I have been thinking about whether to write this since the game has been out for a while, and surely some dedicated warmongers must have thought about the subject. However if such scripts exist, they must have been hidden under a pile of other threads (I did not find such guide easily). Therefore I decide to write something like this, although I do not claim to be an expert (have not won a AW emperor game yet).

Contents:
1)Why always war?
2)Customising the options
3)Traits and leaders
4)Wonders
5)Early strategy
6)City placement
7)Medieval period
8)Conclude your game

1)Why always war?

The answer is simple: we love wars. Any other type of winning the game (culture, space, or diplomatic) seems wimpy and incomplete. And frankly, BTS has a quite good warring component. It has a lot of realistic elements of war: scouting, defending strategic tiles, counter-units, fight numerical superior wars, etc. So why not use it to the maximum?

Although AW is a scarier game (the human player is at war with all the AIs as soon as he meets them, while the AIs are extremely unlikely to be at war with each other especially after the human play declares on each of them), it simplifies two area in the game:

a. Diplomacy. There is going to be none. War and total annilation is the only option. The AIs are going to love each other for sharing a military struggle with you, so the only option to win is to beat them to ashes.

b. Religion. Get one for yourself because it is beneficial, otherwise live without one for some time because it does not spread to you in war, (I am not 100% certain, but the likelihood of it is low) and even if it does, it is rarely a good idea to suffer the "don't fight the brothers and sisters" red face penalty.

On the other hand, one learns a lot about the military aspect of civ in AW games and will certain fight better under normal circumstances.

2)Customising the options

For victory option, I usually leave only time and conquest on. The game should not last long enough (in terms of the time in game) for a cultural or space win. But it is hugely important to check off the diplo win, so that the player will not suffer an AP loss because the cities he captures contain the AP religion and has to resort to razing. That is rather stupid so I don't want having to do it. I don't think doing all these makes the game easier in any way, probably more difficult if it makes the AI realise that it has to conquer the play rather than build three cathedrals.

Playing with raging barbs and aggressive AI is more fun and I usually do that. I usually select no tech trading to make the game more managable, although having that on will force the player to attack much earlier (and makes the game much, much more difficult). Whether to allow vassal states is of no consequence: the player cannot vassalise anyone, and whether one AI vassalise another has little bearing on the game.

For maps, any non-water maps is suitable (continent will make the early game easier and force the player to launch sea-based invasion which is a lot harder to do, but it may be fun), so Pangaea is a huge favourite, although a lot of others will do as fine. Obviously, the kind of maps one plays changes the strategies somewhat. I usually play a small map to handle 4 attackers at one time: more may be unmanagable. Epic speed.

Lastly, I play on Prince or Monarch difficulties.

3)Traits and leaders

Many people have discussed the relevant strengths of the traits, and I can do no better. However, a few of them change their importance in AW games, and here are my opinions:

Spiritual--probably "the most useless trait" in AW games. The player does not have a lot of civics switching to do. He will stay in war-mode civics a lot of the time, many of the useful civics come too late to be relevant, and some plainly useless (who runs a free market in AW?) As for religion, one change, and therefore one turn of anarchy is all.

Imperalistic--Build the Great Wall and see the number of generals snowball. An imperalistic leader does not need to be in theocracy for the promotions can come from settled GGs, and can afford to run org. religion for the production bonus for the building bonus. Far more importantly, more promotions from settled GGs means less casualty and fewer hammers lost.

Protective--many times a player has to cower in cities, usually in the early game when the army is small. CG and Drill archery units provide insurance. Also, the ability to have these promotions without a barrack means that the capital does not need a barrack first before cranking a few archers for defense and worker escort.
The cheaper walls and castles are icing on the cake--although even without being protective one can usually whip the walls--and yes, you need that wall for your outpost city (more on that later)

As for leaders, it is less of a matter of picking the strongest but rather knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each. Needless to say that Joao of Portugal will be weak (both UU and UB useless) for AW and Qin of China is an easy one (awesome UU, okay UB, industrious is huge, protective has synergy with UU) to play. I usually go for random and play the card I am dealt.

