Conquest and pillage

[MoonZar]

Hello,

When you're doing war, do you take the time to make a lot of pillage to gain the more money possible?

I usually have trouble with my economy after war. I raze city who are not good enougth, but still at the end of my war with one civ i'm always a 40-50 % percent because of the maintenance cost of my new cities and this take me a lot of turn to get back my economy on track and i get late in the technological race.

Do you have any advice ?

Also in the expension phase, i understand that many players, make 4 to 5 city maximum and go to war with another civ for expansion.

Do you build your city close to each other (at the limit of the city fat cross) or do you take more space to optimize the ressource and terrain of you city and afford more maintenance cost ?

I usually try to have the best ressource and terrain, so my city are a little far from each other and this cost me some maintenance and make my war preparation longer.

I try to be ready for war before 0 AD but i'm never able before 500 AD. Does somebody have some tips about it ?

MoonZar

 

[Galileo44]

Next time be ready for war in 1500BC or earlier. Why waste production on settlers when you can capture all but 2 or 3 of you cities from the AI. Just go military earlier, for an axe or UU rush.

 

[Old Spice]

My wars are over almost as fast I start them, a well placed attack will save time and hurt the computer more instead of tromping around pillaging things unless I need the money...

 

[MoonZar]

My wars are over almost as fast I start them, a well placed attack will save time and hurt the computer more instead of tromping around pillaging things unless I need the money...

Hello,

Usually when i start a war, i try to finish the civ. So this take a while to take each of the ennemy cities. I guess i do something wrong because this not very fast. I make a mix of 30 units to face any kind of situation with 10 catapults at least and i go for it.

MoonZar

 

[MoonZar]

Next time be ready for war in 1500BC or earlier. Why waste production on settlers when you can capture all but 2 or 3 of you cities from the AI. Just go military earlier, for an axe or UU rush.

Usually the AI seem very far for an early war. So i'm waiting that he expand near my border to go on war. This doesn't take much time. Usually after my 4 th city i don't have room to move anymore.

I'll try a new approach and go for war and forget about to build anything else

 

[Winston Hughes]

Usually when i start a war, i try to finish the civ.

I make a mix of 30 units to face any kind of situation with 10 catapults at least and i go for it.

There's your problem. By the sounds of things you're waiting too long to attack. You won't need anything like 30 units to wage an early war. Rather than trying to take out a whole civ in one go, you should try to take a couple of choice cities, maybe raze a couple of poor ones, and perhaps pillage a key improvement or two from the remaining enemy cities. Then sue for peace (all the better if you can get them to pay for it), develop your new cities so they can support themselves, and get ready to restart the war.

 

[Uncle E]

I've also pillaged key improvements / resources in the AI capital and bigger production cities and left a few units in forested hills there and the AI seems unwilling to do anything but hole up. Without bronze or iron or horses, the AI pretty much just makes archers and sends them out to die to my axemen and horse archers.

I really screwed up Monty one game like that while I attacked an outpost city that was offendingly close to my borders

 

[Old Spice]

Hello,

Usually when i start a war, i try to finish the civ. So this take a while to take each of the ennemy cities. I guess i do something wrong because this not very fast. I make a mix of 30 units to face any kind of situation with 10 catapults at least and i go for it.

MoonZar

Even when I finish a war in 10 turns or less I walk away with 3 or more cities. And then move on to the next civ that I think needs to be knocked down a step or two. Besides if you wipe them out in one swoop you lose any techs they might have that you could force out of them. Though they don't seem to be as willing as they where in civ3. You don't need a ton of units early to wage a effective war, and as time goes on your war machine will pick up steam and you will gain the numbers you seek.

I prefer to play as Rome in vanilla, between noble and emp depending on how much i want to micromanage my cities and non-combat units. Anyway I start a war asap when i get my UU or my copper units. One of the most important things i can think of when conducting war is to not throw a large stack of units at a well defended. I remember in one of the first games i ever played i sent a stack of 20 riflemen to take vickys last city which was on a hill with with castle and walls and a full 100% culture plus the 5 longbow men had the city defender promote and needless to say i like to use the fast stack attack option so that i don't have to sit through my 30 cannons blowing a city into the next life. Anyway after that attack i was very up set to find only one of my riflemen left alive. The point is its a turn base game so you can take your time and think about what your going to do next.

 

[Canadian Bacon]

Pillaging can be pretty sweet if you either don't want to take the cities (poor location/across continent/different continent) or if you can't afford to build the forces necessary to take cities. Towns make the best targets, especially with multiple move units, which can pillage twice a turn. Thus, in two turns you can pillage a town down to nothing, net probably around 100 gold in the process, and then your enemy has to not only build the cottage, but develop it for a long time. Pillaging towns can really slow down that AI that gets ahead in tech.

You can even pillage in neutral land for money, so if you raze their cities you can then pillage later in safety.

