How do you keep the momentum going? Domination on large maps

[zxcvbob]

Title pretty must says it all. I'm playing a domination game as Attila; epic pace, large Great Plains Plus map, emperor level, raging barbs. By turn 100 I had eliminated all my neighbors. Had to slow down a bit to consolidate my empire (happiness and money issues) Then went on the warpath again and took out another civ or two, but had to pull back to deal with barbarians back home. Now it's turn 200-something and there are 2 civs left (out of ten) and barbarians are still giving me fits. Just killing barbs is a full time job when everyone else on the map is dead; there's lots of empty space left. I will win this eventually, but I think I probably should have won already. All my domination games are like that.

All the city states love me. I've returned dozens of captured workers. Alexander is one of the civs that's left and he's pissed because all but 1 or 2 CS's like me more than him.

Anyway, do you just abandon most of the cities you capture and let the barbs pillage everything? I actually did that with Venice for a good part of the game because it was isolated, and that worked okay; once the barbs pillage everything they can't heal anymore by pillaging, and just the city defense can fight them off. And all the pillaging keeps the population down a bit, which helps with happiness.

I think I'm also leaving good cities as puppets too long. I should probably have 5 or 6 cities building horse archers, horsemen, and pikes instead of just 2...

Maybe "raging barbarians" was a mistake when I set up the game, but even without that there are the happiness and gold issues. I'm wondering if I can ignore happiness and just keep plowing ahead and keep my empire solvent using the gold from city captures?

 

[BlackWizard]

It is not recommended to use Epic pace with large and huge maps. General rule here is to use Quick speed for large and huge maps. Epic is generally recommended for small and tiny maps whereas Marathon should be used only in duels. This balances game length so it should be equal in all scenarios

 

[Nizef]

It is not recommended to use Epic pace with large and huge maps. General rule here is to use Quick speed for large and huge maps. Epic is generally recommended for small and tiny maps whereas Marathon should be used only in duels. This balances game length so it should be equal in all scenarios

I kind of disagree with you on this one. For sure, you need to invest more hours into a game on Epic. However, it makes warmongering easier, because key units stay relevant for a greater number of turns. In fact, I enjoy longer games more and see no problem with Large maps on Epic. But it does not suit everybody.

Then to zxcvbob´s question. Having a secondary (and even third) army is very useful and obviously speeds up the game. I have uploaded some Deity games on Youtube (sorry for the poor voice quality), where I cleared a Standard sized map with Mongolia in 303 turns and a Large map with Germany in 366 turns. We all know that vadalaz and other superb players clear the map much faster, but in my own opinion the turns mentioned are decent. My point being, that clearing a Large map on Epic "should" take about 300-400 turns. Since you are already down to two AIs, you should be able to win within 30-50 turns for sure. Focus on more units, nothing else is needed. On Deity even crippled AIs will kill barbarians all day long, but on Emperor you probably need even more units to cope with the barb problem.

 

[zxcvbob]

I finished that game not long after posting about it; I declared war on Alex first even tho' his cities were deep in the woods and hard to attack, and he had a lot of cities. I captured one crappy city and puppeted it; then killed his army when he tried to retake it. Then I annexed it and burned it down. Eventually he was willing to give me all his cities for peace, and I accepted. I razed them all except one that was right next to his capital, and started moving my cannons there. Then I declared war on Egypt and wiped Ramesses out (that was easy because he was on the edge of the woods rather than in them), and right before the peace treaty expired I built Oxford to bulb Dynamite and upgraded all my cannons. Athens fell 2 turns later. I think it was about turn 310.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Just go 8 player domination, standard speed. You don't have to go with Attila to win. The HA is a gimmick pretty much. You should be able to win with anything. Unhappy? Bribe a CS or burn a city. It's that simple. Got problem with money? Tribute other civs and CS's. Problem with barbs? Leave a couple of units home and build roads to connect your cities. I always keep units around my cities. Not in all but I have enough so I can withstand an suprise attack. This is a x factor. You got loads of CS within your area? Kill them off, ally them or keep units around.

Also go pangea. Everything else is pretty much gimmick and you don't get better with that.

You got problems with attacking cities? Use generals and citadel yourself in. Or just throw units until he dies. With honor and commerce this is no big deal at all.

People sometimes get to greedy. Units will die. That's just the way it is. If a target is pushing away in scoreboard than you need to do whatever is necessary.

Stop with the gimmicks and you be all right. Also go Deity. That's the way to get better because you will be punished by your mistakes and learn from them.

You keep on monument by going to war and keeping others to war each other. You take cities. You burn cities you don't want. You keep cities you want. You get cities with wonders and glorious buildings. You get the world into a world war if possible. This will stagnate the science in the world and the world will easy to conquer. You don't accept peace unless you need space to attack another player or you tribute them heavily. Take their city in a peace deal, burn it, keep it, sell it, whatever.

Every round your units doesn't get XP is a waist of a round. You will have a glorious army and stomp every single AI into submission.

I have a deity domination victory coming up as Greece where I stomp out the AI. The world is at war and is in a stalemate in science pretty much. I didn't focus on science much. I focus on military, gold and happiness. So you pretty much only need production. Get up the ironworks so you can get up units.

Go Honor. Honor makes your empire into a unstoppable war machine. Honor gives you a glorious army. Don't fall into that sim city tradition 4-city crap. It's all lies. Honor is the way of a warmonger.

Godspeed.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

12 players.. is that large? Probably harder to pull off but the idea should be the same. It's probably harder to keep someone from snowballing on the other side of the map and it will take probably nukes to cool them down. It can happen sometimes on 8 players too. Especially if Korea is in the game and are untouched.