The Giant Thread of War!

[Sonereal]

How many times have you pulled off a war so awesome that you just wanted to tell people the story? Well, here's your chance. The Giant Thread of War (GT...W. GTW) is for those who want to brag about the awesome wars they had (preferably) with screenshots.

Takers?

 

[Whosit]

Yes.

This: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=330544

Read it for the details, but here is the summary: Succession game on a Mediterranean map. A monstrous Ethiopia that, at its height, controlled about half the map. A grueling modern war against Ethiopia in which we had to claw and scrape for every tile and victory seemed impossible. Finally, after it seemed that all was lost, a brilliant and complete turn around.

War is hell, and these turnsets took hours, but it was the most challenging and rewarding war I've had in Civ IV.

A bit of a read, but I'll try to come up with some more later.

 

[Sonereal]

Yes.

This: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=330544

Read it for the details, but here is the summary: Succession game on a Mediterranean map. A monstrous Ethiopia that, at its height, controlled about half the map. A grueling modern war against Ethiopia in which we had to claw and scrape for every tile and victory seemed impossible. Finally, after it seemed that all was lost, a brilliant and complete turn around.

War is hell, and these turnsets took hours, but it was the most challenging and rewarding war I've had in Civ IV.

A bit of a read, but I'll try to come up with some more later.

That's the most deserving domination victory I've ever seen.

It looks like Ethiopia was doing well at first but wasn't ready for the long....long haul.
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Time for my "Korean War" story.

Spoiler :

Not pictured is the later Korean city on the island (this being the only picture before the war). Also, I had 3 more cities on my continent and Portugal no longer existed when Korea started.

I'm playing Germany and I was NERVOUS about starting this war. Ruthless AIs have a tendacy to turn every war global which is why a turn before, I had Siam (to the east of Korea) declare war on Korea. Khmer is Siam's vassal so in doing that, Korea had to send most of its forces east. Siam asked the Mayans to jump in but they didn't do much good (somewhere else).

I prepared for this war. Originally, I wanted to storm in with enough military power to take ALL his cities in a few turns but I'm using galleys and triremes still and there was only 5 units per tile allowed. What ended up happening is that I targeted the Nampo (on the island to the east of Berlin) and Pusan (close by and the Taoist holy city).

In order to take them efficiently, I had spies camping in those two cities and one turn after Siam declared, I came in. The Spies incited revolt and I had one stack of 4 on Pusan and two stacks of 4 marching on Nampo from the sea.

That part of the war was quick. Both cities fell quickly to Teutonic Swordsmen but that's where the war became difficult for me. A Korean trireme had sunk my galley with two spies on it meant to work in Seoul and possibly Wosan.

At some point, Korea responded and soon, I was camping my army at Pusan while waiting for more triremes to be built. The other half of my navy was on the other side of Germany in case Spain decided to invade.

Finally, got a chance to land troops at Korea from Pusan. It took a few turns to get the entire army there because of the tile limit.

Spoiler :

After a lengthy siege of Seoul, I stormed and took the city which is good because my only iron mine had ran out of iron. Originally, I was going to give Seoul back so I had a Korean vassal that wasn't useless but I needed that iron.

Siam didn't gain a city (luckily for me) but you can see where the Siamese Army battled marching past Wosan to Seoul.

Spoiler :

Edit: The most impressive victories Korea scored were all at sea. One time, my escorted galley stack was attacked by a single trireme which went through Pusan to hit me, bypassing the two stacks of War Galleys and triremes and sunk my ship with my last two spies. They didn't stand a chance since they had Transportion I, II which reduced their strength by 40%. They managed to sink another transport ship (this time with a Warlord Captain (15 strength) when I was transporting it from Pusan to the countryside west of Seoul where I was already landing troops.

My victories were far bigger though.When my army started marching on Seoul, Korea tried to evaculate a ton of its galleys with Siege Ship escorts but most, if not all of them, were destroyed by triremes which make Korea's strength compared to my drop from 2.5 to 3.8. And then there's the whole thing of taking half of Korea's territory in three turns.

 

[Cull]

The Cuban Isolationists one for Civ 4. Pure utter awesomeness. From the hydra, to modern armor, an amazing read.

