AI beating me on The Just difficulty

[Nico_D]

Trying to learn the game and took the second lowest difficulty. Playing on the Old World map as Rome. Obviously, I'm really bad at the game.

Carthage declared a war against me around turn 80 or so. Since then it's been pretty steady stream of troops. I kill one wave, five new armies march straight to me and kill or two my armies. Repeat. I don't even have any time to build new troops as I'm lagging in the game as it is, trying to get displeasement down and building specialists or new settlers. I have three cities dedicated for building troops but still I'm not able to put them as fast as Carthage is pushing it's own.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. As fun and good as the game is, I'm still having good time, it's starting to feel frustrating. No one nation is fighting with anyone else, it's starting to feel like the AI is systematically stopping my progression and helping the already leading Greece (in victory points) to escape even farther. Should The Just difficulty be this harsh?

One thing which I think could be paid attention to is force march - or I think that's what it is. Because lately enemy soldiers just seem to respawn on my territory, appearing out of nowhere. Now a single Babylonian pikemen appeared there out of nowhere too. I would like to be able to see where they are coming from to be able to put more troops there. Maybe put a break there when the AI is playing and about to cross your border?

 

[jguy100]

Fighting in OW is a little different than fighting in Civ. Concentration of firepower and tactical retreats are a lot more important.

A few tips I've picked up:
1) Generally, it's better to kill one unit than to injure five units. The AI is very good at retreating, healing, and sending them back into the fray. If you're not finishing units off, the AI's army is going to snowball you.
2) Units on cities can't be killed until the city is reduced to 0 health. Keeping your injured units on cities (to heal or to take pot shots) helps you keep the defensive momentum alive.
3) Don't feel you need to rush out to meet the AI. If you see an army coming, it's better to find a nice defensive spot to lure it into. Even if this means they do some pillaging on the way. Gotta keep your own units alive!
4) Don't be afraid to use workers and militia as throwaway bait. Let the AI take out an unguarded worker, then surround and massacre their units the next turn!

And most importantly:
5) At the end of the day, it's just a game. If you're not having fun, restart and do something different! Choose a different difficulty level, or lower AI aggression. I play most of my games pretty peacefully. Bribing and buttering up the AI so we stay at peace most or all of the game. Play the game in a way that's fun for you!

 

[jguy100]

Old World has an excellent User Manual. Definitely recommend checking it out if you haven't already:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/old-world-official-user-manual.673097/

 

[Nico_D]

Thanks for the tips!

The problem with retreating and healing is that then I have less troops doing damage and the AIs armies either concentrate on other units or they force march to the healing unit and kill it off. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't neverending.

Maybe lower levels could use a timer for wars: 30 turns and it ends? Now it just goes on and the AI doesn't have any reason to stop because war doesn't have any negative effects.

What is considered as city? Only the capital hex?

Probably starting the next game on the easiest. What I didn't understand either was that the tech tree has other prerequisities other than the lines running between.

 

[Solver]

I'd in any case suggest playing on normal maps and not premade to begin with, but it's pretty natural that you're getting some mechanics wrong. It's very different from Civ, and there is quite a learning curve!

However, if you would like to post a save of your game, especially before you fight a war, it'd be pretty easy to offer some specific suggestions on what you're not managing well in the empire.

 

[Dale]

One thing I say to everyone who is having trouble with war, get lots of scouts out. Scouts give visibility, and visibility in this game goes a long way to being prepared for your enemy.

Hide them in trees so they are invisible to the enemy.

 

[PiR]

What is considered as city? Only the capital hex?

Yes just the one.

Show us screenshots.

Also "The Just" difficulty is just one setting. You could play on easy mode with another setting creating an aggressive AI. Check other parameters too. Make some peaceful games first maybe.

 

[Nico_D]

I started a new game, random generated map as instructed. The Just, no AI city advantage and peaceful. It's going better so far, I have time to learn things, the AI is not pushing so hard. A very good game and definitely one - if not the - favorite 4x games I've played but this definitely has a learning curve. Very different from Civ - and most others.

 

[Nico_D]

This has been considerably better and more fun game for a noob like me. The AI played pretty decently up to turn 100, now it's lost. I'm just building stuff and learning later game techs to see what is doing what. Learning to balance cities is good fun, much more complex than in Civ. This is good stuff.