Diplomatic Victory and Size of Civilization

Verto · August 18, 2003, 19:17

I have never really had a diplomatic/cultural victory, so I decided to give it a go. I was playing as France, and was on a medium sized continent with England, England in the north, myself in the south. We each controlled roughly half of the island, and were pacing each other with technological advances. To our east, was Rome and Egypt - both larger, but not by very much, and each were somewhat more advanced for a time. The Iroqois and Aztecs shared a large continent off by itself.

I had been making a point of not being aggressive and tried to avoid getting into a war. I routinely gave away gifts to the other civilizations, and was a very agreeable fellow. However, around 1300, England began sending troops to our border, and then demanded an outrageous sum of money, technology, and a world map to boot. I rejected it, and England immediately declared war. They took a city initially, but I was able to hold off the invasion and ended up capturing 2 cities, in addition to liberating one. After this, I signed a peace treaty with the English, and things went back to normal. Until Rome and Egypt did the same thing.

Is it possible to play the game and win, without having to have A.) a large civilization and B.) a strong military?

Mad Bomber · August 18, 2003, 21:48

There have been players that have won with just one city and very little military but the task is not easy without a decent military. In general when playing a peace game use the Swiss as a model. Gift civs to keep them happy, give in to demands, make trades and MPP's to keep them from forming alliances against you.

Winning is possible, but to me far from a fun game, and peaceful ways of winning are IMO a little lacking.

Lord_Davinator · August 19, 2003, 13:11

Its a tough and humilinating experience when you cave in to any demand... and I've personally never been able to win without a decent sized civ... so hmm... my advice is expand till you're way over extended... then cave in for a while and then take what they took from you...

bongo · August 20, 2003, 04:12

Some of the peaceniks here at 'poly have been winning games without a single fight. When they cave in to demands, they do so in the most devious manner. Don't ask me how, so far I won ALL my games by domination.

Gufnork · August 20, 2003, 07:34

Trade resources and keep a strong defensive army. Might of army, high culture and frequent trading prevents your neighbours from bothering you. The greatest downside to playing builder in Civ 3 is the lack of great leaders. Building the forbidden palace is a pain (unless you do the disband palace city trick, which I think is abuse).