How much of a pacifist can one be?

[Nirn]

As a Civ player I tend to prefer the more peaceful and industrial play-styles (the occasional small war is okay though). I usually play on the lower difficulty levels. You could say I am trying to play Civ like one would play SimCity but with competing AIs.

I am still quite new to Civ4 and am curious about how much one can avoid combat while still winning and building empires. Compared to Civ3, Civ4 seems to have less cultural flipping but perhaps I am doing something wrong.

I would appreciate views on how feasible a peaceful play-style is. Hints about which leader traits that are good would also be most welcome.

Thanks!

[snoopy369]

First off, you can use Custom Game to enable "Always Peace", which forbids war. If you prefer to play 100% builder, this works well. You don't need military except for happiness and barb patrols.

Secondly... it's quite possible to play most or all of the game without an aggressive war.

The keys:

1. Always give the AI whatever it asks for.
2. Adopt the religion of whatever AIs are most numerous around you.
3. Build up a good sized military, and lots of barracks type buildings. The AI compares power to you before deciding to go to war with you.

I often play games with little war until the modern era, so it's certainly possible. You just have to do a really good job playing the tech game, keeping ahead or close. You'll also have to found a LOT of cities, so Expansive/Imperialistic are both good traits. Cottage spam and the usual other suggestions of course are key. I often go Cultural Victory when I play that way, so it's key to get Electricity/Radio/Media before anyone else, and get several religions.

It's a lot easier on Noble or below I think than above that, since Noble is the last level you can really outtech the AI.

[Solver]

At least on Prince, you can outtech the AI very well. Before Blake's improvements, I used to hold a comfortable tech lead at Prince.

[Krill]

You can win the game in OCC without any offensive wars. I've done it on uncooked maps (small fractal/small tilted axis) up to prince. Monarch is possible if you get a nice start and plan a bit (without Blakes AI though, just stock 2.08).

In a "stock" game...I'd say Lizzie is pretty good at this, as is Mansa and Ghandi. Those three are just pretty nice all round though.

[Solver]

I think Aeson said that Cultural victory was possible on Deity with fighting just one war for breathing space. Hmm.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver
At least on Prince, you can outtech the AI very well. Before Blake's improvements, I used to hold a comfortable tech lead at Prince.

Okay, well, Noble is the last level where I can outtech the AI

I would say though that many people find a pretty steep learning point between Noble and Prince, and it's largely because of the tech gap in Prince for them.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I would say though that many people find a pretty steep learning point between Noble and Prince, and it's largely because of the tech gap in Prince for them.

At Prince you can out tech the AI without even really trying, especially with no tech trading allowed. I think its on monarch where you really need to pay attention to not get left behind.

You can win without war through Prince without too much trouble. Anything beyond that is doable but takes some real finesse.

My favorites for this type of game would mansa musa, elizabeth, and peter.

[Nirn]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the good advice.

Any views on the Civ3 vs Civ4 rate/easy of capture cities through culture flipping? It was so easy in Civ3 but I have only had it happen once in Civ4 so far and that was when I used a great artist to create a great work of art in my border town.

Perhaps it was just made much harder. Perhaps I am doing something wrong.

[MightyTiny]

Religions are key, if you want to go for a cultural victory, or do a lot of city flipping at your borders - found as many religions you can, spread them to all your cities, and build temples in all your cities. Then, depending on the map size, you'll need X temples of a given religion to be allowed to build one larger religious building (cathedral for Christianity, different names for different religions). These cathedrals then give a great boost to culture in the cities that build them.

Also, build wonders that add to your chances of producing great artists, and/or use artist specialists in a big city with good food production, specializing in generating GP's.

Then there's of course the culture slider, if you think you can afford diverting some of your research funds to producing culture.

[Dis]

I find it difficult to stay out of wars on noble. But perhaps if you give into all their demands. The problems those demands conflict with one another.

You can't be friends with everyone.

[Solver]

Any views on the Civ3 vs Civ4 rate/easy of capture cities through culture flipping? It was so easy in Civ3 but I have only had it happen once in Civ4 so far and that was when I used a great artist to create a great work of art in my border town.

First of all, under the default Civ4 settings, you need to remember that cities can't flip to any previous owner. That is: the Egyptians have a city, you capture it. It will never flip to the Egyptians. If the Indians come and capture it from you, it will never flip to Egyptians or to you.

Also, with enough units, cities can be prevented from flipping. Generally, to flip a city, you need to concentrate on it, it won't just happen. You need religious buildings, particularly a Cathedral-class building. A less known fact is that religions impact the chance of flipping. If the city has your state religion, it's more likely to flip. If it has the AI's state religion, it's less likely to flip (it it has a religion which is the state religion of you both, it cancels out).

[rls669]

I only play on Noble, so ymmv, but I just won by domination without fighting a single war (always peace NOT enabled). Industrious is a very good trait for this kind of game, build high-culture wonders in border cities, beeline for religious techs and spread multiple religions to all your cities. Even rival capitals will flip or be rendered useless due to loss of land when you've got a border city with 4 or 5 cathedral type buildings sitting next to it. Keep an eye on the power graph and build enough walls and units so the AI will look for easier prey. Any cities that are far enough inside your borders that they're not encroaching on rival borders can be focused on building missionaries, units, weath or research, while border cities can produce culture and build culture enhancing improvements as they become available.