 

[Gruekiller]

I was playing a Starting Points game as the Maya. By some strange twists of fate, three super powers formed (this doesn't usually happen in my games) with me, Rome, and Mongolia as the leading powers, as well as Carthage as a secondary power. Everyone else who remained was either a vassal (Ethiopia, Mali, Native Americans, Incans, and Persians as my vassals; India as the Romans' vassal) or had been destroyed (Korea, Japan, China, Khmer, Zulu). A series of destructive world wars, leading from the Medieval Age well into the Modern Age have resulted in a world of binding treaties, simmering hatreds, immense devastation, and now that nukes have been invented, the potential for a nuclear holocaust. Right now I'm occupying the Italian peninsula and hogging up all of Rome's wonders... >.> Fun game to play. I dread what will happen when the Future era rolls around.

 

[Whosit]

Let us know when things go boom.

Sorry, I don't have pictures (can barely get Civ running since my main PC is KO'd), but I played a bit as Rome on the Civ18 scenario map. I got very, very lucky, in that I got the Swordsman Army Event. My prize for building 12 Praetorians (which I would have done, anyway!) is to give them all a free City Raider I promotion, now and forever! That means City Raider II out of the box (with Barracks), and City Raider III once I settled a Great General in Rome. Sure, I took a casualty here and there, but even Archers behind walls are NOT going to stand up to (effectively) 14 Strength units. All of Europe is under my control (I think that it's still in the BCs, but can't remember), and with Construction researched, I'm trying to decide who to attack next.

I missed the Oracle by a turn (would have picked up Feudalism), but that wasn't a big deal. At least I didn't rage quit.

 

[Sonereal]

I missed the Oracle by a turn (would have picked up Feudalism), but that wasn't a big deal. At least I didn't rage quit.

In my current game, my civics combined with the free Combat I and all those awesome XP buildings have lead to my Teutonic Knights (already starting at 13 strength) to come out of the box with Combat II, III, and Amphbious which in the mod, also comes with 10% strength.

I got a new war to talk about. So, my German game is going well. I annexed Korea which naturally ticked off Siam who decided to invade me. There was no way they could take Seoul (over 125% defensive modifer plus a lot of Expanded Castle goodness) so they marched on Wosan. Bad idea as it would turn out since I still had a large army waiting on Pusan on galleys just in case either Siam or Spain invaded my Korean holdings. If Spain had invaded, I would've landed the troops near Toledo and that would've been that.

Anyway, their invasion force is smacked down and I march on their Khmer vassal and take his capital. Just as I was about to march on Siam (going south would've meant marching through tundra which damages troops). Guess what happens?

Spain declares war.

Siam was happy to pay me to end the war so now I had to send my troops in the opposite direction but the war ended with me taking Toledo (horse resource) and Valencia and Khmer was annexed by Siam because they could no longer stand by themselves. Valencia was in the middle of tundra and I didn't have the time to stack them on ships and send them there so my troops took a beating but won in the end.

War lasted from 986 to 1011. I was lucky because Spain is a beast in this game. Unlike me, they had tons of competion on their continent but they have conquered the Native Americans, Assyrians, and Mayans and vassalized the Incans and Babylonians. They annexed the Portuguese once (they came back later but I razed that city).

Me? At that point my only war was going the city-state of Portugal and the short Korean Curbstomp War.

Spoiler :

At this rate, the three big powers are too close to each other for comfort and Spain is insane. Izzy is declaring war at Friendly and all three of us have roughly the same military might. I could potentially march through Siam and leave a rump Siamese state in the south which would mean Angkor Thom and Paris in the frigid wastelands for them only, or I could try and invade Spain but that would be a war against an entire continent. The Babylonians are a joke but the Incans are still pretty sizable.

I would invade Rome but it's too far away and inside Spain's sphere of influence.

*sigh*

2129 turns down. 'bout 2400 to go. I'm technologically behind so a Scientific Victory or Space Race victory is still far....far out there. Spain controls the AP but there's no diplo victory which leaves Conquest or Domination.

