How do you achieve diplomatic victory?

[reddishrecue]

All of the other victories are obvious to achieve but diplomatic is different to me. I've tried the apostolic palace with theology but my resolutions ended up failing. When I go the United Nations, resolutions failed because the majority of the people (2 civs or more on archipelago standard map) voted No for the resolutions. How do you start off to achieve a diplomatic victory? Any tips?

 

[Ataxerxes]

For a standard diplomatic victory you have to isolate your opponent in the election as much as possible as well as make friends. As the map gets larger and there are more Civs it gets harder.

There are two diplo victories that are somewhat fake. You can build the Apostolic Palace in an unpopular religion (Make that your state religion temporarily) and spread the religion heavily to your cities and one friendly civ. Then spread the religion to one minor city only of all the other Civs. If no one runs that religion as their state religion only you can be elected Resident.

The other is diplomation. If your Civ is large enough through conquest you can vote yourself diplo victory through the U.N. using your votes and vassals. This is how many of my military games end up.

 

[Te_Wheki]

How much do you know about diplomacy in general OP? You need to have people Pleased or Friendly with you generally and to do that you need to decide early on who you will be friends with and build those relationships by not trading with their enemies, giving into their demands as needed, joining wars with them, not attacking their friends, and of course religion. Trading with enemies is the common mistake so don;t blindly accept open borders without assessing the impact of doing so on your wannabe allies.

 

[ajsciri4]

Diplomatic victory - winning the diplo victory election.

Two leaders will run for the election - the leader with the most population, and the leader who builds the UN. If you are both, the second most populated civ will run too.

The election will be voted on by all other civs. I don't know why some civs will abstain. However, basically you need a higher diplomatic rating with other civs than your candidate.

For example:
You are HC, and you built the UN. You are guaranteed a spot in the election. Cyrus has the most populated civ, so he will be the other candidate.

Leader / their rating of you / their rating of Cyrus
Monty / +6 / -4
Louis / +9 / +7
Elizabeth / +2 / +4
Frederick / -1 / -3

Since I don't know the basis for abstaining, we will assume none abstain. Monty, Louis, and Frederick will all vote for you. Elizabeth will vote for Cyrus.

Again, the number of votes you will get depends on each civ, and you need to be the leading candidate AND have the minimum number of votes to win.

Assume these figures - I don't know if they'd be accurate, but they're for hypothetical purposes.
Leader / Population / votes contributed
Monty / 3,000,000 / 300 (votes for you)
Louis / 3,000,000 / 300 (votes for you)
Elizabeth / 5,000,000 / 500 (votes for Cyrus)
Frederick / 1,000,000 / 100 (votes for you)
You / 5,000,000 / 500 (votes for you)
Cyrus / 6,000,000 / 600 (votes for himself)


The minimum amount of votes for victory is 1,000 votes.

In total, you got 1,200 votes. Cyrus got 1,100 in total.

So, even though both you and Cyrus got the minimum required amount, you had more than him - thus, you win.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, this is how I understood it.

 

[reddishrecue]

Diplomatic victory - winning the diplo victory election.

Two leaders will run for the election - the leader with the most population, and the leader who builds the UN. If you are both, the second most populated civ will run too.

The election will be voted on by all other civs. I don't know why some civs will abstain. However, basically you need a higher diplomatic rating with other civs than your candidate.

For example:
You are HC, and you built the UN. You are guaranteed a spot in the election. Cyrus has the most populated civ, so he will be the other candidate.

Leader / their rating of you / their rating of Cyrus
Monty / +6 / -4
Louis / +9 / +7
Elizabeth / +2 / +4
Frederick / -1 / -3

Since I don't know the basis for abstaining, we will assume none abstain. Monty, Louis, and Frederick will all vote for you. Elizabeth will vote for Cyrus.

Again, the number of votes you will get depends on each civ, and you need to be the leading candidate AND have the minimum number of votes to win.

Assume these figures - I don't know if they'd be accurate, but they're for hypothetical purposes.
Leader / Population / votes contributed
Monty / 3,000,000 / 300 (votes for you)
Louis / 3,000,000 / 300 (votes for you)
Elizabeth / 5,000,000 / 500 (votes for Cyrus)
Frederick / 1,000,000 / 100 (votes for you)
You / 5,000,000 / 500 (votes for you)
Cyrus / 6,000,000 / 600 (votes for himself)


The minimum amount of votes for victory is 1,000 votes.

