Attack the capital?

[Sitting Duck]

In my past few games, I've had trouble deciding whether to attack the civilization's capital first and take that, or if I should just attack its smaller cities and work my way up. Does it really make a difference when if you would capture the capital first?

 

[Colincivmaster]

It depends on a lot of things. If the civilization is weak, you can work your way up. Usually i don't attack capitals. Its more fun to attack all their cities. Capture a few of their big cities if you have access to them, preferably ones with wonders. Once you have a city in their territory, you have good access to them.

 

[Ace]

On the other hand, if you have some coins to spend, you can attack and capture the capital first, than bribe the other cities. This is especially effective if the ai does not have enough coins to immediately build a new capital because a civ's cities, without a capital, can be subverted very cheaply. This has the advantage of adding a functioning city to your empire without having to rebuild it and replace "lost" citizens.

 

[Smash]

Even if they do have enough gold to move their capitol,you are at least forcing them to use resources that could have went into units or infastructure.

I often find AI capitols rather weakly defended.If there is a way,attack the cap first.Not vital though.More important is to have the units to keep your ball rolling.

 

[Archer 007]

I like to attack capitals first.

 

[pomsa]

I like attacking their biggest cities, usually the capital first.

 

[geofelt]

Check to see how much gold the civ has. They need 1000 to rebuild and move the capital. You will also get some gold for capturing the city.

 

[funxus]

I usually start where it's easiest to get a foot in their land, and from there move on towards the capital. If the capital is in the middle, it's not always that easy (wth e.g. ZOC) to capture it first.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

If the comp has develloped a good RR system (it is really too good and is now hurtfull, more is less), get a beach city, unload your troops, include a spy, and just move through the country on their own RR. Capture the capitol, then bribe the cities and take a chunk of their country...

 

[Andu Indorin]

Of course, if you are in a position to overpower the opposing Civ and you want to maximize your plunder, don't take the capital until after the opposing civ's treasury has been reduced to the point where it cannot move its capital.

Also, if you want to amuse yourself by splitting the civ, then taking the capital takes precedence.

 

[Sitting Duck]

Thank you, I do all I can to amuse myself, so sad, so sad... Thanks to everyone else for their input.

 

[A+ombomb]

I don't really care when I take the capital, but I do find it extremely amusing to cause civil wars when I take one.

 

[Old n Slow]

I'm afraid I'm a little sloppy in this regard -- I usually start my attack & purchase activity with those places closest to me and those places acting as thorns. Rarely do I make th eeffort to go after the capital first. (Of course by the time I get around to attacking I often have significant overwhelming force, so it doesn't make that much of a difference.)

 

[Specialist290]

EDIT- Apparently somebody already said what I was going to. Just goes to show how much it pays to read the thread before you post...

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Oh yeah, go for the throat. Because once the capital city's taken, they're going to have lots of troubles. Without a capital, there's huge corruption and waste everywhere. Big cities go into revolts, and stop working. It's better to fuel the chaos by sabotaging the happiness improvements and the courthouses by the end of the next turn and then start buying them up.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Not if they are in a modern govt, unless there is a key wonder in the city. I cannot see any reason why a democracy needs a capitol, and a capitol in commy is not extreamly important. Fundy can use one a little more, to up the price of bribing, but there is no real reason why. Lucky for us, the comp uses rep as a "modern" govt...

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by Prof. Garfield
Lucky for us, the comp uses rep as a "modern" govt...

Exactly

If the AI does uses a demo, then the spies have the same missions anyway. For commie and fundy civs, the capital isn't the most important thing, but since the capital is the oldest city, it's heavily populated, and has infrastructure. So its loss will affect the overall production and economy.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The capitol isn't the always the oldest city, the comp moves it's capitol around sometimes, and sometimes other cities are also more important than the capitol. Use your spies to find cities with lots of trade, production or suport out of city.

 

[Donald Duck]

Civ capital is unimportant for me
Usually it is very hard to break defence lines

 

[bouncelot]

Civ capital is unimportant for me
Usually it is very hard to break defence lines

Later in the game, just use spies and partisans to go around the AI's defences. Take the cities supporting all those units in the fortresses, and they melt away. Also. station units on as many of the city's squares as possible so that you can stop enemy partisans appearing out of nowhere.