Conquering other cities early in the game

[PatrickSWarner]

Hi - can I just ask is it normally feasible to take over another civ’s cities really early in the game if I get archers early? I tried this with slingers and warriors against Japan but it’s didn’t work - I guess I need at least archers so I can bombard them from 2 squares away for a while?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Yeah some combination of Archers* and Warriors (2/2) or (3/1) is generally sufficient before walls go up (assuming you're not playing Deity).

*Slingers are pretty weak.

 

[PatrickSWarner]

Yeah some combination of Archers* and Warriors (2/2) or (3/1) is generally sufficient before walls go up (assuming you're not playing Deity).

*Slingers are pretty weak.

Thanks - also if another AI only has one city so far and I take the city and keep it, is that AI civ eliminated from the game?

 

[DeutschDachs]

Thanks - also if another AI only has one city so far and I take the city and keep it, is that AI civ eliminated from the game?

Yes, theyre eliminated. If it's their only city so far then it will be their capital and you'll be forced to keep it as you can't raze capitals.

Technically they could come back if another Civ took the city from you and liberated the city to its founder - which would bring them back from the dead. But that would be exceedingly rare

 

[newtociv6]

I use heroes and then vampire. Archer is good for killing enemy units but you still need warriors for siege because of archer's -17 penalty.

 

[PatrickSWarner]

Yes, theyre eliminated. If it's their only city so far then it will be their capital and you'll be forced to keep it as you can't raze capitals.

Technically they could come back if another Civ took the city from you and liberated the city to its founder - which would bring them back from the dead. But that would be exceedingly rare

I’ve also just read that if you have GS, for each other AI capital you take over you get a permanent -3 per turn in diplomatic favour? Is that correct and if so is that likely to cause me major issues later in the game?

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

I’ve also just read that if you have GS, for each other AI capital you take over you get a permanent -3 per turn in diplomatic favour? Is that correct and if so is that likely to cause me major issues later in the game?

More or less irrelevant.
You likely wont win any resolutions in the WC, but then again, the resolutions in civ 6 are random and rarely if ever of any profound consequence anyway.

Just keep steamrolling your victims and ignore the WC entirely.

 

[MrRadar]

I’ve also just read that if you have GS, for each other AI capital you take over you get a permanent -3 per turn in diplomatic favour? Is that correct and if so is that likely to cause me major issues later in the game?

It is -5 DF per turn. It depends on what your goals are. If you're going for DomV, who cares. Just start rolling over them and never stop until you're done. Your influence in the WC may be limited and you can have less DF to sell for purchases, but once you start acquiring cities, soon they will start paying off. With some attentive voting, you can still win a DiploV before you complete your conquest though.

If you have only limited conquest in mind, like taking over 1-2 civs, you might want to manage the diplomacy a bit first. In Civ VI, when you make a friend, it is forever. Meaning, for the meaningful part of the game. Declared Friendships, once signed, will always be renewed irrespective of your further actions, as long as you offer the renewal on the turn of their expiry. And they cannot be broken. And Declared Friends cannot go to war against one another. So if you have a DoF with civ A who has alliance with civ B and you attack civ B, civ A will do nothing and will duly accept renewal of friendship on the turn of expiry. Only when the game approaches the end, AI starts rejecting DoF offers, but then they might come and offer it themselves next turn or so.

So if you form your own coalition of declared friends and allies and keep it, you're free to nuke the rest of the world into oblivion.

As for -5 DF penalty, well, you can try and build a pagoda for each capital you take, to even up your karma points somewhat

 

[PatrickSWarner]

If you have only limited conquest in mind, like taking over 1-2 civs, you might want to manage the diplomacy a bit first. In Civ VI, when you make a friend, it is forever. Meaning, for the meaningful part of the game. Declared Friendships, once signed, will always be renewed irrespective of your further actions, as long as you offer the renewal on the turn of their expiry. And they cannot be broken. And Declared Friends cannot go to war against one another. So if you have a DoF with civ A who has alliance with civ B and you attack civ B, civ A will do nothing and will duly accept renewal of friendship on the turn of expiry. Only when the game approaches the end, AI starts rejecting DoF offers, but then they might come and offer it themselves next turn or so.

As for -5 DF penalty, well, you can try and build a pagoda for each capital you take, to even up your karma points somewhat

It’s more this - I was just wanting to take out one civ as I was pretty boxed in.

That said, I have read in one of the strategy guides on this site that you should aim for having 10 cities by turn 100 - this seems a pretty hard thing to do unless you conquer at least some of them as you can’t build settlers that quick.

 

[DeutschDachs]

I think 6-7 cities is much more reasonable by turn 100 and there's nothing punishing you for continuing to build more after that unlike in Civ 5. From what I've read any city that you can get to at least 4 population before the game ends can be considered worth it. Which is a pretty easy thing to accomplish really

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

It’s more this - I was just wanting to take out one civ as I was pretty boxed in.

That said, I have read in one of the strategy guides on this site that you should aim for having 10 cities by turn 100 - this seems a pretty hard thing to do unless you conquer at least some of them as you can’t build settlers that quick.

This is no hard rule, and depends vastly on circumstances.

Getting 10 cities by turn 100 (assuming standard speed) is not always achievable, whereas in other circumstances you can get even more than that.
What is most important though is having enough cities that you feel you can keep pace and eventually surpass the AI, and that you feel safe from being conquered until you reach that point.
Obviously these values change depending on difficulty and map, meaning that playing on Deity, Pangea and with lots of neighbours, will put a lot more strain on you to feel safe and allow you to catch up, compared to playing on Prince difficulty and in a relatively isolated part of the map (or even a large island).
That being said, there are several ways to speed up settling:

• Focus on getting high production to begin with (native yields, Work Ethic religion etc.).
• Slot the +50% production card for Settlers.
• Get Ancestral Hall in a high production city.
• Use Magnus and chop for immediate production.
• If you have lots of faith, aim to get a golden age for Monumentality, and spend that faith on settlers.
• Go for some early domination to subdue your neighbours. This grants you some cities and more room to settle.

Personally I have my own rule, and that is to aim at having 8 cities as a minimum if I want to win peacefully, with no set rule on when I'm supposed to have those cities.
That is however just because I find that I can win comfortably off of 8 cities, not because that number is mandatory.
I would win off of less cities than that as well, it would just be harder for me to do so.
Hence, there is no hard rule on how many cities you need to have, and when.

 

[newtociv6]

It’s more this - I was just wanting to take out one civ as I was pretty boxed in.

That said, I have read in one of the strategy guides on this site that you should aim for having 10 cities by turn 100 - this seems a pretty hard thing to do unless you conquer at least some of them as you can’t build settlers that quick.

Playing on double speed, over 20 cities by turn 50 is not hard. 10 is definitely doable.

Building settlers is not the only option - you have gold. What else do you need gold for? I keep using my capital and most productive cities to produce settlers, and gold, and on higher difficulty capture settlers from AIs - this is easiest by backstabbing friends and allies when the relationship expires.

Also building more cities makes it easier to build more cities as you'd have more production, more population, more gold, ...!

For my most recent game, I got 12 cities alone from neighboring Babylon which I attacked immediately in ancient era - instead of fighting me, it kept making settlers and settling more cities for me to capture (the chase took over 20 turns on double speed), and there was no loyalty pressure after their original capital was taken.

 

[eliasw]

I have notice this on diffrent level of hard like deity, the AI starts with 6warriors, 1 settler and when they settle there first settlement, they get a worker and a another settler.
So they can settle two citys, when you settle your first city.