usually works for me when I have good approval. As long as the approval is in the green, I don't think you should have an issue.

There is one tactic to try and goad them into war. Create a bunch of troop ships and put 1 troop inside them (I don't know if the AI can see how many troops you have on a troopship) and then cluster those around some worlds of thiers.

I actually just went back to the game after reading some posts here and discovering that the other race needs alliances too to form one with you, so I gifted the tech to the Iconians and Humans, formed alliances, and won the game. So there you go. Didn't really feel like a win, though. I never fought one battle the whole game, and didn't even actively try to get people to like me. They all just ended up with close relations to me for some reason. My custom race has the super diplomat ability, so I'm sure that has somehting to do with it, but I didn't put any other particular effort into getting them to like me. Somehow I thought tough level would be harder...

Oh yes, you can government flop every turn if you like. Sometimes Imperial just lets you say "Not on my watch" when the need arises.

you could also turn off all of the win options

This is especially helpful if you get the galactic depression event (where apporval rates plummet). THat way you can stablinze things before your next vote.

Just remember, it is much more fun if you refer to it as "disolving the Senate" or "seizing authority".

Good luck . I too have never experienced the things you mentioned in your earlier posts .I am only one year into a painfull and all the AI have ganged up against me but my approval rating still allows me to control the senate   

> How do I convince the Senate to let me go to war?

Lie to them and the public about uranium shipments. Oops, wrong Senate....

If you play more of an EVIL type player you'll get activity from the AI. I normally played around neutral in my early games and found I could do almost anything without the AI ever declaring war on me except some puny EVIL race with 4 colonies which I stomped in the dirt. lol Think about reality, good rarely fights good unless provoked or "paid off" haha like I do sometimes and have some good/neutral races get it on with each other, then pay off another as those are weakening to take on the victor then another doing the same until there's nobody left strong eough to take ME on and I just waltz in and take all the nice planets and capitals that I have setup fleets near during all this waring of other races. lol It's quite hilarious an effective, but, really an exploit of the AI.

If only I could program the AI's of some of these games. People would be screaming this AI is TOO HARD. lol I've had the pleasure of being able to adjust two AI's for two different games. Spartan by Slitherine and Kohan II and passed those mods around and people really enjoyed the challenge of my AI's. I don't believe in "passive" AI's in dadgum strategy or wargames. I believe in aggression and the fastest way to it and pouring it on the human player from all sides. Forget diplmoacy and tribute and all that bunk, when you play against MY AI's you have played against a challenge that you will always remember and sometimes even scream about. lol

From paying espinage and getting to high level being able to view AI planets that is where I'm a little disappointed in the AI. It almost seems like it has no structure or intelligence in building up like say in Civilization. I got two Yor Planets (who surrendered to me after getting stomped by another AI after I paid that AI to stop attacking them lol go figure) and the CAPITAL had FIVE Xeno labs deep into the game, no improvements, had like two unfinished upgraded factories a low level recreation center with 16 pop max (when I got it it went to 36% happiness/morale have no idea what level of morale/happiness the Yor were getting with maxed 16 pop an only a low level recreation center), typical Starport, one 4x food production and one open space and that's it. What a POS starting capital planet.

I viewed another race and all it built on nearly every planet were mfg centers and research centers, no happy stuff, no banks or trade except for 1 eco capital at it's capital without even any eco like trade or bank or nutin there either. And every single planet was building some type of "small 10hp fighter ship" lol except 1 which was building a construct. You should have seen all the mfg centers or research centers in "bonus" tiles for Influence or Growth or Approval. This is where the AI looks like it doesn't think most. I always, always plant an influence building when I get a bonus influence tile. It at least did plant the mfg's and research buildings on bonus tiles of their type, but, wasted (I think) a lot of potential power/abilities by not placing influence buildings in their bonus tiles. It also appeared it had no intention of building up population by using up all the tiles for mfg's or research something else I always always do with any planet 5 or better is always always leave a tile open for growth (using food production).

Something else I'm noticing is I always get ALL the super techs and I'm playing on Painful difficulty. I still outpace 90% of the AI's in research every single game so far. Might have to move up another notch. I also notice a race with like 3 or 4 planets does this tech race crap and never gets any good ships out into the play before it gets stomped. Like the Terrans, they were waaayyyyy ahead of all of us in Beam Weapons to Phasors III, but, got stomped by the Altarians before they even got to use it. What good does it do to tech race if you don't build anything while doing so? (Got me some Phasor III tech upgrade though before they got stomped lol) It's kinda funny for a long time they wouldn't trade any weapons techs to me, then all of a sudden when they are near the end they trade me their highest tech haha so here I get Phasor III's and get to bypass ALL that other junk before it and then start churning out my 18's Beam Laser powerships and stomp everyone afterwards. lol
Yah know though? If I were losing that's probably what I would do also just to piss everyone else off, give my best techs to another race just so they could cream everyone else with them. lol Maybe the AI has a human mind afterall? haha

Q: How do I convince the Senate to let me go to war?

A: Easy, you tell them that the "enemy" has weapons of mass destruction.