Congratulations.  I love that game, but unfortunately the game stops working after twenty turns or so on my new computer.  Which is ridiculous, because it's the most advanced computer on the market.  It might have something to do with the Windows 10 OS, though.  In which case, my problems might be remedied once Civilization VI comes out.

Anyway, from the sounds of it you're a better player than I am.  I have a bit of difficulty completing the game and struggle a lot, especially on larger maps.  Perhaps it would be different if I didn't always play with the game pace set to average.  If I could get it to work on my current computer, I'd experiment more with a quicker game pace and see how that changed the experience for me.

EDIT: By the way, I normally win through conquest.  All other paths just take way too long.  Unless I cheat and edit the XML files in my favor.

24601

The AI is terrible at City State Diplomacy.

"Hmm, the human is buying out all the City States.  I wonder what he's up to?"

The AI is terrible at City State Diplomacy.

 

"Hmm, the human is buying out all the City States.  I wonder what he's up to?"

Just becoming the supreme dictator. I've not been overly impressed with the AI. It's hard because it cheats, not because it's bright.

I think its concept of MAD is basically a dumb comparison of total military scores. I dropped a nuke as a show of force when it started a war. AI responded with 5. Either it doesn't understand escalation or it totally called my bluff.

The AI is terrible at City State Diplomacy.

 

"Hmm, the human is buying out all the City States.  I wonder what he's up to?"

i never understood why you'd want to own the city states when you can just ally them for all the delegates, personally

on a related note, venice is the worst

The AI is terrible at City State Diplomacy.

 

"Hmm, the human is buying out all the City States.  I wonder what he's up to?"

The stupidest thing thing I've ever known the AI to do is fall for my trade deals.  Basically, I ask for everything of theirs in return for a gajillion gold coins per turn, and they don't realize that I can negate my end of the deal by declaring war on them immediately afterward.

24601

 

The AI is terrible at City State Diplomacy.

 

"Hmm, the human is buying out all the City States.  I wonder what he's up to?"

 

The stupidest thing thing I've ever known the AI to do is fall for my trade deals.  Basically, I ask for everything of theirs in return for a gajillion gold coins per turn, and they don't realize that I can negate my end of the deal by declaring war on them immediately afterward.

 

24601

 

Well that's slightly better than it used to be, where you could trade anyone for their cash on hand regardless of their opinion of you -- and the AI just stockpiles tens of thousands of gold!

So you just trade all your luxuries and GPT for their entire gold reserves, declare war, use their money to buy more units, achieve great victory!

Wait, this stuff actually works? War cancels the luxury but keeps the GPT?

@Spirit, pretty sure lump sums of cash only work when you're friendly these days. Might be a BNW thing.

Wait, this stuff actually works? War cancels the luxury but keeps the GPT?

 

@Spirit, pretty sure lump sums of cash only work when you're friendly these days. Might be a BNW thing.

I assume he means wait until they run out of cash and then declare war, since they patched asking for lump sums of cash from non-allied Civs.  I mean, it's not a painless strategy, but if you need a quick source of income it might be a solution.