Nice Guy Strategies

[sir_schwick]

I had a game as Zhakharov where there was relatively peaceful development up till about 30 years past needlejets. Aside from minor border wars(I never was the belligerent), I played as a good trader, etc. Managed to pact with No. 3 and 4 and got elected as Supreme Leader. However the Hive and its Spartan submissive refused to play along. Only time I have ever had a serious war of succession based upon a diplomatic victory.

[Ironwood]

I was thinking about it, and I realized that, despite the fact that Miriam doesn't really mind Knowledge, and Zhakarov doesn't mind Fundamentalism, their aversions still set the two up for an almost unavoidable rivalry.

With Miriam, while Lal and Yang have the conflicting agendas, they are both capable, if they choose to do so (and Lal often does) of taking fundamentalism. Miriam can take either democracy or police state. So, though relations between them are hardly ideal, a non-University player that wants to placate her is capable of running fundamentalism.

Likewise with Zhakarov. Though his agenda conflicts with Santiago's, both are capable of submitting to the other's agenda.

However, Zhakarov can't run fundamentalism, which means he's likely running democracy or police state, which means Miriam will always hate him. The best he can do in her eyes is run a simple government. Miriam, likewise, is forced to run Power or Wealth, causing Zhakarov to hate her. Neither can ever attempt to curry favor by submitting to the other's agenda.

Thus, the aversions do not make an AI hate anyone who uses that SE choice. It isn't that Miriam hates knowledge, it's that she cannot pursue it, and thus Zhakrov will never love her. Likewise with Zhakarov and Fundamentalism: Yang, Lal, Morgan, Diedre, and Santiago can do all the fundamentalism they want. They can hold great big militant revival parties, and Zhakarov will never bat an eye... so long as they pursue Knowledge while they do it. However, he cannot run fundamentalism, thus Miriam will never love him.

[CEO Aaron]

Yeah, the Zak/Miriam opposition keeps them foes, but my point was that you can stay friendly with them both if you run the right SE choices and don't take sides in their quarrels. The same cannot be said of the other classic rivalries. You can't stay friends with both Lal and Yang, you can't stay friends with both Dee and Morgan, and let's face it, no one is crazy enough to run power to stay friendly with Santiago. Well, maybe once you get the cloning vats, I guess.

[McLaine]

Whe playing traditional AC, I usually go for democracy/green/scientific. This of course makes Myriam and Yang my foes and later on (once I switch to science) also Santiago. I can solve the latter by playing the Spartans myself, but still end up either eradicating Yang and Myriam or beating them into servitude.

Once this done, I can grow usually peacefully until I reach Transcendence.

A possible exception is Morgan - sometimes I have to go to war with him too.

I have yet to accomplish a fully peaceful life in AC. But I guess I'm not th

[McLaine]

I have won a couple of times a game with Transcendence (AC classic, I am trying at this very moment with Alien Crossfire).

I usually play the Spartans - this takes out a violent faction and I can go for democracy/science/green.
This puts me in line with the University and Deirdre but inevitably takes me to war with Yang and Myriam and sometimes Morgan at the end.

I expand very rapidly and to sea as soon as I can. Seabases are really good if you develop the ocean shelves with sea formers and are more easy to defend against agression. I always try to get to the Manifold Nexus if possible, that gives an extra point towards planet and mind worm capture.

I usually buy my peace until I have a clear lead in the nr of bases, then start to develop the military (it helps that the Spartans don't have to pay for prototypes).

The first war - Yang or Myriam - usually kicks in before I have airpower, so I fight it using ground troops and captured mind worm boils (green).

Once I have airpower, I just set all my bases to produce attack planes (given you have expanded enough and developed your bases with formers the fact that the Spartans suffer a bit from -1 industry doesn't matter much.

By then, the second war erupts (either Yang or Myriam) which I win using the air power. From there on, the road is pretty peaceful.

I also try to go for the Virtual world (to avoid drones), the Hunter-seeker algo (drones) and basically all sort of secret projects I can build.