Success as a Defensive Diplomat

Civilization: Roman Empire
Difficulty: Settler
Game Speed: Normal

I've adopted a gaming strategy that might be called "defensive diplomacy": my primary objective is to maintain peaceful relations with other nations while expanding my own borders, strengthening my military, and researching technologies so that my empire is powerful enough to discourage war. To my immense surprise, this strategy has been very successful. My Roman Empire is flourishing. Roman citizens enjoy representation, emancipation, and free religion. Roman researchers have recently discovered such advanced technologies as education, liberalism, rocketry, electricity, and industrialism. The empire's population numbered 5 million in A.D. 1715 and has kept increasing to the game's present time, A.D. 1943 (in the Modern Era). My ships have sailed around the world, and I've even attempted to establish a city on the North American continent. This was a fruitless venture (more one this later), but, all things considered, the Roman Empire is thriving.

Rome has benefited greatly from non-hostile relations with other empires. I have managed to maintain such relations through a) agreeing to their requests for friendship and open borders, trade offers, and requests for technological "gifts," b) appeasing them with trade offers and occasionally gifts of resources or technology after I deny their demands for Rome to convert to a certain religion or sever ties with a third party, and c) leaving them alone. I have only once initiated contact with another nation, and that was simply to patch up a diplomatic boo-boo. My non-interference policy seems to have convinced potential rivals not to interfere in Rome's affairs--at least for the moment.

I doubt defensive diplomacy would have been as successful if the Roman Empire was weak and struggling. While it recently ranked second on a list of the world's largest civilizations, Rome is wealthier and possesses substantially more advanced technology than any other nation. This doubtless serves as a discouragement for potential attackers, though I suspect the discouragement will only last as long as Rome maintains its economic and technological advantages.

Despite Rome's overall success, I have made a couple of serious mistakes. The first occurred right at the beginning of the game when I allowed neighboring countries to get a jump on claiming land while I was preoccupied with developing the city of Rome. This severely crimped my expansion capabilities until I discovered I could sail out of the Mediterranean and find more land. In the future I will be slightly more aggressive in initial land acquisition while there is little or no competition. My second serious mistake has been neglecting to provide my outlying cities with sufficient defense, which has resulted in a couple being captured by barbarians. (Though I have won most of them back.) Because of my experiences with barbarians, I now have warriors accompany my settlers and choose a barracks as the first thing for each new city to build, regardless of the game's recommendations. Perhaps my greatest failure was my attempt to establish a city on the North American continent. Though outside the official boundaries of the various native empires, my city was quickly squashed by local scouts. I attribute my failure to an insufficiently organized and staffed expedition. Since I have yet to develop the confidence and aggressiveness to wage war on an entire nation, I have abandoned my American ventures for now.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of this game plays out. "Free" land is becoming increasingly scarce on the Eurasian and African continents, which could potentially lead to conflict between expanding empires. Rome's wealth and technology should provide some protections as long as the empire remains on top, but things could turn problematic if smaller empires merge into a power greater than Rome. Additionally, both the Americas remain unexplored and unclaimed. With these variables, the next week of play will undoubtedly be interesting.