Running for diplomatic victory

[ViterboKnight]

I'm playing Warlords, at prince. I'm Augustus.

After a very long war, having conquered a lot of enemy cities, I'm the number one in score, I have two vassals (two small civs) two great friends (Mehmet and Wang Kon) and one enemy, Napoleon; I'm at war against him and his vassal, Kubla Khan.

Here diplomatic elections come. I receive 810 marks (890 needed to win), and all friends of mine have voted me. I try to expand me by conquering some French cities, and after a few turns, I make Napoleon capitulate. I think: Napoleon has 200 marks, so if things don't change, I should have won.

I relax for one turn. War is over, I switch from military civics to happiness civics, and wait for next elections. All my cities production is switched to culture.
But when results are announced, I see that Mehmet has abstained!! What the...!!!
I saved the game and exited: I have to think, and to think carefully!!!

Here is the situation at the moment:
Mehmet is "satisfied" with me, and I have just given him a tech as a gift.
The most advanced civs are running for space victory, and are missing the last three components (the most expensive ones).
Eigthy turns to time victory, but space victory will surely occur in a shorter time.
Russian empire is almost as large and advanced as mine. I can't even try a domination or conquest victory. My only one hope is a diplomatic victory.
I need these civs to vote me: my three vassals (no problem), Wang Kon and Mehmet.
Probably, the reason that caused Mehmet not to vote me is my "friendship" with Frenchs.

What to do?
Is it possible to make Mehmet to become "friendly" again and vote me?
Or maybe such a change is difficult to repair, and I have to force him to collaborate, by attacking him and make him capitulate? In this case, I could lose Wang Kon friendship, I'm not sure, I have to check their relations!

This is my FIRST game at prince, and I feel "SO" close to victory!! I don't want to make a stupid mistake. NOT AT THIS MOMENT!!!

 

[ori]

have a look at the attitude link in my sig for more information on the attitude stuff. Bottom Line is: you don't need mehmet to be friendly with you. An attitude of +10 is friendly while he'll vote for you with an attitude of +8. What probably happened is either: the -1 of vassalizing Napoleon put him below +8 (you'll probably just need +1/+2 to put him over that, try selling him stuff) or you tie with you oponent in the vote - so you'll only need a +1 to get over this obstacle.
One way to go might also be war with your rival if you can bribe WangKon and Mehmet into the war as well - so you'll get the shared war bonus which should be sufficient.

 

[cabert]

You have 2 big options :
1 ) - making nice with Mehmed
2 ) - grow (relatively to world population)

For 1, as Ori said, you may have a few easy + to use (the bolded) :
- fair (yeah, righ) trade
- prefered civic
- open borders
- defensive pact
- providing resources
- sharing technological discoveries (if you're researching faster than he does, it's easy too : trade your monopoly techs to him (don't look back on what he gave for it, it's worth the deal)
- helping him out
- mutual struggle

2) is even easier : farm everything. Work all the food rich tiles. trade all you can to make your vassal grow (including biology, and other "growth" techs, and helath and happiness resources). Gift him workers if needed to get his farms back in business. No whiping and no drafting in this phase!
Build settlers if there is room for them.
If needed, you can use spies to sabotage food resources from your enemies.

 

[aelf]

War is over, I switch from military civics to happiness civics, and wait for next elections.

Therein lies the probable answer. Mehmed isn't too happy that you switched out of Vassalage. Switch back and the world is yours.

 

[cabert]

Therein lies the probable answer. Mehmed isn't too happy that you switched out of Vassalage. Switch back and the world is yours.

one more thing : this + to relation builds up with time. You may need to wait a few turns before actually getting his vote back.

 

[aelf]

one more thing : this + to relation builds up with time. You may need to wait a few turns before actually getting his vote back.

Nope. He will remember that you were his buddy not too long ago. It will come back. EMC4 provides proof of this (we switched to US for a while but Napoleon still remembered when we switched back to Representation).

 

[cabert]

Nope. He will remember that you were his buddy not too long ago. It will come back. EMC4 provides proof of this (we switched to US for a while but Napoleon still remembered when we switched back to Representation).

good to know.

 

[KMadCandy]

one last thing about the favorite civic bonus, it works only if he's in it too, so make sure he is.

 

[ViterboKnight]

one last thing about the favorite civic bonus, it works only if he's in it too, so make sure he is.

Too late!!!
Well, it worked for Mehmet: I switched back to Vassalage, and regain his vote.
But there was no way to keep Wang Kon at my side. He stopped voting for me, and didn't care about what I did. I switched to Caste System (his favorite civic), I buried him with gifts (a city as well, and NOT the smallest of mine, of course), but he continued to abstain. Why?? He voted me until five minutes ago!!!!!

I'm posting my save game, just in the turn in which Catherine launches his spaceship.
Does anyone can tell me if this game could be won?

 

[KMadCandy]

i don't know why Wang Kon changed his mind. he shows as +5 to catherine, so i guess he's +7 with her with the invisible stuff, which is making him abstain ... he was probably +6 with her total before, so he voted for you, but the change to +7 before that last vote put him on the abstain side caste system didn't help since he wasn't running it. it didn't hurt you either tho, nobody else's favorite civic was in that category, and maybe helped with the culture fights up near monty's borders.

i decided to give up on WK in the save, and try for Tokugawa. he was pleased with you and Catherine, but his numbers with Catherine were lower that WK's were. his favorite civic is Mercantilism, you were in Free Market. Free Market is the favorite of more people, but those people didn't matter, they were mostly your vassals . it took 3 votes until the bonus with Toku for "you have wisely chosen your civics" moved up from +1 to +2, but then he voted for me and i got enough votes to win.

This is my FIRST game at prince, and I feel "SO" close to victory!! I don't want to make a stupid mistake. NOT AT THIS MOMENT!!!

i don't think that you did. just because it worked for me now doesn't mean it would have worked for you then, and it wasn't an obvious thing to try anyway. Toku's score is lower than WK's and his favorite civic isn't as popular. and it needed 3 votes to pay off. i made the change the first turn, and the first vote was after i hit enter, so i think played 9 turns total since the votes come every 4 turns, that's a lot of time in such a close race.

so frustrating, i know, i've been there myself! grrrrrrrrr catherine it doesn't help to know you "came close but didn't win", but that is a really close and good game for your first try at prince!