Crowded Continent Strategy

plumsmugler

Chieftain
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
16
I was wondering what people usually try to do when they are on a crowded continent and are going for either a tech or diplo victory.

Obviously both these victories require you to have a good sized empire which means you want to take the liberty policy track and plop as many cities down as fast as you can. However, this gets rather tricky on a crowded continent.

On my last play through I was Korea and was sharing a continent with Askia, Napoleon, and Otto. (The most ideal neighbors to have for sure!) When I go for this victory I usually get my first settler through the Collective Rule social policy. (The one that gives you a free settler.) However, on King difficulty the AI are usually founding cities before you can even do that, which Askia did right next to my capital.

I figured I'd take the first day in prison strategy and beat the out of the first civ I saw which was him. I captured his first city and went in to finish off his capital but it was in a well defended spot with an archer so I was unable to take it.

At the same time I founded a couple of other cities, one of which was in the middle of the continent. Yaddda yadda yadda it's turn 100 and literally every single civ on the continent has declared war on me. I even had to deal with the ridiculous situation of having one of my cities completely surrounded by Germany and literally every single hex behind them was occupied by a Frenchman waiting for his turn to pound on me.

So what the hell are you supposed to do if you are going for one of these victories and are on a crowded continent? It seems like your two options are to turtle and just be happy with your two-three cities in terrible spots or have the entire continent declare war on you.
 
Kill them first. :) Plus on King if you are going for a science victory and stay focused you should be able to have a sizeable tech lead just from your own cities and some RAs (if you're at war w/ the whole continent then you may have to meet civs on the other one, always a good plan) Check out the Strageties and Tips sub-forum for more on advice on science victories. Such as the NC, Haghia, PT, Astromony ---> Rationalism strat, very powerful. I usually play on emperor or occassionaly immortal when I'm thinking and king when I'm not, but the main thing is just to have a plan for winning and focus on that. I would say if you are at war now try and find the next powerful rush unit (longswords, rifles, artilleires, mechs) and focus your science to get there quickly, upgrade and crush everyone. (sorry about the abbreviations)

Plus if you're Korea (i haven't tried this so fair warning) you should be able to get their unquie unit soon which is basically like having cannons in the Medival era so use that to your advantage. Also killing the first civ you meet may not be smart if he has lots of friends and too much of your early production goes to units when you need to be building and develping your cities .
 
In the early game, go for the iron working tech. Expand as much as possible (either aiming for barely happy or barely non-rebelling) and build a couple of early units once you realize it's crowded. Fight barbs with the units. Honor SP is ideal though going for the free guys in Liberty is a useful alternative too. Once you can see iron, make sure to get some if possible. You don't need to go to war right away (warmonger penalty can be a problem without the army to back it up), but build your army as much as you can, sometimes even the important buildings need to be delayed for unit production, to prevent a war that results in your land being blocked\pillaged, or worse. Then eventually the hope is to take cities until you have the empire size to succeed in the manner of your choosing.

In my experience, I sometimes fight too hard against a city with a lot of defence (hills with a castle for example), it's sometimes best to make peace after getting the easy, profitable cities and move onto someone else after a little more army building.
 
If I find myself in that kind of situation I try to set up some good defenses.
Wait a few turns to see if they attack me, if not I take a city or two away from him. If they do, snipe away their army with some good tactics that the AI will never have.

Turtling it out is pretty much a dead sentence as they only get a bigger lead on you.
Also I always place my cities in such a way that they are easier to defend, not to forget that I use citadels whenever I can. Usually near a forward city that I expect needs defending for at least 10+ turns. It can really save you.
 
The AI has no stomach for war on difficulty lower than Immortal. I will always declare or force a declaration of war when they settle on my existing border. Their crappy little city will burn, and they will be wiped off of my continent. I don't care if I have to do it with xbows and pikes.

Once the first civ caves and gives you a favorable settlement, it's all good.
 
i don't know how you people play vs the AI

all the AI can do is cheat and is so dumb it's not funny
look how long it took people to program a computer to just play chess

Multiplayer is the only way to go
 
i don't know how you people play vs the AI

all the AI can do is cheat and is so dumb it's not funny
look how long it took people to program a computer to just play chess

Multiplayer is the only way to go

Some of us can only play irregularly, and for relatively short times that do not fit in with others...

I'd love to play more multiplayer, but it's impossible because of my work and lifestyle.

The AI cheats because it has to, and by cheating gives me a challenge. If it didn't cheat, the game wouldn't be worth playing...

You just answered the question of why the AI cheats... chess is a very simple game to Civ V, and it took years to program well... Civ's AI needs help as Civ V is hugely more complicated than chess. That it can challenge almost all of us means that they have done a pretty good job of it, even if it has to cheat a lot on higher levels. Hopefully, Civ VI AI will be a step up again.
 
The best defence is a good offence go for key military techs like iron working early on and settle near iron.

Go straight for steal and conquer you're neighbour So you have more land to expand


Sitting in a crowded continent and staying peacefull is suicide
 
On King?

Kill them all. Kill every single one of them.

Leave no city alive.
 
The best defence is a good offence go for key military techs like iron working early on and settle near iron.

Go straight for steal and conquer you're neighbour So you have more land to expand


Sitting in a crowded continent and staying peacefull is suicide

This.

On a crowded continent it's conquer, or be conquered, and the earlier you begin, the better. The higher the level, the more important this is...

If you want a bit of fun, try this:-

Small or Tiny, Pangea, maximum civs (22 or 24, I forget which), Deity (or as difficult as you dare)... your own civ doesn't matter much. If you really want to do this properly, turn off all VC other than Domination. Also, to make it harder, make it quick.

I can tell you you're likely to have a lot of fun, BUT, it'll not be easy!
 
It is so easy to become a run-away civ in CiV it is ridiculous. Without tech trading all you need to do is out-rex everyone else, and take away land if that fails.

I never got this: how do you REX effectively without resorting to outright puppet conquest? How to do it without draining your culture (and thus having to unlock certain SPs much later than usual)?
 
^me, I rush Iron, smash and grab a neighbor until I have 2 to 5 happiness to spare. Raze the rest or stop after your military becomes weary. Hit happiness techs gift CSs for w.e. you need(usually culture, cuz food is here counterintuitive). blast expansionist and economy policies and perform another S&G. Trade extra resources(do not cheese out and dow a trade partner... pls) Focus on producing just enough military to defend and conquer respectively, and hit up cash/happiness buildings. I find a disproporionately small number of early game units, esp. proper vetrans, can whip anything save a city; the newbs do the marytr thing.

I stopped after inca and those ******ed hill-farns and unless the game has been magiccally fixed somehow..... this should work.

p.s. for obvious reasons Rome or Germany or even Aztec work well to do this. I did this on monarch (and up to immortal/deity, with greater caution. you simply grow to fast for them to stop you outside of the Modern era, and why let them get there? Scorch the Earth!)
 
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