Peace was never the option.

Question: Imagine you are about for one of this peaceful cultural vctory, but then... you find yourself on one continent with 4 other civs (out of 8 total) and there is not much space for you. And your nearest neighbour is a scum like China or Askian. In the same time, on the other side of the globe there is civ which have a whole continet for themself, and is just happy building.

What you gonna do?

Peace? There can be no peace.

What do you want us to do!?

Die. Diiiiie. DIIIIIIIEEE!

Is this glass bullet-proof!?

No sir.....

As long as you can settle 3-4 cities you don't need to expand anymore to win cultural.

Honestly though, war is part of the game; civ was never sold as a peaceful builder where everyone holds hands singing kumbaya.
You cannot expect it to be playable fully peacefully every single time - especially if you rely on a map seeder that gives very different starting situations.

Ok, here is my problem:
Around T80 the AI is totally able to pull off around 8 units with mix catapults and some swordsman.
Can i defend against it with less than 6 units myself (mostly composite)? Maybe im overreacting, and over milititarizing against that. But that takes time and hammers.

And of course i can just have this cold war, but upgrading units (not to mention producing new) is costly, so it seems that breaking the legs of this little monster is most safe aproach.

But this leaves this other continent with all the wonders (Egypt). Should i still proceed to execute my sing bubble, or maybe it is better to just switch into frigate/privater for a while, and pay him a visit, raze some cites, capture a capital. Stuff like that.

Im just curious, how others play out. Reading guides it seems like everyone has a continent for themselves to play their solo game. And im the unlucky one. Thinking what would be the best option, try to cripple enemy and take it wonders, or switch to scientific/diplomatic victory.

evilcat said:

Question: Imagine you are about for one of this peaceful cultural vctory, but then... you find yourself on one continent with 4 other civs (out of 8 total) and there is not much space for you. And your nearest neighbour is a scum like China or Askian. In the same time, on the other side of the globe there is civ which have a whole continet for themself, and is just happy building.

What you gonna do?

Click to expand...

Something similar happened to me the other day, Emperor level. I was playing as France, originally planning for a cultural victory. I had good locations for 3 cities only including my capital, bummer. Genghis' capital was 10 hexes east of me, featuring 2 luxuries I didn't have. He had a fearsome army, trying to conquer a CS... but he'd left his capital almost defenseless. I attacked with 7 CB and a couple of melee units, and could quickly conquer his only city before his army came back. I had 4 cities, incuding 2 capitals.

Then, further to the east and not to far : Theodora. With only Constantinople, 2 new luxuries, a couple of wonders, and a very weak army. Oh, my. I captured it as well, of course. Meanwhile, I had time to spot Gandhi, Askia and.. ALEX to the south. Alex! At this point, there was absolutely no way the game was anything else but a domination game. I built a huge military (so did he...), declaring friendship with him, went to war with him against India, and betrayed him soon after (bringing Askia with me). Once Athens was captured and two other cities were razed (one by me, the other by Askia), I easily captured the Songhai capital.

It was like turn 220, and I had discovered the two remaining civs on another continent, Rome and England, fighting and hating each other. I was first in everything although Rome matched my technology. Both London and Rome were coastal, which meant all I had to do was to bombard then capture both capitals with a marine in the same turn. Meh. I didn't bother, as I had won anyway.

tl;dr : sometimes the game definitely messes up with your plans, and you have to adapt. Which is awesome.

neev said:

tl;dr : sometimes the game definitely messes up with your plans, and you have to adapt. Which is awesome.

Click to expand...

That sums things up very well. It is indeed a most interesting aspect of the game and part of the fun/challenge is learning how to get over the fact that the game has gimped you since the dawn of man. In this scenario, I'd start by taking a look at who has what and where they are in the world and in relative position to myself. Then I'd consider whether or not those civs ahead of me in some regard deserve to be there or be around at all. I am typically a peaceful player, but I find more merit in being able to avert wars that are fought on terms other than my own.

In my last game, this is what I did and had to do in order to stay in the lead. I was on a large continent with three other civs who had built half the world's wonders and took up much land that I coveted. Several bloody wars later, they were no longer a problem and I was gaining substantial cultural influence to the point that I was meeting three VCs all at once. I chose to win diplomatically with the last SS part parked in my capital and about 3-5 turns away from influential culture on every civ in the game.

Simply put, I find it satisfying to win the culture race through the merit of conquest and annihilation. Running up and taking all of your neighbor's wonders and great works by force. It's completely possible to win by peaceful means, but you must be prepared to defend yourself and your position more creatively. Whatever you do, never stifle your military production. You will always want to have some kind of defense against those who covet your lands and goods. Even if you never use them to wage war, you will need them to ensure you're not destroyed yourself.

Well, if u r playing solo - just go restart.

What sometimes works: Bribe badboy to attack someone else, so he get busy, and can even conquere some land, while we develop in peace, of course at some point when everyone is fed up with the guy just backstab him.
Old trick, no idea why i forgot it at 1st time.

The issue I'm beginning to have (and I think many people are having, but I don't read threads that are overlong) is that on most maps where it is possible to meet over half the AI early, your games become either peaceful, because you haven't declared war on anyone, or Domination victory, because you took a city once. In any game where I've had a neighbour that I have destroyed, either as an aggressor or a defender, I have had to go on to destroy the rest of my landmass as well, because after that point there is no trading with an AI for the rest of the game.

I'd like a middle ground whereby I can be aggressive in the early game to remove or defend against a troublesome neighbour, and then grow into a peaceful, well loved civ late game, because I didn't do it again.

jjkrause84 said:

Peace? There can be no peace.

What do you want us to do!?

Die. Diiiiie. DIIIIIIIEEE!

Is this glass bullet-proof!?

No sir.....

Click to expand...

There's going to be a sequel soon