Incan threat.

[kkapalk]

I would like a little advice from you guys. I am currently playing as Babylon with Poland on my Southern border and Inca on my North border. I have been assembling troops on the border with Poland ready for war, as they are being decimated by Rome to their South. Also a couple of their cities are nicely situated for taking. Their military is very weak too. The problem is that the Inca have just denounced me the last turn, and this one have made the comment about my army being weak. They are also hostile. The military advisor informs me they are far stronger than I. As I said, the denouncement and the hostile attitude have only just happened. Would it be wise to carry on with the assault on Poland (before Rome takes the cities), or rush my troops North to defend against a possible attack? Basically, does the denouncement and the insult mean war in the next few turns?
Thanks,
Kev.

 

[joshua43214]

need to know your difficulty level for a good answer.
Ignore the advisors - just ignore them.

Sometimes a civ will just go all hostile and start taunting you. Usually it is because you own lands they covet, beat them to a wonder, at war with their friends.

I would continue with my game plan, but send a unit up to keep an eye on the Inca. That way if he sends an army down, you have a few turns to organize.

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks for the reply. The difficulty level is King. The good thing is I have artillery and as far as I can see he only has cannons. Will definitely be keeping an eye on him though. The problem is they are right border to border, so an assault would be pretty quick.

 

[The Saharan Spy]

Split ur armies. Leave the majority to invade Poland. U only need a few to defend against the Incans since u got the advantage of defense(IF u built ur cities on the hill, I hope)
And ignore the advisors, They suck. Listen to ur tactics and strategems.

In my case, I would go to Rome to self contract myself as a mercenary in a war. The nice thing about this is that u dont get a warmongering penalty for going to war and u might got something nice from Rome, At the same time take the Polish cities. Meanwhile, I would march soem of the troops north and take defensive postions. Just have ur cities fire on the artilarries.

 

[The Saharan Spy]

That way, Ur cities cna last longer and then mop up the infantries. Get a lancers or 2 and send them on a force march to the incan land. Get the lancer to pillage the lands. Preferably luxury resources that way, the incan empire can go into unhappiness. Do hit and run tactics with the lancers. Make the incan' s homeland a horrible place to live by doing pillagings. That would devastate the Incan Economy and everything. Pillage the caravans too, Inca would go into depression

 

[The Saharan Spy]

Remember what Sun Tzu said
I will paraphrase this
When the enemy invades your homeland, Invade ur enemy's homeland to force the enemy to retreat to defend their hoemland. That what i said in the above, Lancers to devastate the Incan homeland, Might make some Inca units to retreat and to deal with the threats. Sure I would devestate the economy of my enemy and potential territories. BUT THIS IS WAR AND WAR HAS LITTLE NECESSITY FOR MERCY.

 

[The Saharan Spy]

If i want to devestate my enemies in any way, I would do this. THat what happens to me when im Korea, I try to play peacefully, Nut they invade me.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

If you have gold or a few good productive cities you could build a few more units. Gatling guns or cavalry/landships are good for defense. A lot of the time if you have the tech advantage it only takes a few units to scare off the AI on king. Most likely he's doing a lot of posturing and probably won't attack.

If Poland is getting beat up by Rome pretty badly he may not even have much troops. 3 or 4 artillery and a couple melee might be all you need to take the cities you want and you can send the rest North. Then you can easily be ready to fend off and even launch an invasion of your own on the Incans.

Check to see if the Inca have any enemies you can bribe to attack them, that could eighty-six their invasion plans too.

 

[Babri]

Focus on Poland. Keep few cavalry & ranged units for defence though. Even 2 cavalry & 1 gatling gun would be suffice to hold against Incan stack of doom. In worst case AI might damage your city a bit but you always have the option to rushbuy defence buildings.

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks for the replies. I am gonna keep with the attack of Poland strategy as you all suggest. If I don't, Rome will take them anyway. And Rome is plenty big enough as it is! Let's hope it is just posturing from the Incans!

 

[sendos]

I would like a little advice from you guys. I am currently playing as Babylon with Poland on my Southern border and Inca on my North border. I have been assembling troops on the border with Poland ready for war, as they are being decimated by Rome to their South. Also a couple of their cities are nicely situated for taking. Their military is very weak too. The problem is that the Inca have just denounced me the last turn, and this one have made the comment about my army being weak. They are also hostile. The military advisor informs me they are far stronger than I. As I said, the denouncement and the hostile attitude have only just happened. Would it be wise to carry on with the assault on Poland (before Rome takes the cities), or rush my troops North to defend against a possible attack? Basically, does the denouncement and the insult mean war in the next few turns?
Thanks,
Kev.

Forget Poland. Look to the northern defences. If Rome and Poland make peace, that buys you time in case Rome advances north.

I also disagree with Joshua on advisors. Don't completely ignore them. The best ones are your foreign and military advisors. Foreign advisor informs you about deals and about your decaying influence in advance. Military advisor must also be an intelligence advisor because he knows how strong each civ is.

 

[reddishrecue]

For the incan threat, one thing that could be helpful is a well fortified city in the north with a ranged unit inside and the oligarchy social policy in tradition that increases city range damage with a garrisoned unit.

