Epic Battles of CiV History

Fish Man

Emperor
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
1,545
Nowadays it seems all wars are either steamroll, get steamrolled, or pick off Shaka's entire army with 4 archers. I never see long, drawn-out wars between equally-matched foes, especially after the human gets crossbows. It's all kill, units, seige, move on to next city, repeat until you win your 10th sub-t200 deity Pangaea domination. Anybody have stories of epic wars to tell?

Back when I was a CiV noob, I foolishly decided to try emperor on my 2nd game. Got destroyed twice, and searched for some guides. I found the 3-city tradition approach, but unfortunately didn't read beyond "get tradition and set up 3 cities with NC asap." So I fired up a game as Arabs on continents, and found out to my delight I was isolated. At around t150 I pumped out some camel archers and devastated the nearby continent - getting some good cities, I though my SV to be all but assured.

To my horror, after I got a caravel, I discovered that halfway around the world, Alex had literally taken over his entire continent. He was steamrolling and starting to runaway, and I couldn't catch up. So I did the only sensible thing: beeline to artillery/infantry, and mount a last-ditch assault on his technologically on-par but far larger army. To make matters worse, after capping a CS as a beachhead, the entire world DOW'ed me, and while India's pathetic pike assualt was merely a nuisance, I wasn't quite prepared for war with Alex.

I fortified my units until I got infantry, and began a slow slog through his jungle-filled 100 defense cities. Using landships as scouts I moved my artillery into position and took city after city using focused fire. Then Alex got bombers, and my artillery began dying quickly. But luck was on my side, for I had settled a city on uranium and could churn out a nuke. I picked a city to nuke and hit the jackpot: all 10 of his aircraft and 2 a-bombs were destroyed. Alex, being the jerk that he was, decided to ally with mercantile CSs I was friends with, and nearly plunged me into -10 unhappiness. But in a stroke of fortune, a newly-conqured city contained the Fountain of Youth, which solved my happiness problems. Using battleships I distracted and picked away at many of his land forces, though not without casualty.

Finally came the assault on his cap. It was an all-or-nothing attack: he had surrounded his 150-strength Athens with layers of units, so I nuked it to soften it up first. Artillery pounded and infantry marched, but something went terribly wrong: he had tanks and used them to flank my artillery, slowly picking them off. By then the siege was almost done, so I decided to use melee attacks to finish Athens off, and also destroy a mobile SAM. My bombers were at their limit and I actually had to sacrifice some.

I captured Athens. Alex took it back again. I darted in with a heavily-injured landship, then darted out. Alex sacrificed a lot of tanks to gain it back. I was down to 1 infantry, and got it back. I pressed next turn and held my breath - nothing happened. He had retreated, and I had acquired Athens with its 20 or so wonders.

Then, to make him pay for all the suffering he had caused my peoples, I spam-nuked Sparta, pounded it with rocket artillery, and walked right in. After mass-producing GDRs I captured his last city, Halicarnassus. Alex remained defiant and in denial to the very end, but I not 10 turns later I won my first SV on emperor on turn 354. It had been the closest game I've ever experienced, and I don't think I'll face something like that ever again. ;)
 
Many epic battles in all eras. Not sure if I have particularly good luck with it.

Still I am amazed how many people complain on AI while there is Community Patch which improves it.
 
Many epic battles in all eras. Not sure if I have particularly good luck with it.

Still I am amazed how many people complain on AI while there is Community Patch which improves it.

That's because most people tend to not try mods. Like me.

And they're mad at firaxis for shorting them on good AI.

Yeah I know my sig, its basically only mod I use >.>
 
I had a long epic battle twice against coastal based Venice and their CS in last 2 eras of the game.

First I took the Venice itself - which took me about 15 turns and then I attacked remaining cities which lasted for 20 turns. This might not sound like an epic battle but each turn took careful planning and unit positioning since airplanes were pretty much useless against 200+ strength cities with AA units inside. I'm proud of how it turned out, got a lot of war experience out of that.

All without nukes since I banned them in World Congress

Forgot to mention quite important detail. since all his cities were coastal I could use destroyers, battleships and missile cruisers though submarines were quite an annoyance while they lasted (there were about 10 to 15 of them in Venice's colors).
 
