Something I Wrote in 1998

[St Leo]

THE ART OF REPUTATION
(C)1998 by St. Leo

I. Introduction

The goal of this text is to inform people of all the ways
to declare war and keeping your reputation spotless.


II. The Best of the Best of the Best

The best way to declare war is to ask another civilization
to do it(Diplomacy Screen). The AI has sources which almost
always lead him to declare war after this persuasion. Often
your co-conspirator will ask for money, so keep some around.
Generally, your allies ask for 50+ gold. On the other hand,
some civs may ask for upwards of 10000+ gold. If you lack
sufficient funds they will taunt you, that's all.

III. Espionage

A less immediate way to declare war is to bribe a couple
of the AI's cities. Others will still hold you in highest
regard, but the victim is somewhat less tolerant. Espionage
is also helpful in representatice governments of scenarios.
If you commit a particularly nasty act, a scandal in senate
will cause a revolution.

IV. Provocation

Demanding tribute or troop withdrawal from your enemy is one
of the best ways to have them declare war on you. Most of the
time the desired outcome will be achieved, othertimes they will
spit in your face or give in to your demands.

V. Lurking in Dangerous Waters

You can talk to civilization who are currently at war with your
victim to have them ask you to declare war. Certain sources tell
me that the damage is smaller if your ally offers you money or
advances in return for the war. But be careful, some of your
"friends" may be at war with your other "friends".

VI. Ohmmmm, ohmmmm! Give me luck, Ares!

Certain religious government, which goes under the name of
Fundamentalism, has very small punishments in terms of
reputation after a betrayal of any form or an extremely
violent act. Some players also play with it due to the
profits and production associated with it.

VII. World Fairs with Big Metal Towers

Building the Eiffel Tower wonder improves your reputation and
makes other civilization love you. Survey the circumstances
as to whether the shield investment is worthwhile.

VIII. Conclusion

This text has shown how to obtain a state of armed conflict easily
and rapidly. Hopefully, you can defeat them before some imbecile
civ builds the Manhattan Project.

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St. Leo
http://www.sidgames.com/hosted/ziggurat/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

The Deity, I don't think you've met, could teach you a thing or two about being a warmonger whilst maintaining an ever spotless reputation.


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Chaos, panic and disorder - My work here is done.

[Xin Yu]

How about revolution, choose Fundi, sneak attack, revolution the same turn, then choose your original government?

[geofelt]

The AI loves to attack defensless settlers. leave one in their territory as bait. Also, fortify a weak military unit near a city. in time, they will be attacked.

[Edward]

If you want to keep your reputation spotless, I suggest St Leo's point IV. Demand tribute and/or troop withdraw every turn.

Point II (getting another AI to fight your target) will sometimes lower your reputation if you had a peace treaty with your target (some % chance).

Point III. Subverting cities is always safe (reputation-wise). I suspect that merely bribing a city gives a chance of taking a reputation hit.

Point V (talking to an enemy of your target and having them ask you to declare war on your target). This will definitely lower your reputation if you had a peace treaty with your target (but not in the eyes of the enemy who "asked" you to declare war.)

[debeest]

Xin Yu, are you saying that there's a way to revolt, change government, and revolt and change back, all in one turn? AFAIK, even if you revolt in an Oedo year, the new government is not established until the turn AFTER the revolt. (Except when you revolt immediately upon learning the government tech in an Oedo year.) Thus, you always have to go through a "build, science, and tax" phase in anarchy. That, to me, is much more important than reputation.

[Xin Yu]

I mean, revolt a turn before oedo year or with SOL, then choose fundi. Under fundi you do a lot of bad things but do not take reputation hit. Then, if on the same turn you revolt again you get to choose another government immediately. You lose a turn of tax/science, but we are talking about reputation here, aren't we?

[debeest]

Yep. I was just hoping that you had discovered a way around the loss of science and taxes. (Hey, you seem to have discovered practically everything else about Civ. )

[Xin Yu]

quote: Originally posted by debeest on 03-27-2001 11:20 PM Yep. I was just hoping that you had discovered a way around the loss of science and taxes. (Hey, you seem to have discovered practically everything else about Civ. )

Actually there may be a way, but I don't remember who posted it first, and I never got a chance to test it.

First, it only works for democracy and republic. Secondly, you need to sacrafice your first city's productivity for two turns, so it works better if you have captured a small foreign city which was found before your first city.

a) Two turns before an oedo year you get some unhappy citizens in your first city so it will revolt the next turn.
b) When it does (1 turn before an oedo year), you don't take care of it.
c) So the next turn (oedo year) your government is overthrown -- you don't lose any tax and science from other cities since your first city gets handled the last. Since it is and oedo year, you get to choose government by the end of the turn.
d) Don't forget to take care of your first city now! Unless, if you have the SOL, then you can do the trick every turn.

Will it work?

There is one situation when you can move to fundy (or whatever gov you have access to), do all your dirty tricks to your opps and move back to your preferred gov - without anarchy, without science & gold losses. This opportinity occurs when you happen to discover a government at oedo year. Let's say you are a demo and discover fundy / commie during oedo year. You revolt when the chance is offered to you in the context of the gov discovery. You can pick 'fundy', mess around freely (sneak-attacking, demanding tribute etc). After that you can choose 'revolution' and the popup of gov selection appears immediately. You just choose demo back (if you still want it) and everything goes on normally.. not a single city revolting. This is nice trick when you want to start a war but your senate is uncooperative..

[debeest]

Xin Yu -- as has been noted before, there is no end to the brilliance and creativity of Civ players. This is a ploy I'll have to try, just for fun. Thanks!

[Edward]

I was under the impression that fundamentalist governments took a smaller reputation hit in certain circumstances (e.g. planting nuclear bombs). Is it true that they sometimes suffer no reputation loss?