Care Bear War

[bamf226]

That's a good strategy as well that I never thought about, mercury

 

[mercury529]

Well I cannot take credit for the strat itself. I recently read a thread on the Imperialistic/GW combo. It just seemed like it may be a good way to get you involved in wars without forcing you to be the one who has to declare it. I would recommend angering a close neighbor whose territory/cities/wonders would particularly benefit you.

And by the way, another way to be low on the power curve but ready to handle an invading force is to build up a large supply of gold and upgrade your units in mass once an declares war.

 

[futurehermit]

power and diplomacy will prevent war. usually i recommend being the aggressor, but if you don't want to be, it is important (read: essential) to use excellent diplomacy (don't ignore it) and to have strong power (build lots of military, don't delay military techs, military buildings, etc.). also bribing civs to go to war with each other helps tons. if they're killing each other, they're not killing you

 

[Lord Tirian]

A "care bear" is a person that doesn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. He/she wants everyone to be happy and does what he/she can to prevent animosity. However, in Civ, it looks like the strong friendship of a few > a mad civ and a unhappy friend or two of the mad civ.

I know that. I was a care bear, too. And I still show signs of it. But my solution may not help you:

I want to play a "care bear", because I often try to achieve non-military victories and simply like to be a "builder". But, after all, the AI doesn't allow you to do this.

So, I'm aiming for a game, where I can play "care bear" most of the time, i.e. my strategy is being a long-term care bear, even if I have to start a war in the short term.

So, what I have done is: Start the game and overwhelm the first neighbour, just do it. No matter what you're thinking, force yourself to rush the first enemy. This is easier, since the game just started, if you don't like it, start anew. You haven't invested as much game time in it. This first conquest will give you a jump - room for expansion and leaves you with an army. This will ensure care bear for a longer time.

Now, get best friends with the most powerful neighbour and try to expand in a way that post borders of your nations are close to his.

Agree with that civ. Help that civ. Love it. And declare wars on their behalf. Don't think of it as "war", think of it as "just on the paper". Because it is. If the friendly civ is a sufficiently large buffer, you'll never be bothered. And if something comes through, it should be dead very soon after that march. Then, try to stage a peace between the civs (by bribing your friend), then ask for peace yourself, after a loss of a big stack, most AIs are pretty humble.

Furthermore, beeline to a religion, spread it, gift missionaries to your friend (which means further spread AND he's happy about the unit). Try to get your religion as big as possible. And GET that holy city wonder.

The extra money should help you to keep your defenders up to date, ensuring you that no invasion should be successful. Furthermore, if you get it widespread enough, you get a lot of friendships through it and you can get the apostolic palace. Which can enforce peace, because if every civ as at least one or two cities with that religion, you get huge leverage.

With these factors - good friend, religious command, science (due to the prospering economy), and money (which goes into units and bribes for your friend) without bounds - you can basically 'enforce' peace or make yourself a much less appealing target.

This way, you can basically live in peace after the Renaissance or so. Afterwards, only make sure you get air crafts early. Because if you can bomb your enemies into the ground, they won't attack you.

With BTS, another possibility came: If you get devote budget to espionage, you can manipulate their civics, making them more friendly. And it can grind their warmongering, if you just "kill" the +XP civics.

This said, note that I usually play around Noble, sometimes a bit higher, but usually Noble (never lower, I dislike the bonuses).

To close, I recommend looking through the mod section, for example Seven05's World Piece (which I'm enjoying now) makes the AI a bit less insane, they are not as likely to ask you about wars, if they're not liking you (i.e. better than neutral), though that doesn't mean that the AI is nerfed. There are a lot of different mods, and some may suit your play style. Or teach you how to wage war, as Fall from Heaven does.

Cheers, LT.