What I learned: increasing my difficulty

Prozac1964

Warlord
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
186
Location
Florida
Ok so, I'm still a newb, and have been playing on Settler since I got the game a couple of months ago. Well one of the people that always post on my threads told me to bump up my difficulty so I bumped it up 2 notches to Warlord. Here's what I learned from playing at a more difficult level:

1. Other civs will actually declare war on YOU
2. When they do, they will be highly organized
3. They will take one of your outlying cities
4 You will be pissed off :mad:

5. There are a lot more barbarians to contend with
6. The barbs are stronger and more aggressive :eek:

7. Other civs will take your ruins even if you discovered them and are 1 move from claiming the goodies
8. You can't leave anyone unguarded, I had a worker, a scout and even a General captured by placing them just 1 tile over the border.:cry:

9. All the other civs must be going for culture victories because they are all riding the top of the scoreboard while I'm going for a dom vic standing in 5th place. Hmmm:crazyeye:

Oh well, I enjoy the learning process of Civ 5, and that's good cuz I'm sure getting schooled. :D
 
They arent as organized as you think, why just today hiawatha insulted me with a pathetic excuse for an assult. He sent 6 mohawk warriors at one of my cities which not only accomplished absolutely nothing but gave me the opportunity to wipe him off the face of the earth without being seen as a monster. If you are doing dom victory be cautious about your diplomacy. If you establish yourself as a warmonger to the world literally all the other civs in the game will team up against you and kill you. Instead its best to wait for the right moment to strike. I have had success with finding a civ to ally with and then declaring war on whoever they want to declare war on. I then just take the cities of the person my ally wants to kill and eventually that will get you quite a bit. Just make sure you are taking the cities and not your friend and that you can manage the unhappiness. Also its important to make sure you are the stronger teammate so that you can dissuade your teammate from betraying you, although some civs naturally are loyal there are some obvious traitors like Attila for example. Another reason its important to have a friend when you warmonger is because the moment you are seen as a warmonger no one will give you a fair trade, besides your friend that is. Going for dom victory naturally sets you up for science victory as well however I will warn that big empires depend on themselves for resources as opposed to small empires which depend on trade. As such you will likely need to find a way to prosper without trading with many other civs in the game which can be hard at times.
 
actually the part about AI DOWing and being highly organized is not accurate -- they usually don't stand a chance in wars even with number advantages. However, you might get into trouble getting denounced by a ton of AIs at the same time.

and about the ruin taking and workers stolen, that's just normal, you can go worker stealing early as well
 
One perk of increasing your difficulty to the higher levels (especially up from Settler) is that you have a better chance of trading Luxuries and signing RAs because the AI will have more Gold and GPT.
 
Don't overestimate the AI for war.

Many times, especially in the beginning, I'll build just enough to defend my cities (1 archer, CB, Catapult, something ranged garrisoned in the city) plus maybe 1-2 units that can guard my workers from barbs. I've had 2-3 of my neighbors wardec me once once. Basically I turtle down and let my cities and ranged units pick their army apart. The AI does not seem to place a priority on building ranged or seige units, so it makes it very easy to weather storms. Unless I have a particularly nasty neighbor like Shaka, I will often do this on purpose. I will have enough for proper defense of cities, and bait nearby civilizations to wardec me.

My current play through (I play epic and marathon games only) I had an early war start where I was around 6-7 on the military demographic scale (out of 8), getting wardec'd by #2,3,4 (I think). Without even leaving my territory, I weathered the storm, and as soon as I put my units on the offensive (with all their fresh XP) they all wanted peace and I ended up with 2 cities in prime locations and 1 that I razed just from the peace offers. During those wars, my military went from bottom, to #3 and eventually to #1 after that and there remained peace on the continent unless I found an excuse for war (spies getting caught by me usually) so I could take a few choice cities.

My all time favorite wars this game have been the ones where all I've done is war dec'd with allies on another continent for a war on their continent. I was allied with a lot of the CS's over there. I never even sent a unit. I did park some frigate off the CS's to help provide firepower to defend them. That's how I got my foothold on that continent. Without sending a unit, I got peace offers and ended up with extra cities.

BTW, go steal some workers yourself. Especially from CS's.

Almost everything about your Civ as you go up in difficulty, will start out slower.
 
I can't remember the last time I've been DOWed, despite playing on Prince and being the wuss in game (no army? except my focus on getting Archers in cities since i find them useful)

Strange.

The thing is, when you bump your difficulty twice as much, then you are in for a challenge. But it's a learning curve.

You can always bump down, get the hang of Chieftain, and when you are ready, go up to Warlord again, and then Prince, the King, then Immortal, then Diety and then whatever is in between xD.
 
Yes, at Warlord they will declare on you, and they are very good at locating your border city that has (somewhat) weaker defenses.

However, they only have one offensive tactic; bring melee units and conduct a frontal assault.
If you have archers and a catapult or two, you can slice them up from a distance. Garrison a ranged unit in your city, and shoot at them when they are two hexes away. Remember that only melee units can actually capture your city, so don't shoot at his archers first. He might lower your defenses a bit, but you can kill any archers which the AI brings *after* you kill the melee units.
 
They arent as organized as you think, why just today hiawatha insulted me with a pathetic excuse for an assult. He sent 6 mohawk warriors at one of my cities which not only accomplished absolutely nothing but gave me the opportunity to wipe him off the face of the earth without being seen as a monster. If you are doing dom victory be cautious about your diplomacy. If you establish yourself as a warmonger to the world literally all the other civs in the game will team up against you and kill you. Instead its best to wait for the right moment to strike. I have had success with finding a civ to ally with and then declaring war on whoever they want to declare war on. I then just take the cities of the person my ally wants to kill and eventually that will get you quite a bit. Just make sure you are taking the cities and not your friend and that you can manage the unhappiness. Also its important to make sure you are the stronger teammate so that you can dissuade your teammate from betraying you, although some civs naturally are loyal there are some obvious traitors like Attila for example. Another reason its important to have a friend when you warmonger is because the moment you are seen as a warmonger no one will give you a fair trade, besides your friend that is. Going for dom victory naturally sets you up for science victory as well however I will warn that big empires depend on themselves for resources as opposed to small empires which depend on trade. As such you will likely need to find a way to prosper without trading with many other civs in the game which can be hard at times.

Which CIVs are betrayers vs. loyal friends when playing your style?
 
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