I had a pretty epic war in a multiplayer game once. But strangely enough, it was with AIs, not humans.

Playing as England, I started on a separate continent than my brother(who was my ally and the only other human player in the game). I made some early blunders, and my civ really didn't do that well for a long time. Later in the game, I took freedom, only to find myself surrounded by three order civs; Germany, to the northwest; Russia, to the northeast; and Austria, to the southeast. They were all at war with me at one point or another, sometimes at the same time. And most of the time I had little to no outside help, except CS allies. And even those were very few and far between.

Germany attacked from the northwest. I managed to beat them back, and began an offensive. I finally made it to Hamburg, and the siege probably took decades. Turn after turn, I kept bombarding until finally its health was low enough to take. I eventually made peace with them.

Russia had also attacked me from the northeast, and I was fighting a desperate war to the drive them back as well. I think I managed to take two or three of their cities. Then Austria attacked from the southeast. One of their units got far into my territory, and pillaged one of my trade routes(this was G&K), devastating my economy. They attacked and took my eastern city, Canterbury. After a desperate campaign-I think the city may have even changed hands again once or twice-I ended up in control of Canterbury once more. But they still would not make peace.

With the Royal Navy springing into action, I began a coastal campaign to take one of the Austrian cities. After a brutal fight, I took one of their cities on the coast. I probably couldn't have held it, so I ransomed it back in exchange for peace. Finally, my lands were safe, after a desperate battle of survival of one democracy against three communist states.

It seems like games were you're waging a desperate, brutal war are sometimes the funnest ones.
 
I guess I could relate to some stories here since Alexander was the enemy at the time. I didn't use epic speed though but I did use quick or standard, Howe, I don't really remember. I was using China and the chu ko nu unique unit against Alexander and I guess it wasn't an epic battle but more of an epic fail since I had it on Immortal difficulty. I was killing so many units that Alexander threw at me.. somehow, I was still able to keep the line going with chu ko nus but I guess I could've done better. To make a long story short, Alexander recovered the cities that I captured from him and he had air units. I didn't have anti airs atm to continue with the epic so I just alt+f4 to get out. .. it was a good game though.
 
Monty was my closest neighbor in one game - early war of course.

When it was over I had one unit with almost no health, but I also had his capital.

That was the closest war I've ever had.
 
The best war I've ever had was against Korea, Shaka and Ethiopia with the Netherlands on my side and I was playing as Morocco. The Mods i use are the promotions pack (adds a tonne of promotions for your units), Ethnic units, RED modpack and Smart AI and I was playing on Emperor difficulty, Fractal continents map. I spawned next to Brazil and Ethipia in my continent. Ethiopia wiped out Brazil and soon came after me. Fortunately I managed to hold of at a single choke point for a long time. Sadly Ethiopia and Shaka became friends and Shaka sent a naval invasion on me, I had to pull back from the choke and defend my home lands. I met William and became friends with him. Then I discovered Korea and Korea had almost and entire era of tech ahead of me. So to stop him I DOW him and William helped me. Korea falttened my invasion force (late rennaisance versus late industrial era). Ethipio soon managed to take one of my cities but I managed to take it back and with the help of the English navy (they helped me but soon got wiped out by the Siamese who was quite neutral throughout the game), I wiped out most of Ethipia except a few crappy cities he had here and there. Next I went after Shaka and since he does very poorly post industrial era I managed to beat him with the help of William. William was getting slaughtered by korea and korea almost had a tech win but we both teamed up and eventually beat Sejong. Best game I've ever had just because I was able to overcome all odds.
 
My first game on emperor, I was Rome and was chugging along toward SV with the only other Civ in contention being Wu, who was also looking to reach space. We were neighbors, with our border being separated by a mountain range with a coastal pass that was 3 tiles wide (coast to south, mountains to north. I had a city on my side of the pass, with a citadel placed 3 tiles west of my city, wich was 4 tiles east of their capital. We were locked in an epic stalemate, with artillery and planes pounding at any force that tried to cross the pass. The war lasted at least 100 turns before I was able to edge a space victory in 1960 something. I think she would have beaten me (huge empire, tons of science) but she was so distracted trying to push into my territory that she wasted hundreds of years of production on military units that I insta gibbed with artillery and planes. So silly. I was lucky she had no uranium in her massive borders. Very fun and tense though.
 
