New players, looking for some answers

[Aquaplex]

Hey guys. Started playing CIV5 couple weeks ago and i absolutely love it. I have all the expansions and i play on the warlord (3) difficulty. There are couple things that i need answered.

1. How do i stop the AI missionary spam? I have pretty much stopped going for any type of religious games because i constantly get spammed with AI missionaries in most games. I think it takes away the fun from the game if i constantly have to build my own missionaries and spam other civlizations.

2. How do stop other civs, most notably Greece from being allied with most city states in the game? My last game, which was fantastic by the way, i dominated the world, left Greece with only their capital, only to lose the game on a diplomatic victory in turn 430 to them. Seemed like they were somehow able to constantly spend thousands of gold on buying up status with like 20 city states even though i myself was spending thousands of gold doing the same.

Thanks for any info you guys can share with me on these 2 issues.

 

[mintcandy]

2. How do stop other civs, most notably Greece from being allied with most city states in the game? My last game, which was fantastic by the way, i dominated the world, left Greece with only their capital, only to lose the game on a diplomatic victory in turn 430 to them. Seemed like they were somehow able to constantly spend thousands of gold on buying up status with like 20 city states even though i myself was spending thousands of gold doing the same.

Thanks for any info you guys can share with me on these 2 issues.

I don't know if this works in Gods and Kings or Brave New World, but one way to prevent Greece or any other runaway gagillionaire civilization from spam buying Allied status from city states that you've been Allied with for the majority of the game is to declare war on a civilization that has a LOT of gold so that they cannot buy out your Allied city states.

In vanilla, it was impossible to use gold to win influence with City States allied with a civilization you were warring with. I think the same rule is in effect for Gods and Kings/Brave New World.

tl;dr version: declare war on civilizations that have massive quantities of gold so that they can't snatch up your City State allies.

 

[deity12]

These are quite trick thing to answer as there is no 'just do this' reply. But I'll give you a few suggestions of my own if I can.

1. One thing you can do, which may not necessarily work, is simply ask the AI in question not to spread their religion to your domain. This is one of the options under the 'discuss' in the leader screen diplomacy thingy. Note you can only do this after the first time they have used a missionary on you. You cannot ask them preemptively. If they refuse, your best shot is to either A: Buy some inquisitors and station them in the cities that are prime targets for AI conversion. The simple presence of a missionary is enough to reduce the effectiveness of missionary religion spreading. B: You can quickly nuke out their religion with an inquisitor then convert it back to yours with a missionary. It is a very good idea to do this on the same turn, as cities that have no foreign religions in them are much easier to convert. C: Establish your religion before them, as I said, cities already following a religion are much harder to convert, so getting yours up first is a serious advantage. D: Also, there is a reformation belief(that you receive form finishing the piety social policy tree) that makes your religion much harder to remove. E: And lastly, if you do not have a religion yourself, just let it spread. Usually, someone else's religion is better than none.

2.A few answers once again . Focus your buying efforts on certain city-states, don't try to get too many at once or you will not be able to keep them as your allies. Also, if Greece out-buys you on a city state that you used to ally, you can mouse over the wee greek icon on the respective city-state's screen and it will tell you how much more influence you need to overcome
Greece and become their ally instead. Also, don't forget the importance of quests (which I commonly do), especially early game. If you see you have completed a quest for a city-state (which can often be accidental, especially in the case of great person or faith/culture/science generation quests) it is usually a good time to buy them up as your ally. Any city-state you are allied to, or are planning to be allied to very soon, you should pledge to protect, this can keep the prying hands of the AI off them, especially if they are afraid of your military. If it all goes to hell, and the AI looks as if they are going to win a diplomatic victory regardless(you can see how many votes are required for victory in the 'victory progress' panel, don't be afraid to simply march your military into their allies. After all, a dead city state can't vote for them right?

Hope these tips from a moderately(certainly ain't pro) civ player can be of use to you. Also, welcome to the game and the forums!

EDIT: Forgot mintcandy's method, listen to him as well, that's also a very good way to stop them

 

[VainoValkea]

1. How do i stop the AI missionary spam? I have pretty much stopped going for any type of religious games because i constantly get spammed with AI missionaries in most games. I think it takes away the fun from the game if i constantly have to build my own missionaries and spam other civlizations.

Without the Evangelism reformation belief, missionaries are almost useless at converting your citizens. If you just spread your religion to be the majority in all your cities, you should be fine against them. Keep the borders closed to make them rot!

