Very best non -attack winning strategy to date. (for me at least) ;0)

[Writersbl0ck]

It's all about Religion. I'm talking ALL of them. I have used this up to Noble setting and have detroyed the AI's so far. I got sidetracked in multiplayer, so I haven't tried Prince yet. Here's what you do:

Start with Ghandi. This could work with any other Religious Leader and would be interesting with a Religious Cultural leader (if there is one, i am not near to check right now); but, I like Ghandi because of the fast wonders with the Religious. Point is you need a religious leader.

First off, you need to get the Techs that give you buhdism and hinduism. It's kind of a cheat, but if a civ gets one before you get both, restart and research the one that the AI is looking for first, then get the other.

Now you are ready to roll. I've noticed that as long as you have a couple defenders in each city, Ghandi doesn't really get attacked. Play nice with the other civs, as you don't want war.

As soon as you have the first two religions, you want to go after all the others immediately. Don't deviate from this path. You only want to research civs that will get you to founding a religion.

Along the way, build the necessary city improvements and wonders to maximize your ability to make missionaries and Great Prophets. This is a must.

You should be nice with everyone at this point and have open boarders with just about everyone. Fill every city with every religion.

As you get Great Prophets, you want to make the holy shrines in your founding cities.

Along the way, trade your religion techs away (since you've already founded) for your filler techs.

Now you should have all seven religions, all seven shrines and a bunch of missionaries spreadin' the good word.

The very next thing you want to do is research for the Spiral Minaret if you can't already build it. It's crucial you get this wonder.

Now you are set. You will notice that you are RAKING in cash from your religions, you are also able to see what is going on in most cities on the map.

Set your tech research to 100 and you should still be getting filthy rich.

Now you are screaming ahead of everyone else in the techs and if you are smart you have Universal Sufferage and Free Religion on.

Universal Sufferage is key. Use your mega money to quickly improve cities or build those key units.

Now it's your choice.... go for any win scenerio you want and you should have a cakewalk.

Even military gets easy because you are screaming toward mobile infantry while the nearest AI is churning out his musket men.

Give it a try.

[Quillan]

Hatshepsut is Creative/Spiritual.

[Writersbl0ck]

Ah. Good to know. I still like Ghandi for the fast spiral minaret, but I'll have to try it with Hap to see just how fast my culture can grow.

[khearn]

Even with restarts this strategy will start failing on higher difficulties. You (a) won't be able to get all of the early religions, and (b) will get invaded if you start next to someone like Ghengis or Alexander and just defend with a couple of warriors per city.

But yeah, it works fine up to Noble.

[ghen]

Definitely doesn't work on Prince. I totally tried this with the spanish lady and almost got creamed in the tech race. The AI just gets more advantages that make this extremely hard to work with.

On Noble, just about any build stratagy will win the game for you :P

[Diadem]

Yeah, on the higher difficulties you're lucky if you get even 1 of the first 2 religions. Getting both is just impossible.

Getting the later religions is pretty hard on those difficulties as well. You might do it, but you'll be far, far behind in other areas. That'll hurt.

[Bobby Chicken]

yep, but it is still possible to found 4-5 religions.

[Bobby Chicken]

oh, building most of the world wonders should be combined with this strategy to really make it work.

[Just_Matt]

Keep them poor!

In addition to the Three W's (Wonders & Workers &Wandering around looking for villages and natural resources) I make sure to trade the AI players my extra resources. I prefer to make the $10 / item trades of course, but I'll even accept $2 or $3 per item.

The trick it to keep them from earning any extra money so they can't afford to upgrade their units when you attack them!

Just my 2 cents.

[cal_01]

It's totally possible to do this on Prince and Monarch (albeit with some difficulty). I once got three on Monarch, and still managed to win the game.

The key is to observe your territory and check out what you really need. Don't be afraid to trade around techs, either, since the AI basically trades around for every tech they need.

I basically go for something like:

Mysticism (if I don't have it), Polytheism since the AI always goes for Meditation, then Mining-Bronze Working. After that, go for the Priesthood/Writing route for Code of Laws. Once you get CoL, you can trade up for a lot of techs.

Or, you can just go for Monotheism, but the AI usually gets that ahead of me.

But seriously, at the higher difficulties, founding more than one religion is overkill unless you're going for a cultural victory. And even then, you need to set yourself to no-state religion or beeline to Liberalism in order to really see the benefits. Plus, cultural victories are a good way to get yourself killed with beelines, since the AI like to attack you when your borders enroach (is that the right word?) on theirs.

On the other hand, having two religions is good, since if your aggressive neighbour converts, you can convert to their religion to buy yourself some time.

The religious super-building/Spiral Minaret is a good strategy too, but for myself, it only works when your cities have nothing else to do.

[Writersbl0ck]

The point is mostly to get as many religions as possible for the money intake when every city on the board has your religion. While I've found it won't work 100% at the higher levels, it still allows you to get most of the religions. With 5 or more holy shrines and the spiral minaret, you still make a ton of cash in the late game and that is what this is all about.... kicking butt in the late game.

I HAVE noticed that playing close to Genghis Khan will mess this all up because your culture will siphon off some of his cities and he'll attack. The way to handle this is a) to give another civ adjacent to him something to attack him or b) postion your cities so you only have one or two forward toward his border and fortify the heck out of them. If you can get through all the religions and get the minaret built without him attacking, you are golden. You can afford to trade or give away just about any tech to get back fill or keep people happy.

I have also noticed that when you have opponets who are religious, it's harder to do this plan because they are going for religions too. It's much easier with non religious leaders as opponets.

On Prince level I got 6 religions (got aced out of Taoism) and pretty much cake walked to a military victory late in the game. I had so much more money than everyone else that I could buy and upgrade units at will and still was at 100% research while attacking on two fronts. Now admittedly, I did have three great merchants appear before my time to attack, and all of my open boarders allowed me some huge trade runs... but still, the religions kept my per turn income VERY high compared to my opponents.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Writersbl0ck
I HAVE noticed that playing close to Genghis Khan will mess this all up because your culture will siphon off some of his cities and he'll attack. The way to handle this is a) to give another civ adjacent to him something to attack him or b) postion your cities so you only have one or two forward toward his border and fortify the heck out of them.

You can a) give him back those cities or b) give these cities to another civ.

B is far better. Just watch the fireworks.

[Jerx]

To Cal

A polite note; the word is encroach.

I appreciate your analysis

[cal_01]

Originally posted by Jerx
To Cal

A polite note; the word is encroach.

I appreciate your analysis

Woah. I did not expect the c.

Thanks!

[Cort Haus]

Re: Very best non -attack winning strategy to date. (for me at least) ;0)

Originally posted by Writersbl0ck

First off, you need to get the Techs that give you buhdism and hinduism. It's kind of a cheat, but if a civ gets one before you get both, restart and research the one that the AI is looking for first, then get the other.

Low-level strats with reload cheats, posted as 'very best winning strategy'