 

[Whosit]

What mod are you using again? A lot of different units, and I heard you mention a limit on how many units can occupy a square. Is that your own units, or all units? (Can you block off a choke if you have enough units there?)

Anyway, sounds like a beast of war. That sounds like fun. Don't always want it to be too easy, after all. Will you defeat Spain by force of arms, or by another method...?

 

[Sonereal]

What mod are you using again?

Rise of Mankind 2.92 with A New Dawn 1.74B

A lot of different units, and I heard you mention a limit on how many units can occupy a square. Is that your own units, or all units? (Can you block off a choke if you have enough units there?)

It's based on team. Originally, it was altogether but that lead to tons of problems where it was impossible to attack a "full" square. So, you and your ally could both have 5 units on a tile if the limit is 5 but it rarely happens like that.

Yes, you can block off a choke hold during a war and it works pretty well.

Anyway, sounds like a beast of war. That sounds like fun. Don't always want it to be too easy, after all. Will you defeat Spain by force of arms, or by another method...?

The newest version of the mod actually gives me another method. It's expensive Espionage Points wise however. Basically, the idea was to put all 100 of my EPs into Spain and then camp spies in ALL their cities and then Arm Rebels in ALL their cities. The problem? 5000 EP each.

The mod makes spy missions scale to game speed so on Eternity Speed (4500 turns), the "Spread Anarchy" mission causes 38 turns of Anarchy while unhappiness and unhealthy missions also scale but they don't tell you they do in the tool tip.

Late game missions include turning off the power grid of a city (highly devastating given the nature of the mod in the far future) and Planting Nukes which is super expensive. I believe 40k EPs give or take a few thousand after bonuses and stuff.
------

To give you how powerful Aid Rebels are, using it on the fringes on an empire WILL cause that city to revolt. Problem is is that I never produced enough EPs to do it continent wide. I was going to do that to Korea but Inciting Revolt which, scaled to game speed, is 3 turns of disorder in the city, allowed me to push into Pusan and Nampo without siege units on flat terrain that highly favored my ultra Teutonic Knights.

Seoul is a fortress city now. The mod allows the player to use Expanded Castles which means besides the 125% defensive modifiers, there are also special buildings such as murder holes, castle keep, and ballastria which gives a 50% bonus to archery units and 25% to archery units.

Wosan, however, did not benefit. I didn't bother building all that in that city even though its on the border. As a matter of fact, none of my mainland cities have such a powerful defense like Seoul. I'm planning on improving Toledo and the Khmer Capital (name escapes me) since the former has my only source of horses and the latter splits Siam in half.

-----------------

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. If I go to war with Spain, it will be a LONG war. Especially with 6 units per tile. I could simply storm in Madrid if I wanted too but it would be a bloody siege regardless. I would have to allies to call in. Rome hates me. The Ottomans are cautious and have a different state religion. I haven't meet the Russians yet but know where they are thanks to Spanish maps and it looks like they may have some experienced troops after seeing that they have conquered the Americans a long time ago.

And no reason to bring up Siam. I had to make sure that the war against Spain ended fast with me taking Valencia or Toledo OR else Spain would try to get Siam to redeclare which would mean me having to back out of Toledo. That's the scary thing about the mod's Ruthless AI option. The AI, when it declares war, will bring in war allies if it can.

So, the way I'm looking at it, to actually invade Spain, I would have to build up the largest fleet ever seen to make sure I can strike Madrid, the Incans, Babylonians, Romans (just in case since they don't like me) and Spain's Mayan holdings and that's still not overwhelming enough. I tried to look at Japan during WW2 for tips which is why when I invaded Korea, I struck in Pusan and Nampo at once by sea.

Now I have caravels and caravels have 9 strength compared to the 6 of triremes and 5 of Siege ships. Problem is is that Spain also has them and landing troops in Madrid will require even more escorts despite the short swim (movement of 3 vs movement of 5 of caravels+1 since Spain discovered the world is round).

So yeah, I'm thinking of it from a "real world" standpoint I've taken while doing Realpolitik England. The invasion would require dozens of galleys, nearly a hundred combat troops if I want to overwhelm them quickly, and dozens of more escort ships plus even MORE ships to blockade Spanish ports.