I once had a great naval war with order poly and me freedom Mayans. Neither of us new destroyers yet so we both had serious sub action. Anytime I tried to land on his land I was blown away in water by subs. My carrier was effective with 2 bombers and a fighter but I had to be carefully because his navy had way more subs than I expected. I lost everything except my carrier and we eventually made peace Jim not knowing I was launching final SS part next turn. So next turn before I launched I DoW on my dad Greece and knowing I was going to win nukes my carrier. WHO NUKES A CARRIER!!!! I did launch and won a SV
 
I used to play only marathon games (immortal), so there were always plenty of epic wars. My strategy was to play slowly, rarely losing a unit, mounting up XP, and eventually winning almost every game with a domination victory due to having super-soldiers.

Since I switched to standard speed (so I could relate to most players here), I have had some very fun wars. My problem, though, lies in the fact that, even with a great start and warmonger civ utilized properly, I can defeat 2 or 3 civs, but have yet to win a domination victory. I blame this on my old habits: a reluctance to lose units. In retrospect, I could have taken a lot of cities much more quickly if I was willing to take a few more casualties. This will be something I try going forward, as I just got finished losing to a scientific Caesar because I didn't take enough cities before my M. Cavalry became outdated (didn't help that I had to detour to get astronomy because I started on a solo island).

One epic fail/battle was when I drew a jungle start as Denmark. I decided I'd go with a "Nerdy Viking" approach, had a decent science start, and got my berserkers and catapults up and ready pretty early. My first target was, unfortunately, America. Washington got a salt start and became a wonder-monger (GL, Great Wall, Petra, and a few others). I hit him with 6 Berserkers, 6 cats, and a ranged scout/bowman. He had muskets (very early) and about 15 triremes to counter my embarked attacks. The war lasted several centuries, and I got several of his cities, but never the capital. By that time, I had to go play some defense because I was getting DoW'd, and it was pretty much game over.

So to address the OP, I've still had great wars, but no global victories. I'm almost thinking that I'll try the speed between Marathon and Standard (forgot what they call that), but I'm stubborn, and want to figure get a Domination Victory under my belt the "normal" way.

Marathon tactics do NOT work at standard speed.
 
Was one of my first games on King on the scrambled continents Earth map as Germany. I started in northern Asia with Alex to the east of me though a lot of bad terrain in between (Mostly tundra hills and small one tile lakes) we also had mountain ranges all to the south between our civs so no real flanking.

Started the game by killing off Mongolia. Alex decided to expand a lot and put Sparta near Berlin in a very defensive spot near a lake and hill. He put Argos to the north around more hills. He eventually declared war on me he manged to move his troops in well enough cause I was recovering from Mongolia war but I managed to hold him off though the counter attack was very hard cause of the rough terrain I could only move one tile at all times and knights didn't really help since he had Hoplites (later pikeman) out front with Cbows in his base and around it of course I couldn't flank cause of the mountains.

I eventually beat him by putting citadels down and making peace so I could move up a bit every time I had to do this multiple times but eventually won. Athens was a easy city but Argos, Corinith and especially Sparta took forever.
 
I have another epic.. I guess this one that I'm about to talk about wasn't in marathon or epic speed but it was about a epic battle that I had with Rome. I got Augustus with random civilizations once and I did do good for awhile, I was able to conquer about 1/3 of the world, vanilla style, but at that point I didn't know about the social policies and ideologies thing since that was new to me. So eventually everyone started to get unhappy and cities started to revolt to other empires. I took cities away from Germany, Shaka and I don't remember the other civilization, but at least I had made a religion. I started to lose the lead and eventually one of my cities revolted to china.. another gg, a loss but I got some good experience again.
 
It seems like games were you're waging a desperate, brutal war are sometimes the funnest ones.

I'm a builder, but this is why I like warmongers on my continent. it spices the game up.

Had a good old pagger with Isabella last night. It was emperor, epic speed and a standard continents map.

She was right next to me. We were the only two out of five on our continent with religions. I was catching up on science but had neglected my military. I had also annoyed her by planting a city in a place where she'd already destroyed a Danish one, grabbing two lux and a great placement, while touching her capital boundary. We'd been friends right from the start, although I knew my religion spreading was really pissing her off. I did a religion heavy start with a piety and tradition combo..I had Poland, so extra policies weren't a problem. Even at the end of the game I was still winning faith contests.