4)Wonders

Which are the ones to get?

Well, first, know your enemies, see how many are industrious and whether you are industrious or not and if there is stone/marble nearby and decide if it is worth to pursue wonders or to capture them. The four most important IMO are:

a. Stonehenge. It is unlikely that you found an early religion. Stonehenge gives the early city's ability to expand borders. Also, the great prophet points almost guarantee a great prophet and a surefire at Christianity and Theology, both very useful to have.

b. Oracle. Breaks something useful, especially if one has a good UU that is expensive to research. Immediately coming to mind is China's Chu-ko-nu, as metal casting/machinery are expensive, but that also applies somewhat to the Koreans for the Hwacha. Otherwise, getting the longbows (Feudalism) early is always reassuring.

c. Great Wall. Opinions may be divided, as killing scattered barbarians is a good way to amass elite troops (although does not contribute to generals), but having the GW allows barbs to harass the AIs, slow them down, and when the AIs finally turn to the player, generals come in really quickly. And when there is stone in the capital's big fat cross, and barbs are flooding, there is no reason not to build it.

d. Statue of Zeus. Now I wonder if this "cheats" by crippling the AI too much. But it is much better to have it then to let an AI who must be attacked at all cost have it. WW spikes enormously when one fights a civ with SoZ in the opponent's border and captures his cities.

It does not mean that if one does not get them the game is lost, but if one wants to get wonders, those are the ones to get.

5)Early strategy

First, decide where to settle. In a normal game settling in place is usually best, but in AW and raging barbs a strong case can be made about settling on a plain hill: +1 hammer bonus/+25% defense. So if moving on to a plain hill does not lose any useful tiles in sight, it is probably worth the 1 turn wait.

If you are someone who does not save/load excessively and think too much regenerating it cheating, then do the following: build a warrior first. Research archery.

Warrior first ensures the peace of mind. It is absolutely essential for a civ starting with a scout (and for that matter, if one meets a civ with a scout really early, one can walk into an undefended capital--so much for the scare of shaka and alex) , but it is not much of a choice for others anyway. The initial scout/warrior can skirt around the cultural border for a while waiting for the first warrior to be produced, and can go exploring afterwards. So, I will usually pick the highest hammer tile to work on until a warrior is produced, then let it grow while working on a barrack.

Archers are not great and they usually cannot attack any full-health units apart from warrior, but they can be built without resources. While playing as Egyptians one may want to gamble on horses, it is still rather risky unless the horses are directly under the city. After playing a lot of AW games I think archery first is the safest move. Even if there are horses/copper, it takes about 30 turns to produce the first chariot/axe, and the barbs may have already started flooding in, pillaging the spot, so much so that the worker has to hide with nothing to do.

If one gets a coastal start, it makes sense to get one workboat out for the seafood. But I cannot emphasis enough: get those archers out asap.

Then, research animal husbandry/bronze working to see where these things are so one can build attacking units. In the mean time, produce 2 archers at least before the first worker: one to garrison, one to cover the worker. Produce more archers/or better units and workers when the current ones are not in danger. Put archers on hills and promote them on guerrilla/drills. Drills are very effective to let archers fight for longer outsider cultural borders because they tend not to be injured as much. A G2/Drill1 archer on hill is close to invincible against barb archers.

Forest chopping and connecting resources on hill are the best actions for the first workers. The former does not need defenders on the tile; and hilled resources are easy to defend. If that corn farm gets pillaged, wait for the warrior/archer to suicide and replace it later. Even cover archers do not make good odds against other archers to attack, and defending flatland resources is rather difficult against enemy archers. (a drill 2/cover may do reasonably) And here the protective trait has an edge: an extra drill 1 promotion out of the gate, and one more promotion at the 10xp fighting barbs cap.

Meanwhile, the scouting groups should have located the enemies/strategic resources, maybe the woodman2 warrior has stolen a worker and it is escorting it back. And the next step is where to put the cities.

