Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-27560448-20160611174237/@comment-4041822-20161229224104

Although allying with zealots by giving gifts are a good idea, it is not my favorite strategy for several reasons. 1) They are a 100% warmongering civilization no different from warriors, which is very surprising considering that they are designed for BOTH peacekeeping & military combat. This means that if you ally with a Diplomat for example, an allied zealot will still attack your ally regardless of your diplomatic relations with your ally being attacked. This is opposite to the scientist, where they are designed to be BOTH peacekeeping and militaristic, but never ask your empire for tribute & declare war on anyone. When I played Spore, these are the things that strike the most attention. 2) How I deal with zealots is very simple. Since you start out with very little money anyway, giving gifts should NOT be the 1st thing you should do when starting space stage. Instead, you should keep doing missions with them until you max out their +100 for helping them on quests. You will not only delay possibility of war when you evade tribute (which I ALWAYS do), but you will also gain cash for you to build up your economic & defensive infrastructure. While you can use this cash to send them gifts, I consider this a waste if money since you can alternatively use this cash to buy high valued spice & trade it with the same zealots that you dealt with for more cash & a better relationship. This you give you at least +130 relationship points during the beginning of the game. You can use this strategy on Warriors too who possess a similar personality. It is important to note that zealots still demand tribute even if you have a very good relationship with them, but I NEVER fulfilled their request anyway. It is also important to note that the maximum negative relationship received for ignoring tribute is -100. By the time I'm filthy rich with an empire level 5, I would have evaded enough tribute requests to obtain a neutral relationship with them.