In Realpolitik terms....hundreds of ships and probably a few hundred thousand men dying before it was all over.

Then again, Spain would have the same problem trying to invade Germany. Siam? Siam is roughly the same strength as Spain and I but I share a land border. However, I am not going to march south onto Paris. Never. Tundra damages troops and Paris is landlocked and not worth the fighting.

No more wars. Not for a very long time but if I can, I plan on trying a massive spy ring to incite revolution across Siam. If I take Siam, then I can turn all arrows/ships/swords northwest on Spain.

.....Just noticed the irony of Germany having to deal with two fronts in my game. In theory, Spain and I should be best friends. We even had a Free Trade Agreement which is why the German Butcher's Guild was so big in Spain. Yet, Spain and I have had two wars by now, both started by Spain at Friendly. The first time was so half-hearted I don't even talk about it but this one was clearly a victory for me.
------------

It's basically like the (awesome) Starcraft 2 commercial narrations.

"War is coming in all its glory."


Edit: I should probably explain my end game if I'm losing in the late game. In vanilla BTS, if I ever ever ever ever ever ever (and so on) lose my capital for any reason, I'll simply nuke everything and I do mean everything and everybody. Usually with enough nukes and guided missiles to level every city on a standard-sized map and in one particularity BAD game I had, on a Huge map. Why? Rage-nuking>rage-quitting. But in this mod?

ICBMs, atomic bombers, hydrogen bombs, the "Peacemaker" ultra-nuke which has a 32x32 radius basically making it a continent buster and that's the mild stuff compared to the Biological Weapon line of weapon which, at its worst with the Plague Bringer, can potentially spread across the planet and the fusion weapons that vaporize entire cities in a single shot or in the case of a Fusion Nova, a city and the surrounding countryside.

It can get pretty nasty. Luckily, it's never came up to such a degree. The Peacemaker is bloody expensive and if our England in the Realpolitik game ever got one, we could take out all of North America or Africa. I should probably test that now that I brought it up. On a Giant Earth Map, it could probably still take out a good chunk of Asia leaving nothing but irradiated cities and 1024 tiles to be scrubbed of fallout which, given that most of the workers are killed during the single strike and multiple civilizations are hit, could take the rest of the game to scrub completely even though it would be an international effort at that point. Can't forget that someone using Peacemakers would probably have Plague Bringers.

 

[Sonereal]

Well, things aren't working out as I planned. I was building up for a war against Siam to hopefully offset the fact we're militarily even and they have some gunpowder units now plus that dreaded Battle Elephant unit which, for the most part, is still pretty dangerous to my Mailed Knights. And their only gunpowder units so far are bombards and those are probably from upgrading previous units.

I managed to militarize the border before they declared war and landed troops next to the Khmer city I captured (Hari-something). Deciding the city wasn't worth keeping, I razed it myself and sent the troops there back to the southern army which is marching to take care of the forces there before they decide to march on Valencia. Year is 1067.

Things aren't all bad I think though. The northern army I have on the continent is marching onto a Siamese city while the southern army takes care of the Siamese invaders. Meanwhile I talked Spain into declaring war on Siam which put the balance of power firmly in my favor. The Northern Army even managed to pillage an ivory camp which should take care of their battle elephants AND puts the war firmly in my hands since they don't have horses.

I can't use my Incite City Revolt trick anyway since Siam used counter espionage and now that mission is too expensive for my tastes and Aiding Rebels costs 20k.

Edit: War's over and if anything, both sides lost. I razed a (useless) city to keep it out of enemy hands and Siam lost a large army trying to take Valencia. But I also lost a large part of the Northern Army trying to take a Siamese city so neither side really won but Siam made a huge mistake. They traded me Education and Gunpowder (at highly inflated prices). Turns out my mine was built over sulphur so now I can immediately start pumping out bombards and fast because I'm going to go to war with Siam ASAP. I couldn't push the advantage I had in the South because none of my units are trained to fight in tundra. War only lasted 5 years.

 

[Whosit]

Hm, stalemate, eh? Though bringing in Spain could be dangerous, especially if they end up taking some territory, themselves.

