Guide to Diplomatic Victory

[reker]

Has anyone figured out the factors for a diplomatic victory and posted a guide? What would be included is (a) the criteria used to determine whether or not an AI will support you for diplomatic victory, (b) the factors that enter determination of the + and - tally in his opiniion of you, how they are initially triggered (many are obvious), and how they change with time and new events. The AI's vote is influenced by his attitude toward you, but (as many have noted) it is not a perfect correlation.

A particular situation that puzzles me. You have the support of almost enough AIs but need the support of one more. How can you tell whether it is hopeless (NOTHING will even possibly bring anyone around), or if not, which is the best AI to woo, and how?

 

[surdanis]

How about the attitute of the other civs toward the leading candidate? In the case of the Religious/Diplomatic Victory, the civ with the highest number of cities (population?) is the runner up behind you, and he steal votes away from other lesser civs because of his better relations with them. The number of votes seems to be based on the total population points and the number of cities possessed by a civ with that particular religion. It may be best, therefore, to limit the spread of a religion to the smallest city of the each enemy civ and ensure that all of your own cities have that religion in question and have the highest population possible. In this way, you can ensure YOU have the highest number of votes while you also pander to other civs--without giving them too much tech to put them ahead of you so that they have the advantage over you. If you are weak military, other civs may become aggressive and demanding, worsening relations. It may be best to conquer your strongest religious rival and any civ that will not accept your religion to trigger the election (such as those who opt for closed borders or Theocracy). Vassalizing also ensures votes in your favor.

Hopes this helps somewhat.

 

[KMadCandy]

this is probably what you're looking for.

A particular situation that puzzles me. You have the support of almost enough AIs but need the support of one more. How can you tell whether it is hopeless (NOTHING will even possibly bring anyone around), or if not, which is the best AI to woo, and how?

check their civics. not just to make sure you're using the best combo to get bonuses with them like most people think of, but check who's getting bonuses with the other candidate. there may be an AI that likes you both, but is voting for the other guy and part of why he likes the other candidate is +wise civics. if you take that bonus away by getting the other candidate to change civics, sometimes it's enough to get him to vote for you instead. in vanilla/warlords you have to bribe them out of it, and sometimes that's redlined, which is really frustrating. in BtS, you can use spies for it, and it's terrific. the bonus instantly goes away. if he switches back to that civic the bonus comes back, it doesn't start out at +1, the part that built up over time is still there. but it can really help you during the time he's not in that civic.

same theory applies if the reason for their friendship is religion. you have to be a bit more careful there. if you and the other candidate don't share any religions other than the one he's using atm, then FR is your only option, and that might make some other people dislike him less, if part of why they dislike him currently is that he's a heathen *giggle*. for civics now that we have spies, you can bribe them into barbarism and such, which is perfect since the basic ones aren't anyone's favorite civic.

in both cases you can only change them to something you're using yourself, so the spiritual trait is beautiful and the CR wonder is the best thing ever. i'm using it in my current game to swap people to barbarism before i declare war so that the +wise civics bonuses go away and i get "-1 you declared war on our friend" with less people. i love it!