Diplomacy- Offensive tactics

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:17 pm

Has anyone methodically used diplomacy as a tool to devestate rivals? I have. In the hardest difficulty settings, I have found it to be the most effective way of getting rid of those massive enemy city states. If I were to go to war, it would wind up with a phyrric victory on my part. However, with a few simple messages to my diplomat, and a bit of gold/copper/silver, their kingdom promptly falls to peices. And then all I have to do is sweep up whats left. I was looking at a Grand campaign map, and I had turned more than a quarter or the map grey, and crippled all the significant states to my west. It was probably the most incredible offensive maneveur I have ever pulled in any game.

I want to be a politician now

ste · Post by **ste** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:10 pm

...i can just see it now... god help us!

joseph_kerr · Post by **joseph_kerr** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 5:59 pm

My favorite diplomatic tool has to be to bribe the egyptian recruiters since the AI keeps so many armies out in the field. I like to hit them three or four times with it and then roll through finishing them off with one good sized army of my own. Also like to use their own diplomacy against them since the AI likes to vassalize countries so much, always good to take one city from a nation that's been vassalized and watch the rest declare independence.

joseph_kerr · Post by **joseph_kerr** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:28 pm

I have a question about how diplomacy works in Gates of Troy. To use the example of the scenario i'm playing right now, say i had a good alliance with the Arcadians while the Arcadians have a good alliance with the Rhodians. Now if i'm attacking the Rhodians will that damage my alliance with the Arcadians?

joseph_kerr · Post by **joseph_kerr** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:48 pm

I have another question about the diplomacy. I have a diplomat with another city and can have an alliance at 81, yet aggression requires 89. What does this mean exactly? Why is the aggression number sometimes higher than the alliance number?

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:07 pm

The agression value is an indicator of how agressive that nation is, & is not linked to your relationship.

honvedseg · Post by **honvedseg** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:11 pm

I found it too easy to rip apart another empire through diplomacy in Spartan, it takes all the challenge out of the game. After the first few times, I stopped using it altogether, except for a few limited trade agreements and basic spying, which don't require a diplomatic building.

I don't have GoT yet, so I haven't seen the vassalization system in action.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:41 pm

Now this is a fascinating thread.

I have always been so conscious of the limited building space in my capital, that I've been very reluctant to use space for diplomatic buildings.

Exactly how did you go about this ripping them apart, and turning the map grey?

I'm not doubting you in the slightest, just wondering how you did it.

I've looked at all the diplomatic options, but never played with them much.

joseph_kerr · Post by **joseph_kerr** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:13 am

Diplomacy can be a very effective tool to smash anyone you think is growing too large but have good enough relations with that they're not constantly ejecting your diplomats. There are a few ways to make their people revolt especially when you go the spy route. You can cause direct rebellion in a city or you can keep encouraging dissent among the people that starts a chain reaction of peasant rebellions.

I also like to use it on my allies when i want to start taking their cities but don't want direct war with them, keep inciting rebellion and then go take the cities from the peasants with no effect on the alliance.

It's very effective but it would be nice if you could have more personal control over which city you're inciting rebellion in.

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 2:16 am

Well, I had some extra space, and built some of the more advanced diplomatic buildings. I then chose the options that said they encouraged dissent- arming rebels was one, and there were several others(I do not remember the exact terms). I tended to choose the most expensive ones, as I had a bit of extra cash, and wanted them to be effective. As this was pretty late in the game, there were several juggernauts when it came to land. After a few orders, their empires were collapsing in on themselves.

joseph_kerr · Post by **joseph_kerr** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:42 pm

Apparently the Embassy route is not to be overlooked either. If a city state is in good standing with other countries, a few accusations of piracy is a good way to make sure you don't damage your relations with them if you attack that city state. I've been wondering about that especially when i noticed i lost all my allies when i attacked one of Crete's cities. So i demolished my Cryptography Center, built an Embassy and accused them of piracy a couple of times before attacking them, this time with none of my relations taking a nosedive.