Emissary's Ploy

[Andu Indorin]

Originally posted by Marlos


Andu, could you explain this "bug", since I am a proponent of PD? I would appreciate it.

The "Emissary's Ploy"

As everyone knows: When you have just conquered an AI city as a Democracy; and when you next make contact between land units with the AI civ; the AI will offer a Cease Fire. If you refuse their peace overture, the Senate is then consulted and may, in their infinite wisdom, negotiate a Cease Fire and/or Peace Treaty behind your back. The "Emissary's Ploy" allows you to circumvent this normal diplomatic procedure, as long as you have the United Nations. Whenever you conquer an AI city (and just after exiting that city's City Screen), IMMEDIATELY access the Foreign Adviser window (F3) and send an emissary to the aggrieved party. They will respond: "You have wasted enough of our valuable time with your endless chatter. Now begone." Then, the next time you make contact between opposing land units, the AI will not make its traditional peace overture, and therefore, your Senate will not be consulted. Repeat as necessary with every AI city that you capture.

Note that to use this ploy, NO enemy units can be allowed next to the captured city following its conquest. Any units not supported by the captured city must be eliminated. Here the use of Spies, with their 2-square range of vision, are useful in determining the presence of adjacent units; and by investigating the city and its support map, they can help determine if such adjacent units will be eliminated during the capture of that city.

If you are not planning to capture any cities on a given turn but wish to continue the war, it is always a good idea to destroy one of their units and then send an emissary; this will usually keep the AI civ appropriately Enraged, allowing you to go about your military affairs without undue Senate interference.

I speculate that this is a subroutine of the U.N. (and probably the Great Wall) designed for the following circumstance: You have just captured an enemy city, but you've burned out all of your military units in the process. You desperately want breathing space to avoid an enemy counterattack. You've got the U.N., so you figure, "I can force a peace settlement." You send the emissary and lo! the aggrieved ruler responds "Enough ... Begone!" This allows the AI at least a one-turn opening to recapture its lost property. (Or, alternatively, the subroutine may have been retrofitted into Classic from the Multiplayer version.) At any rate, the "Emissary's Ploy" essentially turns this intent on its head.

Note that -- apparently -- the "Emissary's Ploy" is not foolproof. But at present, with Civ2 Classic 2.42, I've achieved a success ratio of around 99.5%. And by extending the duration of my wars of global conquest as a Power Democracy, I am able to achieve quite the profit margin sending Freight into cities "to be captured" with a comparatively minimal military effort.

And, as a reminder: once an AI civ develops Communism, its captured cities will start spawning Partisans; therefore, to use the "Emissary's Ploy," it is necessary to "quarantine" cities to be captured by land units by occupying every land square adjacent to intended target before the capture in order to avoid contact between opposing land units. Spies and Stealth Fighters are the best for such quarantine operations. An example of the "Emissary's Ploy" and quarantine operations can be found in my assault upon the Indian Civilization in
Classic Britannia game from last fall.

Edit of 7/19/02: Clarifications added

 

[starlifter]

... Emissary's Ploy ... This allows the AI at least a one-turn opening to recapture its lost property.

A fine piece of investigative work, Andu . The reason seems sound. I've never noticed it before, but there are definitely several bug in the Diplomatic screen part of the game code. For instance, it is totally impossible to successfully swap for the advance of Monarchy to any civ in my GOTM 18. Attempts to do so will result in apparant success, but after each "swap" the AI still does cough it up, yet it takes it's chosen advance from my civ, and offers more swap "opportunities". Also, the AI can ask you for an advance that you just gifted to it (without closing the Diplomatic screen). For example, you gift Iron Working, then request an alliance, and it can demand Iron Working (which it now HAS) to complete the deal, LOL.

Personally, I still have a full military system for dealing with the AI in MGE, and enjoy large scale combat maneuvers and the planning to make it work. I love it when the Hawks support me, even without the UN. Fo me personally, Democracy just isn't Democracy if I don't get to convince those Hawks to come help me .

I'll try your Emissary's Ploy technique in MGE sometime to see if it works in MGE (guess=yes).

Would you like some of your discoveries and terms added to the list that I maintain here?

If so, just make a post there with a short summary (definition) of things like "Emissary's Ploy" and "Modernization" and the triads, etc.

Spies and Stealth Fighters are the best for such quarantine operations.

I use Freight, engineers, Alpines, and Mech Inf, too. The fighters occupy 2+ turn terrain; the land units are put to sleep to avoid contact. All cities to be captured on one turn are carefully planned for order of capture, and any face to fact meeing is avoided by killing AI units, if a re-shuffle of Partisan Suppression units is done (esp. if hte area is RR'd).

 

[Ace]

Originally posted by starlifter

... For instance, it is totally impossible to successfully swap for the advance of Monarchy to any civ in my GOTM 18. Attempts to do so will result in apparant success, but after each "swap" the AI still does cough it up, yet it takes it's chosen advance from my civ, and offers more swap "opportunities".


