Can you explain Gunboat Diplomacy/demanding tribute

[Chomes99]

I don't fully understand how Gunboat Diplomacy works. Or Rather I don't understand the game mechanics regarding how to bully city states aka demanding tribute.

I am playing a Venice game and have chosen autocracy, and was hoping to take advantage of the gun boat diplomacy tenant in order to ensure I get the diplo victory as all the other victories feel out of reach.

Do my units need to be in the CS territory or just nearby? Does it increase the rate if I increase the amount of units nearby? or do I just need one? Is there a way I can monitor if it is actually working?

Please help explain this! thanks in advance

 

[Scarpa]

You get feedback on how many units you need as the city states will go to a yellow status bar. You can also hover over the city state title and the info tip will tell you if they fear your military or not. Having units nearby helps. Generally I demand tribute by accident when my army is on the march.

 

[MantaRevan]

I actually don't know. Maybe Browd or johncnun can tell us...

 

[KmDubya]

If you hover the mouse over the demand tribute text that is in red it will list the modifiers.

it will show some thing like this:
base personality -100
ally -20
military strength +80
Units close to city +60

The sum needs to be positive to be able to demand tribute. With gunboat diplomacy once you get to a level that allows tribute your influence will increase every turn. If you actually demand tribute the city state gets a large modifier that will make them immune to tribute demands and also gunboat diplomacy for a long time.

You can move a unit close to the city and check the modifier, if it is not enough move another unit.

I like to use three or four battleships as my tribute fleet. Set them near a cluster of city states and cower them all.

I think the units need to be within 12 or so hexes for the local influence.

 

[Chomes99]

Thats very helpful. Thank you!

 

[bbbt]

Out of curiosity, why'd you go autocracy with Venice?

For the diplo win, I'd thought the best for Venice would be Freedom and the 'Treaty Organization' tenet that gives the massive per turn influence boost with trade routes.

 

[DemonMaster]

Out of curiosity, why'd you go autocracy with Venice?

For the diplo win, I'd thought the best for Venice would be Freedom and the 'Treaty Organization' tenet that gives the massive per turn influence boost with trade routes.

Perhaps he already have done that in the past so he wanted to "renew" the game. There are so many ways of playing the game so changing strategy and tactics is a good way to making the game be fun longer.

Edit: And since I just diplo-won a game with Autocracy, having units here and there just sitting there, earning influence is bad and since Venice earn a lot more money, combine that with cheaper maintenance, you can have a lot of units sitting here and there, earning influence, with a trading fleet not locked to CSs.

 

[Chomes99]

Well I had the biggest empire on the map, most civs hated me for past war mongering still and some civs simply would never take peace with me even when threatening their capitals. I ended up having to take out a few caps just to eliminate a threat. But after a short period of semi peace most of the civ DoW on me at the same time, my trade routes got smashed, I went bankrupt, my citizens starting revolting and I quickly got negative 25 happiness. I also lost my best unit, a +100 vs land units frigget with extra range and doubleshot, turns before upgrading to battleship. I almost rage quit right there. I just saved and turned it off. It was like the fall of the ussr man! Arg!

 

[George Abitbol]

It was like the fall of the ussr man! Arg!

Eh, sometimes CiV is like real life: huge empires can collapse in few years, I like it!

I agree with some post above, every playstyle, ideology, etc, is suitable for any kind of victory, that's the flavor of this game. I tried to play as Venice for a diplo victory, I get bored so I changed for a domination... My galleass upgraded in frigat/battleship are fine

 

[sendos]

Other factors that bolster CS resistance to bullying are PTP's, whether the CS is hostile or not and whether the CS is militaristic or not.

Also, having lots of planes near CS' does not scare CS'. Only ships and land units. An ideal number of units to scare CS' is around 5-8. I've managed to scare a CS as far as 30 tiles from my empire but they were no longer scared as soon as they got an ally.

Protip: look for neighbouring groups of CS' and place a navy or army in between them. That way you intimidate multiple CS' with just 1 force.

 

[Pietato]

In a Deity game I had, Shaka had Gunboat Diplomacy and managed to use it on 60% of the city-states in the game without even being near them. Huge map as well.

 

[phillipwyllie]

You only need your army within 8(or is it 10) tiles of a Cs to influence it militarily. With Gunboat Diplomacy your units are even more effective at intimidating. You will notice an Autocratic AI settle a crappy city that is in range of many CS, 1 army influencing many CS is an efficient way to do it. Aircraft doesn't seem to included.

 

[Memoryjar]

With appropriate unit, you can bully CS with one unit (Battleship or missile SAM), if you have a large army. Units need to be within 8 tiles of a CS.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

The more powerful you're army, the more likely you are that civs will become Afraid of you.

 

[reddishrecue]

When your power becomes 1, all civilizations will know that. CS bullying will also be easier.

 

[phillipwyllie]

I've done some testing:

• Any units within 8 hexes will be used in the gunboat calculation, planes are not used, however.
• It seems that units the CS has is used in the gunboat calculation(military near CS part).
• Although I'm not certain but units form other civs(whether they have gunboat or not) may be used in the gunboat calculation(military near CS part).
• The tech level(or strength) of units near a CS is important(higher tech units=greater military score).

You don't need to be trespassing in a CS's lands to influence them. This way you don't need to give a pledge of protection, nor a gift to make them friendly.

 

[Memoryjar]

If you know how to bully an AI, I'm interested. I can do this sometimes, but I don't really know when I can do this to have gold or when I will have a : «I don't care».

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Things I've found out

3 basic positives

1. Total military Strength (How your military compares to everyone's)..maxes at ~75 (based on your Total Military strength v. everyone else)
2. Military near CS... depends on your units within 8 tiles compared to those of the CS (and possibly other civs).. not sure of the exact comparison, but a CS I had recently gifted some Battleships to had a smaller factor than the other CS
3. Bonus from Gunboat Diplomacy (+50% of the other 2)

Negatives
Base 110
Pledge to Protect (from any civ) 20
Ally (from any civ) 10
Hostile CS 10
Militaristic CS 10

Additional negatives for
getting a worker 30
OR
If you recently got tribute (300?)