I noticed recently I have a fairly set pattern of when I go to war, at these times generally:

After the discovery of Bronze (fairly common I'd imagine)
Again when I have a few decent knights and trebuchets
Almost never around the education/printing press/sci meth stage
Once with Cavalry
And several with tanks

Having to fight so many times shows I'm a bit inept at warfare. but I was wondering, are others the same? Do ye have a recurring pattern of when ye fight?

After Bronze especially if my neighbor doesn't have it
After construction if I have Ivory
After gunpowder especially if I have a gunpowder UU
After Rifling
After Industrialism

All other times are generally the result of AI declaring war. My tech pattern skips Macemen in favor of Education -> gunpowder or Education -> liberalism if I'm not in danger of attack.

I rarely if ever build siege weapons. I rely on having units so much better than my opponent walls don't matter and spys to cause revolts. The slow BTS tech speed makes it reasonably achievable to have a military tech lead the entire game.

Macemen and first siege weapons is always good first war

I try to avoid Axemen wars now, though on aggressive AI im forced to have chariot/axemen wars :)

I would agree, but my modern war is ussually started as soon as I discover assembly line. Ussually with infantry I can start to invade other civs while I beeline industrialism to seemlessly change from invading infantry to tanks.

The early wars are ussually dependant on who is around me. If I don't think I have enough good room to expand, I'll go to war with bronze working. When the middle ages show up and I start to get lots of maceman I will ussually expand some more.

It varies alot depending on what game speed. On normal, you take every chance you get for war cuz you have limited time, whilst on mammoth you can bide your time and pick your oppurtunies. I think thats why I prefer the real long game speed,wars are longer and you spend more time fighting each era with bigger armies.

for me it's entirely situational...but usually if i am planning to war with someone i'll try to do so before they discover longbowmen/riflemen/machineguns

I'm a very cautious person by nature and so insist on having complete security before attacking. And given that I generally prefer building things to makings armies I never seem to go to war before knights and trebs. Often if there's only one rival I'll sit still till I can nuke them to kingdom come.

I am generally in war throughout the entire game. I doubt it's often that an era passes that I am not at war.

Well, my wars are more game-dependent, but I always strive to be the very first to get to bombers, and if I am I definitely make everyone aware of it. I figure that is the most significant land grab civ destruction I can make before settling in to finish off a victory condition.


Although, I am a hugh fan of knights and cavalry wars too.

Lately I've been lucky in regards to goody huts and I've taken out my nearest opponent very early in the game with his one fortified warrior to my 4-5.

Lately I haven't been fighting super-early if I don't have to, i.e. if there's still good land available to settle peacefully. Then there's often a good window when I have catapults and he doesn't have longbows yet. And I almost fight some with maces+trebs. I find rifles/cannons to be somewhat difficult -- the AIs really bulk up their armies in a hurry, and it's hard to get an advantage. I haven't fought a modern war in BtS yet, but in Warlords I was always a fan, and it's possible to take ground quite quickly.

peace,
lilnev

I'm at war pretty much continuously. I try to poach someone's worker early, then build defensive axes (combat I, not CR) and spears haphazardly until someone inevitably declares on me. I then stiff arm them with some whipped reinforcements, and when that threat is over I use the defenders on offense instead, with some swords leading the charge.

After that it's just one long continuous war with someone or another (most of them defensive, as I refuse to give tribute once I'm strong enough militarily); I don't care as it's just more GG points (x2 with Great Wall). If I have a weak neighbor, I'll build some trebs and my leftover units from my previous war go on the offensive again, with siege support this time.

In the meantime my early REXing is paying off and I usually get a Golden Age with Maus so I'd rather be building than warring.

The next offensive war I fight is probably with cannons and any leftover infantry, or sometimes literally cannons and Infantry. With siege, it almost doesn't matter what goes with it. Just have some newer units as stack protectors and initial-attackers, with your ancient axemen still able to act as mop-up crew after your cannons redline enemy soldiers. The only times I upgrade: emergencies, or trebs to cannons to artillery.

Next war is mass cavalry spam, followed by tank spam, if the game lasts that long.

One thing I do like to do is attack exploring units at the very start of the game. So, if my neighbors come near my territory and greet me and I can take that unit right away with a warrior, I do it, just to put a little crimp in the other Civs exploration. Although, short of giving me a better shot at all of the remaining huts, I don't know if it is worth angering the other Civs.

But I do like to anger Khan that way. He's always going to hate me so I might as well give him a reason.