Need some help

[Gojo]

I need major help with Conquest victories. I win often when I pull off a Cultural, Diplomatic, Space Race, or any other victory. Except for Conquest. I always start out well, with a military that is much larger than my opponent's, but after a while I start building less and less and focusing on other tasks, and the I figure out that their military is suddenly much stronger than mine! And when I do fight, the enemy usually overpowers me. So far, I haven't defeated even one opponent in war!

So, what exactly am I doing wrong? It seems like you need to continually build military units throughout the whole game, and as I mentioned, for some reason I just stop after a while, because I think I have enough for now, and in the end it's not even close to enough! Some help would be appreciated.

[bingen]

When in a war or preparing for a war then that has to get top priority. Otherwise, it is not necessary to build many troops at all.

Instead of overpowering your enemies by sheer numbers, use these things to keep losses down.

1. Alliances.
2. More alliances
3. Superior weaponry
4. Bombarment units (in masses)
5. Armies
6. Use the terrain to your advantage.
7. Target enemy resources first if possible

[Tomoyo]

I think you aren't attacking when you should. You say that, at a point, you have a superior military. Use it!

[Sir Bugsy]

I don't know what level you are playing at, but it sounds like you may have some tactical problems... how you fight your battles. The AI is very poor at making tactical decisions. You should be kicking some serious AI butt (unless you're playing at Deity or Sid.) I would look at the war academy, some of Sir Pleb's hall of fame games, and GK2 over on the the Succession Game page.

[Gojo]

Ok, thanks everyone. I think I will check in the War Academy.

[Turner]

When you go to war with one AI, make sure you get the rest of the AI to dogpile them as well. This will improve your units longevity, as you won't be fighting as many wars.

[Aggie]

I agree with the statements above that you could do very well with a weaker military, combined with good use of alliances.

But it also sounds like you are trying to build every possible improvement in cities. If your goal is a military one, don't focus on things like colosseums, cathedrals, even temples. Get your hapiness from luxuries, marketplaces. Depending on whether or not you want to research yourself you can also think about skipping universities and libraries. Now, without having to build all these improvements you have more options to focus on military.

[kb2tvl]

For the conquests, I tend to build a worker or two at the begining. A well used worker can be far more valuable than a building. Also, moblization is super valuable when fighting. Before moblization, building infrastructure and some military is ok. After moblization, you are hurting yourself with the exception the WWII conquest where you are unable to turn it off.

Going moblize -> build units/save money -> sign peace treaty -> cash rush buildings partially built with moblized production -> remoblize... is efficient.

[Dragonsbain]

Even if you are behind in units, I have found that infastructure can make al the difference in beating the AI.