How to win without a millitary?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Playing against crippling AIs, I have noticed using various start bonuses that it's impossible to win or stay alive without a decent millitary (decent being ~ rating > 70). Yet, on one map, we have the altarians boxed in a corner with only 5 planets and yet for 3 years they aren't warring anybody despite they have the weakest millitary, whereas I with my average army am constantly warred upon by others.

To win, I have to set high econ bonus in combination with high morale. Has anybody won a game on high difficulty without ever going to war once? How?
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You can try bribing the most militarilly powerful race to go to war with ALL the other races, and continue to minipulate it so that they keep themselves weak. I've noticed that they don't like to be at war with more than 3 people at once. Doesn't cost much with +50% diplomacy racial pick. Definately cheaper than going to war yourself.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I can usually keep the oponents from going to war with me by trading heavily with them via trade routes. This doesn't seem to work with the Drengin, if they start next to you, but it seems to work well with every other race. (The Drengin are the only race that has ever declared war on me.)
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Here's a few options

1) Do whatever you can to ally with the people immediately around you, and then ask them to go to war with everyone else. This works especially well if you're all the same alignment. Make sure to keep them at war with everyone else as much as possible, since if one of the other civilizations declares war on your ally you pretty much have to join in (breaking an alliance could very easily get you in a world of hurt later.)

2) Have a very very strong military and people will be affraid of you. Make sure to stay in good relations with most people or else they might all ally together to take you down.

3) Trade and tech monger and make sure that a large portion of the computer's income and technology comes from you. Then the computer will be much less likely to try and take you down (since it would be shooting itself in the foot if it did

I've managed to make 1 and 3 work with very little war. The key to all of this is to have a high diplomacy racial ability and then research up to Total Majesty. Make sure to never trade any diplomatic techs to other races and be the first to build diplomatic translators and you'll be pretty set. The computer never goes all the way up the diplomacy tree.

-Dewar
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I recently played a game where I built nothing but tiny and small ships the entire game, and they never left the orbit of my planets.
It helps if you have a good diplomacy skill. I was playing as the Terrans against the Alterians, Torians, Yor, and Drengin. And I basically managed to become friends with the Drengin and Torians.
My strategy basically consisted of trading (non-military) techs with the guys I was friends with, and using the money/techs I got from them to bribe people. The Alterians hated me and were on one side of me, and the Yor, who also hated me, were on my other side.
As people have said, establishing trade routes helps alot. But even if people do like you, they will declare declare war on you despite your trade routes.

So, I focused on developing Diplomacy techs (for the bonuses, and government changes to keep my economy doing really well), and Research techs (to stay ahead in the tech race).
Basically the entire game I made sure I kept an eye on my relations. Any time a civ started sliding toward "cool", I would bribe someone to attack them. And it's usually best to pit good civs versus evil civs and vice versa, since they will be more likely to attack each other. I bribed the Alterians to attack the Yor, the Drengin to make peace with the Torians and attack the Alterians, and when i couldn't convince the Alterians to attack the Yor, I paid off the Torians to do so. At one point I even convinced the Yor to attack the Drengin.

The whole time, I kept building up my culture, spamming cultural starbases. after a while, i finally had everyone attack the Yor to wipe them out... and they surrendered to me, since--even though they didn't like me--I was the only race that hadn't attacked them, and had traded with them the whole game.
My influence ballooned and I ended up with an influence victory, without fighting a single war.
It was actually one of the most fun games I've had. It was immensely satisfying playing the other civs off each other like that.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What about that trick with the Spin Control center and orbiting high-weapons defenders on it?
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The only thing more important than winning wa$rs is avoiding wars you can't win.

There are enough hints in the above posts to get you started. In essence, keep them happy (trade, selling stuff, and if you MUST, gifts), and keep them occupied (set them against each other).

It can be expensive to bribe two races to attack each other, but it's well worth it. Two potential opponents are suddenly (a) putting their attention elsewhere, and (b) weakening each other for your benefit!
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know, I kill people
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Research the Planetary Invasion and Defense trees, and pick up Tir-Quan Training. Put at least one farm on every planet. You might not want to spend on ships, but if your soldiers are ridiculously powerful, you can hold off most enemies with ease.