Domination Difficulties, How do you take capitals early?

[slam7211]

I was playing as indonesia on prince. I spawned right next to shaka, who had his capital on plains. Went Authority and progress, expanded a bunch. Built 5-6 catapults and kiris swordsman, and declared war. Hit his capital with my catapults, and it did...practically nothing. 10 turns later my buffer army is dead and my catapults are dying. How do you take early capitals that have walls?

 

[randomnub]

You wait too long. You need to specify gamespeed/turn but researching mathematics, iron working, and building ''5-6 catapults'' sure took long. Also, delete the enemy army before hitting the sturdy capital: a rush siege works on expos only, and is not recommended either because it takes little for the enemy to re-take the city, causing you increased policy cost and a low population puppet with all buildings destroyed should it flip more times.

 

[Funak]

Well, the thing is, ambushes like that don't work anymore. You need to beat the army down, surround the capital and wail on it for multiple turns before it falls.
This is intentional, you're not supposed to be able to just take out capitals like that, it would be too easy.