Most games I’ve played on Monarch, 8 civs, large map with unmodified rules.
Maybe you know that situation: When it comes to midgame, I found myself nearly always in front but with 2 or 3 major rivals that were too far away to deal with. The early wars are over, Democracy is now en vogue, and the AI begins to discover new techs every few turns, war isn’t likely to occure. If you follow the normal path of tech-buying/selling, all you can hope for is a very close win in a world with megatons of pollution, because most civs get competitive.
So I like to pick a civ as “rogue state” (sometimes they pick me:) ) and goad the whole world in war against them.
I stay in republic, when everybody switches to democracy, beeline for suffrage and police stations and go to war with a big aggressive civ (which is easy to achieve, they always want something for tribute) on another continent.
I sign military alliances with everyone against them, even with small civs far away from them. They want some some reward for this but it’s worth it. I don’t do much in that war, only build up my military an try to achieve naval superiority if necessary.
If a civ signs a separate peace with the rogue state, I will renew the Alliance as soon as possible.
After 20-25 turns all AI civs get very war-weary, their population sinks, disorder occurs and they are likely to sink in anarchy. (if they make peace – renew the alliance). After 30-40 turns I have achieved my goal – all civs are in less prospering government forms, cities are taken and retaken, they kill each other. I may have discovered some war weariness myself, but i am in republic and got suffrage, hopefully.
Now I’ve got two paths to follow:
1) Make peace and watch the fight while developing. From my experience the AI is less likely to make peace when in less representative governments and also it seems like some kind of vendetta between them and the rogue state occurs, when I’m forced them to break peace treaties too often. Maybe you are the only one with a rep or demo now, which is a HUGE advantage.
2) Join the party! The rogue state should be in a bad condition by now, having no one to trade with and losing a lot of units, pop and normally their little islands or cities on other continents. And now the smoke is gone I can easily claim their land – they where once a powerful civ, maybe it’s worth it! ( I have to switch gov too)
With this method I was able to achieve a huge civ2-like tech lead, while getting rid of a major opponent (at this point I do not trade techs anymore).
Some AI civs suit better as rogue states than others.
The rogue state should be
– one of the major powers of the world, that way you get rid of an opponent, while they last longer than weak civs as “public enemy”
– aggressive, they are less likely to sign peace treaties and switch to mon/comm early.
– militaristic/build units often, to make sure they are not wiped out quickly or make peace because of weak forces.
From my experience Germans or Aztecs suit best as rogue state, they build large empires, some infrastructure and a lot of units, they are also very aggressive and especially the Germans are often in the tech lead. Zulus are not as good, because they build little infrastructure and tend to be backwards. The other aggressive civs like Persians or English will do when they got big enough.
I think this strat is not only powerful, but also fun, because a big military power can cause a lot of damage to the other AIs and there is always something happening. To be the “puppetmaster” is fun, too.