Rookie at War

[klink5]

Starting out on my second game (lost my first game to culture victory by Siam…it is turned off now). I’m not as skilled as many others here so it is a standard map, continents, on chieftain (I’m a noob), 12 Civs and 12 City-States. After much debate with myself over Iroquois or Germany, I finally select Germany.

Started out on the southern most part of the continents. Within a few rounds I met the other civs that I share the land with; Rome, India, Greece and England. I also met the City-States of Stockholm, Monaco, Dublin, Budapest and Copenhagen. England is the most northern while India, Greece and Rome settle in the middle with me at the south.

With barbarians set to raging, I have my hands full dealing with barbarian crisis after another. Before I know it, I have about 10 brutes and few warriors and a scout in my inventory and a handful of cities. Everyone else is still on one or two cities so I feel like I have the advantage.

Suddenly Rome declares war on India and within a few rounds India is absorbed into Roman society. During this time, I beef up the military and a few military city improvements in light of Rome’s sudden aggressiveness. I quickly befriend Monaco (who bordered India’s New Delhi) and Rome was fast to ally himself with Stockholm (which bordered my capital).

Then, several turns later, Greece (which was on the opposite end of the continent) suddenly claims me to be his favorite “City-State” (mind you I have six cities and he only has two). With a few wondering Hordes in my inventory and expendable, I get angry and declare war. His lone archer and warrior are of no match for the weak-minded hordes and Greece is annexed. This puts me in a bit of a jam since I have two cities from Greece on east end, lots of open land mass in the middle and then the rest of my empire to the west. Rome is right above the newly acquired Greece cities along with the city-states of Dublin and Budapest (both are Roman allies).

I am lucky to buy some time when Rome went to war with England. This allowed me to get some settlers and workers out there to fill in the gaps, and at the same time build up on some more military improvements as well as a few wonders.

Rome and England are an “on again” “off again” war relationship and I just keep on my course of building cities and land improvements. England always seems to be on the losing end too, so I send gold with no strings attached as well as some extra luxuries of mine just to keep Rome’s attention diverted. But that didn’t matter; Rome attacked my little ally of Monaco so I was inclined to help them out. I sent a few archers and swordsman over to Monaco and gift them in hopes they can fight off the Romans. All of Monaco’s military is put down in one round. I threaten Rome to make peace with Monaco, and he just states “What are you going to do about it?” Not wanting to abandon Monaco, I nervously declare war and hope that I didn’t bite off more than I could chew. My dozen archers, left over brutes, a few German Landsknecht (which suck by the way) and a lone catapult move in on the advancing lines of the Roman Empire in Monaco. (I don’t have any horses and only a single, 4 count Iron…so resources are scarce). Monaco is bombarded several times by Roman archers but they hold out and I push back the advancing legions with my own archers, all the while a few brutes, landsknechts and the single catapult move towards the Roman captured Indian city of Mumbai.

Being slightly absent minded and heavily focused on the Romans, I forgot that at the same time, Stockholm, Budapest and Dublin all declared war on me and I didn’t realize it until Dublin took one of my workers and advanced on Athens. Panicked, I spent all my extra gold on landsknechts and an archer. Stockholm then advanced on my main city’s borders as well and I sent my scout to their death to delay them a round.

While Rome bombarded my units in Monaco, I bombarded Mumbai with my units and used what little I had of national defense to hold off the City-States. However, the City-States never seemed to come no more than one tile within my territory so I stopped worrying about cities being attacked. Stockholm did burn one of my farms at the edge of my boarder so once I got a few extra swordsmen and archers (which are now crossbowmen) I advanced onto Stockholm and attacked. I never captured Mumbai and the Romans were pushed out of Monaco. Rome shortly after settled for peace in exchange for some Silver, I gave them 15 gold per turn in exchange…sort of one of those uneasy peace agreements. In the end, I lost all my landsknechts (did I mention they suck), all my brutes and 2 archers. Their loses may be just as high as mine for I counted 4 legions, 4 archers, 6 warriors and a chariot archer lost to my military and Monaco destroyed one legion and one archer (of course they lost their entire military, not sure what they all had to begin with). I made peace with Budapest and Dublin, but I continued my push on Stockholm. Within a few rounds Stockholm collapse and I create a puppet state. Rome, bitter by their defeat, harasses me for luxuries and gold and calling me a warmonger (Rome has started at least five wars to my two). After calling me such a name, they attack England again. Hypocrite!

I go back to expanding, building city improvements with the occasional wonder here and there. My workers are hard at work and my science is starting to speed up. As soon as I get enough happiness, I plan on annexing Stockholm, but for now the puppet governor is doing just fine.

As my science improves, I noticed that I am in a poor position for resources. I only have about 15 irons, 6 horses and no coal. After searching the map, I notice that Rome has all the coal. Swearing under my breath, I knew it was a matter of time before I have to go to war with Rome again. In the meantime, Rome and England continue their cat and mouse game, but finally Rome edges out England and begins to capture city after city. Then England settles for peace giving Rome all her cities besides the capital and many other things I’m sure. Not good, not good.

