Is a non-military win possible?

For my first game I did a small 'cakewalk' scenario and quickly had about 30-40% of the galaxy. Lots of research, made good ethical choices, researched all 'influence' items. Build LOTS of embassy and lots of 'Influence Starbases'. I'm trading with 4 races.

The 'Influence Starbases' don't seem to change my influence. And eventually, the YOR come along and clobber me, no matter how much everyone else loves me. I can't ask anyone to attack the YOR, because they are not listed on the 'ATTACK' list of races (why not?). It looks like even if you stack the deck incredibly in your favor, you've got to have guns and butter and might as well not even bother with embassies. Embassies don't really seem to help (much like 'Influence Starbases').

Also, since I"m so great and everyone loves me, why doesn't anyone join my civilization? Or why can't I make a treaty offer for them to join me?

Any comments welcome.

-MB

PS: I'm probably about 5 hours into this 'learning' scenario. Geez, this is a LONG game.

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I flip planets with culture all the time. Sometimes to get it going attack and take over a couple planets of nearby civs and the cascade effect of your culture will start to really sweep across the galaxy.

For an alliance you have to research the technology for Alliances and the AI must also have that tech. Secondly, you can only sign an alliance if the AI is of "close" relations and you'll have to give a lot of gifts to get that most times.

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TheRealWarpstorm

Join Date 03/2003

+13

You can only win an influence victory if you are at peace. Negotiate a truce with the Yor.

The AI is not likely to attack an enemy much stronger than themselves.

Oh, yeah, look at the VIcotry Screen to see how close you are to each victory condition.

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Did you place the Influence Starbases on your borders? Influence Bases in the middle of your Empire won't affect anything but the United Planets because their radius (click the base to see it) doesn't touch another race's planet.

Did you upgrade the Influence Starbases with new modules from more constructors? Unupgraded Influences Bases provide little if any bonus.

Also, Yor have a +100% bonus to Planetary Loyalty. Not a good race to be influencing.

I've won 2 Influence, 1 Military, and 1 Tech victory so far.

Influence- Built Influence Starbases on your borders, keep a medium military to defend yourself while you get free planets. Get good relations with everybody if possible so they don't attack you while you're assimilating their empires.

Tech- Turtle up, research. Get good relations so that when your military lags due to the Tech Victory tree being so long you aren't invaded.

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I have only won by means of a diplomatic victory, 4 times in fact. Given a strong fleet of ships is really important, and I had more then a few wars on my hands, but in the end it was faster to make friends with those that were left, then kill them all. Thought I think I could have taken 'em all, it would have taken another 4-6 hours...

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Yep. I've had all 4 types of victory at least once. Sometimes I think military is the most satisfying to me. Culture on a gigantic map seems a pain.

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I placed the Influence Starbases in the other Civ's star systems. Dumb idea? Or good idea? I figured I had all the influence I needed in my system. I can see where maybe it doesn't work like that? You have to start in a system and them push the borders out?

I'm surprised attacking a few planets makes your culture 'sweep thru the galaxy'. But then I guess I'm still playing 'Ascendancy' ! (That's the only other 'build an empire game I ever played!).

Also....I never see an option to upgrade the Starbases. I'll have to read up on how to do that.

Thanks for the help...

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To upgrade, you need to send in another constructor. You can make some killer influence bases by just adding and adding.

My first game (begginer) was won by influence victory. I wasn't even trying, seemed so simple. My third game is on chalenging, and my influence is crushing. With so many difficulty levels that are not described in the manual, I wonder when I will hit the one that actually uses the AI effectively without cheating.

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To upgrade a starbase, send another constructor to it.... many ways to upgrade it, but all done via constructor.

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