That is a result of the scenerio forcing you to plan as fundy. You cannot swap any other gov type with the AI either. Nor can you "take" a government type when you capture a city. Apparently, its unique to the GOTM 18 scenerio.

 

[Ace]

By Andu : Note that -- apparently -- the "Emissary's Ploy" is not foolproof. But at present, with Civ2 Classic 2.42, I've achieved a success ratio of around 99.5%.

Unfortunately, it does not work in MGE. I just tested it by capturing a city, and by bribing a city, and in both cases, I was unable to activate the F3 key with the city screen open. Its strange, you can activate F3 with the city screen open when you are just in the city, but not after taking the city.

 

[starlifter]

That is a result of the scenerio forcing you to plan as fundy. You cannot swap any other gov type with the AI either. Nor can you "take" a government type when you capture a city. Apparently, its unique to the GOTM 18 scenerio.

Ahaa!! So that's what caused it. I'd never seen it before, and I'm not real knowledgeable about scenario-specific stuff. I never noticed the Capture issue, as I did divert some caravnas and research Monarchy on my own, to get to Feudalism.

 

[starlifter]

by Andu:

Whenever you conquer an AI city, IMMEDIATELY access the Foreign Adviser window (F3) and send an emissary to the aggrieved party. They will respond: "You have wasted enough of our valuable time with your endless chatter. Now begone." Then, the next time you make contact between opposing land units, the AI will not make its traditional peace overture, and therefore, your Senate will not be consulted. Repeat as necessary with every AI city that you capture.

by Ace:

By Andu : Note that -- apparently -- the "Emissary's Ploy" is not foolproof. But at present, with Civ2 Classic 2.42, I've achieved a success ratio of around 99.5%.

by Ace: Unfortunately, it does not work in MGE. I just tested it by capturing a city, and by bribing a city, and in both cases, I was unable to activate the F3 key with the city screen open. Its strange, you can activate F3 with the city screen open when you are just in the city, but not after taking the city.

OK, I've sat down and tested in in MGE, and Ace is correct.... the "Emissary Ploy" does not work in MGE (5.4.0f). The response from the game is to "Close the City Window" before anything further. Evidently, they noticed it and considered it a bug.

Further update. Even 2.42 will not do it. I am using the 2.42 from Cedric Greene's patch, and it behaves just as MGE.

My steps:

1. Possess the UN.
2. Capture an AI city.
3. Immediately press F3 (no effect--- the plundered gold is onscreen)
4. Close the Plundered Gold popup.
5. The City Status screen pop up.
6. F3 results in a popup telling me "You must close the City Status before the game can proceed."
7. Immediately after closing the screen, face-to-face contact with a nearby AI unit instantly results in the AI-demanded Diplomacy Screeen, and then the Senate does its usual job of forcing Ceace Fire/Peace.


This sequence of events is the same for both 2.42 and 5.4.0f (Classic and MGE).


So I can't verify it, unless I'm missing a step somewhere. But I did research it, and could not find that specific issue addrssed in a patch, though several fixes were close (dealing with the Diplomacy, contact, offers, etc.).

Well, no worries, as I don't plan to use it myself. If I'm doing something wrong, and/or others besides Andu can get it to work, please post .

 

[funxus]

To me it seems you have to capture the city, get to the cityscreen. Press exit and then F3. You have to make sure there are no units around the city that can talk to you right after the city is captured, and before you press F3.

 

[Andu Indorin]

By way of clarification: Funxus is more or less correct. Access the Foreign Advisor screen as soon as it is available (i.e., after "plunder" and the City Screen is closed). THEN send the emisarry to your AI antagonist.

And to emphasize, there cannot be an enemy unit adjacent to the captured city, as this will immediately bring up a peace offer from your antagonist. Hence, a spy is almost necessary to use the ploy so as to make sure there are no units hovering around on the far side of a city; if so, they must be destroyed if they are not based out of the captured city.

 

[starlifter]

That was the missing key... you cannot allow any face-to-face contact upon closing the city status screen. The human and not the AI must initiate the contact, which is "Enough of your useless chatter. Now begone". Then the human may approach the AI again, whilst keeping a state of war.

This is now confirmed to work in both MGE and Classic . Thanks funxus and Andu.



Just for simpletons like me, here is a recap of the exact steps for Andu's "Emissary Ploy":

1. Possess the UN.
2. Capture an AI city.
3. The plundered gold comment is now onscreen (close the popup).
4. The City Status screen pops up (close it).
5. Immediately after closing the screen, press F3. (".... chatter. Now begone!").
6. Now you may haev face-to-face contact with no interference.... attack, capture, or whatever you want.

This sequence of events is the same for both 2.42 and 5.4.0f (Classic and MGE).

Would you like to add it to the GOTM Techniques thread, Andu? It is an allowed technique by default.

For those that hate senate interference in a democracy, this pretty much overcomes that . After all these years of developing unit maneuvers to wipe out civs in one turn (or subvert the remaining cities), I'll probably continue doing it "the hard way" though!

Thanks, Andu for figuring this out!

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

As an added note, Partisans can be used to capture the AI city and, even with other AI units being next to the city, there will be no AI initiated talks.