So she decced me. She had Great war flight and I had gone down the other path to try catch up on science and was really lagging militarily. I had to defend like mad with my few riflemen and cannons and crossbows. I had a hero rifleman who started the war with cover and rough terrain bonus fortified on a hill to slow their advance and give me a chance not to be swamped through the ZoC. He got bombed, shelled and meleed but survived and finished the war as infantry with about 4 new promotions. I was struggling as she swept her whole massive force to my new city. She was first in military and I was 8th. It was a really epic battle.

Then her troops started to pull back..I think if she'd kept going another few turns I would have had to pull back myself. Then a couple of turns later I realised she hadn't given up, she was switching the point of her attack to my main naval city, which was vital for trade. I had to switch my defence to the other city. Only problem was it was my land was like a horseshoe shape, and she could cut across the middle while I'd have to go round the outside. I had to suicide my only two UU to stop the rush while I got defences up. This was a bit easier, I'd grabbed a couple of war techs and now had great war infantry and artillery, still no air defence. I'd a couple of frigates that could help shell the invaders. The city sat just behind a choke point two squares wide between a mountain and the sea, and also with a river in front of the city. Behind the mountain was a thick forest with a city state, which slowed her flanking down. That turned into a massacre for her. Then my spy stole electronics and the victory was complete. My frigates popped into battleships and destroyed her remaining forces and started work on a coastal city. She had been demanding either one or two of my cities for peace up till then. Then she totally switched and offered me the city I was bombarding as a present for peace.

All the while, Denmark was sitting with a big army on my western border, so I had to keep troops back in case he went to war. I'd forward settled him so badly he never got his second city down, basically till the industrial era and he hated me.

Then I was the bloodthirsty one with the whole world :(
 
Actually, I'm currently in the middle of an epic battle in my current game (Maya, King). Polynesia is right next door, and he randomly declared war on me with this enormous army and navy, and I'm having a bit of a time fending him off. We're pretty much even in terms of military tech, too.
 
Actually, I'm currently in the middle of an epic battle in my current game (Maya, King). Polynesia is right next door, and he randomly declared war on me with this enormous army and navy, and I'm having a bit of a time fending him off. We're pretty much even in terms of military tech, too.


I'm pretty sure polys just hate Mayans because as I posted Earlier in this I had an epic battle with poly as Mayans .


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Many epic battles in all eras. Not sure if I have particularly good luck with it.

Still I am amazed how many people complain on AI while there is Community Patch which improves it.

You got me excited since I haven't been keeping up with modding and didn't know about this patch and I'm always interested in better AI. Then, I went and looked what it was about. Lo and behold, the mod comes from people drawing the same asinine conclusions that are prevalent on these boards and apparently balancing around these notions (example: That Tradition is *always* better than Liberty :rolleyes:), causing me to lose all interest. However, I assume there is a part of the mod that deals with the raw mechanics bugs (such as AI improvements) which I might be interested in so thanks for the headsup.

Sorry for the off-topic. On topic, my most recent game I randomed Aztecs, stuck between some quite fearsome opponents (Assyria, Zulu, Songhai). I switched from Honor opening to Liberty, hoping to out-eco them while defending with a much larger army than I usually build. When Shaka pounced on Ashurbanipal's sole city (neither had even a single expansion city around turn ~100, Emperor difficulty, these nutters were just building army and sitting around), I declared on Shaka on the same turn that he captured Assur. I still took heavy losses fighting Shaka's ridiculously oversized army but it netted me two capitals as well as the unanimous hatred from the remaining players players on the continent as well as ocean-crossing Kameha. Then, having eliminated everybody else on the continent, I mounted what I think is the largest late-renaissance invasion I have ever done against overseas Boudicca who had gone full wonder-spam bonanza with one of those crazy capital cities that contain all the wonders. Army upkeep was just short of 200 gold, enough to break even my considerable eco and I was into deficit spending. Since she had Oligarchy, defensive patheon bonus, Himeji and Great Wall I still lost the majority of that army but Edinburgh fell and since it was Aztecs the bloodbath was well worth it with major culture income. Glorious!
 
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