Diplomacy

can you wait 6-9 months?

Ugh.  Hope not.

Erm seriously now how can you make enemy nations hate you?

I personally find the opposite difficult. I mean none of the opposite factions ever dropped below close relation to me except if i declared them war.

And apart of that i never had one declare war on me and i was of the opposite thinking that the AI is too peace loving in this game for my tastes and way weak even in hard+ difficulty ^^

an easy way is to research caravans-trading in first couple of your research and sign a non agression treaty for almost free with everyone you see as starters.

either way first 99 turns go way fast unless you gonna quickly attack a town of them and so on.

By doing that, till the Non-aggression treaty is finished you will probably got the trading and tech treaty also by then.

Since their relation to you would be nice by then since you had a treaty, you will probably be able to sign those too for additional benefit unless you plan to take them out.

So simple way out is have treaties with everyone except the one you plan to attack next and probably nonon aggression treaty towards the next one either, they will keep them in bay and focus at one faction at a time while receiving the bonus from other factions

Always workd for me.

I won my very first game by diplomacy and another subsequent match.   I see a wide array of feelings toward my kingdom from he various factions throughout the game.   I had to make an effort in a few games to keep my alliances  to a minimum so I could win by the spell of mastery, master quest and another by conquest.   I have found the game fairly easy to play with a particular win type in mind.  I always leave all types on so I can change my mind part way throughif I wish.   I have had factions declare war on me and have also had them sue for peace.   It is important to keep your power rating on par with other factions I think to make sure you are able to sign treaties and work on diplomacy.  

I agree with the power rating, but it seems easy to keep the power rating no matter what diffuculty you are in.

It not like GalCivs which had one faction called Thalan that they always got wicked for some reason even for player standards

Appreciate the feedback.  I'll try again.

 in version 1.09p(b) The Hero~Hire~Zerg = Dominance via diplomactic manipulation. Note: the smaller the map size the easier it is to dominate opposing factions this way very early in the game. Also, the Bard ability is crucial for this while charisma may or not be a factor anymore. Stil unsure if Cha still plays a role in Hero recruit cost reduction.

Within 23+ turns into the game you can have more than double the faction power rating of your oponents by saving all the gold you have for hiring heros' and rushing them towards enemy territory to grab that opposing factions goodies huts. Using Non Aggresion pact this early in the game costs next to nothing and lets your heros roam across enemy territory grabbing those goodies or hiring more heros'. Benifit is Lore & Tech research continues with no drain on your economy (no upkeep for heros compared to city buildings costing food & gilder) and with 'luck' you will also have the heros who produce gilder. Also you can use a factions Shop to buy boots,weapons etc, if you are in their territory and have the gilder to spare.

As you expand outawrds with these heros' have the majority of them link up with your Soveriegn and form an army the AI cant trully contend with. Via diplomatic Trade option Declare War for gold and materials and your treasury can be overflowing with both resources. On average, you can recieve up to 400 points worth of both gold and/or materials,metal,etc (if the faction has that much so early in the game) while using the Declare Peace Treaty option will generally cost 20 points to initiate. Seems the AI player you are currently at War with will allways accept your peace treaty if you are that much stronger than him/her. Being able to declare war on the same faction 6+ times in 1 turn leads to a ~huge~ increase i your treasuries stockpile; while geatly dimminishing the AI's ability to grow quickly. But this does feel like an exploit since what leader in their right mind would sign a peace treaty with such a backstabbing git like me knowing full well I will not honor it.

So far on normal and hard this strat/exploit seems to work well. Simply put, the AI does need more tweeking to limit this exploit.  

Last Note: Keep a close eye on all your hero's as it seems that for reasons unknown, 1 or 2 of them may simply disapear from the map between turns. reloading from the previous turns auto save after a hero goes missing seems to bring them back. Not sure why this happens but it has in 2 games i've run so far since the new patch was released.

You'll see that no empire or kingdom will dare declare war on you. Good luck.