Advice needed on how to catch up with my main rival

[General Theodor]

Hi, I am playing as Germany on a monarch difficulty on conquests and I have just got into the modern age, My main rival is India and they are slowly pulling ahead of me in terms of units, technology and gold, the only advantages I have is that I have all types of resource in my borders and I am supplying India with coal and uranium. I need advice on how to effectively neuter India's progress and give myself time to build units so I have an army capable of invading India. Any help would be very useful thank you.

 

[vmxa]

Well one way to help them is to give them resources they do not have, such as coal and Uranium. No way would I give anyone in the modern age Ur. They cannot make nukes with out it.

At that point in the game, you do not need to be ahead of them in tech, just take down a lot of their cities.

Get armies and smash them. Rush them with units or gold, I presume you do have the Acad built.

If you need details, we need a save to look at.

 

[Aabraxan]

How many civs are left in the game? Any chance of dogpiling India?

 

[KevinRuddPM]

You could always try espionage. But it will cost a lot of gold.

 

[Theov]

Another thing you could do is post a save. Because it makes a story a little less vague. It's really not that hard.

Don't expect a reaction from me though, because my brother has my CD (damnit) but if I get it back i will promise....

Yeah. Posting a save is the best thing to do at this moment.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Mass artillery and redline every unit in an enemy city, then raze it. Move on. Move strong armies in and pillage rubber, oil, aluminum and any other useful resource. Pretty soon, you'll be fighting mostly ToWs.

 

[undertoad]

Quick answers, from a casual fun-aggressive-builder Warlord-and-slightly-above player:

Your strength is your control of resources, so use that.

1. Use CivAssistII (an excellent utility, you can find it over on the Mods/Utilities forum if you don't already have it) to work out what resource India really needs most at the moment. If you combine the Technologies view (which tells you which civ has discovered what) with the "Miscellaneous" view, you may find out e.g. that India has Steam Power but no coal under its control. By denying them Coal you can prevent them from railroading (a Territory Map, if you can't see them, is useful here). Or, in another example, India may have Replaceable Parts but no Rubber. Deny them Rubber, and you'll only be meeting Riflemen as defence, rather than the Infantry of Doom...

2. Deny resources, but don't break any GPT deals you may have (even with India, who you mean to beat the hell of really soon!). Again, CivAssist can tell you (on the Current Trades screen) what your current deals are and how long they last. As soon as the initial 20 turns is over, you can break these deals with no repercussions - but do break them explicitly through a meeting, BEFORE declaring war.

3. Before invading, figure out what resource is most important for India to screw up your plans. It may be Saltpetre/Iron (in a pre-Riflemen situation), or Rubber (in a Replaceable Parts situation), or Horses. The CivAssist Miscellaneous view can show you where India is getting these things from (though not WHO they're getting them from, if they're importing them). Concentrate your war effort on pillaging and defending these crucial resource squares, and you'll make your life much easier.

I don't see CivAssist as a cheat - I see it as providing information that the game really should provide itself.

 

[EvilConqueror]

Where is India located? On the same continent, different continent, alone on an island?

 

[Brucha]

Where is India located? On the same continent, different continent, alone on an island?

Yes, good question - if you can, post either a world map or a save. Alot matters on the position of India to you. At the very least, as was mentioned above, you should have never traded with India - however, that is water under the bridge now. I think your only option now is militarily, which will require a long attrition war. Hard to say though without a map or save.

 

[Taras Bulba]

first, I'd stop the trading with them. The coal they can use to build rails, and if they can build nukes, I'm sure they'll be trying at 'em.

second, build masses of bombers and start massing near their border, also putting a HUGE defense on top of them (probably in an airbase). If they border you, spread out your forces over the border to prevent invasion, and start bombing the heck out of 2-3 cities. If you kill all those units in the cities, there's a good chance that they'll send a good chunk of their fast units into those cities to defend, rather than attack. Then start bombing tile improvements and the same cities to divert attacks, until you can start bombing more cities. Eventually, you should be able to take some and declare for peace and hopefully some techs

 

[SleeperLv]

Firstly - dont give them what they want. Trade with everyone but them. Sign embargo against them with whole world, so they dont get any trade from ANYONE!
Secondly - build up your fist and punch them in the face. As hard as you can. Then withdraw. While they recover you should be on top!

 

[Spoonwood]

My advice: post a save.