On War

[Mesopotamia]

Does CivIII present war in a counterproductive manner? That is, do you think a civilization can advance further by a primarily aggressive or non-aggressive strategy?

[Cerryl]

I am always starting wars. I only play on Standard maps and have found the only way to get enough room to setup, is to rid yourself of your neighbors.

[Grotius]

I rarely start wars, even when I should. It's just not my play style. The AI attacks me all the time anyway. <g>

I like fighting wars once they've started, but I like to be in a position of clear superiority. I'm afraid I'm a bit too cautious about defining what's "superiority."

My most satisfying victory was a recent diplomatic victory. I fought a couple of defensive wars, but mostly I developed, traded, conducted diplomacy. It was great fun.

[cat98]

I usually have a healthy dose of both in my games. I concentrate on expansion, infrastructure and tech. When I run into another civ that just happens to have something I want (territory for starters)I blitz it without warning, and raze most of its citys. After that I start my new workers on roads and have my swarm of settlers move in. Rinse and repeat. After a few thousand years I control most of the world. Though it does seem kind of strange, a nice peacefull (isolationist) civ with a great culture (loads of cash) and a sizable amount of tech (not to mention a disgracefull rep) suddenly gets mad and attacks another just because its national color doesn't look pleasing to its rulers eye. Just imagine Canada taking over Turkey just to name it Chicken... No wonder all other rulers hate me.

ALL HAIL PHARAOH!!!

[Furry Spatula]

this is how i play ...

1) set up and keep everyone happy

2) kick the living s**t out of everyone around me and secure my continent.

I dont like to have wars in which the enemy is still standing, it just causes problems later on in the game. ANd if its early in the game and you decide to kick some German but to get land and you dont kill them, not only do you have the most agressive(tied with zulus i think) civ next door, but they have a grudge against you.

[minilump]

I particularly like to expand as far as I can fairly early in the game, without any military action. Once I have made sure that my home cities are well fortified with the best defensive unit of that age, I will attack in mass quantities of the best offensive unit of that age. I normally don't provoke anyone, but if they attack me and either take over or destroy a city, they will pay!