Simone Lawson
Diplomacy in Civilization V is a complex system that allows players to interact and form relationships with other in-game entities, including civilizations and city-states. The world is vast and filled with cunning leaders, each with their unique personalities and goals. Through diplomacy, players can achieve a lot: they can trade for profit, form alliances, create defensive and offensive pacts, advance technology, and even achieve a diplomatic victory. To navigate this intricate landscape, players must understand the different approaches civilizations can take, ranging from neutral and friendly to deceptive and hostile. Additionally, players can utilise the diplomacy tab to gauge their standing with known civilizations, with colours indicating the strength of modifiers affecting their relationships.
Characteristics and Values of Diplomacy in Civ 5
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Making relations with other game entities | Trade for profit, gain allies, create defensive and offensive pacts, advance technology through research ventures, end wars, bluff or bully |
| Relationship levels | Bright green (strong positive modifier), light green (weak positive modifier), bright red (strong negative modifier), light red (weak negative modifier) |
| Approach | Neutral, Friendly, Afraid, Guarded, Deceptive, Hostile, War |
| Opinion Ratings | Ally, Friend, Favorable, Neutral, Competitor, Enemy, Unforgivable |
| Positive actions | Restore their civilization, liberate their capital, make a public declaration of friendship, have the same ideology, denounce the same leaders, build an archeological site on their territory, liberate their non-capital cities, vote for them to become host of the World Congress, support their proposal to the World Congress, make a declaration of friendship with the same leaders, fight a common enemy |
| Negative actions | Declare war on a friend, denounce a leader you made a friendship with, steal their land, have a different ideology |
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What You'll Learn
Making friends and avoiding war
Diplomacy is an important aspect of Civilization V, allowing players to interact with other civilizations and form relationships. The relationships can vary, with some civilizations being honest and peaceful, while others may be deceptive and warlike.
To make friends and avoid war in Civ 5, there are several strategies you can employ:
- Maintain a Reasonably Strong Military: A weak military makes you an easy target for aggressive civilizations. While building a massive army may not be necessary, ensuring your military strength is at least comparable to that of your neighbours can deter potential attackers.
- Bribe Civilizations to Fight Each Other: Instead of engaging in direct conflict, you can try to divert their attention elsewhere. Identify civilizations that dislike each other and bribe them into declaring war on each other. This strategy can help you avoid direct conflict while weakening your competitors.
- Avoid Friendship Declarations: While it may seem counterintuitive, declaring friendship with one civilization can anger others, especially if they are rivals. Adopting a neutral stance and avoiding alliances can help you avoid becoming a target for rival factions.
- Trade and Diplomacy: Diplomacy is not just about war and peace; it's also about trade and profit. You can trade excess production with other civilizations to make a profit and improve relations. However, avoid massive trades with competitive civilizations, as it may give them an advantage over you.
- Understand Relationship Levels: In Civ 5, civilizations can have different relationship levels towards you, such as Neutral, Friendly, Hostile, or Deceptive. Understanding these levels can help you navigate your interactions. For example, a Neutral civilization will tend to ignore you unless you do something to catch their attention.
- Pay Attention to Wonders and Social Policies: Wonders and Social Policies can give you insight into the direction and intentions of other civilizations. This information can help you predict potential conflicts and make informed decisions about your diplomatic relationships.
Remember that diplomacy in Civ 5 is a complex and dynamic aspect of the game. Each civilization has its own agenda, and their relationships with you can change over time. Stay vigilant, adapt your strategies, and always be prepared for unexpected turns in your quest to make friends and avoid war.
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Trading and trade routes
Trading and establishing trade routes are essential aspects of diplomacy in Civ 5. Trade routes are links formed between a civilization's cities and its capital, which traders use to conduct their trading. These routes can be established via land, using roads or railroads, or via sea, using harbors.
To open a trade route with a city, the necessary infrastructure (roads, railroads, or harbors) must be in place at the start of your turn. Trade routes can be formed even if the connection is not direct. For instance, if the capital is connected to City A via a harbor, and City A is connected to City B using roads, then both cities are connected to the capital. As long as there is a transport chain ending in the capital, a functional trade route is established.
International Trade Routes, introduced in the Brave New World expansion pack, allow for long-term trading connections with other civilizations or City-States. These routes are primarily supported by the state and are established and controlled by the player. They are crucial for the gold income of your empire, especially since gold production from terrain is significantly reduced in Brave New World.
When trading, it is important to remember that both parties will benefit, so trading with your main rival may not be advisable. Trading involves monetary gain and the exchange of influences, such as culture, science, and religion. The gold output of a trade route is determined by factors such as the population of the origin and destination cities and the diversity of resources available.
