How to win diplomatically?

[lawpark]

It doesn't really say in the menu or Civilopedia.

Does the winner need to be someone who build the UN wonder?
Has anyone ever won the game this way? Can a player started a war / back-up on peace treaties etc. and still get this win?

lawpark

[arsvendg]

UN is the word

You don't need to build the UN but you certainly need to win the voting.
A friend of mine built the UN but didn't want to win that way, so he voted for the indian.... and so did the others... smart...

Anyway, UN is the diplomatical way to win civ3. You might call cultural win a cind of diplomatical win too, but I think cultural win is lame.

[Nym]

I already won diplomatically twice, and second time I was at war against Germany and allied with France. AFAIR I was almost unanimously elected (only Germany did not vote at all and Xerxes voted for himself).
I think the best way to win such a game is to keep trading with other civs and so maintain polite relationships (gracious is not necessary).

As arsvendg explained it, someone must build UN and then call for a vote. If you build it, you can control when the vote happens; otherwise... keep attention to your relationships when someone start building it !

[lawpark]

Thanks.

Do nations vote for the nation with the highest culture, highest power or on other criteria?

Or is it something like in SMAC where the biggest nation gets the most vote, so with a good big empire (but not enough to dominate) one doesn't need to behave with much integrity through the game to win the seat?

BTW, how does culture win works-- do the game just tell you at some point that you've already won the game as you achieved this X-level of culture?

[arsvendg]

I don't know what they vote for, I think it's based on how good a relationship you have with them and how allmighty you are..
It's probably based on a number of things...

About the cultural win... when I won culturally it suddenly just popped up a window that said that I had won a cultural win... I thought it was so boring I never play with cultural win again.... but that's just me...

[SpencerH]

As others have said, if you build the UN you control the voting (that's good). If you decide to opt for a diplomatic victory and allow a vote be sure you know who will vote for you, I've been surprised a couple of times by votes from civs I thought were allies, but who voted for the other guy.