Influence/revolt

[phlucas]

Has anyone had a foreign colony revolt?

In the minimap, you will find my civilisation (green) on its way to an influence victory. What you do not see is the blue of the humans:



They have absolutely no influence zone under their control, yet no planet is revolting.

I realise that my influence is probably a little bit under the revolt threshold (four times native influence), but what is the use of the revolution rule when it is easier to get to an influence victory than to get a planet to revolt?

[bovine cannibal]

Yes. I have had a foreign colony revolt. In one game, I focused three influence starbases around a planet I called New Paris. There were two foreign planets in the same system. However, these never flipped, despite the huge influence ratio in my favor. However, this dramatically increased my empire influence, and wiped out some of their other planets in a different sector, to my surprise. I didn't see exactly why this happened, so I can only guess. The AI may have had time to build up culture defenses in that same sector (morale, since influence was in my favor), but did not have time to compensate for my imperial influence. It is true, however, that on this small map, the influence victory came before the revolt of those two planets.

Regards to revolution and its uses. Perhaps it would be easier if they reinstuted the destabilization spying feature that didn't make it to the gold version.

If you can't get foreign colonies to revolt no matter what, try some of the following, focusing primarily on lowering morale through economic pressure:

1). Get them fighting, you or anyone else. The key is to force them to divert resources to a war effort and hopefull raise taxes or go into debt.
2). If you're at peace, sell them something for most of their money. Lower their available funds.
3). Terminate your own trade routes with that civilization or raid all their trade routes.
4). Take out any morale bonuses of theirs you can. If they've got a galactic wonder, invade that planet. Go for a morale starbase.
5). Spy. It won't help directly, but it will let you know who is most vulnerable.

It would be great to hear which of these suggestions, if any, helped you.

[phlucas]

I have started a new game on a large map, so that it should last for a while longer. Currently I'm again spamming embassies and influence starbases all over.

2). If you're at peace, sell them something for most of their money. Lower their available funds.
3). Terminate your own trade routes with that civilization or raid all their trade routes.

That will be my strategy. I prefer not to take militaristic actions. Let's see how it turns out...

[Peets]

I have noticed that on tiny, small and medium maps it's much harder to cause a revolt. Also check out what they have build in their world. Who knows they have build tons of influence and happy buildings which will decraise the chance of flipping.

[Gufnork]

I've had a game on a huge or gigantic map where I think I flipped about 15-20 planets. In almost every game I flip atleast one planet, since I tend to leave gaps in my territory during the colonization phase. Always colonize as far away as you can, then fill up from outside and in. If there's three habitable planets in a system, or one large and one small, then leave one planet for now. This usually leads to the AI beating you to a few planets deep within your territory that will eventually flip to your side.

A word of caution though, this does make them rather unhappy with you, since they see you threatening their planets.