 

[kkapalk]

Well I kept to the Poland plan and the very next turn the Incans declared war! I took a nice city off Poland and hurried my artillery units back up North. By the time my units got there the Incans had inflicted terrible damage on my land. My city held firm though, as I bought an Artillery and Great War Bomber. And Caesar was easy to bribe into declaring war on the Incans. Triplanes decimated my city and units until I researched flight and bought a couple of intercepting Triplanes myself. Then the tide turned and I eventually took his city bordering mine. I made peace and am now preparing to find a way to halt the juggernaut that is Rome, as he has kept on annihilating Poland to my South and Inca to my North, lol. (He has destroyed the annoying Alexander, for which I am grateful). I am pleased that we are friends, but am not kidding myself that this will last. I just need a plan to keep him from attacking me with his massive army! Thanks for the help again.
Kev.

 

[joshua43214]

Try to upload a save game with these questions.

There are a few of us that will load the game and give you some good feedback not only on what to do, but on your gameplay in general.

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks Joshua. Here is the save (I think). I would appreciate any advice on my aspects of gameplay.

 

[kkapalk]

Sorry, here is the correct save.

 

[cinattra]

For the future whenever you have a warmonger as a next door neighbor you must plant one of your great generals as a citadel as a deterrent in their most likely route of attack. This will severely slow their ground forces or even stop an attack if you can swiftly inflict a large number of casualties on the invading forces.

I'm trying to figure also why didn't you have a diplomat or spy in the Incan capital to get you the info they were readying to attack you.

 

[kkapalk]

I have the spy option disabled. I never really took to the concept.

 

[joshua43214]

Sorry for being slow to load your game,

Your three biggest problems are using the default city manager, not enough science focus, and an inconsistent game.

You can get away with the default manager on lower levels, but you will never have a good game on any level unless you manage your citizens. It can be a hassle, and will be a barrier to high level play if you want to move up. I don't want to go deeply into it, I would suggest jumping over to the Lets Play section and watch the first video from one of the Deity players such as Light Cleric, Moriarte, or Maddjinn. They will explain why they are managing their citizens in the way they do.
Your capitol is more than big enough to work a lot of specialists, but you are only working 3, and none of them are science. You are working some science in other cities, but you are also working merchant and engineer slots. You do not need the gold or hammers, an you will generate GE's and GM's instead of GS's. Remember, all victories are based on tech, you can't neglect science.

You bypassed plastics and are teching to radar in the save, and you still do not have a school in the capitol. Just rush buying a school in the cap, and then working the science slots in all your cities will boost your bpt by ~120. Had you gone right to plastics, you would probably be well over 1000bpt right now, already done with radar, and possibly done with rocketry because of it. Teching toward military techs and not having the bpt to get to them fast is a game killer. Once you hit modern era, getting plastics is a top priority, the only thing you might detour for is biology, and you want biology for hospitals. If you do not want hospitals, then the path is plastics -> bio -> radar -> rocketry.

The inconsistency is apparent with your military and your tech path. You are teching toward radar, but you only have 4 aircraft. If bombers are the goal, then you want a dozen or so GWB's ready to upgrade. Try to always ask yourself if what you are doing is consistent with the rest of your game. You have 8 artillery stacked up on Poland's border, but you are not at war (inconsistent), these artillery are threatening an expo rather than the capitol (inconsistent), you only have 2 melee units with the arty (inconsistent, you need 1 or 2 more meat shields). I am sure you get the idea. I would add that 8 arty is too many, 6 is plenty enough to sweep to the east if you have 3ish cavalry for city capture.
There is also inconsistency with your policy choices. Autocracy is for war, but you are not at war. Opening aesthetics and exploration is for culture victory, but your tech path is totally wrong for CV. For both domination and science, commerce to cheap purchasing is almost always the best.

Some other issues,
3 workers is waaay to few for an empire that big.
Sippar. I don't get this city at all. It sucks, its location sucks, no idea how this city came to be.
Borsippa also sucks. it has no redeeming qualities.
Nippur should have been settled south on the hill across the river
Dur-Kurigalzu should have settled west on the hill
Never settle a flat when there is a hill.
I get no barbs, but it really hurts you more than the AI.
No spies hurts you a lot more than the AI, if nothing else, you can put spies in cities you are targeting to get line of sight for your artillery and bombers. With no spies, you will have to send a unit into to look at the city.
no GS's. I am assuming you either got none because of the default city manager popping GE's and GM's or you bulbed them on earlier techs. Even in late game domination, they should be saved for after plastics.

Hopefully someone else will load the game and give some feedback as well

Happy x-mas

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I do tend to stumble around a bit, I know. I have recently started choosing spots for workers rather than just use the default choice (not enough, I know). As you stated, I am trying to get to the bombers as these are pretty decent in attacking cities and units. I will build more planes as soon as possible. The Artillery on the border of Poland are waiting for a war I am going to start soon. I haven't played for a day or two, but if I remember correctly I have a happiness issue and need a little more before starting the war. I am going to check the city locations as soon as I re-load the game. I am sure their positions are poor and will learn from your advice. My idea sometimes is to settle in a poor place just to stop the AI from settling too close to me (probably a bad idea). The reason for dipping into certain policy trees is to obtain wonders. I do like to get them, also this stops the AI in their pursuit of said wonders. I admit the amount of choices on offer bamboozle me. The choice of which buildings to build, policy to obtain, wonders to build, tech path to follow, ideology to choose I do find hard to decide upon. I chose Autocracy because Rome had previously done so and I didn't want to go into negative unhappiness. I am particularly keen to check my city locations and learn from what you said.
Thanks for an in-depth reply.
Kev.