Pacifist conquest strategies

from Stardock Forums
Ever feel guilty about exterminating planetary populations when invading enemy territory?
Over my last three or four games I've been developing a code of honour that goes way beyond the 'good' described in the game.
Having selected the Pacifist Party, I thought it would be interesting to actually play as a pacifist. My pacifistic rules are:
Never attack an enemy ship
Never attack an enemy planet
Never build a combat ship (scouts, constructors, etc. are fine)
Never go to war if you can help it (for example, if someone demands a culture bomb station off you, you must agree)
Advanced pacifists can adopt further rules, such as never bribing anyone to attack anyone else.

I thought this might make the game a bit more challenging at Crippling difficulty, but in fact it turned out to be surprisingly easy. Not building combat ships (and not researching combat technologies) frees up a lot of resources, enough so that I could afford to hand out gifts to my rivals, to keep them from attacking me. Then it was just a question of building lots of influence boosting Wonders, and taking control of all the influence resources (buying them or waiting until they got destroyed in war). After that, cultural victory was inevitable.
So having got the hang of that, today I tried a Masochistic game (first time in ages, I always got trounced before), in a large galaxy, and I won. The two most powerful empires were Torians and Altarians (standard alignments) and they were both being aggressive towards me, so I bribed one to attack the other (naughty). This bought me enough time to get on their good side by colonising planets until my alignment was 100, and as the war between them continued for about a hundred turns I grew richer and took control of all the influence resources. It took me a while, but I won without breaking any of the rules.
I think GalCiv is still fun, even without combat, and I don't have to worry about abusing the fleet-defence bug as long as I play this way.

:SURPRISED:

~SDC~
3,780 views 25 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I think GalCiv is still fun, even without combat, and I don't have to worry about abusing the fleet-defence bug as long as I play this way
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I agree. I build warships for deterence and to protect me from sharks and pirates. Avoiding high starship maintenance boots economy. Plus, it is fun to culture flip opponents. Sometimes near the end, invading helps speed the game. Sometime, I am not number one and don't have a good navy. Then sometimes they get a big economy, 100 billion citizens per star all decked out with the defense techs, and it is really hard to take the planet with battle transports. Then it is party palace time. I can barely win on tough & painful so congrats on winning this way on crip & maso. :D

Rick
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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I've played a fair number of maso games generally that way (though not as strictly pacifistic as you). It's a waste to build a military on maso unless you're about to use it, since the AI will always be more powerful than you and will threaten you anyway. So I just end up going without ships until I'm ready to attack, and sometimes I end up never being ready to attack and just take the cultural route instead.

Congrats on the win! Don't feel bad about bribing the AIs to go to war with each other. I've never beaten maso without doing that, except on tiny maps.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Bribing AI to war is almost a must-do strat for Maso. Maso AIs need an outlet for all those pent-up massive military forces. It's either you or the others. :D

Congrats on the maso win, Matthew! :CONGRAT:
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree that a mostly-pacific strat works best on maso (I just can't help rushing a minor from time to time, but survey ship + 1 transport are enough for that).
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Vincible and Ray,
Ive looked at your games submissions and almost all of them are military victories but you guys keep talking about culture bombing. So, how do you get a military victory when your culture bombing?

The times that Ive done some culture bombing, nothing happens for a while and then all of a sudden all the planets will start flipping. I dont think I could stop the domino if I tried. Short of maybe destroying my own starbases.

thanks for your help

P.S. If you were wondering why ive only submitted 2 games its because I currently have no internet access. It also takes me forever to finish one these things!!!! I guess I micro too much. I get to attached too my ships and planets since I rename them all :).
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Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Ray and I are actively seeking out military victories because they score much higher in the Metaverse. Many of our victories (well, mine anyway) would have been cultural victories if we had not actively tried to prevent it. You'll find that most of the top-ranked players do this.

You get a military victory if you flip all your opponents' planets. So the question is how to do this without first getting a cultural victory. There are two ways.

One is that you cannot achieve a cultural victory while at war with another civ. So if you're in danger of getting a cultural victory, declare war.

The other is that you can just turn off the "cultural" victory condition.
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Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
vincible said it.

I guess I micro too much. I get to attached too my ships and planets since I rename them all
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even the constructors? LOL
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
even the constructors?
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LOL! NOOOO! "Im a Builder 1", "Im a Builder 2", "Build Crap for Fun 467". I get sick and tired of telling these guys were to go. Especially late game. By then I end up having a lot of my planets build nothing cause Im sick of ferrying these guys around. Me thinks we need a higher level constructor in late game that can build like 5 modules at once but have the price tag to compensate.

Naaa. Its the military ships I get attached too LOL . I have trouble decommissioning a starfighter. I mean, it took me several wars to get old HORNET up to level 4 in the first place!! And he was built at Minas Tirnith after all! ;)
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Minas Tirith?


Gondor! Gondor, between the Mountains and the Sea!
West Wind blew there; the light upon the Silver Tree
Fell like bright rain in gardens of the Kings of old.
O proud walls! White towers! O winged crown and throne of gold!
O Gondor, Gondor! Shall Men behold the Silver Tree,
Or West Wind blow again between the Mountains and the Sea?
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What's a LOTR fan not doing in the Fellowship?
Join us, WileyCoyote! :D

Frankly, didn't really know much about Minas Tirith but it really sounded familiar so I looked it up.
_____

Constructors really add a lot of micromanagement. I used to build lots of production SBs everywhere but decided to limit myself to speed up the game.