To my amazement, Rome then attacks an ally of his, Budapest. Bitter about Budapest’s attacks on me in our first war earlier in the game, I sit back and watch Budapest fall. I change gear and begin to build up my military now that I finally got musketeers and cannons. I improve the current troopers that I have to a more modern unit, thus keeping their experience that they earned from my previous wars. I keep my fingers crossed that Rome doesn’t decide to attack, so I watch as he builds up his troops on my borders and every time I talk to him, he stares at me…so I know he is planning something.

I start building culture improvements since I basically have all the military improvements and work towards the policies of Honor, Piety, Patronage and Autocracy and build from there. I recently unlocked Autocracy but my plan is to trickle down towards fascism and to help ease the cost of the large military I have to sustain with Rome at my borders.

We pass through the ages, me pissing Rome off every step of the way (buying land he claim is his, his name calling and what not). So I begin to build the newly developed riflemen and as soon as I pump one of these out at Berlin, Rome declares war with Monaco again and then shortly there after comes up on my screen stating “whoops, looks like I attacked your friend. What are you going to do about it?” Not wanting to fall through on my obligation to defend Monaco (which I have a rating of 233 with them) I declare war and move into his lands with guns blazing. Of course my screen comes to life with everyone calling me a warmonger and a plague on the world…blah blah blah…

Let the fun begin. The second major war with Rome that was soon to pull everyone in; Monaco on my side, Dublin on Rome’s side and eventually England declared war on Rome again (or course that didn’t last and England was quick to back out within a few rounds). Roman musketeers, archers and cannons moved in on Monaco again in large force. I was a little more ready this time; I moved riflemen, cavalry units, cannons and a few left over crossbowmen that I didn’t (actually forgot) to upgrade. While Rome hit Monaco, I flanked them and took out their bombarding units and trapped three of their musketeers between my riflemen and Monaco’s Musketeers and the city’s bombarding defense. Two rounds later, all Roman musketeers are destroyed with me losing one rifleman. I advance east towards the Roman cities and I meet several cannons and musketeers as resistance. I fall into a stalemate at New Delhi with me losing a rifleman and a crossbowman to the city’s defenses and a lone crossbowman from Rome hitting me from afar. Re-enforcements arrive adding another cannon to the mix and allowing me to bombard the crossbowmen attacking my riflemen. With New Delhi ready to fall, I make a critical error, again. Roman troops have flanked my undefended eastern boarder and with the help of Dublin, they move into my territory and attack my little isolated city in the desert to the south-east of my empire. Dublin’s pikemen double team and take out the lone rifleman standing outside the city fortified (I forgot about that unit). Then, Roman musketeers attacked the city, but only dealing 2 points of damage. I quickly regroup my troops and send a few down to take care of the small offense the Roman put together. The city takes another 4 points of damage before my 2 riflemen units arrive and destroy the three Roman musketeers and the 2 Dublin pikemen. Good job!

Now, with Roman’s military destroyed, I blaze a trail to the capital, Rome. I capture the two Indian cities that Rome took over previously in the game, I debated on whether I liberate or annex. I choose to be classy and German-like, so I annexed them. I soon captured more Roman cities, annexing all of them except one which was razed since it was so close to one of my German cities. I then attacked Budapest and liberated them, gaining another ally. I settled for peace with Dublin, not wanting to waste resources against them. Within a few short years (rounds), I was at Rome’s doorstep. I went to him and asked if he wanted peace with gold as compensation for the trouble he caused me. He declined so I took Rome. I moved North towards Rome’s other minor cities meeting a little resistance of crossbowmen and occasional cannon that was more of a nuisance rather than a threat. The strange thing is, Rome managed to declare war on England yet again and quickly captured London. Now, instead of just fighting Rome just because they have been a thorn at my side since the beginning of time, I am now on a mission to liberate England from Roman authority.

This is where I sit now, the year is 1860, Rome seems military-less, completely destroyed, and I am steam rolling across his lands. I started to develop a Navy by building Destroyers so I can bombard the coastal cities while my riflemen move in. I’m not going back to the table for peace with Rome any more, unless he brings something worth my time. Dublin isn’t allies with Rome anymore and I now have a 20 rating with them, Monaco is at 160 and Budapest is at 400. However, Budapest doesn’t declare war on Rome, even though Rome betrayed them.

Let’s see where this goes from here. Remember, I’m a noob so I am playing on an easy setting, but this was pretty challenging for me so far.

 

[SkylineR33FTW]

Did you not have any trade agreements setup ?? thats the way i normally work, meet a load of civs, set up trade agreements, RA's etc. and the Civ's then start to ask for DoF and little alliances are formed, i can them get Def Pact. which normally stops wars, but with good relations with other Civ's even if i go to war they dont say anything they just say "hope your war is going well"

I play on warlord (going to prob move higher after i finish game im on at the moment) and i always try to get decent relations with as many Civ's i can (its easier if they are not on your same land mass, such as over the ocean etc) just try it next game and see how it goes

You were called a warmonger because (from what im reading) you captured every Greek city ? never do this, let the AI get the last city or just leave it and exploit the Civ with the city left, its not like they can do anything surrounded by you anyways, reason i say don't do it is because it is a massive - diplomacy multiplier, so you will have a hit on relations. the best mod i use is "Info Addict" it shows all diplomatic relations, trade agreements, and loads of graphs on everything check it out