Early wars bringing you to your knees

How do you guys cope with early warmongering civs? I mean those that settle right next to you and block off any hope of your expansion plans and then DoW you and storm your capital/two or three cities you have settled at that time.

Maybe it's just bad luck but my last two games I've had Monty as my neighbour (need I say no more) and he's been testing my patience to say the least! Current game (England, small continents, standard speed, Immortal) I had two cities and shared a small continent with Monty. I knew he was coming and barely managed to survive the wave upon wave of unit spam. Eventually I managed to launch a counterattack and take his capital and raise the other two pointless cities he had settled.

Great feeling of satisfaction to have wiped him out but this is at a terrible cost - I have low happiness (not unhappy but borderline), low gold, very low culture and last in science. It is then an uphill struggle for a fair few turns to get everything back on track whilst hoping that no one else DoWs you. Only now, over 100 turns later, am I back on track and glad that I'm playing a Domination-only game because it would be near impossible for me to win a Cultural victory and I believe it would be extremely close to win a Science victory before the AI.

So, how do you guys cope with these disaster scenarios and ending up so far behind?

Have your intended garrison units go out to your intended sites in advance.
Then you just DOW the AI and enslave his settler to a worker BEFORE he founded the city.

At that point of the game, cities are extremely powerful vs units.

Agree with poster above - expect they will try and settle your lands and get some units out there to defend it! It is so much better to DOW and kill their settler than to wait and raze their cities. You may even get a worker out of the exchange.

Of course, you can also try to passively body block them until you can drop your own settler.

It's all about scouting and busting fog so you can see what's going on. Your units shouldn't be sitting in your cities waiting for enemies to show up. Use scouts, they're cheap.

OP is asking about UNIT spam, not settler spam, as far as I can tell...

My advice would be to post a scout or other unit between yourself and any nearby aggressive civs. The moment they start heading your direction, bribe them to attack someone else instead.

chazzycat said:

OP is asking about UNIT spam, not settler spam, as far as I can tell...

My advice would be to post a scout or other unit between yourself and any nearby aggressive civs. The moment they start heading your direction, bribe them to attack someone else instead.

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AI Unit spam in ancient / classical era: Just build Archers and upgrade them to Composites. Having one of them inside the city inside it plus just one or two more in nearby safe tiles will wipe out the AI's army. (For the next era, you want Crossbows)

You had the misfortune of spawning next to Monty. He always forward settles his neighbor(s) then DOWs them. Just like Shaka, Atilla, and Denmark he is programmed for early war which usually results in utter failure at some point. I find with Monty is he'll try it on only once if you don't denounce him for his deeds, then he'll be your friend.

As suggested earlier it's best to stop these forwarded cities being settled in the first place by either capturing the settler or blocking them off. If you spawn near a warmonger you must expect war. To stop being dragged to far behind it's best to just defend yourself and not concentrate on conquest. When you kill all your attackers units they will be more likely to give tribute.

Mounty is not the worst warmonger. I prefer to be near him to be near Isabella, Dido or Japan. They are multiple backstabber and really annoying warmonger.
With Mounty, many games you have to crush his army and you'll be easy for the rest of the game. Let its jaguar die into your wall and shoot its ranges units.

If you're not alone with a warmonger, you can send him against another civ (for 5 to 30 gpt). Sometimes, you'll be quiet for a long moment, sometimes only for 10 to 20 turns.
If you're alone, let it come. Destroy its army with your wall and your ranged units. Many times, it's extra gold in a peace deal. Sometimes it's just some turns lost for you.

On immortal you have to win before T400 or so. So a slow down after conquering a continent is not a problem for science or culture victory. But with England, I think it's a pity going to something other than domination on continents maps.

It sounds like your play style is re active. Which is great through out the game, but in the first 50 turns, proactive gameplay is essential on higher difficulties. Meaning that my build order is double scout, sometimes an archer if a warmonger is my target. I use these units to find my closest neighbour, or the neighbour that I think is going to spam settlers and units. I surround their capital and wait for the opportune moment to snag a worker, and their first settler/warrior combo. This hinders the target greatly. You can farm their initial warrior units easily with high ground scouts, on heal. You can take it further and nail their next set of worker and settler/warrior. By this time the AI will often offer you everything they have. I like to make them wait and suffer until I've claimed the land, then I take everything and send a caravan. Often times after the caravan they'll offer a DOF.

Thank you all for your constructive comments. This helps a lot! As chazzycat I was asking about unit spam but we can't have a discussion about unit spam without mentioning settlor spam too! In the particular game I am currently playing Monty actually attacked my capital and then brought up two settlors (which I thought was actually quite clever of him).

I'm pretty familiar with how to defend a city but I think this hit the nail on the head...

Dylan96B said:

It sounds like your play style is re active. Which is great through out the game, but in the first 50 turns, proactive gameplay is essential on higher difficulties.

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Perhaps I should build a few more units. My trouble is I build the bare minimum and then go back to my usual peaceful builder fetish. I'll scout the AI but I've never taken one of their settlors before so will certainly have to try this.

I do find the higher difficulties (Emperor+) a challenge for the first 100 turns and build more buildings than I do units. I am still concerned about how you afford a decent enough army in the ancient/classical era though (especially if you have only discovered one civ and have luxuries you can't sell).

I'm annoyed with myself because doing really well now and I know I'm going to win; it's just a shame it's x amount of turns later than it should. The war with Monty went on for 70 turns.

It's possible against all AI's, but more difficult vs situational civs and warmongers. Situation civs such as: inca in mountains (hard to get the worker/scout away when they can double move), Monty in jungle as his warriors move over jungle tiles more efficiently), but still possible. Warmongers such as the Zulu's, Alex, Japan, etc. Are unit spammers, but often they'll wander their army away to clear a barb camp, and then you strike. Although, they'll never make peace. Unless they want to slide out some settlers or until your military worries them. Peaceful civs are a breeze to enslave and make into a peaceful neighbour. Always look where there first trade route is going, free 100g.

The key is to prevent their expansions, so you're not suffering warmonger penalties from taking cities.