Religion and neutrality, decisions decisions.

[Blake]

Now, it's possible to stay heathen throughout the entire game, gaining for cultural benefits of ALL religions in your empire.

This neutrality means that no-one will really hate you, but on the other hand no-one will really like you enough to support you.

What this means is at some point an AI might decide to attack you (despite not really hating you, it just smells oppurtunity), but you wont have any friends at all! Thus the AI can bring in his friends and gangbang you.

On the other hand being religious guarantees you some enemies, but you can also get a staunch friend or two who will back you up in a war, and possibly more importantly, WONT join in the gang-banging.

In some ways it's a pity that success depends largely on avoiding being dogpiled, but I'm also impressed by the degree of diplomatic strategy involved.

CIV is definitely very strategically interesting at many levels.

[baboon]

Yeah, in my current game I founded Confucianism, but since the other 4 civs on my continent were all Hindu I decided to become Hindu as well.

We are all one happy family now, while I build my army and choose the first Civ to join my great empire

I think I will go free religion eventually. Or I might switch back to Confucianism.

[Cort Haus]

I was alone on a continent (Rome, Prince, Standard Map) and discovered Confucianism, with no chance of converting anyone early. I was short of resources, and late to optics (so many priorities), so by the time I met the astronomied-up Russia I was desperate for trade - and good trade there was with Peter too.

Trouble is, Peter wasn't popular with many of the others (mostly closely allied), when I finally met them, and they all complained about my trade with him, which I couldn't afford to drop. I was weak militarily on my low-hammer continent, so despite having no third-party religions in my cities I eventually went with the Free Religion Civic to drop the diplomatic penalties.

I've survived until the modern era, but will probably lose a tight race with China for the SS. Failing to spread my religion has cost me gold and allies, but it's tricky from a remote start and Confucianism. This later religion is good to grab because it's away from the religious branch of the tech tree, thus allowing other goodies to be researched. However, Christianity is an easier religion to spread because it comes bundled with Organised Religion, picked up on the way. This civic helps build infrastructure and can build missionaries easier, and I've missed it in this game, with slow builds on my low-hammer soil and lack of religious allies.

So, a combination of being alone, choosing Confucianism (needed Civil Service for irrigation) and making friends by necessity with an unpopular Civ left me in a tricky diplomatic position, one which I've navigated so far by choosing a sub-optimal civic. Pacifism would have better suited my GP strat, (Representation & the backward and inward Mercantilism) but looked diplomatically dangerous.

In case of early isolation, I'm wondering whether it would be better to avoid making any deals with the first civ encountered, just to see first how things stand diplomatically with the other powers. This has a price, of course, but then that's the nature of this game. So many trade-offs.

I actually have reasonably good relations with most Civs (except Peters big enemies) and was hovering over a choice between Rocketry (SS, which China seems focused on) and Mass Media (UN). I've had a diplowin before, but that was with religious allies.

My choice seemed to be between losing a space-race or losing a UN vote. I decided this time to go for space, and hope that Mao falls out with his buddy Isab1tcha!

[khearn]

One thing to keep in mind when you discover you're isolated early, you should make getting optics a priority so you can get a caravel out and at make those diplomatic contacts yourself, rather than waiting for one one or two of the AIs to eventually come to you. Then you won't be so isolated.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by khearn
One thing to keep in mind when you discover you're isolated early, you should make getting optics a priority so you can get a caravel out and at make those diplomatic contacts yourself, rather than waiting for one one or two of the AIs to eventually come to you. Then you won't be so isolated.

Yes, this was one of the lessons learned from that isolated start game (where I eventually pipped the Chinese to the SS by 1 component).

Must ... get . .. Optics