In total, you got 1,200 votes. Cyrus got 1,100 in total.

So, even though both you and Cyrus got the minimum required amount, you had more than him - thus, you win.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, this is how I understood it.

So this is the vote count to win? or to only get elected as secretary?

 

[Te_Wheki]

I think you need to 2/3s for diplo, it's more than half anyway. Plus you need someone else to vote for you even if you have 2/3s of the population yourself.

Also most leaders will abstain if they don't like either of the candidates enough, and I could be wrong but from memory people like Monty and Toku never vote for anyone else (in my own experience anyway).

 

[ajsciri4]

So this is the vote count to win? or to only get elected as secretary?

I believe this is how both elections work. The election for S-G (the first one) will give you a preview of how the leaders will vote for the diplomatic victory.

 

[Pangaea]

Had a look at a few XML files the other day, and IIRC you need 62% of the votes to win diplomatic victory. So it's impossible that both sides will get enough votes to win themselves. In the above scenario I would imagine Frederick to abstain since he doesn't really like either candidate. Suppose this may also be dependent on each leader, however, so it may not be true in his case. Have noticed that when people don't vote, it's typically because the leader has poor relations with both candidates.

Key is of course diplomacy. You may want to gift techs prior to the election for example, if the relationship isn't already good enough.

 

[ajsciri4]

Had a look at a few XML files the other day, and IIRC you need 62% of the votes to win diplomatic victory. So it's impossible that both sides will get enough votes to win themselves. In the above scenario I would imagine Frederick to abstain since he doesn't really like either candidate. Suppose this may also be dependent on each leader, however, so it may not be true in his case. Have noticed that when people don't vote, it's typically because the leader has poor relations with both candidates.

Key is of course diplomacy. You may want to gift techs prior to the election for example, if the relationship isn't already good enough.

thanks for clearing it up.

 

[Andulias]

I've personally never had any problems achieving a diplomatic victory. I usually play on Continents, so I make sure to create a strong religious block on my continent, and dominate the civs that don't belong to it with some help from my friends. After establishing connections with the other continent I take a look at who's winning there, side with them and voila.

Really, I've always in fact felt cheap when winning a diplo VC just because I find it so easy. And not having an actual Vitory movie for it doesn't help to elevate that feeling

 

[s.bernbaum]

I think you need to 2/3s for diplo, it's more than half anyway. Plus you need someone else to vote for you even if you have 2/3s of the population yourself.

Had a look at a few XML files the other day, and IIRC you need 62% of the votes to win diplomatic victory.

Clarifying detail is that you cannot vote yourself a diplo victory by yourself. If you have more than the required percentage on your own, the victory becomes unavailable. If you are pursuing a diplo victory be sure not to exceed the needed percentage of votes by yourself. Not only must someone else vote for you but you must be unable to get the percentage without someone else voting for you. This is why "diplomation" is only a workable option if you have the default vassalage turned on, so your vassals can vote for you. Turn vassalage off and you cannot win by being big enough to vote yourself a diplo victory.

 

[Jex]

Key is of course diplomacy. You may want to gift techs prior to the election for example, if the relationship isn't already good enough.

Or you could use those techs to bribe neutral parties to war with your opponent.

 

[traius]

Or you could use those techs to bribe neutral parties to war with your opponent.

you could, but bringing in war allies will only make them hate you more, if they aren't finished off entirely. Anyone going for diplo victory should strongly consider gifting techs and/or making terribly on-sided trades to get the +1 "you shared your tech discoveries" and up to +4 "our trade relations have involved us screwing you at every chance" (and yes, trading techs gives more than giving techs... weird but true. If you had neither diplo bonus, you would be better off trading the tech for one gold than giving it away; trading for 1 gold is a guaranteed jump from 0 to +4, and giving it away ranges from 0 to +1 diplo bonus). That said, trading maxes at +4 and fades with time, and giving never maxes, and at least fades more slowly (I'm still pretty sure it fades, or at lest that other things can eliminate it, like denying help or something). Since you are only concerned with the immediate next vote for victory, trade, don't gift, unless trade is at max.

 

[Jex]

I mean bribing them to war with the person you're running against. Say they like you, but they like the other guy equally. They'll typically not vote for someone they're at war with, so you can sometimes secure votes that way. It's funny when it works.