Conquest

[Mike_H]

I'm pretty new to Civ 4 and have got Warlords. I recently won a conquest victory (only on Warlord difficulty) in a custom game I created with only a couple of opponents.
Anyway I'm now on a normal game with lots of opponents on a normal size map. However I'm having problems overcoming everyone. I keep capturing cities but the computer keeps recapturing them and Ghandi (who for most of the game was a vassal state for me, has suddenly decided to cancel that, so that's ANOTHER opponent I have to destroy!!!
I was wondering how others go about a conquest victory against many opponents? Do you start attacking others really early? Do you raize each city you capture and if not, how do you keep hold them?

 

[bovinespy]

I was wondering how others go about a conquest victory against many opponents? Do you start attacking others really early? Do you raize each city you capture and if not, how do you keep hold them?

Good questions, Mike. I've wondered the same questions myself. I've had Warlords since release, but I still haven't been able to pull off a Conquest victory (done Space/Domination/Culture).

I've tried many times recently with Genghis Khan. At first, I spent too much time building up so that by the time I felt I was ready to attack, the enemy had oodles of fortified spears behind walls, which rendered my Keshiks toothless.

Last game, things seemed to being going better as I focused single-mindedly on amassing a strong force of Keshiks quickly. However, my economy suffered as I
had little time for infrastructure and/or expansion and suffered large unit support costs. Even after successfully wiping out my nearest neighbor, and only keeping his capital and one other city (to go with my original 3, making 5 total), my economy went further in the tank. Plus, I couldn't afford to settle the vast area between my homeland and my opponent's former lands, so other civs kept settling annoying cities in between, severing communications. By the time 700AD rolled around, I realised I was falling hopelessly behind the leaders in tech, and wasn't about to recover anytime soon, so I quit.

I think that conquest (especially early conquest) is greatly helped if you play on a crowded pangea. I played large fractal with 12 civs (3 more than default), and even so, I usually had a long wat to go to my nearest victims. But I generally like those settings, so I'm not going to change that. Instead, I think I'll have to focus more on playing more of my usual hybrid builder/limited-war style until at least medieval, or perhaps renaissance, period to kick off the wars of conquest with a solid economy and tech parity at my back.

That, and hope you don't draw a whole bunch of Protective civs as neighbors. While the Protective trait is largely disdained by players, it actually does a very nice job of propping up AI civs in the early going, making them much harder to rush. Every time I turn around with a pointy stick, there's another Korean, Arab, or Chinese walled city on a hill!

Of course, I've never actually gotten a Conquest victory, so what do I know? Hopefully, a few bloodthirsty Conquerors will offer some pearls of wisdom...

 

[maxbjr]

It's very hard to get a conquest victory in Warlords with more then 5 or 6 AI Civs. try using diplomacy to get them to fight each other, then you start picking off the weakers ones. You want to keep the AI Civs at war with each other as much as possable so they don't have time or gold to inprove thier techs.

 

[Zophos]

If you can manage a domination victory, you can probably pull off conquest, too. You just stop keeping cities when you get to 50% or so of land area, and raze everything else.

 

[ShannonCT]

To get a regular conquest victory (as opposed to a fast conquest), you want to think in terms of game phases.

Phase 1: Develop 8-10 good city sites that can propel your technology and give you tech parity or superiority. Give these cities the buildings that you will need later in the game: granary, forge, courthouse, barracks. Usually it will take at least one early war to get 8-10 good cities.

Phase 2: Let cities accumulate population and develop infrastructure to maximize food and production in most cities. Look to specialize a couple cities: a commerce city, a great people farm (preferably scientists and engineers), and a military production city. Beeline for the military techs that will give you the units you will use to do most of the conquering, e.g. macemen and trebuchets. Try to plan your tech path to make use of great people for techs like machinery, engineering, and chemistry. You will want to study the great people tech preferences. Begin building units that will not go obsolete very quickly, or that can be upgraded to your desired units later. Catapults are good for a long time. Swordsmen can be upgraded to macemen for a reasonable price.

Phase 3: When desired military techs are reached, shut science down to 0. Upgrade units like swordsmen to macemen, or horsemen to knights. Begin full scale military production in all cities. Switch to military civics like vassalage, theocracy, and police state (if available). Whip cities that have high food production and excess population that isn't producing hammers. When all units are upgraded, find your weakest neighbor and attack. Be as quick as possible. Push healthy units forward while weak ones heal. Dont pillage, as you will be keeping most cities. Stay on your opponents roads to block them from counterattacking behind you, and to allow you to move faster after your enemy's borders are pushed back. Keep any city that has a decent ammount of hammers and/or food/population. When cities come out of revolt, begin whipping barracks and units (or even skip the barracks). Whip captured cities until they bleed, especially if you dont care about the final score. Aim for capturing 40-50% of the land on the board.

Phase 4: After several centuries of war, you might need to consolidate. If you are starting to face a lot of losses in the field due to superior enemy units, aim for chemistry or military tradition (chemistry should be faster). You should have a great person ready to help with your new tech goal. Make sure you dont get any techs that would make the great person go for a tech you dont want. Cities can be temporarily MMed to optimize research and wealth. Whip courthouses in the more distant cities and build the FP in a high food/hammer city that is in the middle of your new territory. When you reach your new tech goal, shut down research again and upgrade units. Resume war and all out military production. Use the culture slider to keep cities happy and productive. Begin razing most/all cities now (I would keep the Pyramids if I captured them). Dont be afraid if you are running a deficit. If you are aggressive and keep razing cities, the money will keep rolling in. And dont worry if your last couple enemies have superior quality units. You should have them vastly outnumbered by now and razing their cities will ensure that their military production will decline.

Phase 5: Enjoy the conquest victory movie.

 

[Mike_H]

Thanks for that!! Brilliant advice there!! I'll give it a go!!

 

[Bushface]

ShannonCT's scheme is basically excellent, but personally I don't move to Phase 3 until I have Cavalry (three cheers for the Mongols and the Ger). Train a few Explorers and give them the Medic promotion, to speed healing of damaged units. You should knock out two or three opponents during this phase, and I wouldn't expect wars to last "several centuries".
Then in Phase 4 go flat out for Industrialism, Rifling and Combustion and start turning out hordes of Tanks. While they're accumulating, go for Flight and Radio and then switch some of your production to Bombers to be used for reducing your opponents' defences to zero and their defenders to half strength. (The advantage of Bombers over Trebuchets and Artillery is their range - it seems to take ages to lug ground-based siege weapons across enemy territory at one tile per turn when your Tanks, Cavalry and Explorers can move twice as fast). Try to take cities from which your Bombers can reach as many targets as possible and rebase you airforce there'
If the enemy has Oil, make that a primary target to prevent them from making effective defence units. Blitzkrieg is the way to victory !
Of course, if the game goes on long enough you'll have Mech. Inf., Modern Armour and Stealth Bombers with which to do even more damage. I do enjoy watching a Modern Armour with City Raider 3 take care of a half-strength Longbowman . . .