How do i gain a diplomatic victory?

[ChumChum]

ok so i've played quite a few civ3 games now but not yet progressed into the modern age. (i've either won or lost by then). so i still haven't had a diplomatic victory.

in my next game, i'm going to gun for this. what's the best way to achieve it?

obviously i have to be the one that builds the UN. but surely its a little harder than that. in civ2 you had to not be the strongest nation to remain freinds with the others. is this still the case - do i have to not be #1 in order to win the vote? i read somewhere that if i give away gifts of useless stuff (e.g. World Map, 1Gold etc...) all the way through the game then my diplomacy rating goes up. is this true?

whats the big score?

-ChumChum

 

[Dralix]

I think being the largest, strongest, most culture, etc. is fine. I have never achieved a diplomatic victory either, but basically you want everyone to be your friend. I've heard that the best way to achieve this is through Mutual Protection Pacts. I've also found that giving gifts helps too. Personally, I would give more than just 1 gold, but it might not make a difference.

 

[eyrei]

The easiest way to win a diplomatic victory after you build the UN is:

1. You need to be the first or second place civ.
2. Sign MPPs with everyone except the other leader.
3. Declare war on the other nominee, sit a unit in their territory and let them attack it. This will trigger MPPs in your favor even if the third party had an MPP with your opponent.
4. Hold the election once everyone is at war with the other candidate. This works almost every time.

Note: If you are not first or second place, you will still be a candidateas long as you built the UN, but you will have to start wars with both other candidates, which makes it a little harder.

 

[Ironikinit]

It seems that you need several civs still in the game. If there's only 3 or 4 left it seems like the vote gets deadlocked. I've only built the UN twice, though.

 

[Moulton]

If you have whittled a world down to 3 or 4, then either you are one of the top two, and the smaller ones have been attacked by both leaders, and won't vote for either. IE deadlock. If you can hold onto a small friend, never attacking them, offering and giving protection from larger powers, then he is likely to vote for you, making it 2 for you , 1 for your opponent, and the rest abstain.
If you want UN victory, it is best to try to have a stable world with little war, keep trade up and profitable. then count your odds. If you get a little war going and have mpps to kick in, it is probably a near certainty. You might be able to do it with mpp relationships alone, but it is a serious risk.... win or lose in one turn. My one UN victory came from starting a war with mpps in place. Funny thing, one long time enemy also voted for me---must have liked the other even less. And one of my MPP buddies did not vote for me... It s never a sure thing.
I think I lked SMAC better, wher un gave you a strong advantage, but was not neccessarily the end of the game.
But the idea is to win against all odds.
You didn't want it easy did you?

 

[ChumChum]

ok some good answers there.
one question i have is how do i in general make my rep. be very good in the end game.

does giving lots of gifts in the middle/early game help, or is trades and not war with someone enough. i've played games where it is pretty easy to get MPPs with other civs in other continents but some games everyone hates me cos of my expansionistic tendacies during the middle ages (i.e. kinghts! )

-ChumChum

 

[Ironikinit]

I just won my first diplomatic victory less than an hour ago. I had four wars in that game. In the ancient period I wiped out a neighbor. In the late medieval, Germany declared war and I couldn't really reach them, so I bribed up an alliance. I took one city from the Germans but didn't keep it. In the late industrial, Germany declared war again, and I took all of her. She had just came close to wiping out the Iroquois, so it was a two for one deal. Between mech infantry and modern armor, Russia declared war, and I wiped her out, too. I built the UN and the Iroquois and Egypt, both weak countries on my continent, voted for me. Persia and France, both somewhat stronger countries with small continents of their own, voted for France.

Moral of the story is that if you destroy them totally they won't vote against you.

Getting a good rep has a lot of steps. You should stick to alliances at least until your ally quits, you should avoid declaring war (this is a guess), keep all the reasonable AI players to polite. I call countries like India, France, England reasonable. They don't mind paying up for trade and usually are fairly friendly (until one of them goes ballistic). Countries like Germany, Russia, or Zululand are more likely to be tightfisted and easily annoyed. I digress.

 

[graeme]

How do you hold an election? I have seen a request for a vote come up a few times, but I don't see how to trigger an election.

 

[Grotius]

Graeme, I don't think you can trigger an election. As I understand it, the UN just holds an election periodically -- every ten or fifteen turns, something like that. I think. Not sure.

Just notched my first diplomatic victory, by the way. Quite fun.