When do you declare war?

[CivAl]

After the initial "peaceful" expansion phase, what time do you choose to declare war, if you have a choice? Are there gaps in tech where offensive units temporarily outstrip defensive units, so you won't come up against much resistance.

[Furry Spatula]

It depends on how much more advanced than the other guy you are. If the other guy gets musketmen then its time to halt the way untill you get artilary, loads of em, or untill you get tanks, Cavalry wont cut it against anything more than pikemen, well atleast in my experience it isn't worth it. Just get cavalry asap and hope block off all saltpeter in your enemies land, then go for an attack. when infantry come in its best to let them be untill you can soften them down with your artilary.

well just a thought.

[Angmar]

There are a few steps in technology were I like to attack and when I will not fight a war unless I have to. I will always go for Iron Working first and then quickly build Swordsmen and attack someone right away. Once Pikemen show up on the world I will wait around until Cavalry to attack. I will then attack until Riflemen or Infantry depeneding on numbers. Once Infantry shows up on the world I dont like to attack till I have lots of tanks, artillery or bombers.

Once I have tanks, artillery and bombers there is nothing out there that will discourage me from attacking. Cavalary following in the bombers or after an artillery barage will even take out heavily fortified massive cities!

[War4War]

As soon as you get knights use them. They're a great unit....until gunpowder is discovered. Then wait for cavalry. And once you get tanks nothing can stop you anymore.

I like to attack for specific reasons. I hate long wars since your republic/democracy falls apart then and communism sucks for development. So those reasons would be:

1) I need resources, either strategic or luxuries. But mostly strategic. I like to trade for luxuries. In one game I had no oil and no aluminum.... you can't build a big army without those. And the AI was requesting ridiculous things in exchange. So they paid the price...

2) A close neighbour is blocking my expansion (early game). Those wars are fun since most cities are poorly defended. With a well rounded "army" (swordsmen, catapults, horsemen, knights later) you can get through anything. And you don't need a lot of units too.

3) Near the end game I like to hit the most powerful civs to cripple and/or destroy them. Those are massive wars with dozens and dozens of units. Good preparation is the key!

A war has to have a point. Anyway that's my opinion.

[CrazyDuck]

why not Calvary against Musketmen, Furry Spatula?

with the speed advantage they can quite easily overturn musketmen

[jisc]

Is declaring war during diplomacy will blacken not your reputation? And when attacking while you have a peace treaty, will this hurt your reputation?

[Psychlone]

Declaring war does seem to tarnish your diplomacy. It's usually not too hard to build tensions to the point where a civ will declare war on you. Make outrageous ultimatums every turn, get them mad, and as the AI seems to have no respect for your borders, you should be able to give them the get out or declare war ultimatum, and get the war you seek. Either that, or spend the gold on a risky espionage mission to fail, that will almost always get you a war, too, if done to a civ with poor relations and a comparable or larger army.

[Furry Spatula]

CrazyDuck about that cavalry against musketmen. I feel you have too many losses. I just like to minimize my losses so i try to stay technologicaly advanced and attack before the next set of deffending units stay in. Its just a preference but i prefer being more of a pacifist. Also i tend to be a steam roller in wars, but if i start having heavy losses it takes a while to get my re-enforcements back up to front lines.

Cannons work ok though. Its just a matter of pounding the defending units untill they dont pose much of a risk to your attackers. It just i get a little impatient and cannons move slowly. And when i see a cavalry fall to an attacking knight or a deffending longbowman i get a little irritated. It just doesn't make much sense but ohwell

Its not too hard to get your reputation untarnished though. But there is a catch 22 in it. What i do is declare war, then i get all the civs around me to declare and alliance with me against the foe. If its a MPP than they get even happier. So when you start taking cities and if you have an MPP than you will see the other civs become gracious, next thing you know your reputation isn't tarnished, just make sure you dont make peace, than you take a hit in the reputation and you need to declare war before you attack.

[Arrian]

Cavalry cut down musketmen like grass. They're still effective against riflemen, given superior numbers. Only infantry can stop Cavalry cold. The AI does a poor job of upgrading, so even if they do have riflemen, it's usually 1 per city, with musketmen and pikemen underneath.

I usually avoid ancient warfare, unless I'm the Iroquois or Persians. I will often fight in the Middle Ages, since Knights do rock (great combo of attack, defense and speed). The Cavalry rush (pre-Nationalism) is probably the most effective time to fight - I spend a large part of the middle ages pumping out knights, which become Cavalry for 20gold each, so I have a lot of Cav.

I usually do not fight with regular tanks, though it can be done, but instead wait for Modern Armor... if I fight in Modern Times at all. By then I'm strong enough I no longer need to fight, and only do so if attacked or if I decide "what the hell?" and go for domination.

So to answer the original question, yeah there are times were offensive units have the advantage: Cavalry, pre-nationalism is #1. And like I said, build enough Cav, and riflemen won't stop them either. Also, if you are lucky enough to get Knights in decent numbers before others get pikemen (rare, but possible), they do terrible, awful things to spearmen. Finally, Modern Armor vs. anything except for Mech. Infantry or enemy Modern Armor.

-Arrian

[Hobbes]

When I think I can win.

[zebomba]

"When I think I can win."
Nice idea. But sometimes you don't know you can win.
Knights stomp musketmen, cavalry can beat riflemen, and even horsemen can kill pikemen GIVEN NUMERIC ADVANTAGE. If you send 6-12 against a single city, there's a high chance of success.
But refrain yourself from sending warriors against spearmen and cavalry against infantry, since the odds are terrible.

Don't wait too long before engaging in a necessary war, the more you wait the more advanced the enemy gets.

[Thomas Davie]

I won't launch major wars until I am in Monarchy (avoiding Republic). I always make sure I am at peace when I switch to democracy. And then a massive military buildup along with science production until about 2000. At this point, I'll switch to Communism, cut back on the amount of gold devoted to science, and generally have enough cash to prosecute a war for 50 trns with 120+ units, all of them modern. Also, I'll try never to fight a multi front war without 10,000 in my treasury.

Tom

[CivAl]

Another Q: as the Egyptians, is it better to build War Chariots for cheaper and upgrade to Knights, or Horsemen for slightly more expensive, also up-g to Knights, and they don't need roads? Because they seem to have the same combat numbers....

[Arrian]

Since I've been playing as the Egyptians recently, I'll take a shot at that question.

The War Chariot is essentially a cheap horseman (less shields to build) that can't travel in Jungle or Mountains (forest too? I forget)w/o a road. Depending on the geography, that can make your decision for you. Using them will trigger a Golden Age, of course.

What I've usually done is build several war chariots early on. They are only for mobile defense and unit count so I don't get attacked early, so I'm not concerned about the terrain rules. Also, a city that would take 6 turns to produce a horseman can punch out a war chariot in 4 or so (aproximate numbers, but you get the idea).

Later, I build horsemen. They have no terrain restrictions and are 20gold cheaper to upgrade to knights. I will have enough war chariots lying around to trigger a golden age if I wish, but that's it.

-Arrian

[zebomba]

Build both.
Chariots shouln't be able to cross forests, but they do.