Power rating @ higher levels

[Bei1052]

What's an acceptable power rating to maintain on Emperor? Yes, I realize that that it's probably better to maintain friendly relations than it is to let the computer DOW you, but that's not always possible. There's something unnerving when you're next to Giilgamesh and see he is twice as powerful as you are.

As it is, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time building troops fearful of the DOW that I know will come, and the few times I have been declared on I've seen the computer roll through my territory with stacks of 40+ units.

[lymond]

It's important to keep in mind all the things that factor into the power rating. I don't have the link but there is a article on these stats which can be found in the War Academy.

AIs power rating is often very much skewed by factors other than units. Although high unitprob AIs like Monty and Shaka tend to have tons of outdated units. (Actually, when it comes to high unitprob AIs, I would worry more about Nappy and Mehmed, especially Nappy, as they tend to have a better economy and, hence, better units).

Other factors are buildings like walls, castles, barracks, stables and the Herioc Epic. The AI spams most of these buildings when they are available. Obviously, walls are generally not a big priority, except maybe on border cities to nast AIs. However, HE should be a priority as well as a few high prod cities with barracks and maybe stables. This will help your power rating some.

To me though, the important thing is the quality of units, a military tech advantage of some aspect (Curs , Rifles or Cannons) and the ability to produce these units rather quickly when needed - high hammer cities, HE, and high food for draft. In this case, you don't necessarily need to spam tons of units. Build enough and make sure you keep larger stack on your border cities to avoid surprise attacks.

As for power rating, try to be in the top half of the graph and definitely not the lowest, although you most likely will be for a brief period in the early game since AIs will have lots of archers while you have warriors.

You don't have to be number 1 in power but having a good power rating does help ward off attacks so you can pursue more peaceful objectives. It also provides some diplo bonuses and the possibility of peace vassaling peaceful civs.

[kossin]

Don't worry about power rating, it's impossible to keep up early on.

All you need to do is watch nearby cities for units when you see a red fist and then pack some units in your closest city if you can't find a way to keep peace going for yourself.

You can win wars by starting at ~30% of the target's power.

The actual numbers for staying the AI of considering you as a DoW target go up to 210% of their power (Montezuma)... only keep what you need to defend yourself when in danger - nothing when not in danger.

When you're ready to attack though...

[mariogreymist]

Beating the higher levels, in my experience, has much more to do with foresight and understanding the game mechanics than the power rating. Understanding when a DoW is possible 20 turns before it's likely to happen is more important than maintaining a high rating on the power graph. Certain leaders DoW at pleased, others only at lower diplomacy levels.

If you only need to keep the land you've settled, then being at 50% of the power of your likely enemy isn't a problem if you have tech parity and enough siege to pummel their stack as they cross the border. Like Kossin said, 30% can be a winning number for fighting a defensive war, if you are sufficiently clever about your troop mix and manage to get siege initiative. (your cats/cannons attack his stack before his attacks yours)

Early in the game it can be tempting to build a lot of axes, but the money you spend in upkeep represents that could go towards teching to construction, and a few axes and a few cats will decimate a big stack of swords/axes/jaguars/prats with no (or very little) siege. The trick is recognizing when you need those axes because your neighbor will DoW before you get to construction. And recognizing that is all about knowing which leaders declare how easily and for which reasons.

[obsolete]

The actual numbers for staying the AI of considering you as a DoW target go up to 210% of their power (Montezuma)...

My experience has showed many instances where even much more than this won't hold of Monte.

[kossin]

Originally Posted by obsolete

My experience has showed many instances where even much more than this won't hold of Monte.

Depends on other factors as well... for instance Aggressive AI means another 33%, vassals, Defensive Pacts, dogpile...

As always, just consult DanF's post here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7190899

[Yoshi1]

Originally Posted by Bei1052

As it is, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time building troops fearful of the DOW that I know will come, and the few times I have been declared on I've seen the computer roll through my territory with stacks of 40+ units.

Impossible to give advice here imo, since we would need to know when in the game this happened...40+ units stacks don't usually happen until late in the game on Emperor, or am i missing something?