Just had a fairly frustrating experience in a recent game. 9 oppenents, difficulty set to 'tough', playing as Terrans.
I'm tempted to give you the history of my empire here, but I doubt anyone cares, so I'll just get to the point. (This'll still be a long post, it has to be in order to make sense)
Some..less than noble ethical choices put me aat odds with the Altarians, with whom I shared a border. It put me in the good books of the Korx and Yor, who were on my eastern flank. ( I know this doesn't make sense, but for simplicity we'll use North, South, east and West for up down left and right)
The Drath to the north were staying fairly nuetral with everyone, and concentrating on tech.
I decide its time to nip the Altarian influence strategy in the bud and invade. I take one of their four worlds (Not their homeworld, just an outlying planet of moderate quality) As I prepare to invade their core system, they surrender..to the Drath. The Altarians (in my view) could still have put up a decent fight, but since they'd tried desperately for a peace treaty with me (and failed) evidently they thought differently.
A dozen turns or so later, the Torians to my southeast randomly surrender to the Drath. They were not at war with anyone, they were not under particular cultural pressure, and prior to their surrender they seemed to be settling in for the long haul, fortifying their borders with military starbases.
So, the Drath, a decent Civ to start with, have now become three empires molded into one. ....Okaaaay.
The time has come to wipe out the Iconian refuge to the extreme Southeast. They're weak as kittens, but they don't like me much, and I can't afford a potential enemy at my back when the Drath empire already has me hemmed in on 2 sides. This time, I check their "Treaties" tab and make sure they aren't particularly pally with the Drath. They are not, they are neutral to everyone except me (Hostile) and the Yor (friendly, for some reason).
So I invade. One world later and they surrender...to the bloody Drath. The drath are now effectively four races molded into one. They did not have a spectacular military at the start. Their technology is on par with mine. Their influence was moderate and their diploacy skills lacking. They have gained four empires for no reason that I can find. Oh well, I've just had messages from the Korx and the Yor, telling me that the Drath are a threat and us evil folks need to stick together. I know that, where were you two 20-30 turns ago, when the Drath could have been pruned back?
So, at least I have two potential allies- Or so I think. The United Planets convenes for the fifth time, and this time its about the Drath being the largest economic power, and requesting that they give 7% of their income to less fortunate races (like me) I of course, vote yes. Since I have the most votes on the council (despite its size the Drath influence is sorely lacking) and the Yor have the second most, I think we'll finally have ome small success in limiting the Drath. Not so. The yor vote 'no'
Incredulous, I shut off the game in disgust. If the other 'major' civs (we're all pretty damn minor compared to the Drath) refuse the band together, the game is completely unwinnable. I wouldn't mind if it had been because they were a superior Civ, but as I said earlier, before the multiple surrenders they werre nothing special.
I've had awkward surrenders before, but they were always toward the endgame, when I was the biggest empire and the surrenders provided a nice challenge. They did not repeatedly screw me over in the midgame until this incident.
If anyone can offer any isights, or has had similar experiences, please reply. Personally, I think a limit needs to be placed on how many surrenders an AI faction can recieve, unless they earn it through military conquest of course.
