Ambitious plan - too ambitious?

Continental Op

Warlord
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
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242
In my current game I am playing in continents as Tokugawa and was born in the wrong continent. In the less developed continent. Initially my idea was to get a Permanent Alliance with some other civ, but when I found the other continent, I immediately had another idea. A very ambitious idea.

The powerhouse in this game is Julius with his over 2x and still growing power ratio over mine. He also has two vassals on his continent and is playing very aggressively. Techwise we are about equal, but both his vassals are more technologically advanced than me. So I thought, could it be possible to take on that monster Julius and kill him off by the end game?

To do that, I will have to claim my continent for myself - I need that land if I'm going to catch up on Julius. Or at least as much as I can - both Julius and Alexander, the other military monster, are claiming little bits of my continent already. So immediately when I had some cannons I declared on Montezuma as well as his master Wang Kon. Killed Monty and doing the same to Wang right now. After that, I will have to build a large navy and units for overseas conquest. It shouldn't be impossible to catch up with Julius with more land, and the game is only halfway.

Or is it? Is this doable on Noble, or am I reaching for the moon? I know what you think - of course it's doable, higher level players do it all the time. But is there anything that I should know attempting to do something like this? If I can pull this off, I know I'm ready for the next level.
 
Of course it's doable, higher level players do it all the time. :mischief:

If you're in a disadvantageous tech position just remember the good attack compositions that work at a tech deficit - Inf/Arty/SAM/AntiTank works quite far into tech deficit, and mass Fighter(in Carriers)/Inf/Tanks can work until the very end with sufficient numbers. You can try a do-or-die attack where you turn off tech at, say, Industrialism (get Flight first) and rush buy a massive army (preferably with the Kremlin if you can get it - State Property is good as well). When you've established a beachhead on the other continent, rush buy an Airport there and continue the onslaught by airlifting masses of units over each turn.

The "peaceful" way would be to conquer your continent, prioritize Computers for the Internet and head for space. Just develop the newly conquered areas fast with Emancipation (+FS+US) and you should be able to butt your way in the tech lead considering you're already at parity with less territory.
 
Dumb question, but do you actually have Permanent Alliances enabled in the custom game settings? It's not on by default and I personally leave it off because the AI doesn't seem to handle permanent alliances very well.
 
Dumb question, but do you actually have Permanent Alliances enabled in the custom game settings? It's not on by default and I personally leave it off because the AI doesn't seem to handle permanent alliances very well.

Me too, but this time I wanted to see how that hybrid nation works. Changed my mind along the way though, and probably am not trying to pursue it in this game.
 
drafting also helps, you have to conquer fast if you're not the tech leader. have low production cities draft or produce the cannons/trebs. have high production cities build the riflemen/maces (i am assuming you already have at least one great general settled in your military city and you have heroic epic). if you still have forests, chop all of them
 
I'm afraid this game is going down the toilet fast. I was doing some fast conquering in my continent, Wang Kon vassalized to Frederick so I adjusted my aim at Freddy. No problem this far, I could take'em both. I was in a bit of a hurry, because Julius already had two vassals in his own continent and was now attacking Napoleon in mine. As soon as Napoleon capitulated, Julius did what I was afraid of him to do, declared on me.

I still persisted war with Freddy and Wang Kon, because I have no navy whatsoever and thus no way to get to Julius and co in his continent, nor Napoleon who is separated by mountains. So I'm using my stack to get Freddy's cities at the same time that I'm building and drafting units to counter those other guys, who are coming at me from all directions. And Julius has about 5X power rating and tech parity, infantry, destroyers etc. Everyone is afraid of his military might, except good old Alex who I was able to bribe to join the war against Julius. He's pretty strong and shares borders with Julius, but still I'm afraid even he won't be able to beat him. Well, I'll just sell or gift him whatever techs I come up with and hope for the best. If he could beat Julius so that his vassals would break free, things could change dramatically.
 
Hey, don't give up yet. It ain't over until it's over. Just take some time, and win that war for your continent. See if you can get piece with JC while Alex fights him (though if Alex starts losing cities have him make peace, you don't want to strengthen your opponent.) Maybe those two will knock heads enough that they take themselves out from the game. Just keep working and try to get peace with Julius so you can handle business on your own continent first.
 
By this stage it's about... 1811, if I recall correctly, and I'm playing this one on marathon speed, huge map (I know, crazy). Well, Alex didn't do much good - Julius ate him like a cake. Just a few turns and three cities later he capped. Those physics and artillery I gave him were so wasted And now Julius is closer to domination victory I've ever seen an AI to be. I was able to buy peace with artillery. I settled a pause with Freddy also - taking out JC's beachhead had made my SoD awfully small. Just when I was about to declare again, he voluntarily vassalized (before I attacked Freddy, he got the largest empire in the world, which makes you wonder why he is still in the middle ages).

Now the only free civs are what's left of Wang in my continent and Justin in JC's continent. If JC would declare on Justin, I think that would pretty much be it - JC wins domination victory. If he would declare on me, I don't know how long I can fight him off. Even worse if he would attack Freddy, I would be forced to actually fight for my vassal this time.

I think my only option now is do the Silu's do-or-die thing - finish off Wang, then turn off tech and prepare for that last final stand. Luckily JC's domination is mostly based on vassals - if I can take just some of his cities, most of them will break free and tables will turn completely. I don't think I've got time left to rush-buy that massive fleet, though, but at least I will go down guns blazing.
 
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