How to deal with a bully military Civ that conquers all other Civs?

I usually play on a Continents map on the Standard map size. My goal is to usually be near the average in terms of military size, so that I don't get bullied. But, there's often one strong and one weak Civ on the same island, and the strong one eventually goes to war with the weak one.

What's a good way to deal with these guys? Usually if I don't involve myself, then the bully Civ will eventually have so many new puppet cities that their Science is through the roof and they beat me to a Science victory. But I'm often hesitant to go to war with the Civ, too, because of the diplomatic hit and the fact that I don't usually have a strong military, although I think I can probably help fend off attacks because I usually build Composite Bowman (and its upgraded variants) for defense purposes.

I sometimes try to bribe the bully Civ to go to Peace with the weak Civ, too, but that doesn't always work (the option is sometimes grayed out because they don't want Peace) or they ask for way too much.

Another option might be to ask other Civs to go to war with the bully Civ? But that doesn't always work, for practical purposes, because the Civs have to be neighbors in order for this to be effective since the AI has a tough time moving units across an island.

have you tried liberating the cities that have been puppeted? Your units get good war experience, it weakens the enemy, your liberator loves you and you get negative war monger points.

I just had a game like this where Greece kept attacking the city states and Russia bordering me. I liberated the city states, Moscow twice and other Russian cities. I just kept my army in Russia with open borders and had the war miles from my own country. Greece eventually gave up and Russia was pretty much permanently allied to me.

The best option would be to declare war on the warmongering civ and liberate the cities they took from others, if you're intent on staying peaceful. Liberation is not warmongering, so you will receive a diplomacy bonus for starting this war, rather than a penalty.

monkeymcbain said:

have you tried liberating the cities that have been puppeted? Your units get good war experience, it weakens the enemy, your liberator loves you and you get negative war monger points.

I just had a game like this where Greece kept attacking the city states and Russia bordering me. I liberated the city states, Moscow twice and other Russian cities. I just kept my army in Russia with open borders and had the war miles from my own country. Greece eventually gave up and Russia was pretty much permanently allied to me.

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Yeah I tried that in my last game. The Mayans were beating up Korea. I went to war with Maya and Liberated some Korean cities, but my army was so crippled that I had to sue for Peace. But Maya was still at war with Korea, so he eventually took all the cities again, this time for good. After that I just let it be. Maybe I should have built up an army to take them back?

For now, I'm thinking that I will just let warmongers do what they do, and I'll only intervene if there's a chance they will beat me in a Science race, such as if they are way too far ahead of me technology-wise.

Mr. Grieves said:

The best option would be to declare war on the warmongering civ and liberate the cities they took from others, if you're intent on staying peaceful. Liberation is not warmongering, so you will receive a diplomacy bonus for starting this war, rather than a penalty.

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Okay thanks that's a good tip. But I guess I'll just have to wait for the bully to take a few cities before I can intervene then. But once that happens, I'll Liberate the cities, then sue for Peace when I'm done.

Is there a way to know who was the original owner of a city? Besides determining from the city name and whether it's Puppeted or not, of course.

if you want the weak civ to stay alive, disrupt the warmonger by pillaging his strategic resources and trade routes and send a couple units over for support

a broke civ is a weak civ

Build nukes and place them on subs near the warmonger you're worried about. If he DoWs, nuke his major cities. If he starts to build ship parts, nuke his major cities. It won't stop him but it'll slow him down a lot. Usually enough to win.

If you have Open Borders with the weaker civ and you don't want to go to war with the stronger civ, another option is to physically block the stronger civ's units with yours. They can't capture a city if they can't get to it. Either surround the cities with your units or, if possible, place your units in a line between the 2 civs' territories. Although, this will usually take a lot of units and require significant maneuvering each turn.

Denounce that civ. If other leaders in the game also share your convictions then it might be a good idea to take mathers into your own hands and stop the bully.

Gary King said:

I went to war with Maya and Liberated some Korean cities, but my army was so crippled that I had to sue for Peace.

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I am hardly the best player, and I often reload to try a different strategy after loosing a city, but I think you need to improve your warfare. If you are fighting Maya on Korean turf, you should be able to keep your units alive (and thus well promoted), even if you are an era behind in tech. (Being out numbered is a given, but 1UPT makes that quite manageable.)

But Maya was still at war with Korea, so he eventually took all the cities again, this time for good.

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One thing to try, and again reloading is a good way to experiment with this, is to wait on DoWing Maya until the very turn he makes peace with Korea. Be building and positing your units in anticipation of this. The AI seems reluctant to completely kill another civ, especially on their first DoW against that civ. As you then liberate Korean cities, you will instantly get a nice buffer that protects your wounded units, so you can be very aggressive on the turn you plan for the city to fall.

There are two things to watch out for. The capturing unit may be teleported outside the city, on the Maya side of the city, leaving it vulnerable to a ranged counter-attack. (Your other wounded units will be screened by the city and Maya will not have LoS.) Because the AI is an idiot, you also have to watch out for Korea signing open borders with Maya.

Is there a way to know who was the original owner of a city? Besides determining from the city name and whether it's Puppeted or not, of course.

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Sorry, why is this not enough information? Granted, some of the city names are not familiar, but given the context of the nearby civs, it seems like this would be a very rare problem in actual game play. Reload if you liberate a city and it goes to an unexpected and undesirable owner. Often you cannot view a city before making the liberate/keep decision, so some players reload for that reason too.

If he's a bully, he can't be popular. DOF with the others civs, denounce, and fight together against him.

The problem is if you wait, he gets too powerful. I always believe you need to keep a bully down. If you don't take cities, just destroy his units, and pillage his land, take his workers.

You have to adapt your game to the situation. I like to go a-conquering, but wait til cross bows. My current game got caught between Attila and Bismark, who went after me from the start, so I had to adapt and build up sooner, or I would be dead (soon they will be).