Troops

[surfersjk]

Hi everyone. I would like a little advice about the game I am currently playing. I am playing as the Romans, with the opposition including the Egyptians and the Greeks. Having been to war with the Greeks already, and coming out on top, I decided to build towards cultural achievements. All is going well, but I have noticed an hideously large Egyptian army heading towards my general area. I do have a good amount of troops myself, but not many based in the area the Egyptians are heading towards. My relationship with them is good, Cleopatra being polite towards me. And I keep giving them little sweeteners (gold). My question is: Can I trust them to leave me alone, or should I build up troops where she is headed and move others to the threatened area? Being new to the game I am not sure how civilizations tend to act, and do not want to be caught out.
Thanks for reading this,
Kev.

[Plux]

The Egyptians are probably going for the weakest part of your empire, and will indeed provoke a war. Most of the times an enemy army went into my empire that happened. Only when another civ of which Cleopatra is not too fond, is in the direction they are heading, it could be they are just passing by, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Capt Tyranus]

Don't trust any of the AI leaders, no matter how polite they seem. In the end, there can only be one leader and the computer knows it.

Cleopatra will turn on you in a heartbeat. SPECIALLY if she perceives you to be week. Paradoxically, sending some troops to the frontier may actually help defuse the situation and make her look for another victim.

[Catt]

Originally posted by surfersjk
Can I trust them to leave me alone, or should I build up troops where she is headed and move others to the threatened area? Being new to the game I am not sure how civilizations tend to act, and do not want to be caught out.
Thanks for reading this,
Kev.

In a recent game I got hemmed in very early and never could produce enough military units to challenge the "big brother" Chinese civilization sharing my continent. I prepared for a Chinese offensive by building what defenses I could, all the while trying like mad to catch up in techs and generate a technological advantage -- shooting for either a diplomatic win, a spaceship win, or a powerful tech advantage and a short, decisive war (i.e., first to mech infantry with immediate upgrade).

I traded relentlessly with China, and maintained a RoP agreement with Mao for hundreds of years, paying whatever I had to in the hopes that it would stem his thoughts of conquest. Managed to avoid war for hundreds and hundreds of years -- Mao was either "Polite" or "Gracious" to me the entire game up until the 1600's. Sometime around 1650 AD, Mao offers me a mutual prtotection pact -- I gladly accept, knowing that this will buy me 20 turns of peace with Mao. Mao is "Gracious." I am also then trading Mao a luxury or two -- very valuable for his larger population.

Gracious Mao then sneak attacks me, abusing his RoP by attacking a city deep behind the front lines, and breaking his MPP that he offered 3 turns before! (BTW - he didn't move a stack of units behind the lines and then attack -- he just attacked with 2 infantry units ).

Lesson: Never, ever, ever trust the AI -- they can be just as sneaky and deceitful as humans -- trust in a strong military deterrent.

[Sanaz]

They'll attack unless you build up the defenses. Remember, a strong military allows the culture to grow more freely (and a strong economy allows both to grow faster). Keep growing all in balance, but now I'd focus on military - at least relocate some to the weak side.

[surfersjk]

Thanks for the replies, lads. They were helpful. I didn't think I could trust the A1, now I know I can't. I will follow your advice and build up more military, maybe even attack them myself, as their strongest unit is the swordsman and I now have the longbowman.
Thanks again,
Kev.

[Mr Spice]

If they are already either close to or within your territory it may be too late for you to build a strong enough military. One alternative that could work in your case is to declare war on some civ that is neighbouring Egypt but not you, then sign a military alliance with Egypt against that civ. The Egypt units will then turn towards their new threat. Since Egypt is between you and the other civ, you will not have to fight the war yourself. In 20 turns, when Egypt has lost some territory (their units being too far off to make it back in time, hehe) you can sign peace with the other civ. Egypt is now too weak to be a serious threat to you and hopefully you have had time to build up your own army. You might even want to attack the now weakened Egypt to get some good parts of territory.

This strategy usually works well, but is not cheap to carry out.

[Shabbaman]

This one works the same way, but is cheaper most of the time:

Sign a MPP with the Egyptians and get someone to declare war on you. I do this 'all the time', mostly by demanding the withdrawal of troops in my territory. The AI gets pissed of by that.

Another small tip: you can check with the military advisor how strong your forces are compared to the egyptians. As long as your forces are weaker than theirs, you can expect an attack. Please note that the AI only counts units, not unit strength (this works the other way around too: a 'strong' AI in the modern age still has a lot of obsolete units. Go panzers go!)

In short: bash their heads!

[Kilroy]

My suggestion would be to ask for a right of passage treaty and if she refuses, demand she leave. If she refuses to leave and declares war while she's in your territory, it's a reputation hit for her plus you'll have her contained to the edge of your empire. If she accepts the ROP and still attacks it's an even bigger reputation hit for her. And, if she accepts the ROP and doesn't attack - crisis averted.

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

it might be a good idea to fortify some Legionaries on mountains and hills.....

[Knowze Gungk]

I belive, that to understand the AI, you must ask yourself "What would I do?", but if you're the really nice type, you should ask yourself "What would I do, if I were bored?"

[bobgote]

What i would do is firstly get some good defensive units up there + some kind of cavalry unit for quick dash attacks (use them on injured units that are trying to retreat, that's what they're for).

If you can avoid it by diplomatic measures, do, but I find that a reputation hit doesn't really help u that much when your about to get slaughtered to your ulitmate doom. They're never trustworthy.

Best way is to wait until they attack you if you have enough defence there (I think that others will be more likely to sign alliances against them if they attack you) , or pre-empt by doing the following if you don't. Make a couple of military alliances against them with other civs (preferably in another geographical direction from you). Do this even if you have to put tax to %100 to pay people.

I had a game like this where i was not a significant civ, but the zulus and the americans started causing trouble, signed a military alliance against me. I couldn't beat them both by myself, so tax went to %100 and i managed to get 3 other civs (all smaller) to sign alliances with me. While they're strength didn't really help, they split the forces and i was able to take the zulu and american cities easily.

Just remember not to overextend further than you can support, or the whole thing could backfire. Take a few cities then as soon as you can, end the war and get them to agree to peace. You may even get some $$ out of it.

[surfersjk]

Thanks again for all the good advice, guys. You have all been really helpful, posting excellent tactics. I assure you I will be trying one of them.
The Egyptians may be heading for the Greeks, but I don't think so. And it is always better to be prepared.
Thanks a lot again. Really appreciated,
Kev.