How to conquer Civ with 8 allies?

Prozac1964

Warlord
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
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Hey everyone, this is the second time I've run into this problem with the Ottomans. I'm playing Spain on Prince. I wanted to get a cultural victory first and then get a domination vic. Well I started over with my last encounter with the Ottomans because when they DOW they had 2 allied City States right next to me, and the were beating me pretty bad. So I checked all the city states and found that Ottomans had 8 - EIGHT! allies, so it seems no matter where I attack them from they have me surrounded.

I have a very strong military, but not that strong! I wonder should I attack the CS first and see if the Ottomans jump in right away, otherwise, I don't know a good strategy to beat that kind of power. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks :)
 
With enough ranged units you can conquer anything. Hard to give specifics without knowing what era you're in but crossbows-cannon-artillery-bombers are the things you need. Never fear the ai they are horribly bad at warfare.
 
Unless you have to go through CS borders to access the civ, don't bother attacking CS. Difficult to give better advice without seeing a screenshot.
 
With enough ranged units you can conquer anything. Hard to give specifics without knowing what era you're in but crossbows-cannon-artillery-bombers are the things you need. Never fear the ai they are horribly bad at warfare.

Thanks, I do have cannons and artillery, no bombers yet, I'm about 4 era in I guess.


Unless you have to go through CS borders to access the civ, don't bother attacking CS. Difficult to give better advice without seeing a screenshot.

Sclb --- I would love to give you a screenshot but it seems that the screenshot process is shrouded in mystery. I've never found a clear explanation yet of how to take one. Do you know how, if so pleaaaseeee teach me :)
 
If you have Steam you can hit F12 in game, it is saved in the Steam screenshots folder and you can extract it from there.

Before I knew that, I used the old school method of the Print Screen key, then pasting the content to a blank canvas using MS Paint or equivalent :)
 
city states aren't really factors in wars unless they literally border you. if that is the case, set up ranged units near the most vulnerable points. don't bother attacking CS, they're worth much more as allies than conquered cities and if sulei is your target then go for him, they aren't worth the distraction

and yeah, the AI in this game is pretty awful at war. it's hard to understate how bad their decision making is regarding both declaring war and attacking. they generally just throw bodies at you until they run out, so lots of range/siege for cities is the idea solution most of the time
 
The only time I take a city state during a war is if they have some resource I don't have. Like lots of aluminum :)
 
I feel OP's pain in that I often find that I have to delay a DOW to account for allied CS. It does seem to me that CS allies can be more annoying than the AI much of the time. The good news is that the numbers of CS allies does not matter, just their positioning. More often than not, they can be ignored. Sometimes I cannot afford to buy a CS out, and they have a significant number of units right on my boarders. In that situation, I adjust my DOW plans to killing the CS units as the first phase.

I never take a CS during a war -- even if they do have lots of aluminum! I figure they will be an ally soon enough...
 
Along side allying that city state between you and the ottomans, you should try and ally other city states around the ottomans, the AI just freaks out about the city state and doesn't really get how to defend against them, since their primary target is you. City states can be very useful if used correctly, you can even wipe out the ottomans with out getting the warmonger penalty, if you let the city state capture.
 
If you have Steam you can hit F12 in game, it is saved in the Steam screenshots folder and you can extract it from there.

Wow! Thank you all for this great info. Now that I know how, I'll take some screens. :D
I'm gonna try some new strategies now. There is only 1 cs directly bordering the top of both Spain and Ottoman - but it's more so on my border side than Ottomans. I tried a test run against the CS (attack but not save game) the Ottomans did not come to their aid only I got a verbal warning on Otto's cut scene. I'd like to take all his candy (CS) then attack him...but maybe as one poster said, I should just go after him.

Thanks again.
 
city states aren't really factors in wars unless they literally border you.
There's one major exception to the "you can ignore enemy city-states as long as they're not near you" rule:

On maps where you have lots of naval trade vessels, (i.e. Archipelagos, Continents/Islands maps where your empire is on a couple different land masses, or even Pangaea maps if your empire hugs the coast) then any coastal enemy city-states can potentially plunder your trade routes. It's nigh impossible to properly defend scattered naval trade routes.

On maps like these, I'll sometimes risk going to war with one or two allied city-states, but any more than that and I resort to diplomacy.... either strip away his allied city-states one by one, or else make nice with the AI.
 
Couping a CS at war isn't recommended, you would have very low chance of success.

If you're the science leader though, later in the game it may not be a bad idea to throws spies to try to coup. I mean you get them back 1-3 turns later.
 
i don't think level 1 spies even have a 1% chance of success of a coup in a city state you're at war with since that is at least 120 influence behind the current ally
 
i don't think level 1 spies even have a 1% chance of success of a coup in a city state you're at war with since that is at least 120 influence behind the current ally

Wow maybe don't just lob them at city states, I've never tried to coup a cs while at war so I didn't know the chance was that low.
 
yeah, it's a pretty big risk to take, since level 3 spies aren't a dime a dozen and they're the only ones that really have any shot at it. level 1 spies usually need the influence disparity between yourself and the current ally of the CS to be quite low in order to have any real chance of success
 
The game doesn't show you the odds as it always says 0%. I think its a very viable strategy, it can turn the tables.

It doesn't always says 0%, it's usually very low though. If you have a rank 3 spy with tourism at dominant level to the allied civ, then the chance can be 80%, since it raises 2 levels.
 
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