I've continued to progress in my Earth game, though it may not really count as something "grand" (I'm only playing for fun on Noble, after all). City Raider III Praetorians pretty much tear into anything that gets in their way, especially when they have siege units to soften up the enemy for them. Greece fell relatively quickly and was destroyed, and then I began a war against Egypt and England simultaneously. Egypt was large, but barely had an army, and England was, well, England. Hopefully that doesn't horrify people from the AAR too much.

Conquered and destroyed England, and learned that Germany, which had escaped my full wrath before, had rebuilt in Scandanavia and Ireland. Huh. Egypt pretty much caved in. I started the war with only a vanguard of about half a dozen Praetorians and a couple of Trebuchets to back them up. Egypt's border city in what would be Afghanistan fell quickly, and their capital of Thebes was taken pretty easily, too; Egypt only had Archers and War Chariots to defend with. At that point, I convinced Persia to give me their World Map, and I saw that Egypt was spread out pretty far, geographically.

Turns out Hatshepsut was willing to capitulate, and I decided I was better off with a large vassal than spending the time and treasure to conquer it all myself. I also ended up gifting Thebes back to her. Now I can have someone to research the techs I don't feel like researching myself!

Even better, a couple turns later, Russia (Catharine) offered to become my Vassal. This was very good news, because she had had "too much on [her] hands" for a while now, and having Russia as a vassal pretty much guaranteed that no one was going to sneak up on me, and that when I go to war with Persia (my closest rival in score, but still rather far behind), I won't have to worry about being backstabbed (might absorb Germany first, just to make sure there's no risk).

I'm not sure what algorithm made Catharine decide to join me, but it was actually a pretty smart move on her part. Here she had a neighbor who repeatedly attacked his neighbors for no real reason other than expansion, and who had just concluded a brief and very successful war with the only other power that really rivaled him (which also meant that his troops would not be tied up elsewhere in a long engagement). Since Russia could very well have been my next victim, it was probably smarter for Catharine to swallow her pride and become a vassal to Rome. Anyway, the window of opportunity for Praetorians is closing, especially since Persia has had Longbowmen for a while now, but I think I can continue to "expand" for a bit longer, and probably conquer all or most of the old world.

It is also 1000 AD, by the way. I can research Liberalism at my leisure, but I'll probably wait until one of the AI gets Paper or something. Part of the reason I attacked Egypt was because they were researching Paper. Anyway, hopefully I'll have a better story later.

 

[Cull]

@Whosit: Save file.

(puppy eyes)

 

[Whosit]

Save file? You mean the one where I've just gotten two vassals, or the one where I'm about to curbstomp Persia (who I sicced China on to distract them) with City Raider III Riflemen (gave my Praetorians shiny new guns) vs. Longbowmen?

I'll edit this post in a bit to add it, I guess, but surely you can do just as well. It's only Noble, after all. Though I have to admit, that Swordsman event really topped it off.

 

[Cull]

CR III Rifles against LONGBOWS?!?!

Nah, I'm okay.

 

[Sonereal]

Hm, stalemate, eh? Though bringing in Spain could be dangerous, especially if they end up taking some territory, themselves.

Which they won't. It's kinda like 1984. For Siam, Spain, or Germany to be invaded, it would take the two other Empires going to war with the third. One on one, one could win but at a extremely high cost. So, now Siam and Spain are at war and separated by me but I don't even have OB with Spain meaning they really aren't going to be able to take much of Siam.

Which leads me to my newest problem. I don't have the cash to upgrade my catapults and trebuchets to bombards so I'm stuck having to build new ones and pray for the best. I can't just start building bombards because I usually build Cannon Forges to double the production speed of bombards.

I've continued to progress in my Earth game, though it may not really count as something "grand" (I'm only playing for fun on Noble, after all). City Raider III Praetorians pretty much tear into anything that gets in their way, especially when they have siege units to soften up the enemy for them. Greece fell relatively quickly and was destroyed, and then I began a war against Egypt and England simultaneously. Egypt was large, but barely had an army, and England was, well, England. Hopefully that doesn't horrify people from the AAR too much.

