Diplomacy 101

Share your thoughts!

from GalCiv2 Forums

I think it would be useful to exchange diplomacy strategy tips. Main questions that arise are:

1) How do you pick your allies and enemies and why?

2) Does this depend on the kind of victory you aim for (diplomatic, conquest, cultural)?

3) Do you change allies and enemies often in the game or do you stick to them (I guess loyalty is rewarded, no?)

4) How does your diplomatic strategy relate to your military and economic strategies?

5) Anything you wish to add or ask..

 

I prefer to have a powerful ally (one that I can backstab later, if needed) and a few middle sized allies. I try to keep those allies occupied by attacking enemies (or even each other). I also use them if a race attacks me. I ask them for their help, unless that happens automatically through treaties. Of course strong diplomatic techs and a strong military help in this respect. Share your tips and strategies!

 

strategies
8,320 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Just one thought on

1) If an AI is too strong to be conquered militaristically (and if other methods such as bringing AI's to declare war on him will result in him being only more stronger) then I´d put all my efforts into allying with him - even if that means I have to pay 10.000bcs for a radical alignment change. After the alliance is set this guy is ripe to be conquered culturally.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Hi Maiden666,

Thanks for sharing your idea. Seems logical, although I wonder if war by other AI's with this strong AI wouldn't affect his strength.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yeah it depends on his strength. If he is just some edges stronger then keeping the AI at war will keep them also weak all the time. But if a single AI has so strong ships that he won't even loose shipfights then it's only a matter of time until he's going to successfully invade planets and by that becoming even more stronger.

Actually, speaking of this, I remember an other game (I think it was the Drengin Gambit) where the Altarians had a Precursor Library on their homeworld, and became immensly powerful. I was able to conquer the Torians very early on, so there was only the Arceans & Altarian left - both stronger than me. Although I had 40% of the planets in game the suicidal AI outsearched me fairly, the Drengin in TA have a bad economy + research abilities, so in the long run, this game would have been lost.

But I brought the Altarians to war against the Arceans - and built some very fast Transport Troops and positioned them along the Arcean border (to not provoke a yet good relation...). The Altarians send some fleets and took away all Defenders & fleets, leaving the Arceans entirely defenseless. I then send in my Transports before the Altarians got the chance to - conquering the Arceans in a single turn.

After that, I had 75% of all planets - which, in the long run enabled me to win, but I did never ever use that strat again.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Most of my alliances have been because I was going for a diplo win; I rarely mess with them otherwise.

My reasons for trying for an alliance vary depending on the age of the game & my civ's ranking compared to any active warmongers on the map. Usually, I try to start out with a civ that's mid-ranked because they're less likely to get attacked before I'm ready to handle an alliance-triggered war. Later on, when it's often clear that at least one AI is bent on murdering the rest of us, I'll look for a potential ally who seems likely to be next in line for steamroller and that way I can get into the war when I'm ready and not have to take the diplo hit for being an aggressor.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is it easy to get the AI gang up against the strongest player in the game? I would think that they are afraid om his military strength. I think, however, that it should be easy in the game as it is the only way - at difficult levels - to damage him. Resembles the game of RISK in which human players also try to form an alliance to weaken the strongest player/bully.

What do you think?

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yes, it is actually more difficult to get weak AI's to attack a strong AI than getting the strong AI to attack the weak AI's - which (not taking into account Alliances) will result in the same anyway, so I´d rather pay the strong one.

But there is something like this - sometimes the good alignment AI's will unitedly declare war on a strong player, but it could also be result of the Draths SuperAbility.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

"Yes, it is actually more difficult to get weak AI's to attack a strong AI than getting the strong AI to attack the weak AI's"

Perhaps this should be addressed in a future patch or galciv3. I think it is logical (at least in board games it is) to gang up against the strongest player, otherwise you'll lose the game for sure at high difficulty levels + it is less realistic.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

In addition, the strongest player could just use the Divide et Iimpera strategy and win even easier (at least that is what I do when I'm quite strong).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So far the game is most exciting in the early/ mid stages. Once I am the strongest player in game, this game is won already.

It's like the more power one has the more power he'll be able to scoop up and so forth resulting in omnipotency. The steps are only minimal in the beginning and become gradually greater overtime, that's why the beginning is most hard to determine & access.

I hope in GalCiv3 there will be more "unbalancing" super-events than now. Esp. it seems that some Superevents such as the Jagged Knife etc can be of great advantage, too.