Diplomacy Strategies

[Ataxerxes]

I enjoy diplomacy in the game as much as anything, especially in OCC where you have to get along. I'm wondering what tricks people have used diplomatically.

I had an OCC last night that was unusual. I rolled Lincoln (good leader) with Hammy, Izzy, Zara, Ramses, Wang, Mehmed and Freddy. Peaceful bunch, no psychos. Neighbors were Mehmed, Freddy and Ramses.

I avoided religions and got Judaism from Mehmed, who also converted Freddy. There were like 5 different state religions, very unusual. I stayed in Jewish, never even went to FR to keep on Mehmed's good side - he can be dangerous. I also stayed in OR to keep Ramses happy - he stayed pleased through a little bootlicking, Open Borders, etc. Usual stuff. Late game research provided by 19 Scientist specialists.

My trick came late. I was Resident, Mehmed wasn't as popular. I selected the election of assigning Giza to me and then voted against the proposal! Result was +2 with Ramses, "You voted for us". Got the city anyway. I offer this as a small trick to keeping AI's happy. Often voting for them to head the AP or other nonsense.

Trick did have one small downside. Ramses later asked me to stop trading with Mehmed. It seems the -2 Ramses assigned to Mehmed "You voted against us" made him Ramses worst enemy temporarily.

Other people have anything interesting diplomatically?

 

[Yoshiegg737]

I always like to make a gang of 4 (myself included) where everyone is Friendly with each other. It's always hard to make one with a war mongerer, a techy, and some cultural guy. I only managed this with Boudica, Saladin, and Sitting Bull once before.

It's difficult to please everyone. It seems that my friends consist of people who end up being my friend instead of wanting to be my friend

 

[Ataxerxes]

I always like to make a gang of 4 (myself included) where everyone is Friendly with each other. It's always hard to make one with a war mongerer, a techy, and some cultural guy. I only managed this with Boudica, Saladin, and Sitting Bull once before.

It's difficult to please everyone. It seems that my friends consist of people who end up being my friend instead of wanting to be my friend

Having a gang of friends is, of course, the ideal situation. Getting other Civs to Friendly is great, they trade techs, you can ask for gifts and can give gifts if requested for additional brownie points. Unfortunately, this often depends on what the situation is. If you have three neighbors all in different religions you either have to make a choice or suffer with no religion until Liberalism.

Second paragraph is quite true. It's impossible to please everyone; the AI always wants to be in whatever religion it founded so you may have 2 major religions and 2 minor in the game. You can't get different religion Civs to Friendly. I'm always very opportunistic about my friends as you are. Common religion is a great and often a necessary start in that direction.

 

[Yoshiegg737]

Having a gang of friends is, of course, the ideal situation. Getting other Civs to Friendly is great, they trade techs, you can ask for gifts and can give gifts if requested for additional brownie points. Unfortunately, this often depends on what the situation is. If you have three neighbors all in different religions you either have to make a choice or suffer with no religion until Liberalism.

Second paragraph is quite true. It's impossible to please everyone; the AI always wants to be in whatever religion it founded so you may have 2 major religions and 2 minor in the game. You can't get different religion Civs to Friendly. I'm always very opportunistic about my friends as you are. Common religion is a great and often a necessary start in that direction.

If there is a situation where my neighbours are of different religions, I would try to make them convert to one of the religions I have chosen (most of them convert when they are pleased. Throw some free techs at them and they will convert unless you have been attacking their religion buddies) if I can't make them convert, I destroy them . That isn't really diplomatic...is it?

I've gotten different religion Civ's to Friendly before That person is will definately be your true friend, especially if they don't mind attacking their own religion

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

My experience with getting the AI to convert to a different religion is that they often change back very quickly. If is hard to achieve for a longer period of time.

As far as interesting diplomatic moves go, nothing comes to mind at the moment. Would like to hear from others though.

 

[Windsor]

My experience with getting the AI to convert to a different religion is that they often change back very quickly. If is hard to achieve for a longer period of time.

Make sure enough of the AIs cities have religion you want them to stay in. That will make them stay. And as mentioned earlier; The AI loves religions they found themselves.

 

[Yoshiegg737]

My experience with getting the AI to convert to a different religion is that they often change back very quickly. If is hard to achieve for a longer period of time.

Often, your religion has to have a higher percentage of converted cities in the world than the more popular religion. Basically, you have to spread your religion to every city in the world. This makes civ's switch and stay.

Also worth noting is that your friends have a decently higher chance of staying in your religion if they hate everyone else in the other religion

And as mentioned earlier; The AI loves religions they found themselves.

Yes and no. I've discovered that if a civ is not willing to build missionaries and spread their religion, they often will switch to the more popular religion. If the civ is willing to spam missionaries like crazy then they will switch to their own religion in an effort to make it popular

I play with the AND mod so I don't really know if that affects this

 

[Ataxerxes]

Make sure enough of the AIs cities have religion you want them to stay in. That will make them stay. And as mentioned earlier; The AI loves religions they found themselves.

This is one reason I don't found early religions, especially in OCC. I wait for a missionary - on large maps this can be a problem (I play Standard). A zealot in particular will often send you a missionary and you just adopt theirs. Shrines are nice, but so are friends. And zealots give lots of love to their faith companions.

Another small diplo aid that was necessary with Rags a while back. If you're sure you won't be elected Resident, vote for somebody else. You get +2 from the one you voted for without malus from others. Rare case of getting a + without ticking off somebody else. I think the +2 also works with the UN but am not sure.

 

[Archon_Wing]

If you're gonna declare war on some poor sap; don't forget to bring some partners. Mutual military struggle is such a great way to build relations and also ruin their relations with the target. Of course, DoW first; as their price goes down if they see someone else is in the war. So it pays off if you go asking around on who nobody likes. Usually this is Washington for whatever reason; poor fellow. In any case, your allies' worst enemies will probaly be whoever they're at war with so you can easily dodge "you have traded with our worst enemies" crap.

Moral support wars are always nice too; if a friend asks me to join against some random faraway heathen, that's fine with me

If Isabella is the wrong religion as opposed to the majority, she makes for an excellent scapegoat.

Also, if a friend wishes to make for a trade but really has nothing I like (say they can only afford a crappy world map, divine right, and some gold) I'll just give it to them for free. In some cases you don't even want their crappy techs which can cause you to hit a trade cap with other civs.

Often times, you will build enough goodwill that you can beg them for random stuff too.

For the most part, I find that the guys in the middle of the scoreboard are most helpful. The top guy/your rival, probably isn't gonna help you out that much-- though you shouldn't go out of your way to piss them off; they're still useful for tech trades.

I've also noticed relations seems to have a snowball effect. Someone that likes you is quicker to forgive - stuff, while someone that dislikes you will remember everything you did up to the last 3000 years.

And yea, "you voted for us" is a short lived boon that works wonders. Sometimes you can use the small timing window to get a defensive pact or w/e if the guy is almost at friendly with you.

 

[Yoshiegg737]

The thing I hate the most about the diplomacy is the "You declared war on our friend" junk that never seems to go away

Everytime there is always one war where, when I checked, the person I'm declaring war has 30 people less than cautious with him and believes in a religion that no one else believes in; so I attack him. Turns out that my buddy ends up being friendly to him and will never forget my declaration of war (Aaaargh! Make better friends, why don't you!)