Diplomancy - trading with other leaders

[rbcheck]

What am I not doing? Everything is in red with all other leaders except for when they have womething to trade?

How do I get them open to trying to get things done like alliances, or going to war with other nations?

Thanks
Ross

[Quillan]

You have to do things to make them like you. Hold the mouse over their picture, and a list will pop up of all the modifiers to your relationship. Positive modifiers include not going to war with them for a long time, having open borders with them for an extended period, trading them resources for a long time, giving better than you get in trades with them, sharing a common state religion, both being at war with a common enemy, giving them help/tribute/military aid when they ask for it, and forming a defensive pact with them. Negative modifiers include border tension (your borders pressing in on theirs), declaring war on them, getting someone else to declare war on them while you are at war with them, having a different state religion, nuking them, declaring war on someone they like, refusing to do what they ask (adopt civics, adopt religion, give tech/gold, stop trading with someone they dislike, and help in a war are all separate modifiers), and trading with "their worst enemy" all add up negatives. The better the overall score, the more likely they are to be willing to discuss things like that.

[Bogdanovist]

Another thing to do it mouse over the particular option that is in the red and a more specific reason for why they don't want to trade that particular thing will pop up.

[xenophile58]

Diplomancy! That is either the mind of a poet or the most serendipitous typo I've seen in a long time!

It's difficult to maintain good relations with all the other leaders - trade with one and his/her enemy will dislike you. Adopt a state religion and you'll offend every other state which doesn't share it.
Pick the civs which matter most to you for trade and try to stick with them - at least until you are able and willing to indulge in 'the pursuit of policy by other means'. (That's the 'your head would look good on a pole' option for those who don't recognise Clausewitz)

[Arrian]

Religion is a major factor. One thing you can do to get things off on the right foot is to sign open borders agreements as soon as you have Writing. That will get you a +1 right there.

If you focus on it a little bit, converting a neighbor to your religion (missionaries) isn't all that hard, if you manage it before they get mad enough at you to close the border (and before they get theology and use the theocracy civic). Plug your religion into enough of their cities and they will switch over (enough is 1 more than any other religion in their civ... so if they have 5 cities and 3 are Hindu, putting Christianity in 4 will make them accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior ).

That +4 (or more!) modifying is a BIG help... especially since it's more like a +8, b/c having a different religion will give you a -4 or so. That's a big-time swing in relations for the price of a few missionaries...

-Arrian

[rbcheck]

Diplomacy

Thanks, I must have missed the pop up when I had the mouse over the option.

Playing for long periods and little sleep really effects my typing and coherency.
Civ is probably a bad idea while operating machinery too.



Ross

[Didymus]

Arrian:
If they found a religion, and hence own the Holy City for that religion, they will switch to that even if they have multiple cities sharing your religion. So it's not necessarily quite as easy as all that. I had Tokugawa go from happy to surly real fast ... while I was in the middle of a bruising war with Frederick. Thankfully I got Freddy to back down before Tokugawa invaded.

[Arrian]

True. Probably best to aggressively convert a civ who didn't found an early religion. If they end up founding one of the later ones, they're not all that good at spreading it around and switching over... by the time they do that, you should be fairly secure, or even ready to switch over to Free Religion.

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

On some occasions, I've spread religion to my neighbor, usually hinduism or buddhism. It happend a couple of times that that neighbor founded one of the later religions, but if I had done a good job of spreading in the first place, there was no threat of that civ switching back.

And you get bonus points for style if you get them to adopt theocracy, sopping the spread of all religion except yours!

[rbcheck]

Religion

So if a neighbor has 4 cities and only one has a religion say Buddhism , does it harm him any if I spread Islam to that same city?
or how about if I spread it to one of his cities without any?

Any clues how this plays out?

Ross

[Arrian]

Depends on what you mean by "harm." Are you Buddhist? If so, you want him to stay Buddhist, yes? In that case, I'd make sure his other 3 cities are Buddhist before spending time & energy plugging in Islam.

If you're Islamic, go for it. Although I'd start with cities w/no religion, because cities that already have a religion are harder to put new religions into (sometimes your missionary will fail, whereas with a "virgin" city, they never fail). So in that case, the Buddhist city would be the last one I'd send a missionary to.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

If sending missionaries to a 'virgin' neighbour, I usually avoid sending into the nearest city first, especially if it has no culture. If they convert, that city'll start making culture against my borders. I like to get it to the capital or a convenient river/coastal city to help the spread.

[Arrian]

Good point - I actually never thought of that. I tend to send them to their capital first just b/c that seemed like the thing to do - there wasn't any real strategy behind that choice.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

The free Confucian missionary makes a great little scout - just at the right time too, with all the AI roads up and not too much religion spread. Not to be used with raging barbs though - so I gather.

[Arrian]

Hmm. I always - always - use that free missionary on my capital. Perhaps that's a mistake.

-Arrian