used in a while!)

 

[AA-battery]

Yeah, I think bribery is the way to win. The AIs do it all the time to other AIs. Maybe not directly but it is kind of a way they try to gang up on you. They sign stuff like MPPs with each other and have lots of trades. They vote for whoever is more friendly with them for a longer time, either you or one of the other two AIs. But, one time I was grave enemies with this AI and I signed peace and gave all my luxuries for free to it, and two turns later I built the UN and got its vote.

 

[microbe]

Read the "AI Attitude" in the War Acadamy. Must read if you go for diplo victory.

 

[Tatran]

Maybe if I did some bribery I wouldn't have
lost yesterday's game.
I think I got screwed by a trade embargo +
a shunned government,both civs were polite +
I had a RoP + MA against another civ not my
opponent in the election.

 

[Crimso]

Should've gotten the beef.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Do other civs merely vote for the one they have the best relations with?

 

[punkbass2000]

There's a lot of factors in who votes for who. There are few guarantees, but they will not vote for someone they are at war with and will always vote for someone they have an MPP unless they have MPPs with more than one candidate. Otherwise attitude is a major factor, though I couldn't say exactly how it works.

 

[sourboy]

I would call it an exploit, as it's unfair - but then I have seen no effort on the part of the programmers to make a change via patches or expansions, so it's ultimately up to you.

Personally, I don't use it. If I should, I would not change my diplomatic habits prior to the election (giving freebies) to 'steal' a win. I would however accept the win, if I was voted by peers according to game-long affairs.

 

[Pounder]

I shut diplo win off now because I think it is a cheap win.

 

[Ruby Lady]

As I was having a rough time of it on my first time out on Regeant, I chose the easy way out with Diplomacy victory. I had this feeling in my gut that if I had gone on much longer someone was going to decide that I needed a sound thrashing. I'm not normally a diplomat, though I do prefer it to Histograph which seems rather unsatisfying

 

[Ruby Lady]

Oh and thank you for the warm welcome!

 

[Renata]

I find it a bit cheesy, but unlike a lot of other borderline exploits or whatever, this one is how the game is intended to work. MPPs improve attitude, as do military alliances. It's only sense to sign them at the point they'll be of most use, and not prior. And you still need to work yourself into a position where you either build or capture the UN and destroy any civ that might come up for the vote who's been friendlier with the other civs remaining than you have been. So it's not quite as trivial as all that.

Just a couple of comments, though. Re: giving stuff away as bribes -- this only works up to a surprisingly low cash-value limit (at least in PTW). I think it was gifts totalling 100g. Beyond that, there's no point. So if you gifted someone Magnetism back in the middle ages, giving away more later is pointless, at least for attitude/voting improvement. Keeping ongoing trades is a better thing to do with your techs/luxes if you've already gifted to the limit: sell them for gpt to each civ to get the trade bonus. Failing that, I think any trade within 20 turns helps.

@punkbass -- It's not necessarily true that an MPP will guarantee a civ's vote for you in the absense of other MPPs/military alliances. It's all the attitude.

Renata

 

[punkbass2000]

No? I've always found that to be the case.

 

[MikeH]

Do other civs merely vote for the one they have the best relations with?

That's the way it looks. They definitely won't vote for anyone they're at war with, so the cheapest diplo win is the turn before you complete the UN, declare war on your rival and bribe everyone else into an alliance (use gpt deals if you can), then call the vote as soon as you're asked if you want to. I consider this so cheesy that I only do it if it looks like I might lose otherwise .

 

[Renata]

@ punkbass again --

Yep, really. Happened to me in GOTM36. A civ I had an MPP with (and who had only ROP with my opponent) voted against me. I'd never been at war with them, had ongoing trades, had given the max in gifts -- the works. They still didn't like me as much as my opponent, and while I can understand that in and of itself (I'd been at war with other civs, eliminated one, and razed two cities, whereas my opponent had been a goody two-shoes the whole game ), I still have no idea what caused that particular civ to take more expception to me than the others did. Even a civ I'd been briefly at war with (no units killed) voted for me, but this civ didn't.

Renata

 

[Tomoyo]

If they are Polite or better with any of the candidates, they will vote. They will vote for the one they have better relations with.

If they are Cautious or worse with all the candidates, they will abstain.

 

[norwegianviking]

I'd just like to mention that bribary dosn't always work, it dosn't even change their mood some times (herd to believe, but true)!