Ally with those far away, and jointly attack those closeby

[ShadowWarrior]

From looking at the various screen shots that I have seen so far, I like to suggest a strategy. But first, I have to make it clear that I have not played Civ IV yet, since my laptop isn't compatible with it. So this might not be a viable strategy. Nevertheless if someone can try it and let me know the results, I would appreciate it. And who knows, it might work very well.

In Chinese, this strategy I have in mind is called Yuan Jiao Jin Gon. This means to ally with those far away and jointly attack those close by. The famous Emperor Ching Shi Huang used this strategy to unify China.

The strategy goes like this. Lets say I am China. Japan is to my west. U.S is to Japan's west. So Japan is stuck in between U.S and I. The strategy is to ally with U.S to attack Japan.

Lets say Germany is to U.S' west. So once U.S and I destroyed Japan, U.S is between Germany and I. So I ally with Germany to destroy U.S.

If France is to Germany's west, then I ally with France to destroy Germany after Germany and I destroy U.S.

Now of course, countries are not lined up neatly horizontally. But with some creativity, you can still apply the same strategy.

So if anyone is kind enough to try this strategy for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Please next me know how things go.

 

[Speciou5]

When I started playing, almost all the wars I am the aggressor in (that aren't ancient/classical age or a complete walk over) I try to get a neighbour to help out. However, you cannot count the AI to do a total war or even hold up their weight of the war. For example, I had one game where I was a tight war against the Mali and had managed to drag the Arabs (on their flank) into a joint war for an arm and a leg (two techs plus gold). I thought my problem would have been over but Saladin never took any cities and was already at peace with Mansu after 20~ turns!!

Also, another thing to consider is that you get easy relation bonuses for fighting against a common enemy so when you wish to take over your next target they will most likely be a friend. Nothing too bad, but something to consider as Civ4 usually ends up in blocs anyways.

 

[Harry_P]

Another point here is that the civs closest to you are usually the ones you can convert to your religion, sign open borders with the earliest etc. It's much easier to use the civs closest to you to declare war on the others instead of vice versa. It's also important to note that with the new diplomacy in Civ 4 it's not as easy to bribe a civ to go to war, usually they have to have negative relations with the civ you want them to attack.

 

[Shillen]

Another point here is that the civs closest to you are usually the ones you can convert to your religion, sign open borders with the earliest etc. It's much easier to use the civs closest to you to declare war on the others instead of vice versa.

But it's difficult to wage distant wars. It not only takes your units forever to get there but with the new unit supply costs, that makes it even more costly. And then that's even compounded more by the distance to capital maintenance costs when you capture cities. So I'm finding it's almost never worth it to fight a war against anyone but your nearest neighbor. The exception would be a late game war against your top rival to slow him down.

 

[petey]

I think it's best to ally with people on one side of you and go to war with people on the other. You want to be able to expand your borders, not take over a civ on the other side of the world, so you need to attack those close by. You don't want to have to watch your back so closely while you're doing so, though.

You're not going to convert everyone near to you, so become extra friendly with those you can and then go after the rest. Do remember, though, that no matter how much someone likes you, they'll still eat your border cities if you leave them lightly defended while attacking someone else.

 

[Gufnork]

I don't know, after railroad I prefer to do the other way around. Ally with my neighbour against his neighbours. That way I'm sure the war will never be on my territory and it doesn't take me long to get to the front as long as my neighbour has good infrastructure. Just get a capitol in your new territory and you're good to go. Early on I agree though.

So in your example I would team up with the US to attack Japan (making sure I get most of it. Then, after railroads I would team up against Germany, again with the US. This also means that the US will be a very loyal ally, just make sure you get the most out of your wars.

 

[Skyrim]

i agree with Gufnork, but i do it early on as well. i usually play as milatristic, cultural so i can start a war with a civ on the other side of an ally that i have open boarders with so i can use them as a buffer for the attacks while i expand culturaly towards them and convert some of their cities. by this time the civ i am against will usually have used up units and is ready to surrender so i can just declare peace and get lots of free stuff and i will have got some more cities. if anyone tries this post wether it worked for you.

 

[Harry_P]

I'm with Petey on this one. It's better to use one neighbour against the other.

It's also important to remember that you don't have to be at war with a civ to get an ally to attack them. You can negotiate the declaration of war, wait a few turns and then jump in yourself.

Normally I don't find the AI civs all that helpful in an attack anyway. 95% of the time I make sure I have the resources to finish any war I start quickly and I don't want anyone else taking the cities or resources I'm gunning for. I'm much more likely to help an AI civ when asked because I can just pillage and burn cities for gold, but when I have a military objective in mind I find it's almost always a better idea to do it all yourself.

 

[R3dKnight]

I love my recent game. I was really sucking it up with the Russians. They are very far away from my continent yet they live next to the 2 super powers above us in the ratings. I was 4th, Catherine was 3rd. The two top dogs are Malinese and Egyptians.

I continued to help Catherine whenever I could even giving necessary military tech for her to repel her attackers. Amazingly she managed to hold them off and captured several towns.

It all went really great when I discovered Bombers. I simply used her cities as launchpads while I focused on the space race ( good thing since the Malinese are close to their space project) I destroyed every single improvements within range with 0 ground unit.

XD we managed to replace Egyptians and Malinese by the end game as the two top dogs. And I won the space race cause Catherine was too busy with military to catch up on the tech. THe two other civs simply can't compete with our Defensive pacts. ^^