Question on Warmongering

[Lorax]

If at the outset you decide to be a warmonger and eliminate CIVs....
Do you worry about wonders and culture?
Just forego them completely and build military?
Or is there still a balancing act?

Thanks in advance...

 

[silver 2039]

I think you nedd to balance military with culture and other improvements otherwise your cities will flip and you won't have any money to fund your armies.

 

[Lorax]

Well, I am referring to an early conquest to eliminate one or more CIVs in the ancient times....Not a full game theory....

I should have stated that ....My mistake...

 

[silver 2039]

If you just want to kill a civ early on go with military. Because if you conquer them you get a massive boost over the other Ai's.

 

[Goober]

Yes, attacking Civs early, and taking them out early is the best ploy, although it is far more effective IMO to settle rather then fight. I go to war IF I can easily take out a Civ, or I find their capital undefended (happened one game . . . ), or generally I build up a huge military, and attack.

 

[Tranquility]

Personally, i always build pyramids in my capital. Since you say you'll be doing early war, the temple wonder(i always forget itS' name) can be sueful, but be sure that it takes no less then 30-35 turns. You need an initial advantage, so expand alot in the beging, make alot of cities.(In one game i founed enough cities to circle the duch, and i blocked the japaness to a very small area, making both of them very vulnerable)

 

[JustBen]

The only culture you need worry about is enough to make a particular city's radius expand so it has access to all 20 of its workable tiles. If you're playing pre-Conquests, use your Great Leaders to build whatever wonders you can. If post-, only try to build it if you really, really want it. And never, ever put yourself into a mindset where you say "I always build this wonder,"; it's better to build a barracks and a pile of units.

That's the one required part of warmongering: Barracks. When you have a barracks in your city, you get a free 1/3 of a unit every time you build something. What a bargain!

 

[OldieMagee]

I always build Leo's workshop.
I can't resist.
The unit upgrade cost benefit is worth it to me.

In the beginning I never worry about wonders. I'd rather have the 3-4 improvements I can build instead. I eventually just take the neighboring cities that build them anyway.

 

[Longasc]

Lorax, build up a good core of cities and expand quickly. Then take a break and build up your infrastructure, have several cities that are completely developed. Then build your UU or Knights e.g. and go on Conquest.

You cannot warmonger without improving your cities. Only well developed cities can create a constant production of many military units in reasonable time.

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by Lorax
If at the outset you decide to be a warmonger and eliminate CIVs....
Do you worry about wonders and culture?
Just forego them completely and build military?
Or is there still a balancing act?

Thanks in advance...

Once you have a settler factory working, build 3 or 4 high-shield cities. Build a Barracks in a couple of them. Start cranking out units while continuing to expand with the settler factory. When you've built enough units attack. Don't worry about temples, libraries or wonders (unless you have a good high-shield city to spare for that wonder).
If you're going to war real early, build archers or horsies or one of the early UU's that's usable on offense. If you wait until you have ironworking (and hopefully iron ) build swordsmen.
If you want to warmonger early, don't get sidetracked by building stuff you don't need to make war.

 

[kb2tvl]

Everything depends on how early your talking. A militaristic civ could build 2 warriors, settler, barracks, settler then all archers. At about 4 or 6 archers, you should have enough to make a mess.

Still, I hate fighting and not peacefully expanding.

 

[Dr Corbett]

For whatever reason, I hate fighting until near the moder era. Perhaps because I have learned the true omnipotency of artillery units? I prefer Radar Artillery, but they're in for so short in the game and everyone probably has Mech Inf by then. So, Artillery and Infantry war it is!

 

[CaptainCommando]

Well back in my warmongering days, i'd build almost nothing but military units and city improvements.

The only culteral things i built were libraries to help research, and just enough temples/coloseums/cathedrals to keep the people happy and not revolt.

 

[TheEndIsNear]

In my most recent game, I ousted 2 civs at the outset with my exploring warriors. They came across the enemy city, defended by one warrior, and I got my warrior to a hill in an adjacent square and attacked. This gave me enough land to corner the only remaining civ on the continent and take over a lot of free territory. And as I was fighting those wars, I did not compromise my culture. In fact, two of my three cities at that time were making wonders (Pyramids and Colossus) and the other was on a warrior (defense) > temple > settler > library... build queue. I defeated the other civ on my continent during the industrial age, expanded to some free islands, and ended up in a domination victory shortly after I started smashing through medieval England with hordes of tanks (airlifted en masse), bombers and battleships. The game worked itself out into a domination victory for me. I guess I lucked out, but it goes to show that sometimes ancient warfare is a good strategy.

 

[Wladislaw]

Pre-Conquests playing a scientific civ and rushing to iron-working first was a good strategy for early conquest, since you were pretty much guaranteed to have iron near one of your first three or four cities for a swordsman army. With the scarcity of resources in conquests this is not a sure thing, there might not be any iron on your continent. If things work out and you have early access to horses for horsemen or iron for swords, build an early army after you have four of five cities keeping one city for settlers and go for it. If things don't work our resource wise you can try archers and spearmen, but I think it is better to hang around a little and build up your empire for a war when the situation favors you.

 

[Killjoy275]

I always try to take out the one or two nearest civs in order to give my civ enough "growth room." I usually use early units like archers and horseman, and swordsman later on....sometimes I can double or triple the size of my civ before BC's are up!!

 

[magicianeer]

If your civ is militaristic, then you can build barracks at 4000BC and be done in 6-7 turns (sacrificing pop growth for shields), so ALL of your units are veteren. Being defensless for an extra 7 turns is OK because barbarians do not appear for about 20 turns and neighboring warriors are not likely to find you within 15 turns. The extra hitpoint gives a strong advantage in ancient war even if your army is smaller or less technically advanced.

 

[mintyfreshdeath]

Ancient warfare is generally a good strategy for me. It is not quite as efficient or effective as settler expansion, but I find it helps to remember that whatever you gain in warfare the other guy loses. I've found this to have a great impact throughout the proceeding game.

 

[TopGun]

I go to war as soon as I have a few extra warriors and a few archers. Taking out your nearest neighbor early on gives your civ the edge you need to grow not only in mere area and size but also technologically and culturally. Remember, offense is ALWAYS the best defense.

 

[Salamandre]

Originally posted by TopGun69
I go to war as soon as I have a few extra warriors and a few archers. Taking out your nearest neighbor early on gives your civ the edge you need to grow not only in mere area and size but also technologically and culturally. Remember, offense is ALWAYS the best defense.

I would never do this


A few extra warriors/archers certainly not allows you to destroy a civ, at least at monarch and higher. And afterall in the beginning strategy, with all the cities you have to crank out faster than AI, I found never have enough warriors to secure my borders and ressources.