Diplomatic Victory: Why won't they vote for me?

[Markus5]

OK, most of the other Civs like me enough to elect me, but not enough to give me the diplomatic victory. I'm looking for some late-game tips to get favorable relations up to the point that I'll get the victory.

Any articles or threads that might help?

 

[Idiodyssey]

I'm also having trouble with diplomatic victories. I just played a game where Mehmed was friendly with me and I built the UN, but he wouldn't vote for me, even though he didn't have a single negative modifier. I killed off two civs and Mehmed and Saladin were constantly warring, so it was just the three of us and Sal certainly wasn't voting for Mehmed. I think the problem may have been that Mehmed had enough population to win votes by himself.

 

[johnny_rico]

A neighbor, right here at the forums.

the diplomatic victory is tricky for sure. One thing you can try when trying to win votes is to switch to the favorite civic of the leader you're trying to win over. A handful of turns with their favorite civic will yield a quick bonus which increases (I think) over time.

Religion, gifts, long term trading, yielding when they ask for tribute will also contribute to better relations.

You should try to get the UN up and running before civs attaing the rocketry tech. As soon as a civ begins the apollo project, I find they usually abstain in the voting for a global diplomatic leader.

Biology - you can switch to mass farming to try to increase your population to a point where you can cast enough votes yourself to win. This is sort of defeating the purpose, however.

Backstabbing - try to sour relations your UN rival has with other civs. This is tough but doable with heavy bribing.

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

Another trick is switching to another civ's favorite civics.

 

[Markus5]

The points leader isn't well-liked and maybe I can incite some wars against him. Join the war against the leader and get plus relationship points.

Beautiful Lino Lakes.

 

[obsolete]

I read that you need a +8 rating before the AI even has a hope to favour you, but I found this to not be true. For example, my last game where I held a diplo vote, I has pissed off Isabella the entire game. Kept on declaring war on her refriends, making refusals, and kept on demanding techs. Even though we shared the same religion, my overall rating was NEGATIVE 10.

ghandi built the UN, and because I had a LOT of people I got on the list. I was very shocked that Isabela voted for me!!! Everyone always votes for Ghandi! I suppose because he had a differenent religion, and Isabella being a religious nutcase, she still voted for me (her bitter enemy) over her friend Ghandi. That's a first. So it seems, at least for some Ai personalities, the -/+ modifiers themselves are meaningless. There are other items at work here under the hood.

I've also noticed time and time again, that the AI doesn't mind voting for you when it knows its votes wont count. I.E. not enough to give you a diplo win. But once you get your population big enough to cross the payline, they suddenly shut down on you and either abstain or vote for someone else.

 

[Tatran]

Another trick is switching to another civ's favorite civics.

This won't help you if they aren't running their favorite civic.

 

[oyzar]

you need +8 to get them to vote of you. so you can easily see who will vote first. also if they still have more + with the other guy they will vote for that guy obv. so make sure you have more + and over 8. you can check the relations screen for this.

 

[Fulcrum]

Maybe you can try signing defense pacts with the civ that'll bring you the most votes (Mehmed or Saladin). Since they're at war they'll certainly welcome any help they can get, so signing the treaty won't be difficult and will get u the relation boost u need from one of them

 

[jeff744]

vassal states almost always vote for you

 

[petey]

Joint wars work well. I just got a diplomatic victory and only one person voted for me the first time, so I declared war on the guy I was up against and bribed all the civs who liked me to join in. That got the military struggle bonus, which was apparently enough to put them over the edge and they voted for me next time.

 

[jeff744]

one strategy is to kill off the nations with the highest votes that don't vote for you, and absorb thm into your nation until you control over 50% of the votes

 

[Winston Hughes]

one strategy is to kill off the nations with the highest votes that don't vote for you, and absorb thm into your nation until you control over 50% of the votes

Or just pillage their farms and health/happy resources to starve their largest cities.

If you don't conquer those heavily defended cities, you can drive down the total number of enemy votes without a major military commitment. Three or four bombers working overtime against a civ with no air defences can send its population into decline in no time.

As soon as the biggest cities of one civ have been hit, move on to the next civ that's not going to vote for you. If you don't want to start a war, then spies can do a similar job (although more slowly and at greater expense).

Be careful, however, that you don't end up making one of your friends eligible for the vote at the expense of an enemy. It's pointless spending loads of effort getting a civ to 'friendly' if they end up voting for themselves instead of you.

 

[jeff744]

that's why you don't attack your opponent....keep him in the game, and is he start gaining votes, then you kill him

 

[GoodGame]

Another trick is switching to another civ's favorite civics.

...or using the Secretary-ship to get the AI to switch to your civics.

I believe Johnny_Rico is right. I've given tons of tech to get Friendliness for votes, and it seems to backfire if they get to the space race.