 

[MoonZar]

There's your problem. By the sounds of things you're waiting too long to attack. You won't need anything like 30 units to wage an early war. Rather than trying to take out a whole civ in one go, you should try to take a couple of choice cities, maybe raze a couple of poor ones, and perhaps pillage a key improvement or two from the remaining enemy cities. Then sue for peace (all the better if you can get them to pay for it), develop your new cities so they can support themselves, and get ready to restart the war.

Hello,

This because when i'm ready for war this already 500 AD and the computer have at least 4-5 troop for each city. So if i really want to raze his civilization to the ground i need at least 30 troops.

Maybe i should try to take 2-3 city make peace, build the new city so that they support themself and start again until the civ is dead.

My bigger problem is i'm never really fast to be ready for war. Usually i'm ready around 500 AD. I try to follow advice, but i always get lost in a wonder building or expension phase. I should try to make objectif and focus...

MoonZar

 

[MoonZar]

Even when I finish a war in 10 turns or less I walk away with 3 or more cities. And then move on to the next civ that I think needs to be knocked down a step or two. Besides if you wipe them out in one swoop you lose any techs they might have that you could force out of them. Though they don't seem to be as willing as they where in civ3. You don't need a ton of units early to wage a effective war, and as time goes on your war machine will pick up steam and you will gain the numbers you seek.

Hello,

If you only take 2-3 city from all civ around you to keep them weak, i guess they are all annoyed at you. This not a problem to have bad relation with everyone ?

MoonZar

 

[Bradlius]

Sometimes they will be annoyed with you, sometimes not. Some civs forgive very easily. I once took about half of Genghis Khan's empire, and the next turn we were buddies again, ganging up on that infidel, Isabella!

 

[Winston Hughes]

I should try to make objectif and focus...

Exactly. Let us know how you get on. Happy hunting!

 

[Old Spice]

Hello,

If you only take 2-3 city from all civ around you to keep them weak, i guess they are all annoyed at you. This not a problem to have bad relation with everyone ?

MoonZar[/QUOTE]
Well you shouldn't just attack the next one after another but pick your targets carefully if you piss everyone off then you have no one to trade with. I pick civ that are weaker or spend a lot of time on the war wagon themselves. I will also attack a civ that is friendly with most of the other civs to slow down the tech trading between them. If he falls behind or is wiped out then the civs are split and the techs are not passed around to every one.

When i take 2 or 3 cites i try and break up there boarders with there allies so that troop movement is not so free following between, stops any gifting of units ( though i don't think that the AI is smart enough to do that) and any other thing that you roads from on city to another to beanfit from.

 

[manu-fan]

I used to pillage, but don't anymore.

I find now that I want all the improvements still in place when I move in and take over. So why pillage those towns and villages instead of using them as my towns and villages.

Cheers.

 

[ratrangerm]

There are some times when it's good to pillage improvements. The biggest one of all is when an AI Civ has access to a resource. In the early game, for example, if the AI has Copper hooked up, pillage the mine as soon as you can so that civ can't pump out units.

If you watch when the AI invades your land, it will often chase after your strategic resources. Do the same and you'll cause the AI a lot of grief while you attack the cities.

 

[CivMonger]

I haven't really been in a war where pillaging would be all that effective. If I'm that close to a city I'm generally trying to take it over anyways, and my tactics aren't at the point where I send mobile units ahead of the fray to sabotage beyond the front line. Something to try next game though, maybe I'll start on a continent game or something.

 

[Old Spice]

You sabotage at the end of a war so that the next war is easier!

 

[Cheeseisgood]

I will usually send about 3 or 4 stacks of maybe 10 units each around the enemy's land, to take the cities, but have maybe 5 different individual troops, set to explore mode, just to go and pillage things.

 

[shadow2k]

I hardly ever pillage anything. I don't want to destroy something I'm going to own very soon.

I also am one of those people who only build a few cities to start. I'll normally build 3-4 to start, then gear up for war. I go for prime city spots, and don't worry all that much about distance...within reason. But my early cities have to be able to get up and running quickly. I don't want a jungle city that will take ages to clear out, or a city that will need irrigation chained to it, or one that will grow too slowly. I'm looking for high production sites with enough food to work all the mines, or high food sites that I can whip. And of course, the military resources. I'll expand to more than these core cities if there are happy resources I need, or some really juicy spot that I don't want the AI taking.

War economy...whip/chop courthouses. Pay attention to your trade routes...in my current game, by going to war...I cut myself off from all foreign trade routes because they all went through enemy territory. Also look for the Holy Cities that can generate some cash, or Wonders like Great Lighthouse that can really boost your economy.

And no, you shouldn't need 30 troops to go to war. It's no wonder you have to wait so long to start one. But yeah, building wonders and more cities is going to slow that goal down. Just focus on four cities, and no early wonders. The only early wonder I normally build is the GLibrary. It's much more satisfying to capture a city with a wonder than to waste 500+ hammers building it anyway. Make the AI work for you.