Janus0
Zombie
I'm an immortal player and my diplomacy sucks. I honestly think that its the weakest part of my game and I'd like some help on it. I've read the triangle diplomacy setups and most of the example games that have been posted, but for some reason it just isn't clicking.
I usually play standard or large big and small maps on epic or marathon. I change leaders so often it might as well be random, though I prefer Washington and the spiritual, creative, and financial leaders (or shaka, cause of the UU/UB). About 90% of the time, I win by domination. When I don't win by domination, I win by space. I can't seem to pull off cultural victories, and I've never even been close to an honest diplo win.
My typical game shapes up like this:
I expand to build 3-5 cities peacefully while researching worker and early war techs. I won't sign open boarders with nearby civs until I've settled all the land I can get. When all the land that I'm going to get peacefully is settled, I open my borders to everyone. Amusingly enough, opening boarders usually means I get demands to cancel deals with people, which cancels out any help that might have given me.
When I have my slider 70% or higher, and I feel comfortable tech / SoD wise, I start eating neighbors until my ecconomy starts tanking. I rebuild ecconomicly, rinse, and repeat.
Normally one of my close neighbors and one of my farther neighbors will found a religion. I won't bother aggressively spreading the closer one, but if I get the farther one I will do my best. I do this mostly because I know I'm going to be warring often and the "you declared war on our friends" and "you razed our city!" demerits are going to kick in and I'm stuck trading with the "other" religious block regardless of what my religion actually is.
The problem with this strategy is that about 3/4ths of the time, I don't get that other religion. I'm stuck with no religion or religious civic (which is a whole other problem) and by the time I do get the other religion, I'm attacking that religion's members.
Eventually, I just end up not having any real close friends. The AI doesn't get friendly enough for me to bribe them into war, so I just trade techs with them. They make demands, and because there are other civs to trade with I tell them to go away.
Eventually all the civs have made demands, and all of them have been told to go away, and I don't have anyone who will trade techs with me any more.
I'll take over (or better yet, vassalise for the -1 diplo penalty) everyone on my continent, then the empty islands around me (I almost always have astronomy by the time its possible to take the continent), and then make a last attack on another land mass to push me over the land / pop threshold for victory.
While I don't really have trouble winning with this strategy, it is rather problematic when things don't go according to plan. If I fall behind in techs before I've taken about half the continent I lose. If I can get the whole thing under my belt before an isolated AI starts running away with the game, its a clear win. The problem is this: I don't want to lose the game just because I'm not adhearing to my time table. I want the option to say "okay, I don't have the techs to keep warring, time to settle down and pull off some other kind of victory"
But I can't because my strategy basicly backs me into the "conquer or die" corner. Can anyone relate? Give me some advice on how to keep friends while crushing my enemies.
I usually play standard or large big and small maps on epic or marathon. I change leaders so often it might as well be random, though I prefer Washington and the spiritual, creative, and financial leaders (or shaka, cause of the UU/UB). About 90% of the time, I win by domination. When I don't win by domination, I win by space. I can't seem to pull off cultural victories, and I've never even been close to an honest diplo win.
My typical game shapes up like this:
I expand to build 3-5 cities peacefully while researching worker and early war techs. I won't sign open boarders with nearby civs until I've settled all the land I can get. When all the land that I'm going to get peacefully is settled, I open my borders to everyone. Amusingly enough, opening boarders usually means I get demands to cancel deals with people, which cancels out any help that might have given me.
When I have my slider 70% or higher, and I feel comfortable tech / SoD wise, I start eating neighbors until my ecconomy starts tanking. I rebuild ecconomicly, rinse, and repeat.
Normally one of my close neighbors and one of my farther neighbors will found a religion. I won't bother aggressively spreading the closer one, but if I get the farther one I will do my best. I do this mostly because I know I'm going to be warring often and the "you declared war on our friends" and "you razed our city!" demerits are going to kick in and I'm stuck trading with the "other" religious block regardless of what my religion actually is.
The problem with this strategy is that about 3/4ths of the time, I don't get that other religion. I'm stuck with no religion or religious civic (which is a whole other problem) and by the time I do get the other religion, I'm attacking that religion's members.
Eventually, I just end up not having any real close friends. The AI doesn't get friendly enough for me to bribe them into war, so I just trade techs with them. They make demands, and because there are other civs to trade with I tell them to go away.
Eventually all the civs have made demands, and all of them have been told to go away, and I don't have anyone who will trade techs with me any more.
I'll take over (or better yet, vassalise for the -1 diplo penalty) everyone on my continent, then the empty islands around me (I almost always have astronomy by the time its possible to take the continent), and then make a last attack on another land mass to push me over the land / pop threshold for victory.
While I don't really have trouble winning with this strategy, it is rather problematic when things don't go according to plan. If I fall behind in techs before I've taken about half the continent I lose. If I can get the whole thing under my belt before an isolated AI starts running away with the game, its a clear win. The problem is this: I don't want to lose the game just because I'm not adhearing to my time table. I want the option to say "okay, I don't have the techs to keep warring, time to settle down and pull off some other kind of victory"
But I can't because my strategy basicly backs me into the "conquer or die" corner. Can anyone relate? Give me some advice on how to keep friends while crushing my enemies.
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
as possible. The cartoonish Leader animations do not help either. 
sometimes just from thinking about it 
