[BERT] Anyone else surround their capital with 4-5 cities, and then go wide through war?

[s0nny80y]

I like to build four or five cities around my capital and then as other sponsors declare war on me, I tend to take over enemy cities and roll through them, making my colony much wider than my initial six cities.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yes, I often do that, assuming that other sponsors are not starting close by.

In my current game (as Al Falah), the Slavic Federation capital is only 10 hexes away, as a plane flies. I have built an army much earlier than I usually do, and am fighting with relatively green units. Cities are much harder to capture when my units only have one affinity buff; my rangers don't do as much damage as I'm used to later in the game.

To your original point, I will also found some of my own cities after the capturing begins. Once I grow myself out of the "health deficit" with affinity and virtue bonuses, I like to add a small city or three near additional firaxite/floatstone/xenomass.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Yes, if that happens. If no war, I usually just continue settling as health allows. Obviously, war spoil cities require a lot of temporary health, so there is a pause and a balance with settling.

 

[Tiberiu]

The number of cities in Civ BERT seems to be very flexible compared to civ 5, and also their location seems to be much less important considering how much you can improve the tiles and with the trade route system. In general I try to get my first 2 cities somewhere with at least 1 tile of titanium, and I try to have at least 1 tile of xenomass in order to be able to build Xenonursery and Xenofuel Plant as both buildings pay for themselves, so to speak, and provide more in time. The same logic with firaxite for Holosuite but to a lesser degree of importance (there are games where victory comes before discovering cognition)

Another aspect that I try to use sometimes is to place cities so that my planes can be used defensively/offensively to reach certain tiles, a thing which is also more particular to Civ Be unlike other civ games, because planes come much earlier and play a very important role in most games, especially with how reliable one can get Sky Chitin.
Health in Civ BERT vs Happiness in civ 5 does indeed allow to expand like mad when having an army, seeing how the army is never affected by negative health. This was a very bad idea I think. The game would have been more polished if army would have suffered some form of penalty at some point, from severe levels of unhealth. As it is, once you have a good army, you can ignore health and just conquer all map without any really hard problem.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

In the military tree there is one where you get health per military unit.

After a while, health becomes a non-issue.

I do get 4-5 cities and wait to see what happens. Sometimes the AI comes after me, other times, nope.
(fun when I've got maxed units, they don't, and the DoW me. heh)

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yes, @Canadian Bluebeer , that's one of the reasons I like BE better than Civ5. It's possible to grow your way, or tech your way, out of health issues. Even though I'm specializing in one affinity, I usually get to 5 in all of them which gives either bonuses to health or reductions to unhealth. Expanding to 5 cities, conquering a few more, and buying Clinic/Cytonursery/Pharmalab in all of them means that I'm trending towards positive health by turn 120 or so. Gene Gardens and that virtue in the Might tree help to seal the deal.

In my last several games, I end up taking nearly all the Might virtues, plus the first 7 or 8 virtues in the green Prosperity tree. If I make it all the way down to finish Level II in Prosperity, those final bonus health points mean I've solved my health issues for the rest of the game.

Yup, I love having maxed units when a smaller AI declares on me

 

[Darsnan]

Anyone else surround their capital with 4-5 cities, and then go wide through war?​

In my current game the North Americans landed 9 tiles away, then planted their second city 5 tiles from my HQ (and even before I'd completed production of my second Explorer!). Assessing the lay of the land around my capital, I found it to be very defensible, so considering capital cities also get a defensive bonus I built all my additional cities behind my capital, and used that as the anvil to beat down the continual waves of NA troops: like the fortress of Paris in 1915, the dreams of empire for the NA died on the bulwarks of Le Coeur, and the NA now find themselves relatively dependent upon my trade and air support/ air strikes against aggressors to their north and west.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Which victory do you think you will pursue? Is there a reason that you haven't (yet) conquered Vanguard?
Last night I started a game as Brasiila and Hutama spawned about the same distance from me, across a small sea -- enclosed by land on 3 sides and ice on the south. He declared on me around turn 100; I had beelined to Robotics to get airplanes and destroyed his ships before they could attack my coastal city. I took his 3rd city in the peace settlement, leaving him with only his capital. Another war happened about turn 150, where I took out Freeland.
My point being ... sooner or later, Fielding is likely going to attack again. Why not just take her cities?

 

[Darsnan]

Which victory do you think you will pursue?

I play Domination Victory only.

Is there a reason that you haven't (yet) conquered Vanguard? My point being ... sooner or later, Fielding is likely going to attack again. Why not just take her cities?

My thought process was that the NA were fighting two uber AIs already (Australia to the west, and the Russo-NSA Team of AIs to the north), and I didn't want to plant myself in the middle of that warzone (I was already at war with both those AIs anyways). As such I treated the NA as a buffer state, planted a spy in Central, and used my aircraft in interdiction strikes, either against wounded enemy units or on intercept missions. Or to put is slightly differently why should I do all the fighting and dieing when I could let the NA do it for me? And this approach then allowed me to focus on the Eastern Front where I was able to expand significantly during this same timeframe (i.e. the Hammer and Anvil approach I'd mentioned in my post above).

Updates: When the NA were finally collapsing I then moved into Vanguard with little resistance. The Australians completed their campaign against the Africans on my Southwestern Front, and then started a rather successful campaign against the Russo-NSA Alliance to the north, where I continually saw Khrabrost changing hands. Once I saw that the Australians were committed to their northern front I started my campaign against them in the far south, taking back the African bases on my immediate frontier:

And the longer term results of my strategy can be seen in the north where the Australians, now starved of reinforcements because they are dealing with my assault in the far south, are continually being pushed back by the Russo-NSA Alliance.

In the lower left area of the second pic you can see one of my skirmishers on the screen, and this is from my Eastern Front forces. The Australians have already asked for peace terms once, and now that I've secured Magan I'll probably accept their next treaty offering, and let them go back to focusing on their northern front (i.e. the "Lets you and him fight" approach) while I consolidate my gains in the south.

D