DIPLOMACY

The Settings

Huayna Capac

• Industrious
• Wonders
• Forges
• Financial
• Additional Commerce

Incan Empire

• Terrace
• Easy Culture
• Quechua
• Rush Enabled

Monarch

Aggressive AI
Permanent Alliances

No Barbarians
No Tribal Villages
No Random Events

Fractal Map
Cylindrical
Standard World Size
Temperate Climate
Medium Sea Level

Ancient Starting Era
Marathon Game Speed

Six AI Opponents
All Victories Enabled


Beyond the Sword 3.19
BUG Mod 4.5 [Build 2221]
BULL 1.4 [Build 243]
BAT Mod 4.1

Leaderhead Expansion Pack
  with The Modern Era Expansion

I am running the same Mods as per the previous few games.


All Victories are Enabled, but I will be principally going for either a Religious Victory or a Diplomatic Victory... which is all the easier if those who will not Vote for me are no longer in The Game. So, Conquest is a valid Victory, as well. But I hope it does not come to that. I would like to see the Religious Victory Screen. I don't think I ever have. For that matter, I would accept Culture, too. Which really means, anything goes. But that Religious Victory would be nice.

This was, perhaps, the most novel situation I uncovered this game. I had recently Defeated the Poles, which gave me a few Cities down south. And then, I fought a War against the hated Mayans. I won, of course. But Smoke Jaguar had a trick or two (OK, it was just the one) up his sleeve. And successfully Blockaded my Ports. This was the first time I was aware of the Blockade function ever doing much. Of course, that much (of the doing sort) amounted to an extra Unhappiness or two in a Newly Conquered City. So, it didn't do much at all.

One Stack
Fine, if I have a Two Front War going, I can't see how I can avoid having two Stacks (of Doom, don't you know). But if I can get away with it, I should keep all my offensive Units in a Single Stack.

And really, just take my time. Being Super Powerful has its advantages. And one of them is being able to Wage War slowly and methodically.


Trading Diplomacy
I got Optics out of Smoke Jaguar by giving him 10 Turns of Peace. Which means, he got to live 10 Turns longer. So, I suppose, it was a good deal for both of us.

More importantly, prior to Declaring on Mandela of The Zulu Nation, I begged 1 Gold off of each of the remaining Alliances. Tribute or a Gift (I guess it depends on how one wants to look at it) comes with an enforced 10 Turn Peace. So by accepting 1 Gold from my Opponents, I prevented them from stabbing me in the back and Declaring as soon as I Declared on someone else. It was the easiest 1 Gold I ever made.


Eat Them Whole
Yeah. I've said this before. But eating opponents whole is where the real points lay. There is no reason to accept Capitulation. Capitulation is just another way of saying one isn't strong enough to be Waging War, quite yet.

I did allow The Zulus to Capitulate, however. But then, allowing them to Capitulate gave my Missionaries access to their Cities, which in turn, enabled a Religious Victory.

So, like, for every rule, there is an exception. And this rule is no exception... to the rule... that rules have exceptions.


Blah Victory Screen
I believe they reused the Diplomatic Victory Screen for the Religious Victory. Either way, it was a completely unimpressive Victory Sequence... just saying.


Religious Victory!
Score: 4,223
Normalized: 160,390

Need I say anything else?

Fine. Let me mention that The Game's built in Victory Scale tops out at 10,000. So, 160,390 is pretty darn good and is at least 10x as good as anything I managed when I was playing this game eight or ten years ago.

Of course, offsetting that a bit is the fact that I reloaded This Game (from Turn 0) four times, giving me a bit of an edge.


Focus
I need to focus more in the End Game. Which means, I need to understand what type of Victory I am trying to achieve earlier in The Game.

In a War Game, Units are the key. In This Game, it was Missionaries. In a Space Race, it's Space Ship Parts.

Whatever it is, that's where I need to be focusing my efforts in the final stretch. And ideally, that final stretch would be 25, 50, or 100 Turns long.

Oh, also, since I was going for a Religious Victory, along with Missionaries, I should have been pounding out Settlers for new Cities, and Workers to switch every last Tile over to Farming... for Population Growth.

After all, Population is the metric that Wins a Diplomatic Victory. So, the winning strategy is to maximize one's own Population.

Pillage
When two AIs go to war, it might make sense to send a few Calvary to the front to Pillage whatever improvements I can. Whenever a City is Captured, Cultural Control drops. And quite often, Tiles become Neutral. At this time, any Improvements can be Pillaged without Declaring War. In the end, it's free Gold and the removal of Tile Improvements (Cottages, Farms, whatever) slows down the Opposition.


Polar Express
Under the right conditions (Ice facing Tundra) one can make a Canal across an entire Continent by Building Forts in the Tundra next to the Ice.

Certainly, in those instances where the route is blocked by a Tile of Ice or two, it may (or may not) make sense to build a few Forts on the off-chance the gambit will reduce movement at some critical point in the future.

Also, I can see creating a Custom Map (I would say or two, but it would likely just be the one) wherein implementing this trick becomes important.


Trade Gold
The most an AI will offer in Trade Gold for any one Resource (or possibly all Resources combined, I'm not sure) is tied to their Population: floor(pop/10).


City Flipping
In order for a City to flip, one has to have Cultural Control of 15/20 of the Tiles in the City's Fat Cross along with Cultural Control of the City itself.


Stealing Technologies
The Base Cost of Stealing a Technology is 1.5x the Technology's Beaker Cost. I used to worry about the AI Stealing important Late Game Technologies. But the AI hardly ever has that many Espionage Points.


And that's a wrap.