Getting big empire without wars?

[MightyMite]

I play with 22 civs and 42 city-states. It's pretty hard to have more then 5 cities without endangering someone's territory. If I try to make next city,I usually don't have territory,so I will just endanger someone.. and that will lead to war mostly.

I can have big empire with 12C and 12SC,but with 22C and 42 CS it's pretty hard.

 

[Callonia]

Happened to me once, the continent I was on was pretty empty with a huge island chain while everyone else was clustered together so I settled pretty fast and had a huge empire without fighting a war xD

Although that just reminded me of one huge oval island I was on in Civ3 xD It was so big to the point where I could reach modern era while remaining isolated. Then i explored the world with dessys and battleships and won an easy cultural victory because everyone else was still in medieval era due to how small their lands was compared to mind.. even when mine was half covered in snow. <_<

 

[Tyrvos]

4-5 cities is usually how much I get to max before I have to resort to warfare for more land. You'd have to pick a big map and lower the amount of civs and city states.

 

[djm_jm]

7 Cities was the max that I get found without war.

 

[reddishrecue]

That's a large empire... playing with a few 2 or3 cities I've done and have seen done many times before.

 

[danaphanous]

make your cities denser. You won't use a full 3-tile ring until way late anyway. Don't try to score "perfect" spots but just fill in in a reasonable way. This will get you a few more. If on islands map, race for embarking and exploration technology.

 

[Arcaian]

make your cities denser. You won't use a full 3-tile ring until way late anyway. Don't try to score "perfect" spots but just fill in in a reasonable way. This will get you a few more. If on islands map, race for embarking and exploration technology.

Good advice if he is going wide. You just make it sound general; if you're only planning on settling 4 cities do try and get a full 3-tile ring on all of them.

If you're going wide chances are pretty good that not many of your cities will get to 15 pop - specialists to work the third ring, so settling with 2.5ish rings is perfectly fine, 2 is cutting it fine.

If you want a wide empire without fighting later, it can actually work to DoW early and either block their settlers or take their capitals before other AI find you. You get their space and yours too. Easier with a civ with an early UU, like Egypt/Aztecs/Huns, etc.

 

[Ryika]

I play with 22 civs and 42 city-states. It's pretty hard to have more then 5 cities without endangering someone's territory. If I try to make next city,I usually don't have territory,so I will just endanger someone.. and that will lead to war mostly.

I can have big empire with 12C and 12SC,but with 22C and 42 CS it's pretty hard.

That's like saying that streets are crowded when you choose to go shopping during rush-hour. Of course you won't have space when you fill the map to it's maximum.

You could of course try to use another mapscript, some have more land than others and are generally bigger. Maximum number of City States is 41 btw, not 42. ^^

 

[PreLynMax]

22/42 on huge is my default map settings (also terra, so it gets REAL crowded up in there), so I can safely say that 4 cities are the max I get before war. If you can get a core of 4 going, even in those settings, you're set for awhile.

 

[Matthew.]

If you want a wide empire without fighting later, it can actually work to DoW early and either block their settlers or take their capitals before other AI find you. You get their space and yours too. Easier with a civ with an early UU, like Egypt/Aztecs/Huns, etc.

I like this advice. The AI's effort to protect its settler is by placing a single military unit on top to defend it. Extremely easy to snipe it out while still managing the actual "war". What was space to only settle ~4 cities has now become ~8. There is little to no diplo hit for fighting the war as long as you don't take cities, and once you establish peace you can continue the game as a pacifist if you wish.

I will add this though:

1. Don't get overly occupied in fighting the war. The goal is to delay your enemy, not delay yourself in the process.

2. Other Civs may also try and sneak in settlers, and short of DoW-ing the entire world, that land is still up for grabs. Goes with point 1. Delay your neighbor and grab that territory quickly as possible.

3. Be careful whom you DoW on higher difficulties. Some AI are scripted to not sign peace easily, which is further increased by their ability to spam out more military on higher difficulties. What started out to be a short spat over settling territory could turn into a 100+ turn stalemate of that Civ constantly spamming units at your borders.