Emperor? Winnable as a peacenik?

[Crossfire]

I don't really play Civ to fight wars so I usually strive to achieve victory thru peaceful means. I am winning pretty consistently on Monarch and was wondering if it is possible to win the same way on Emperor or do you really need to warmonger?

Also, does anyone have any tips for making the transition any easier? Thanks.

[johnmcd]

I've done cultural wins on Emperor and space wins. You've always got have a massive army though, especially on aggressive AI.

I'd be impressed if you got through without any wars too, not necessarily wars you've started of course.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by johnmcd
I've done cultural wins on Emperor and space wins. You've always got have a massive army though, especially on aggressive AI.

I'd be impressed if you got through without any wars too, not necessarily wars you've started of course.

The old Civ 2 idea was to win while maintaining a spotless reputation. This meant you couldn't start a war, but you could provoke the AI into starting one.

Presumably, you wouldn't start a war if your playing an OCC.

RJM

[Pinchak]

Yes it can be done... both cultural and political victorys.

Of course even when I do get these victorys, I still wage very early war to get a free worker, then make peace. The free worker is critical to balance things out on harder levels.

[Crossfire]

Presumably I will be at war at some point even if it is only to fight a religious war overseas in the second half of the game. And comparable might is always the best way to stay out of the AI's sights in the first place.

I started a game as William and got the Oracle, GL and Parthenon but was starting to fall behind in most other respects. My empire was probably too small at 10 cities or so and I might start over where I am not quite so boxed in at so early a point in the game. Peter is on the other continent and huge and quite far ahead with lots more land to develop yet so I think this try is a loss. Maybe the next one will go better. I might try Liz instead.

[Fleme]

Haven't tried politically, but I did win Deity (my first and so far only Deity game) through a Cultural victory (though I could've won that game through conquest as well, in retrospect)

I haven't been able to win a diplo victory on monarch or above but I have been able to win through space race, and that one Cultural victory.

I wouldn't give up with 10 cities especially if you're Willem. He gains power later on and it's never a bad idea to play games that seem to be lost, since those are the ones that you actually learn something from. Since you're losing you might as well give a go to some of the strategies you have in your mind and try a different approach and you just might end up on top. It's not unheard of to defeat the "superpower" (here, Peter) by peaceful means or by uniting everyone else against him.

[Pinchak]

Too small at 10 cities? You must be one of those freaks who plays huge maps. <-- j/k

I start to get a micromanagement headache around 10 cities... hence i either go standard or large with lots of civs (18 on large).

[Crossfire]

It's a large map with only 8 civs. Maybe I should up the number of civs to 10 or 12 so that I have more to play off each other.

I usually win a space race but do cultural victories sometimes. I honestly haven't ever tried for a diplo victory but I should. I occasionally take everyone else on and win a domination victory too but I find the war weariness problems wearying.

[Pinchak]

Remeber though... more civs makes cultural and diplo victorys harder to achive.

Cultural becomes harder because there is an increased chance that an opposing civ will start with stone or marble within their capital. Also, unless you hand pick your opponents, there is an increased chance that you will have to compete with industral and/or creative civs.

Diplomatic becomes harder because the relations get overly complex. Simply trading with one civ could piss off several civs for instance. Religion becomes more of an issue as well. It is also harder to project which civs are going to prosper and which will crash and burn, hence making it harder to figure out who to suck up to and who to disregard. Lastly, with more civs there is a greater chance another civ will build the diplo buildings before you do.

Oddly enough, and counter to initial logic, more civs tends to make warmongering easier. Fresh meat all around you means lots of money to pillage and resourse rich capitals all around. The crowded playing field also means he who expands by might first instantly has more cities, since vacent land tends to vanish very quickly. Lastly, the free workers/settlers the AI has tend to not have as big of a long term impact, since civs will quickly reach their "ceiling" in terms of non-combative expansion (also makes it easier for you to grab an unguarded worker thus evening the odds early on).

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers

The old Civ 2 idea was to win while maintaining a spotless reputation. This meant you couldn't start a war, but you could provoke the AI into starting one.

Presumably, you wouldn't start a war if your playing an OCC.

RJM

OCC wars can actually be very useful, you've got to judge it right, but if you can make a neighbour a vassal it sorts out all those problems about not having enough resources or big enough army.

I think my most successful OCC game I ended up with three vassals, give them enough tech, direct their attacks and you can start to steam roller other civs by proxy.

I don't play OCC at high levels!

[Hauptman]

I played one (just happened one time) emporer occ, on a pangea map even, where i had ZERO wars the whole game. Montezuma was even close by. But that happened only that one time... heh

[Crossfire]

Lucky mother!

I end up surrounded by Monty, Hannibal, Brennus and Napolean.

[inca911]

You can definitely win peacefully on Emperor. Probably the easiest way to start is an Islands, many tiny islands map. You don't need to drag your economy down for defensive units early on, and you can set up trade routes using one workboat saling along the coast. It's easier to repel an invasion if you circumnavigate with that workboat (give you navy a +1 movement edge) and keep a reasonable naval presence to repel invaders. I don't mind changing my religion to avoid a war, or to take sides with an existing war. A multi-civ pangaea is a much different game.

[realpolitic]

I've won a Cultural Victory at Immortal, however, early in the game "life is cheap", when there is not excessive city maintenece costs, or need for a huge army to take cities, I was aggressive.