Challenge 1 Walkthrough (16) Diplomatic Victory: Not Losing = Winning

The spirit of a Diplomatic Victory is essentially the art of "not losing". For the vanilla game, the player can easily get the cash required for bribing City States at the last moment and lock them in by declaring war with the major competitors. For the Level 9 MOD, since most of the AIs will be too poor to compete for City States, the players can easily keep their CS allies once they earned the cash the hard way. Himeji castle is one of the best wonders to stay alive.

178. The first Great Person from the City States are a Great Scientist, which can be turned into good use by rushing important military techs.

179. I have had lots of fair trades with Wu Zetian. A few turns ago, she suddenly declared that she is protecting a City State allying with me. The City State is very far away from China and has absolutely nothing to do with her in the next 1000 years.

Now Wu Zetian denounces me! That's just how insane Civ5's AIs are (patch .1.275). It is better to treat them as trancient trading partners than friends to be cherished. They can backstab you at at moment.

180. The Workers finished another long stretch of trans-Persia road, this time extending the traffic from Persian's capital to all former Spanish cities. Great I am actually earning a small profit of 20 gold/turn (86-66) from the trade routes!

181. Since Egypt isn't really a tough target, I only sent about 60% of my army west, and leave 40% in Vienna to defend. Alexander's army keeps appearing. But they stand no chance against a well-formed line of defense.

182. Another new unit from Edinburgh. This time a Cavalry! Not bad. And I am now ready to take on Egypt's large medieval army. It will be a massacre.

183. Right after declaring war to Ramey, Elizabeth denounced me. While this is not surprising, I noticed a strange trend in this game. Those who attacked by me did not denounce me, and thouse all but one (Alex) of those who denounced me did not attack me. And I was attacked almost exclusively by those who are apprantly friendly to me.

So I guess I should be happy about England's denouncement, since now Elizabeth has a lower chance to declare war on me. (Speechless.)

184. Free Artillery from Hanoi! Just in time to take out some annoying Greek scouting ships in the Persian Gulf. While I build/bought all of my starting melees, most of my ranged units and all of my cavalry units are given by military City States. I guess this would be a good strategy of this MOD to stay floating among AI's sea of units.

185. Heliopolis falls! The Himeji castle has fallen into Persia's hand! But I have no interest of wiping Egypt off the map and face Ottoman's full strength. Maybe killing off Ramey's army to gain some more experiences...

188. Alexander's ships are worrisome. Is there going to be a powerful invasion across the narrow Persian Gulf? One Greek Cavalry actually landed on the shore later (but I already had two Artilleries nearby).

189. Thanks to the Great Scientist given by City States, I was able to rush Replacable Parts. Now my Rifleman army will be upgraded to Infantry.

190. Killed all but 1 Egyptian unit (which is stationed in Ramey's last city) and signed the peace treaty. Ramey survived the second Persian invasion only because Darius wants him to live.

192. Alexander's military power soon became the strongest in the world. Infoaddict reaveled why - Alexander's production is insanely high! Greek alone can produce as many units combined from Ottoman, Arabia, and Persia, the other three strongest Civ in the world. Alexander can make 3 Artilleries every turn! So if I can't kill Greek units faster than that, I am only helping Alex to get rid off his older units so he can build the current version fresh from his cities.

193. And the AIs' finance, except for Russia and Ottoman, still looks pretty healthy. My biggest worry is of course Alexander, who runs on a profit even with the greatest army in the world. When will Darius' nemesis launch the next wave of attack?

Very soon.