Ed: No, that's entirely wrong. The next step is whether to build stonehenge/great wall or both. With stone and industrious, it does not take much to build both. However it makes sense to build just one first with the aid of chopping/whipping, get a settler out and get units for defense/fog bust. While building the settler, it is time to think about where to put the cities.

6)City placement

Having had enough harassment by barb archers, it is time to settle the second city and get some real defense. But if your luck is like me, then copper is 90% of the time not in anywhere convenient, and horses are a bit elusive as well. Meanwhile, there is a floodplain area which looks attractive. Where to go?

This crucially depends on what the capital is going to be. If there are plenty of river/grassland flatland in the capital's BFC, then it can be a cottage city (Specialist economy has less synergy with an AW game imo, but of course a good player can pull a victory off); if there are lots of hills + freshwater lake (which makes irrigation possible early but cottages less worthwhile than river tiles, it is probably a better military city and Heroic epic should go there.

Most people think the first two cities should be one on commerce, one on hammer. Depending on what the capital is, the second city should ideally be the other. However, if the threat of barbs is dire, it is better to get that copper or horse early, in the 2nd city's first ring, or settle on the resource(immediately helpful if the two cities are on river--in AW games, one has to think short term first, long term second.

The second city's site should be decided earlier and an archer should be defending on its nearby defensiive square. The capital should produce another archer/better unit to aid the 2nd city's defense, and workers should be busy connecting the resources.

A third city should be then settled with the aim of claiming resources/cottage spam. This is around the time Iron Working is being researched. Usually the map generator is kind enough to give the player iron somewhere reachable. And if our scouts report an enemy has no metals or if we can deny he access, he should be the first targe. But now we are over-expanded a bit so maybe we should not attack.

Still, we need to put down a fourth city--which I may call an outpost/killing ground city. This is a city on the front line, most exposed to enemy attacks, and is going to bear the brunt of assaults. It should be on a hill, with the sides facing opponents flatlands. One usually does not found such a city in a normal game, but this is AW so different measures are needed.

The rationale for having such a city is that to draw most of the attacks/pillage to this city so the commerce/hammer cities do not suffer attacks. It is much easier to defend with a large stack with different units in one city compared to having scattered units around the empire.

The first thing to do about the outpost city is to cut all the trees in the first ring. No place for the swarm of sword/axe which hides in them. Build a wall asap, maybe after a granary but before a barrack. It does not matter how large this city is going to grow or how much research it is going to produce. All you care is this city will be defended and no city behind its lines are going to get pillaged.

4 cities cost a lot to maintain, and by now we should enter the classical period. One adds cities according to the normal criterion, but the ability to have a outpost city is a bonus that is not immediately obvious. When the tide of barbs ebbs and the AI hordes arrive, however, one can really see what is the point of having it.

In terms of research, there isn't much choice, the first two columns are all necessary (except for fishing/sailing when not on the coast, perhaps, but you still need them latter). I don't think getting buddhism or hinduism is necessary, although there is a fair chance to get Judaism--but if you miss it, the great prophet from stonehenge can bulb Theology. Otherwise, research code of laws early, it is essential anyway--the AIs like the mathematics-calendar-construction route.

7)Medieval period

So, as the barbs are getting kills/squashed by culture/prevented by the GW, the AIs are taking over as the main threat. The first group to arrive is almost always a mixture of axe/spear/sword. If the opponents lack metals, then chariots, but that is really rare.

Early classical fight is mostly axe action. Axes killing other axes, swords, and spears. The AI rarely brings enough axes for stack protection, so shock axes is almost all the player needs to produce, plus the occasional spear. The military city should almost never stop producing units. One of the winning axes should be promoted to medic, all the rest combat, shock, combat. Once a GG is born, merge him and we get doubly promoted troups. When the situation calms down a bit, send some woodmen II axes with spears to scout and serve as sentry if there is plenty of foliage, otherwise use guerrilla archers to compromise.

