Well I finally got them to ally me, I traded my two treaties for one of theirs, and diverted almost every trade route to them. Then I cranked out military ships until my military rating was high enough to get relations to "close" and finally traded a bunch of techs for the alliance.

Does the comp ever break alliances? I've never seen it happen myself.

My personal preference is rebuilding from the ashes of newly conquered worlds. The diplo approach is used to recruit allies for the task if I take too many losses. I don't like culture wins personally, but I won't call them cheese. I just think its a waste o time how much you have to research and build starbases. Easier to build fleets and send them off IMO.

For a real world example look how the Mogols conquored China then got culturally flipped by their new subjects.

One great example of cultural conquest is Vietnam. Although the Americans withdrew from Saigon after the Vietnam war, going there now you see McDonalds, Coke and just about every other American franchise possible, most shops even accept American Dollars and have prices listed in both $US and vietnamese Dong.

Its not offensive really, just ignorance of his own very shallow and very short national history extending only 240 years or so - and being founded and largely populated by those "crappy little countries".

As for so called "cheese" - this is a game, its not the search for the Holy Grail. If it allows certain actions, do them and enjoy. If it doesnt, tough. Lets not continually try and build something profound and meaningfull out of a 4X game. Geez, get a life and enjoy it for what it is, FUN.

Regards
Zy

Exactly. IMO the biggest "cheese" with culture is the way the AIs all tax their subjects until they scream and I haven't seen an AI ever pursue a real culture war strategy. Occasionally they throw a starbase out but I haven't seen them pull it for a major strategy.

240 years and a dominating cultural victory. More of a compliment than an insult.

Also: shallow history? At least the Yanks have only decimated their own continent once with a major war and that was about 150 years ago. The Euros find a way to slaughter each other millenia after millenia, which part of the reason the USA became dominant (hint: not having to rebuild their society avery couple of decades).

Guys I think you misunderstood Zydor,

His was a response to small European Countries being called crappy,
he was merely pointing out that it was okay that Mystikmind did not understand
European History as He probably doesn't understand his own countries which is
shorter.

And as far as major wars go,there was the French and Indian wars,the Revolution,
The Civil War and the war of 1812.We invaded Canada once,and fought Mexico twice!

The frequency of wars occurring in North America,and that between any three
European countries is no greater.The fact that more great wars did not happen on
our soil is a matter of distance,imagine the damage England could have inflicted
in the war of 1812,(when they burnt the white house to the ground),had they been
much closer.

And as far as Culture victory,thats a fairly strange assumption.
While its true the rest of the world thanks us for our big macs,they have not
disintegrated into anarchy in order to get drive through service.

In fact may I remind you we drive Japanese Cars when we are not driving German
Chryslers .We fill them up at Royal Dutch Shell,or British Petroleum,when there
is no pump space at Star Marrarro,or Chavez's Citgo.Oil by the way which does not
come from the Iowa cornfields,but the vast Arab oilfields.

And pay for it all with our Bank of America cards,well excuse me that is our
Banco de America cards,it is after all an Italian company.

My point is ,we influence each other in many ways.This is a mutual,and a good
thing.People who are truly superior do not feel the need to make others feel
inferior.

This is just a game as our friend Zydor pointed out,we are supposed to be having
fun.If we can't talk about the game with out insulting each other then there is
something wrong with us.

Of course if you still need to tell the world how much better we are than they,
then by all means use your 100%'American' made computer to do so,after you find
one.