How do you afford early war?

[adsin15]

Playing immortal.

I can usually pull off a decent war against my closest opponent even on immortal but how do you afford it? I always have negative 10-20 gold per turn by the time I win it and then I'm stuck on that for like 100 turns afterwards.

How is it possible to afford units?

 

[Browd]

Pillage everything in sight that can't be sold for gpt after you conquer your enemy. Build roads to your newly conquered cities to get city connection gold flowing, and spam trading posts across their lands (puppets prioritize working gold tiles).

 

[gobbledydook]

Yep, the roads are the key. Both running roads to your new cities, and removing useless roads, like those that link your new cities to the former owner's remaining cities. Those roads cost big bank.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Worker micromanagement in general I feel is such a big element of Civ.

Took me almost a year to realize that instead of walking two tiles I can just walk one tile, start a farm, cancel the farm, and then reach the destined tile next turn while still being able to improve it. Same goes for roads. All of your Workers cost GPT, so get the most out of them.

Spend two turns building a road, then cancel and move on to the next tile. In most of my games I'm now able to prebuild roads and then connect two cities in the matter of one or two turns, depending how far away they are. Really saves you gold.

 

[gooberman]

Worker micromanagement in general I feel is such a big element of Civ.

Took me almost a year to realize that instead of walking two tiles I can just walk one tile, start a farm, cancel the farm, and then reach the destined tile next turn while still being able to improve it. Same goes for roads. All of your Workers cost GPT, so get the most out of them.

Spend two turns building a road, then cancel and move on to the next tile. In most of my games I'm now able to prebuild roads and then connect two cities in the matter of one or two turns, depending how far away they are. Really saves you gold.

I hadn't thought of that. So you're saying mostly build the road on each tile and then go back once it's reached the next city and finish it? That was you aren't paying maintenance until it's done? hmmm

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Exactly. Like say in a hypothetical scenario you need 4 road tiles between your capital and your first expo. You have a worker in your cap and a worker in said expo (ideal scenario).

What you want to do is have both Workers go one tiles toward the city, then put 2 turns into a road and then cancel just before the road is done, move one tile toward each other and start a new road. Cancel that road one turn before it's done and move a tile forward. Now you have 4 prebuilt roads on the 4 tiles. You can finish the road in a matter of 2 turns, so you're only paying maintenance for 2 road tiles and only for a single turn, because the turn after your city connection gold will kick in.

 

[DanQuayle]

I just finished a game with early war and I find that after taking an AI's capital making peace for GPT can be a great source of wealth. Building a great bank early on also helps.

 

[Rolanddd]

Go all honor/commerce and keep killing until you win.
Good luck matching pedro though

If you're only fighting your neighbor just make sure you get luxury trading and caravans back up again as soon as the war ends.

 

[donkeyfish]

I just finished a game with early war and I find that after taking an AI's capital making peace for GPT can be a great source of wealth. Building a great bank early on also helps.

My experience is that waiting a few turns after you´ve taken the cap increases the gpt they are willing to offer. Taking cap often sets AI to accept white peace only for a short while.

Selling a city is also a great income-source. Possible to get 50-100 gpt early if a civ is bordering that city and its 7-10 pop. In the middle-game, a 12-15pop city can be worth 200gpt if you sell it.

Pillage-repair is also a good income source. Especially with Pyramids. Even after a city is razed, you can still pillage-repair the leftover tiles. This is somewhat abusive and very boring , but at the same time very efficient. A horseman and 4 workers can give 40-70 gpt in pillage, costing only 10-15 gpt in maintenance.