Oh for christ sake, I just got EULA-ed by the motherfucking Alexander the Great in Civ5.
Basically, I was leading this super cool tiny Korean empire, totally science oriented, and I was like the cute pet of the world, friend with everybody.
Then suddenly, people start getting greedy, waging war with each other, and I'm in the middle because being friend with everyone, I suddenly was perceived as allied with each enemies, even tho I honestly didn't give a shit about other civs.
So, Alexander, with the most powerful army in the world, attacks me to get a dumb city in the middle of the jungle I used basically just for the science-jungle bonus. The city falls, he razes it and negotiate peace.
Fuck off, but ok: I got only three cities left but they were super happy, productive and science oriented, so it was fine.
Around the year 1990, while I was fully commited in building space stuff, I declare war against me without a single fucking reason.
After like 15 years of war, he couldn't conquer shit because I was dumb the first time, without any army at all, but the second I was prepared.
So, he asked for peace.
In the agreement there was the usual mile-long list of both of us allied city states to make peace with.
Ok.
Click accept.
Hidden in the middle of that list there was a fucking fine print saying I was going to givee him every city except the capital.
It took me like 10 seconds to realize, than I rage quit.
Now I really want to go out in the street punching people in the face because FML
lol
Come on, fine print? Isn't you giving him your cities is at the top of the list, like right above making peace with all of the city-states that are allied with Greece? And they're probably all allied with Greece because of that ridiculous city-state relationship bonus Alexander has.
Even when I go science focused--Tradition, Patronage(dem city-state science bonuses) and Rationalism--I maintain an army. You have to maintain an army at all times no matter what your end-game goal is. The size of your army directly correlates to how the A.I. Civs will interact with you. With the way the A.I. is designed in that game, you're competing with everyone. Do not ever trust your immediate neighbours. Ever. Every time you enter the leader dialogue screen, mouse over their name and you'll get a list of relationship modifiers. You will see a list of modifiers in muted or bright green and red. Your immediate neighbours will always covet land you own, hell, Civs half way around the world will. You can compete for wonders, city-state relations, make a declaration of friendship with one of their enemies, choose a different ideology. You can have the same religion, same ideology, denounce or declare war against a common foe, trade with them, etc. If your army is close to, equal to or greater than theirs in size they are less likely to declare war on you. But using these relationship modifiers you can figure out who is going to be your friend, for a while, and who is going to be denouncing you and harassing you for the rest of the game.
You have to be cautious of who you declare friendship with and know that eventually everyone will turn on everyone else. I always pick one Civ, maybe two if I am lucky, to be friends with throughout a game. If you're going for a science victory you need to have decent diplomatic relations with one or two other Civs so you can get those tasty, tasty research agreements. Sometimes strategically denouncing a specific Civ can be a strong, positive relationship modifier with other Civs. If you have a lot of trade networks established with another Civ they are less likely to declare war on you. Religion can be useful early to mid-game. You can either accept theirs and spread it through your cities or make your own and spread it to them.
With the Tradition policy track you get a maintenance free unit, so long as it's garrisoned in a city, to go along with all of those other nice bonuses; massive borders, more happiness and money from your capitol, some maintenance free buildings in your first three cities, etc. Tradition will give you a strong early game economy and allow you to maintain a decent army. It doesn't have to be huge and with your science focus it will likely be more advanced and upgraded. With Patronage you get increased influence with City-States, this important as you'll also get a percentage of their total science output if they are your allies. They'll also gift you with military units if they are a militaristic city-state and they'll also gift you great people, which is awesome if you're playing as Korea because of the science bonuses great people tile improvements provide. With Rationalism you get the Porcelain Tower, important if you have a lot invested in research agreements, and all of those other awesome science bonuses.
Patronage is also important for gaining control of the world congress. Not only do you get increased influence with City-States but a Patronage policy wonder, the Forbidden Palace, that gives you more votes. You can use the World Congress to help influence other Civs, positively or negatively. Even abstaining from certain votes is helpful because then certain Civs won't dislike you for defeating their nominated policies. Sometimes though, you got to. Plus with the world congress under your control you can make sure events you want to happen occur, like the world trade fair or international space station.
tldr: Always maintain a decent standing army, no matter what your end-game goal is, be it a science or culture victory. The size of your military directly influences how other Civs will choose to interact with you.