As for research--go for Monarchy asap. We want to be in HR most of the time, and it is essential for Feudalism. That is why I particularly do not want to build the Pyramid--representation has little synergy with AW. We want a lot of units and may not be able to afford a SE in terms of gold/a city dedicated to GP farm.

After that, the paths may divide a little. If one has horses, it makes sense to research Horseback Riding--A derided deadend tech in vanilla and Warlord, but the flanking attack is what one needs to finish off the catapults. Flanking II allows 50% survival rate against even spearmen, so a large mobile HAs can eliminate the threat of cats and the footmen can wait behind the walls for the enemies to suicide on. If one still does not have a religion, then code of laws is a good bet.

But after that, it is almost imperative to go to the top of the tree for aesthetics-literature. No, not for the great library or even the powerful statue of zeus. I want to Heroic epic in the top military city.

The difference between life and death is almost decided on whether one produces an axe/spear in 4 turns or 2 turns. I never lose a game post gunpowder, but many before longbows coming in. And that's not because I do not have longbows, but I do not have enough axes/spears so I do not even reach the stage when longbows are due to arrive. In AW, numbers is what guaranttees early survival.

Many times, the opponents are going to park a large stack on defensive tiles next to the city, but do not want to attack. That is fine as long as there aren't cats there to bombard. But new reinforcements with cats should not be allowed to arrive, therefore HAs must be the next in the line to produce. Wait for our own cats to arrive to take those parked bastards out. It is annoying to get the "enemy nearby" reminder often, but suppress the anger and delay the assault.

TBC...

Imperalistic--Build the Great Wall and see the number of generals snowball. An imperalistic leader does not need to be in theocracy for the promotions and can afford to run org. religion for the production bonus. Far more importantly, more promotions means less casualty and fewer hammers lost.

Unless you're talking about settled GGs, then CHM is the promotion affector. Also, GW only works in your territory. Plus, I'm not sure if you know that Org Rel prod bonuys only applies to buildings.

For victory option, I usually leave only time and conquest on.

I would be a lot more impressed with your guide if it could win with all conditions enabled.

Any other type of winning the game (culture, space, or diplomatic) seems wimpy and incomplete.


For victory option, I usually leave only time and conquest on.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless you're talking about settled GGs, then CHM is the promotion affector. Also, GW only works in your territory. Plus, I'm not sure if you know that Org Rel prod bonuys only applies to buildings.

Yes I know that. Org. Religion is a nice bonus for building markets/libraries/whatever/esp wonders. Plus only one or two cities are making units almost all the time; the others need their infrastructures.

I would be a lot more impressed with your guide if it could win with all conditions enabled.

Actually, the only relevant one is diplomatic. I usually win before the arrival of infantry, so there is no way an AI could win via space/cultural (on Monarch at least). AIs don't attack one another so they do not win by domination.

If you bulb theology you can build the AP for yourself. Otherwise, you have to raze all the cities containing the AP religion which does not make sense. That's the reason I do not want to enable that.

Ref: See Sulla's report of Epic 14, with this line:


http://www.garath.net/Sullla/civ4_epic14_4.html

"York had to be razed because it contained Hinduism, the "poison religion" that would open me up to an Apostolic Palace loss. This is one of the dumbest things I can remember in a Civ game since you had to starve cities to death upon capture (Civ3). Too bad it's not going away. Guess you just have to kill EVERYONE who practices the Apostolic Palace faith in this situation. "


"I wanted to keep London; it had a nice location, and probably would have retained some decent infrastructure. However, it had Hinduism present inside, so it had to burn."

This is a survival guide, however, with the focus on how to survive past the middle ages and lead techs by then. If one manage that one can win in a number of ways, so victory condition does not matter. Limiting the victory condition limits my choices rather than the AI's.

Unless you're talking about settled GGs, then CHM is the promotion affector. Also, GW only works in your territory. Plus, I'm not sure if you know that Org Rel prod bonuys only applies to buildings.

And yes, I am talking about settled instructors. thank you for pointing it out and I will edit to make it clearer.