I just can't keep up with them. Every AI with either of those traits expands so fast and takes up all the land on my continent. How do I cleanse my lands of these jerkwads?

It's not expansive AI's that expand rapidly, nor the imperialistic AI's. It's the CREATIVE AI's that do it.

Sury, Zara, Louis XIV, etc. expand much faster than most imp or expansive AI's.

To counter then, declare war on them and kill. Or you can block them.

Its hard to do that if he starts at the other end of the continent and already has half the land. Then what do I do?

It depends entirely on the game.


If you and this rapidly-expanding civ are alone on a continent and you start on opposite ends of it with lots of area, then you've got a very hard game.

If you and this rapidly-expanding civ are accompanied by several others, then do as much as you can to deter that expanding civ. Bribe wars, if possible. Don't trade to them, if possible. You can also conquer other civs nearby so you eventually become as big as that civ with half the land already.

Man, you'd hate warlords.

You can wall them off with border cities, then backfill your land. You basically draw a line in the sand and make it so they can't expand past the line of your cities. If it's a large continent, you may need to relocate the palace.

Man, you'd hate warlords.

I play BtS.

You can wall them off with border cities, then backfill your land. You basically draw a line in the sand and make it so they can't expand past the line of your cities. If it's a large continent, you may need to relocate the palace.

Thats hard to pull off if I'm not playing as a creative leader.

It would help to know what level you're playing at.

Imperialistic civs are a PITA in the early game but in the long run, it's not a strong trait. One piece of advice: beeline Bronze Working so you can find copper first. If an Imperialistic AI gets BW first, they'll grab the copper quickly with one of their cheap Settlers -- so don't let them.

Expansive Civs? These guys aren't usually a major problem. Or not just because they're Expansive, anyway.

I think most players would agree that Aggressive, Creative, Financial and (hawk, ptoo) Protective are the most obnoxious AI traits. Spiritual and Philosophical are also strong, but the AI doesn't leverage these as well as a good human player.

The cheap Settlers of Imperialist civs make them an early-game nuisance but, all other things being equal, a good human can outplay (and usually kill) an inconvenient AI civ in the early games. And it's much easier to axe-rush an Imperialist civ than an Aggressive, Creative, or (hawk, ptoo) Protective one.


Waldo

Play with raging barbarians. That will slow them down.

Just have to comment on the great typo in your title: "How to dead..."

Answer: It is easy to "dead" against such an AI, but a challenge to survive!

The savings for imperialistic isn't so amazing. In addition to the monument, usually you'll need at least a monument and a warrior, which is an additional 45 hammers. Imperialistic doesn't affect food, and most large production tiles are food based, and you don't get granaries that early in a REX. So you're probably still paying 90 to 100 hammers, so you're saving 20 to 30 out of 165 hammers, so that's maybe 1/8 to 2/11 of a bonus.

Its hard to do that if he starts at the other end of the continent and already has half the land. Then what do I do?
I assume you by "already has half the land" you mean "is the closest to half the land and will grab it unless something happens"?

(Otherwise, if you only meet the AI after he has already settled half the continent, my advice would be: explore more thoroughly when you start a game! ;))

March an Archer over there, declare war, and park your unit on a forested hill as close to the enemy capital as possible (but not directly adjacent). Don't agree to peace under any circumstances for the next 2000 years. Once you have an Axeman to spare, move him over as well, and nothing should touch your units until the medieval era.

You'd be surprised how that single easy move will wreck the plans of most AIs. It won't stall their development completely, but it will certainly slow them down considerably, helping you keep up!

:)

dude go with Stalin or an aggressive nation, acquire pyramids+police state and unleash your army on the civs that expand early, it always works for the warmonger, however against protective civs go for catapults as soon as you acquire some of the earliest civ military units because they will come in handy as you encounter walls, etc.

Police State is fairly lackluster early on. HR is better for dealing with war weariness at that stage and it's very expensive to run. I suppose the +25% production to military units could be handy, but it's a pretty expensive tactic.

true, but not if your next door to a neighbor, in the long run if you take those resources early, they pay off later, so in a way your investing in the future by attacking early... Stalin is really good with this tactic due to how fast he can acquire pyrmaids+police state

If you're spiritual (eg. Monty) you can run Police State while you produce units, and then switch to HR without anarchy. Unless you have stone though you'll probably have to go and capture the Mids, which might not be viable. Also, organized takes the sting out of the cost of Police State and other wartime civics.

Aggressive is nice for early wars but not essential. It's actually quite useless if you have no metal or decide to attack with mounted units instead.