What you should really worry about are Great Prophets, because those guys actually are good at converting your citizens en masse. Get an inquisitor or two to defend against them - remember that an inquisitor inside or next to your city prevents a prophet or a missionary from spreading their filth there!

2. How do stop other civs, most notably Greece from being allied with most city states in the game? My last game, which was fantastic by the way, i dominated the world, left Greece with only their capital, only to lose the game on a diplomatic victory in turn 430 to them. Seemed like they were somehow able to constantly spend thousands of gold on buying up status with like 20 city states even though i myself was spending thousands of gold doing the same.

Are you sure they were using gold to make those allies? Turn 430 is very late game, and there are plenty of other options for forging City-State alliances available then. For example, Freedom ideology offers Arsenal of Democracy and Treaty Organization that puts gold gifts to shame.

Also, they probably had a lead on you in CS alliances anyway. You were at war with Greece, correct? Greece was likely to have many CS allies anyway, whose relations with you were obviously ruined for the duration of the war, while Alex the Awesome was busy making more influence with them all the time.

 

[Walter R]

1. You could try playing on a more naval map, it will give you more time to get your own religion going.

2. Alex is a royal pain, if you let him get to the later stages of the game he will no doubt be horribly strong - try and deal with him earlier in the game if possible, preferably with an ally (I realise it isn't always easy but on warlord you should be able to get ahead quickly).

 

[Walter R]

(sorry to double post) - in the last post by "deal with" I meant "eliminate"

 

[Sidor1982]

1. On some maps you can set up your units in choke points to not pass the missionaries and prophets through. Other than that you can surround your cities with units, eventually DoW. If possible you can surround the missionary and wait till they run out of their "stamina".

Unfortunately asking the AI's to stop spreading their religion rarely works. And this option is only available when they actually convert one of your cities (doesn't appear if they send multiple missionaries to several cities and spread their religion without converting one of them - but of course they establish religious pressure that way which then converts the cities by themselves).

2. Greece is one of the nations it's most difficult to steal CS from. You really need to invest heavily or take the CS down.

 

[newarkinvaders]

(sorry to double post) - in the last post by "deal with" I meant "eliminate"

You may not really need to eliminate either . If you take out a few of his citys early you can ruin his momentum .
Or you can constantly ensure his life is a misery by sending other civs against him .

 

[njmfff]

Hey guys. Started playing CIV5 couple weeks ago and i absolutely love it. I have all the expansions and i play on the warlord (3) difficulty. There are couple things that i need answered.

1. How do i stop the AI missionary spam? I have pretty much stopped going for any type of religious games because i constantly get spammed with AI missionaries in most games. I think it takes away the fun from the game if i constantly have to build my own missionaries and spam other civlizations.

Close open boarders to civ that sends you missionaries. They can still send them into your territory, but each turn they are in, they will lose their convert strength (and eventually die, usually after four turns). However, you must watch out for Prophets, this doesn't apply to them. They can still walk in and nuke your city.

Alternative (usually when it comes to Prophets), you can block their prophets with your units.

Option no.3, take out annoying civ, use inquisitor to erase his religion.

but I think there's a option to ask AI not to send you prophets and missionaries in BNW (if you found religion. If you adopted somebody else, you don't have that option)

2. How do stop other civs, most notably Greece from being allied with most city states in the game? My last game, which was fantastic by the way, i dominated the world, left Greece with only their capital, only to lose the game on a diplomatic victory in turn 430 to them. Seemed like they were somehow able to constantly spend thousands of gold on buying up status with like 20 city states even though i myself was spending thousands of gold doing the same.

Thanks for any info you guys can share with me on these 2 issues.

Take out Alex (Greece), take out CS or ally CS. Or you can ally most of the CS, and declare a war on Alex (or other civs that love allying CS). You can also place a spy into CS that you really want to keep (usually one that gives you needed resource or the ones that are close to your boarders in case some AI attacks you)

 

[Sabrina]

I don't know if this works in Gods and Kings or Brave New World, but one way to prevent Greece or any other runaway gagillionaire civilization from spam buying Allied status from city states that you've been Allied with for the majority of the game is to declare war on a civilization that has a LOT of gold so that they cannot buy out your Allied city states.

OR propose an embargo in the world congress, this would cut their cash and help you to build more alliances. Also, patronage.