Am I Playing too Passively?

Lately I've noticed that when playing Civ I don't really have an army at all until I'm attacked or the medieval era. I'm wondering if I should play more aggressively.
I'm very peaceful until an AI attacks and forces me to militarize, but once they attack me the war machine starts rolling. I really want to declare war earlier but I don't see how without losing too much (gold, productions, units, etc.)
Also when I am in a war I tend to sit around on defense because I don't want to lose ANY units.
I have a feeling I'd do pretty well at conquest if I wasn't so afraid of casualties.
How can I fix this problem? I'm trying to improve my game and work up in difficulties (currently on King) so any off topic advice is also appreciated.
Thanks!

From my experience, the questions you pose are the hardest to answer. I am a pretty comfortable deity player (though not exactly through domination) and I also struggle to balance empire building vs. war-production.

Obviously building units will slow down where your empire could be, so ideally you'd want it to pay off in some way by crippling a strong AI, capturing helpful wonders, detering a strong AI from declaring war on you, etc.. When its worth it and the exact time is not always obvious.

In terms of actual battle tactics and aggression, I have definitely tried to lose as few units as possible and fallen into the trap of not being able to advance. Often your opponent can keep pumping out units as quickly as you are killing them if they are big and powerful enough. Sometimes you need to push in and cripple them by taking a city or cutting off their tactical supply lines even if it means losing a few units. Once you start getting highly promoted units, you can try to keep those units safe while throwing away some of the cheaper, probably melee units. I make quite a few sacrifices in my war campaigns to keep the units I want safe, perhaps this is already a sign that I'm not doing a great job

Its very situational, I have a feeling the best battle tactician is the player who understands these trade-offs the most.

I think the short answer here is on King you simply don't NEED war. Hell, on Emperor, you do not need it either.

So, what I would tell you is, for the time being, worry less about wars, and worry more about your overall micromanging and playstyle. I use *very* small armies - 10 to 20 and win wars on Diety all the time.

Do not be afraid of losing units by the way. Just losing experienced ranged ones. Now that is a problem. Stack bonuses in your military city so you have a lot of promotions off the hop, and go from there.

Yes, I think anyone who doesn't use conquest to expand their empire is losing out. See my recent Poland video series for an example of how conquest makes other victories much easier.

Conquest is definitely the key part of my game that's severely lacking but I honestly can't make myself learning it not to be good but at least half-decent. One of these days I'll give it another try, maybe with this coming DCL, because with 2/4 (science and diplomacy) tangible VCs wrapped up under the *sit back and win quietly* category, the game is starting to run out of steam, no pun intended

I'll do my best to make a good LP and maybe you can play along with me, Stormtrooper412? I'm not the best, and you will see up-close how sloppy my war is, but the offer's there if you want?

Nice. You may be sloppy by your own standards but definitely several flights ahead of me surely

I have not tried the DCL yet as I have been trying (and failing) to get traction for consistent SV wins. (But I guess that is part of point of the DCL?) I have never really gotten close to a Dom win at Deity.

@consentient, I would like to take you up on your LP offer as well.

Yes, well I don't recommend the current DCL as a training ground. I've just played to turn 27 myself and gave up when I saw what was 'afoot'. I'll generate another map and make an LP of that. If someone wants to play along with me, I'll share the map.

Try watching LPs, I would recommend checking out some of Marbozir's videos on youtube. He plays on epic (Deity) so things are a little different, but I've learned a ton about tactics, timing, diplomacy of going to war, etc. from watching his videos. His game with the Mongols is like start to finish battling and is super entertaining.

I was never much of a warmonger myself but watching those videos made me want to try it, and now I have a lot of fun with it. I'm not great at it and often will fall behind in science if I start too early, but it's a good learning experience.

Keep in mind you can win Diplomatic/Science/Culture victory on Deity without firing a shot (or, worst case, fighting short defensive wars). That's not to say you SHOULDN'T go to war or anything, just that if you prefer non-violence you certainly don't need to war.

consentient said:

See my recent Poland video series for an example of how conquest makes other victories much easier.

Click to expand...

Poland on salts makes other victories much easier.

adcarrymaokai said:

Poland on salts makes other victories much easier.

Click to expand...

True, but had I stayed put and gone for SV or CV, I'd have had a harder time than if I took the fight to my neighbours or, as in this case, wiped them out. It meant I only had 3 people to overcome with tourism. Had I turtled for a peaceful CV, Arabia especially would have accumulated substantial lifetime culture.