The advanced constructor is a potential new feature in the future. It is said that more powerful SB upgrades may require such a constructor to build.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
The worst thing ever was when I went for a Undead theme and called all my battle hammers "Igor" on a huge map. Never do this.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Why? :D

Did you have a hundred Igors running around?
Or did you have problems differentiating between Igors?
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Frankly, didn't really know much about Minas Tirith
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This from the Emperor. *sigh* Remedial education in basic history is obviously required. Too much time battling in the Meta, not enough time in front of books. ;)
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Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
What's a LOTR fan not doing in the Fellowship? Join us, WileyCoyote! Frankly, didn't really know much about Minas Tirith but it really sounded familiar so I looked it up.
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LOL! Too funny. Yep, big LOTR or any fantasy/sci-fi world fan to be honest. Yeppers, Im a dreamer ;) .

Anyway, I dont have my books in front of me (being at work and all (:( ) and Im not to good at names but...
There were two towers or fortresses built by Gondor after the last defeat of Mordor. I believe their names were Minas Tirnith (note the 'n') and Minas Morgul. My spelling could be way off but oh well. One of these towers, Minas Tirnith, was just across the river from Gondor. The other, Morgul, was deeper into Mordor territory. They were meant as forward bases and watch towers. At the time of ROTK, Morgul was contolled by Mordor and I believe Tirnith was in ruins (dont quote me on that though). Still, in my games I tend to name my forward most 'military' systems (where i build shipyards and such) as Minas Tirnith and Minas Morgul.

In my current game, they are my 3rd and 4th best systems behind Sol and Moria LOL . They are also right at the front lines of my battle with the Altarians and the "arcean now altarians". I tend to play the 1 on 5 or 2 on 4 strategy. Me evil, them all good. I like winning against seemingly insurmountable odds :HOT: . Currently all AI's are bright but it was too easy. Torians are dead, Arceans surrendered, Altarians dieing, Yor scared crapless, Drengins my evil buds. Take me several days to mope it up (im slow) and then I will go to 2 on 4 intelligent and see how that goes.


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Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
There were two towers or fortresses built by Gondor after the last defeat of Mordor. I believe their names were Minas Tirnith (note the 'n') and Minas Morgul.
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It was originally Minas Ithil (Tower of the Moon). After it was captured by the Nazgul, it was renamed to Minas Morgul (Tower of Black Sorcery). Minas Tirith was originally Minas Anor, but was renamed after Minas Ithil was captured. (Minas Tirith is "Tower of the Guard"). They were both secondary cities to Osgiliath, Gondor's capital, which was ruined by the beginning of the Third Age. After Osgiliath was deserted, power shifted to Minas Tirith.

Yes I'm a geek :)
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Ray,
I was looking into HOW you join an empire and accidently joined yours. I hope you dont mind! If you do, just kick me out. No hard feelings. I do, however, plan on progressing on up to masochistic in the near future and so that should help to fulfill your ambition of having the most active masochistic players. Im one of those geeks who could successfully play Axes and Allies by himself. Call it, split personality LOL. The harder the better IMHO. It takes me forever to finish one of these games though and my wife is delivering our 2nd child tommorow so it could be a while.

later,
joe

P.S. I also have several scores that have not been submitted due to a move and no internet access. Hope to have them up soon. Looks pathetic with just those 2 at present.
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Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Joe,

Why on earth will I kick you out when I invited you to join earlier? :) Welcome to the Fellowship, Joe! And congrats on the new addition to your family! :CONGRAT:

Yes, the Fellowship does currently have the most maso players but we also have lots of players who enjoy different challenges. My advice is to play at the level where you feel challenged and are having fun whenever possible.

Don't worry excessively about score. Honest to truth, you would be welcome to the Fellowship even if you do not post any games. We welcome your participation and interactions with us. :)
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
By the way, check out the Fellowship thread on the Galactic Forum. There's strategy, game mechanics discussion, Metaverse gossip, and more!
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
1473 posts might seem overwhelming so maybe you can start from the back. :)
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Matthew - I found the notion of pacifism very interesting; I don't really enjoy managing large fleets and war economies either. Can you expand upon your initial choices (obviously pac govt, but what about ten point spread?). Are you focused on diplo? How do you go when faced with the inevitable pure good pacifist vs the Drengins late game who want to kick ass regardless of what you give them? Or the Dread Lords? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
The essential thing is a high diplomacy. Diplomacy makes your bribes more effective in improving relations.

The other essential thing is to bribe all the AIs into war with each other. Since they're fighting each other, they can't trade with each other, which means all their trade goes to you, which makes you exceedingly rich and also means that they all become your friends because they depend on you for income. It's really overpowered imo. Late game, if you do it right, you never have to give bribes and you'll generally be at least neutral with everyone because of all the trade.
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Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
vincible - thanks! To clarify, do you bribe a civ to war against EVERY other civ, or just one? I have taken the path of eg targetting the largest/most powerful civ, and convincing the others to ALL attack that one. Are you saying that I should try to get each civ to attack every other one?
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
It essential to your survival to have the AIs busy destroying each other instead of you. I make sure that every single Major AI is constantly at war (if I can help it). They don't have to be at war with multiple AIs, but just at war with SOMEONE (not me). ;)
Be careful pitting weak AIs against a strong AI, as they can be easily defeated and absorbed into the major AI, making them even stronger (Doh!).

When trading, don't forget the value of Influence Points. They can give you that extra edge at UP meetings.

Hope that helps.

~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
do you bribe a civ to war against EVERY other civ, or just one?
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They should be at war against every other civ if possible, including minors, so they can only trade with you. Once their trade routes are set, it's enough that they only fight one or two opponents.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks Lothmorg and LDiCesare - I'll go back to the drawing board and experiment with that one. :)