link to PACIFIST's guide to CIV VI & rant

[Chuma]

Thank goodness for this

http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/11/1/13482176/pacifists-guide-to-civilization-6

I HATE HATE HATE having to fight in this game.

Other people might like it but I REALLY HATE IT.

I do everything in my power to try and avoid a fight. If I am forced to fight I fight to win. The AI gets so scared they try to surrender as soon as it looks like I might take one of their cities. I rolled over a city state by accident trying to get to some idiot who started a war with me for stupid religious reasons. He was the one trying to convert me. I was not doing anything. This was with Cleopatra too who is meant to be the most "loved" of all the CIV on THE EASIEST SETTING OF THE GAME.

And the AI is so broken they will start a fight with you for no reason even if they were best friends the turn before.

I nearly got rolled in one game and had to rebuild from my second city. Another CIV attacked me and I used a blocking strategy with mountains to take their city. Open borders gives me the horsehockys since they exploit it too much.

I tried playing as Ghandi and Spain decided to be a belligerent and attack me and I had to quit that game as I did not want to see Ghandi go down L They only attacked me as I had units stationed INSIDE MY OWN BORDERS when they were doing the exact same thing. Yeah, don’t leave war elephants undefended when you enemy has a barrage of archers to surround it.

I wouldn't even do the assassin quest line in Skyrim as I was upset by it. Every time my horse died I reloaded the game. Stupid game would spawn dragons on my fast travel and kill it anyway.

Even when I play other games I am like this.

I was never “bored” playing the other CIV games this way. CIV III I always played so I could get a science or a cultural victory. CIV II I would play the one game trying not to fight as much as possible. Have not really played enough of CIV IV and VI to judge. Have watched videos on Alpha Centuri and watched Beaglerush antagonise the aliens in a live stream of Beyond Earth after a bad day on XCOM due to beta 14 of Long War (was a while back.)

I wish the other CIVs would just leave me alone. I am happy to trade and do diplomacy with them.

The design decisions that went into this game are wrongheaded and not really fitting with the series.

There are OTHER GAMES you can play where you fight. THIS IS NOT THE GAME I WANTED TO DO THIS IN.

 

[timtwins]

I also prefer not to attack other civs.

 

[Jonathan]

You can try to avoid war, but you can't expect to be completely successful. Although Civ is not a simulation of human history, you might say it's inspired by human history, and in real human history there's no way you can guarantee to avoid war. The best you can do is to avoid starting one.

 

[gfeier]

I can't think of any other way to run a pacifist game than to be geographically isolated, perhaps the only civ on an island or small continent, or at the end of a peninsula with a choke point. Problem is, you need more than a couple of cities to actually win.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

This is more of a rant than a guide, mods please correct the deceptive title.

 

[Calyxx]

Yeah, this 'guide' is terrible. The author apparently thinks that the game 'Civilization' should allow him to create any type of nation that he has imagined, regardless of repercussions, while also admitting that the Civ series takes inspiration from history (which has a much higher incidence of warfare than any Civ game I've played).

The thing is, it is possible to do well in a game of Civ 6 without declaring war or even once sending a military unit into another Civ's borders. What is not realistic is to maintain a nation with no defense. External groups raiding cities (ie. barbarians) and conflicts between neighboring civilizations are hugely important parts of history, and it is unrealistic to expect a game modelling civilization to be without them.

 

[Jimdigriz]

This sounds like my current game!

The AI just wont attack me. Ever. Well, the barbarians do obviously and the odd city state has but not the AI nations. Thing is, I want them to attack!

 

[liv]

A city state attacked you?

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

It's like entering a jungle and expecting no animal to attack you if you don't attack them. Animals do get hungry, feel threatened or gets upset if you accidnetally invade their territory.

 

[liv]

I don't think it is the end of the world if there was a strategy for peaceful play for those who like it. I think on civV you had a decent chance of avoiding war if you armed and overall stayed vigilant and compliant. I even managed to stay friends with the zulus at times.
In this version it is too easy to make enemies and too hard to make friends.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm sorry, but that's a really, really terrible 'guide.' It doesn't provide any gameplay advice except "change the initial settings to favor a peaceful game as much as possible and then hope for the best." He turned off barbarians. He turned off domination victories. He chose an islands map. He even lowered his difficulty setting from where he normally plays. And even after all that, he admits that he got lucky.

Just terrible.

 

[Victoria]

Yup, rubbish guide... I mean, he makes it clear he has a weak army which is of course why he gets attacked a lot...duh. Play on king he suggest, emperor is too tough? ... Wtf no its not, deity is v tough but not impossible.

My advice is.

1. Play the politics game so they are not too annoyed with you, give them good deals etc.
2. Do the Ghandi deterrent, build a strong army and they will not declare anywhere near as much, only when its winning time amd thats just a token declaration of AI frustration because you will win.
3 when someone attacks you, turtle, kill their army then ask for reparations which will help pay for spending out on this deterrent to start with.

War is easy. Try winning culture on deity wthout owning another civs city or ever declaring war. Tis tough but doable. The main issue is the game encourages you to take cities, like a tiger jumping out of the bush and roaring then stand there waiting while you raise a gun. Just no teeth or claws.

 

[Victoria]

A city state attacked you?

I think they mean the city state was allied to gilgamesh who did not want his shiny new mule carts dirtied (yes they are mule carts not horses)... But gilgameshs' Allied CS had real guts.

 

[liv]

Ahh. OK I should have read that more thoroughly. Thanks

 

[Napoleonbuff]

I'm confused by these kinds of complaints, as I always play pacifist, don't build much of an army, settle cities right on the border of the AIs, and very rarely get attacked (particularly after the early game).

Are people not looking at the reasons why the AI is angry? It's all quantified, so it seems rather easy to mitigate, if that's what you want. Even if you don't, from my experience, their being angry rarely seems to translate to actual war. I actually wish declarations of war were more common, as I do prefer to be kept on my toes with the occasional defensive war.

 

[greygamer]

My main takeaway from the linked article was how broken diplomacy is in the current game

 

[Packherd2]

My takeaway from the article was that we're still waiting for Paradox to make its play for Firaxis's Civ crown...

 

[Lay_Lay]

The crown has been up for grabs for a few years now, but sadly there are no takers. The competition is weak and few.
I feel like we're at a point now where Blizzard could come in and steal the genre.
We're playing Everquest right now, just biding our time.

 

[Chuma]

Sorry, I've been going through some issues at the moment. It is fixed now and I had not been online for a few days.

 

[Chuma]

I recant, I actually like that it forces you to fight and not turtle. I was going through some issues in 2017 that took an entire year to get through.