Pacifistic game play

[Jagmodo]

So…

I'm pretty sure that this will sound a bit weird to some of you, but have you ever tried playing any of your RTW (or any expansion, or mod, of course) campaigns pacifistically for fun and difference of gameplay? What I mean, have you ever played for pleasure (and maybe role-playing, acting “good guy”) avoiding conflict (any battles) as long as you could and maintained peace with your neighbours, slowly building your state, keeping your populace happy, and eventually only expanding by bribing rebels and your neighbour territory (including armies). If you did, which faction did you played, and did you played, vanilla, expansion or some mod? How far did you come playing like that (regarding territorial expansion and turns)?
I’m just interested in experiences and opinions of the forumers. Thanks.

P.S. I know that on higher campaign difficulties it is almost impossible to play like that (because of aggressive/backstabbing AI).

[Conclamatus]

I used to play like this before and it was the first time I've ever played RTW . Played as the Brutii, it was pretty fun to play like that. Though eventually I had to go around and took some settlements.

[Willowran]

I thought i played pacifistically, just 'cause i was not an offensive juggernaught. Never tried a campaign soly on bribe advances... though once i tried to play a campaign almost entirely on the backs of spies and assassins, but even then, i used SOME soldiers.

[Ferdiad]

The games called Total War for a reason.

[Spike]

Roleplay that as Romans in EB....

[Dismounted Ritterbrüder]

I've played a Greek Observer campaign, only holding Rhodes and Kydonia. I also have a campaign as the Brutii, simply chilling in Italy.

[Alexanderos]

I tried one with Thrace , living peacefully with Tylys , Byzantium and Campus Getae + Chersonneos. But the macedonians were throwing phalanxes and lances at me and I had to quit

[Jagmodo]

Well, I didn’t have in mind always playing like that, just trying something new. Of course, that could seem quite boring to some players...

Anyway, few years ago I played as Parthia like that, and it have nice position for that kind of gameplay too. I expanded quite a lot solely bribing. North I expanded one province because Scythian territory rebelled and I bribed it and south I bribed Arabia, Nabataea and Sinai (independent/rebels). Seleucids were occupied with war against Egypt, and I was allied with Armenians, so there were no real threats for me in the beginning. Babylon eventually rebelled, so I saved some money few turns and bribe it too. Nothing special further happened. Egypt expanded into Seleucid lands, so it becomes a treat for me. I evaded war as long as I could, but eventually they attacked me. There ended my pacific nature, and they get what they deserved.

I was thinking about starting a new campaign like that on some mod, so I asked for opinions...

[Ferdiad]

If you want a realistic game where you can use Diplomacy and the AI isn't spastic play a Paradox game. As it is playing like that in a TW game defeats the purpose and is boring without the options available in other games.

[Hyperfyre]

The closest I've done to this was starting a campaign and waiting until a faction attacked me. Until then I'd only capture rebel settlements, develop my own settlements and raise an army.