Conquered and destroyed England, and learned that Germany, which had escaped my full wrath before, had rebuilt in Scandanavia and Ireland. Huh. Egypt pretty much caved in. I started the war with only a vanguard of about half a dozen Praetorians and a couple of Trebuchets to back them up. Egypt's border city in what would be Afghanistan fell quickly, and their capital of Thebes was taken pretty easily, too; Egypt only had Archers and War Chariots to defend with. At that point, I convinced Persia to give me their World Map, and I saw that Egypt was spread out pretty far, geographically.

Turns out Hatshepsut was willing to capitulate, and I decided I was better off with a large vassal than spending the time and treasure to conquer it all myself. I also ended up gifting Thebes back to her. Now I can have someone to research the techs I don't feel like researching myself!

Even better, a couple turns later, Russia (Catharine) offered to become my Vassal. This was very good news, because she had had "too much on [her] hands" for a while now, and having Russia as a vassal pretty much guaranteed that no one was going to sneak up on me, and that when I go to war with Persia (my closest rival in score, but still rather far behind), I won't have to worry about being backstabbed (might absorb Germany first, just to make sure there's no risk).

I'm not sure what algorithm made Catharine decide to join me, but it was actually a pretty smart move on her part. Here she had a neighbor who repeatedly attacked his neighbors for no real reason other than expansion, and who had just concluded a brief and very successful war with the only other power that really rivaled him (which also meant that his troops would not be tied up elsewhere in a long engagement). Since Russia could very well have been my next victim, it was probably smarter for Catharine to swallow her pride and become a vassal to Rome. Anyway, the window of opportunity for Praetorians is closing, especially since Persia has had Longbowmen for a while now, but I think I can continue to "expand" for a bit longer, and probably conquer all or most of the old world.

It is also 1000 AD, by the way. I can research Liberalism at my leisure, but I'll probably wait until one of the AI gets Paper or something. Part of the reason I attacked Egypt was because they were researching Paper. Anyway, hopefully I'll have a better story later.

*Whistles*

I'm having problems taking on the AIs on noble in my game! But then again, the mod has BetterAI and Ruthless AI which makes Noble feeling like Prince+ or Monarch. As soon as I finish this game, I'm going to play a GEM as probably....Japan. Or England. Or maybe even Rome. With Revolutions, the map will fill up before long.



Edit: Another war with Siam later and I've gained two new cities. I would've pushed the offensive but I left Valencia and Druisburg (new city to replace the one I razed myself) open to invader from the south and sea. Siam, militarily, hasn't been smashed to bits yet. Their Navy in the region is still greater than mine and I haven't won a decisive military battle with them yet. Good news is that I adopted the Standing Army civic and after I won the first city, I inflated my military with Arctic Combat macemen which, hopefully, will be ready to march down to Paris. Spain is still at war with Siam but I don't think they'll win anything decisive despite now having a much stronger military than Siam.

So, the 1984-esque situation is over. Siam's been demoted from superpower to regional power.

 

[Sonereal]

In April, 1136, war was beginning.

Within three years, two Siamese cities have fallen rapidly to the German Armies of the North and South but not, the bloodiest stalemate I have ever ran into is making my life difficult. I'm not even overstating that. The Siamese Army, after the fall of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya in 1139 is making a huge comeback. Not because my army is weaker but because both my armies in Siam are tied down laying siege to massive cities. The Northern Army is actually making progress thanks to the new German Brigatines and Sloops bombarding the city. The Southern Army is in a bad way. The city is landlocked and exerts a ZoC thanks to a moat. Worst, both cities have city gates meaning until I drop their defenses below 25%, I can't attack.

The Northern Army, while managing to get the number below that, is unable to attack because of the lack of fresh troops. Siamese bombards, along with the Siamese Castle, is making life for my troops hell. Meanwhile, the South is dealing with the highest defensive modifier on the continent. Possibly the planet given that the city before I started bombardment was 210%.

It doesn't help that the Siamese Army is attacking me in the field.

This screenshot shows the first Siamese counterattack in 1140. In-game, the year is now 1146 and I'm going to have to start drafts on the mainland if the situation doesn't improve quickly. +3 unhappiness for a 120 turns doesn't really appeal to me right now.