In addition to establishing trade routes, trading can also involve making deals with other civilizations. It is generally beneficial to help them when possible, give their proposals a vote, and avoid proposing things that will anger certain civs in the World Congress.
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Creating defensive and offensive pacts
Diplomacy in Civilization V is the art of making relations with other game entities. The world is huge and filled with other civilizations whose leaders are at least as cunning and determined as you are. Some are honest, and others are liars; some are warlike, and others prefer peace. But all want to win.
You can accomplish a lot through diplomacy. You can create defensive and offensive pacts, advance your technology through cooperative research ventures, end wars that are going badly for you, and more.
Defensive pacts are agreements between you and another civilization or city-state. When one of you gets a war declared on them, the other automatically becomes their ally. However, if either of you declares war on anyone else, the pact is cancelled. It is important to note that defensive pacts can be tricky and should only be made when you are certain your friends will not attack each other or when you are positive that a civilization is going to attack you soon. Additionally, certain high-level actions, such as signing treaties, will only become possible after certain technologies have been researched. For example, in Gods & Kings, most treaties (except a Declaration of Friendship) may only be signed after establishing Embassies in each other's capitals.
Offensive pacts are when you and your ally declare war on another civilization or city-state together. This can be done by having a defensive pact and having one of you get declared war on by the civilization or city-state that you want to attack together. Alternatively, you can achieve this by having a strong relationship with your ally and asking them to join you in the war.
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Ending wars
To end a war, you can offer peace treaties, which may be more or less favourable depending on who is winning and by how much. The worse the situation, the more the losing side will be willing to offer or demand to end the war. Cities are often part of peace negotiations, and a civilization is most likely to be willing to part with them at this point. Once a Peace Treaty is signed, all units are expelled from the other civilization's territory (unless an Open Borders agreement is in place), and any traded cities become part of their new owner's territory. The treaty lasts for 10 turns, during which war cannot be declared between the two sides.
To avoid war altogether, it's important to maintain good relations and accrue positive modifiers. Trade is a key way to achieve this, and it can also be beneficial to help other civilizations when possible, such as by giving their proposals a vote in the World Congress. However, it's wise to avoid massive trades with competitive Civs, as this could push them further ahead. It's also important to be wary of signing Defensive Pacts, as they can have massive ramifications if one of your allies attacks a civilization with which you have a pact. This would automatically drag you into a war and result in significant diplomatic penalties.
Another way to end wars and maintain peace is to achieve a diplomatic victory. This requires gathering enough support through votes in the United Nations, which is built after the World Congress. Having spies can be beneficial for rigging City-State elections and increasing your influence. Adopting the Freedom Ideology can also encourage more advanced relations with City-States and increase your influence. Additionally, founding a religion can play a role in securing more allies, as City-States following the same religion lose influence 25% slower.
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Bluffing and bullying
Bluffing
Bluffing can be a useful tool to get your way without resorting to violence. For example, if you notice that another civilisation is stealing a lot of tech, you can ask them to stop spying on you. However, this will require military strength, and even then, it may not be enough if they call your bluff. Additionally, while this can sometimes be effective, the other civilisation will not like that you've made this demand, which may harm your relations.
Bullying
Bullying can be used to intimidate weaker civilisations and get what you want. If you have a massive military and have been on a warpath, or if you've begun to stockpile nukes, other civilisations may become afraid of you. You can use this fear to your advantage by bullying them or making demands. However, keep in mind that doing so will harm your relations.
It's also important to note that bullying a City-State under protection is one of the most common diplomatic incidents in the game. If you are the perpetrator, the civilisation that protects the City-State can choose to forgive you, preserving your relationship with them, or they can demand retribution, damaging your relationship with them but not the City-State.
In conclusion, while bluffing and bullying can be useful tools in diplomacy, they should be used carefully and sparingly, as they can have negative consequences for your relationships with other civilisations.
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Frequently asked questions
Click on the Diplomacy button in the upper right corner of the screen. All civilizations and City-States you know already will appear in the list here. You can initiate contact with each of them at will, simply by clicking on the particular entity.
There are seven approaches that define an AI civilization's diplomatic "stance" towards you or another player: NEUTRAL, FRIENDLY, AFRAID, GUARDED, DECEPTIVE, HOSTILE, and WAR.
You can improve your diplomatic relations by accruing positive modifiers and keeping them active. Some ways to do this include trading, helping them when possible, giving their proposal one vote, and sharing the same ideology.
The WAR approach does not mean you are currently at war. It means that the AI values going to war and is preparing to do so when the time is right. You can also check the Opinion modifiers, which will say "WAR!" if you are at war.
