So civ V is my first ever contact with the civ franchise, and I only got to know it from quill18's youtube channel, so far I've had 5 playthroughs, going very quickly from chieftan, prince, king and recently beaten immortal, whilst I enjoy the depth of the game significantly, I'd like to make some observations about the diplo from a new players POV.
The diplo system is under criticism by many players, and there are definitely many flaws/bugs. But I think its relatively important to be able to manipulate and understand AI moods against you.
I've read many guides, and none of them have specified how to change Neutral(they covet lands you own) to Friendly, which is quite important for getting none-dom victory at high levels. And nets you much more gold when selling luxuries.
So the way to do it is the moment you see someone turn neutral(covet), you can bribe a friend to go to war with that leader, in a turn or 2 he will become friendly, because the AI knows not to wage war in 2 fronts, once there is a change of city ownership, the 2 AI will be entangled and eventually go to war again. You should do this as often as possible, with you maintaining friendly relationship with all of them and signing RA.
I'm also quite the cheatyface, before I declare war with any AI, I will take up a huge loan from the AI, something like all their gold for all my GPT, or for a city that I captured etc. Once I DoW the deal breaks and I keep all the gold.
You also don't get unequal settlements after the first few wars, but you can take some small cities that you don't want to keep before the peace settlement, then sell them back to their owner for a ton of gold/luxury and happiness.
The diplo system is under criticism by many players, and there are definitely many flaws/bugs. But I think its relatively important to be able to manipulate and understand AI moods against you.
I've read many guides, and none of them have specified how to change Neutral(they covet lands you own) to Friendly, which is quite important for getting none-dom victory at high levels. And nets you much more gold when selling luxuries.
So the way to do it is the moment you see someone turn neutral(covet), you can bribe a friend to go to war with that leader, in a turn or 2 he will become friendly, because the AI knows not to wage war in 2 fronts, once there is a change of city ownership, the 2 AI will be entangled and eventually go to war again. You should do this as often as possible, with you maintaining friendly relationship with all of them and signing RA.
I'm also quite the cheatyface, before I declare war with any AI, I will take up a huge loan from the AI, something like all their gold for all my GPT, or for a city that I captured etc. Once I DoW the deal breaks and I keep all the gold.
You also don't get unequal settlements after the first few wars, but you can take some small cities that you don't want to keep before the peace settlement, then sell them back to their owner for a ton of gold/luxury and happiness.
