Do your ethics = denied victory?

[Chronus]

Happy holidays!

I just finished a game the other day wherein I had a chance to win a total conquest victory. I was the largest civ and the only one with modern armor. My closest competitor was several techs away from getting these handy units.

As I was capturing and/or razing cities, I was

a) a little bored
b) (and even more importantly) rather bothered at attacking and pillaging my enemies.

In the end, I made peace, went back to Democracy (to quickly gain needed techs), and constructed my space ship to a Space Race victory. Not only was I able to enjoy the game again, I got rid of that *icky* feeling I had while slashing my enemy.

Silly? I suppose most of you may think so. Still, I'm curious if any of you folks ever felt this same way and what your thoughts are on it.

[David Murray]

Sounds like you're not playing a high enough difficulty or your opponents weren't giving you enough stick. At Monarch I find it quite pleasurable to kill everyone simply because they are such conniving swines!

[Switch]

As right as David probably is (revenge is sweet, and all that), I see your point, and would probably agree were I to get into a similar situation.
Question, do you have that same *icky* feeling when you raze a city or capture workers, adding thme to your own cities, and then rushing production? 'Cause I know a few other people have expressed discomfort with those.

[ChaotikVisions]

Yes, I do. I build the UN to control it, on the off chance that some civs might be dumb enough to vote for me. I also nuke and raze liberally any space ship construction. Democracy is of course only a tool for building up to war, my secret police are always waiting in the background to regain their place as my Comrades while we pillage and burn all who oppose us, rushing populations, starving populations, and lots of nuking!

[Zero]

Originally posted by David Murray
Sounds like you're not playing a high enough difficulty or your opponents weren't giving you enough stick. At Monarch I find it quite pleasurable to kill everyone simply because they are such conniving swines!

well of u play well and get to that irreversible point of winning, than maybe you might have change of heart. I rarely finish off my neighbors for some reason if i can afford it.

But conquest is the only satisfying victory for me. I hate domination. its like a loss for me so i turn it off (kinda like "you werent able to conquer in time" for me)

When I go for conquest and decide game should end, usually theres bunch of one city civs and one mediocre civ left over by that time (since i like to leave civs and not wipe them out until last minute.

[ChaotikVisions]

Heh, I like for nice big strong Empires to emerge then plunging the world into a massive war, watching who comes out ahead. The AI seems rarely able to kill one another alot of times, unless its a totally one sided battle. But i've watched things like the weak French fight off a stronger Spanish for years the war being a virtual stalemate, so some things are interesting.

[Inverse Icarus]

my ethics are based on warmongering, and i turn off those sissy victory conditions

[WarpStorm]

My personal Real Life ethics have nothing to do with a game and have never interfered.

[CerberusIV]

It's a game so the point is to have fun!

I turn the spaceship victory off as I don't believe all that manufacturing effort should be wasted on spaceship parts when you can build MA and stealth bombers.

I regard the game as a crusade to bring everyone into my enlightened civilization so once a war starts I set out to capture all the cities of that AI civ and eliminate it (stops culture flipping back to that civ ). I find that I can quite happily justify mass bombing raids and all the rest of it under these circumstances. I play for domination victory and regard it as satisfying when the rest of the world comes round to my way of thinking and capitulates.

My only restrictions are that I rarely raze captured cities (only the badly placed ones) and I never start a nuclear war.

Basically I play the game that fits in with my ethics and enjoy it.

PS In real life I am nice to children and small furry animals and even help elderly people cross the road sometimes!

[arslankhan]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
PS In real life I am nice to children and small furry animals and even help elderly people cross the road sometimes!

I bet people who instead steal candy from children, eat small furry animals and help elderly people cross the road so they can pick their pockets, are great statesman and diplomats in the game and prefer cultural victories

[Kuciwalker]

NUKE THEM ALL!

[Quasar1011]

My Civ 3 ethics have evolved over time. Whereas a year ago, i would get upset at AI settlers in my territory, now I just chuckle as they wander around aimlessly, or start a city that my culture will capture. When I do capture an AI city, I will starve it down to a city size of 1 or 2, so that when it regrows it has my own citizens. I don't usually start wars, but I do know how to goad the AI into one. I figure if they start it... all's fair in love and war, right?

[tatterdemalion]

Ethics, where'd I put my ethics?

Ethics are great! I love them with Ketsup.

[ceroomaster]

I've got something against enslaving people, captured workers are always sent to my capital ready to be traded when I'm at peace again, captured cities are usually razed unless they are in an extremely useful area (i.e. strategic resources) or have a great wonder in.

My ethics developed as to never declare war, but provoke it if it was needed, (Civ2 did that to me). But now if I need to eliminate those pesky English who dare send Warriors onto my part of the continent and they can't be provoked, I'll declare war.

But they have not cost me a game... yet.

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by ceroomaster
...those pesky English who dare send Warriors onto my part of the continent...

Use to be, that sort of thing would make me upset. But as I have played the game more, I notice that many times, one AI civ will send troops through your territory to reach another AI civ they are at war with. This happens even without a right-of-passage agreement. Quite often I will ignore this, though it does perturb me when they get upset that I have 1 unit in their territory, when they have 6 in mine, and they are the ones demanding I leave. The only trouble with this is that you are prone to sneak attacks. The Babylonians did this to me in my last game. To sum up my ethics in this case: NEVER NEGOTIATE WITH ANY CIV THAT DOES A SNEAK ATTACK ON YOU... WIPE THEM OUT!