Diplomatic options

[HawkeyeGS]

Reading these forums I have seen a bit of confusion in regard to the diplomatic victory condition. There are violent diplomatic methods. There are also more weapons in ones arsenal than the barrel of a gun.

First let’s look at how the diplomatic victory is designed. Firstly the builder of the UN is one candidate while the person other than the builder who has the most population is second. To get the secretary general of the UN requires a much lower percentage of votes than the actual diplomatic victory. If a permanent alliance is formed that team is joined as one civ (Leader A/Leader B).

In the early game you must focus on expanding and blocking the expansion of other civs. Initiate peaceful relations with everyone and strong bonds with medium strength/advanced civs. To do this you may need to pick and choose when they start to fight amongst themselves as if you refuse to aid anyone in battle everyone will be annoyed and soon you could face a whole heap on pissed protagonists. Choose to ally with medium-high civs that are located far away (never the most powerful) against low/medium-low civs that are close. If your new friend spreads their religion in a city of yours build its monastery, spread it throughout and convert. You can still spread one you founded to gain the benefit from your shrine. If they don't spread yours over there and ask them to convert (they will if it is spread completely and if you offer a small incentive). Remember to get techs off them. Declare war on close civs as they will normally be pissed with you over "Our borders spark tension" and when you defeat them you will have some nice land to increase your population and a very affectionate friend over the other side of the world.

In the time from the industrial revolution until mass media all the AI initiated wars and alliance should be done. This is the time to crush every pathetic civ that still has longbows and muskets as defenders to help you expand. Whilst doing that try to get every other civ that you and your ally still like to go to war with the most powerful AI player. If your ally is the most powerful AI you should get in a permanent alliance with them.

The scores should look like this ('You' and 'Powerful AI' can interchange but let’s hope not):

You - You have chosen your friends and foes well while manipulating everyone else
Powerful AI - the most unpopular person on the planet but still looking strong
Ally - Your sole mate walks the ground you walk on. Will vote for you.
Medium AI - peaceful with you but hate the powerful AI
Pathetic fools - their votes count for squat so who cares. Annex them for expansion.

Keep going with the strategy but keep the scores as above. Once you get the UN vote yourself in.

I think Civilization is the best strategy game out because it is so realistic. It gives you some morale decisions and while the aggressive option may seem easier and more rewarding it rarely is. I would ask that everyone play one game as though it were real. Do what you would do if you got elected. What civics would you have? What would you focus on, growth, money, culture, science? Would you try to pulverise everyone into dust?

As a side incentive: I saved the game just before the vote and then voted myself in. I had a score of 16200+. I loaded the saved game and quickly scored a domination victory. The score was then 3100. I then did a conquest from the same game but this took me a while and I got ~1000 giving me a Dan Quayle. I had never heard of Dan Quayle so I googled it and if you want a laugh check out his quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Dan_Quayle/

Hope everyone enjoyed. Please leave your comments

 

[Sekander]

Your strategy tips were nice, thanks.

But on the other hand--you've never heard of Dan Quayle? Sir, you're making me feel OLD... But then again, I played Civ I with Windows 3.1. Being Dan Quayle was a little more topical then...

 

[HawkeyeGS]

I live in Australia. While we do seem to follow the US in every single manner possible we aint real good on crap vice presidents. Thanks for feedback on the diplomatic tips

 

[faedrake]

This is a good article. I just won my first DV on Monarch, and everything played out pretty close to your suggestions though I'm sure luck had a great deal to do with my victory.

The only difference from your article is, I ended up with an extremely peaceful game. Building up and making nice really fits my style. I played Catherine on a small ring map. Everyone shared a common religion aside from the most powerful civ. Thus, it was myself and my gang of friends vs the Persians. I was the second to the last civ in almost every category. I spent the early game expanding and building large wealthy cities. I spent the latter part of the game playing tech catchup and rushing the UN.

I was once asked for a defensive pact (which I refused - but still ended up with their vote in the end). I was never asked to go to war because there was none! This is probably extremely unusual, and it was likely key to my victory. The only units I destroyed all game were 2 lions. I lost 0 units.

When I called for the victory vote, the Persians voted for themselves and the other 3 civs voted for me. My ending score was over 28k, and I was shocked to be compared to Julius Caesar!

I will likely get smot on a larger map, but I think I'll try it anyway.

 

[HawkeyeGS]

Thanks for the feedback. Some points I made may not work on higher difficulties. I wonder as the difficulty rises do the AI play to disrupt the human player or are they still interested in their own well-being. I would guess they make it so they care less about the long term survival and productivity of their nation but are hell bent on grinding yours into ruble.

 

[MightyGooga]

Hey, I have a good question about diplomatics. What is the esiest way to find out where is all the iron, horses, copper, resources, in the world. Im not talking about clicking in the resource button cause that means you have to know the world map. Im not a explorer, when I go to war, my strategy is to cripple the enemies by depriving them from their resources.
My objective is to discover by diplomatics, where is all the Iron. Does any one know how to do that?

 

[HawkeyeGS]

Well you would have to exxplore or get a map from someone who did. You can sign an open border deal with most civs without to much hassel even if they don't like you. Once you have explored then it is easy to simply look at the world view and enable the show resources button.

If you on a balanced map all the resources like iron, copper and horses are set somewhere not to far from the capital.

I think that is about the only help you can get in this area.