Spoiler :

As I see it, after these cities fall, I'm going to have to sue for peace and hope that the losses would force Siam to capitulate which is my goal.

German Advantages

-Spanish War Ally
-Larger Army
-Standing Army
-Is researching matchlock, meaning a new gunpowder unit soon.
-Naval Supremacy allowing for safe transit of troop transports from Berlin to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya.

Disadvantages

-Antiquated siege engines (trebuchets, the Korean UU, and catapults)
-Not enough siege engines (bombards)
-Constant casualties and many troops aren't at full-strength


Siamese Advantages
-Powerful production base
-Powerful defenses
-Bombards

Siamese Disadvatages
-Fighting a War of Attrition
-Politically isolated
-Half the strength of Germany


So yeah. This is what happens when you don't build enough siege engines. This is the first war in this game where I'm pillaging just to make my life easier.

Edit: 1147 and the war's over. What happened just now? I lost an important stack of the Southern Army and my Northern Army was too beat up to maintain the siege. I ended the war but on my terms and I got all of Siam's gold, gold per turn, and a world map. I'm moving the entire Southern Army to the North to focus on that one city. I no longer can get my troops to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya because Siam controls the waters around the city so it'll take longer to get the troops to where I need them.

Edit2: Spain declared war in 1173. Luckily, they had just discovered the magical ship that is a frigate so my Brigantines weren't completely trampled over. The war lasted to 1195 and neither side really made a dent in the other in the military score. I wasn't about to invade Spain because I would be ripped to shreds crossing the strait and Spain is too busy doing whatever Spain does.

 

[Sonereal]

The year is now 1283 and I've been in a constant state of war since 1173 with either Siam or Spain (or both at the same time but Siam and Spain are always at war) or in one case, with Ethiopia.

Ethiopia, while proficient against the Russians on the same continent, stood no chance against gunpowder units and frigates. It was almost sad because Ethiopia wasn't even using longbows but archers and axemen with the occasional swordsman. After taking two cities, he capitulated and I turned the two cities in an Indian colony.

Next, I finally forced Siam into capitulation by taking Paris and Angkor Wat. I kept those two cities but I felt generous and so I liberated Bangkok and the other Eastern Siamese cities I took to bypass the powerful defenses in the central cities. I did this so I can have a decent ally against Spain.

Now, Spain and I are at it again but this time I have frigates and as soon as I mobilize more troops, I'm landing at Madrid with a vengeance. Siam will be useless for a while since the central cities have had their countrysides razed to the ground.

As soon as I knock Spain down a peg, I'm going into peace mode for the majority of the game.

Spoiler :

Either that, or I peace with Spain ASAP and conquer Russia and proceed with simply conquering the weakest neighbor until I surpass Spain.

Going by the info screen, I have 7 million troops.

Oh, and the Vikings are possibly a superpower that I simply will never invade because their entire continent is mostly tundra.

 

[Sonereal]

July, 1337.

My last major war is beginning. This isn't just another skirmish at the sea between Spain and Germany. Spain has taken a German city on the Siamese Continent, hundreds of thousands of German men have been drafted and armed. A dozen of ships packed with troops are being sent to Spain to take Madrid which is already being bombarded by German frigates.

Siam and Germany, formally (yes, still hatred there) bitter enemies, are forced to fight against a common enemy and Siam wants to show it can fight once again. Ethiopia, India, and Russia mean well and will try to hold out against Spain but like Siam, lack the naval techs required to take them on at sea meaning the German Navy and Spanish Navy are going to be fighting at sea across the planet.

Four entire continents have been mobilized for war.

 

[W|M]

TOTAL WORLD WAR! Nice story, but more pics are needed. Although I haven´t played civ for ages, (RL issues and whatnot) I´m more of a peacemaker (and I´m not talking about the superweapon). Also, how exactly do you install A New Dawn? I don´t think I´ve done it properly...

 

[Darth Caesar]

I've had quite a few good wars as JC on the Earth map. It's always fun to conquer the Old War then go and take out Monty's New World empire in Modern Warfare Armageddon!

sniper: