Early game strategy against warmongers as peaceful tall civ

[H0dgvikin]

One thing I struggle with my game is playing against aggressive warmonger neighbors as peaceful tall players. This is less a question about the tactics of warfare and more about strategy: when would you fight? Go aggressive or defensive?

For example, consider this game, where I have a peaceful tradition civ with little early game bonus (Austria) against a warmonger without too much early game bonus (Zulus) on an isolated island.

There's the dilemma of aggressively neutering the warmonger via say an archer rush and tech to a dedicated offensive army, but this delays my expansion, city development and wonder building while only offering me at best useless puppets until I get to courthouse. Alternatively, I can try to settle into defensive spots (Salzburg and Graz are intended as defensive hill cities), build walls, even take god of protection if I need to, and turtle while my capital continues on development. But this comes at the risk of also letting the warmonger develop, and one thing I observed in different games is that a warmonger is quite capable of keeping tech parity up to renaissance or even industrial (this is on Emperor).

In general, what is your preferred strategy in this kind of situation? Would this be different if you have more than one aggressive warmonger neighbors, or if the terrain is less defensible (say, a bunch of flat plains)? Or—god forbid—what if the Iroquois replaces the Zulus as my neighbor in this pile of woodlands?

 

[azum4roll]

Kill early. Don't let them settle more cities.

 

[caudheur]

I am in the same boat, I still haven't figured a consistent way to deal with warmonger early when you go peaceful AND you don't have early UU or UB.

One thing I do is go offensive on the settling (as you did) to stifle their expansion. Warmongers don't just benefit from war: they are very synergistic with a large empire in general. To hold those cities (I'm sure you already know this), try to destroy barbs to complete CS quests and get Great General points to build key citadels.

Mid-game I try to develop diplomacy and the Statecraft branch, in order to isolate the warmonger as much as possible when the WC comes online.
Of course keeping a very strong army at all time even if it deviates from your victory path.

Good luck with your game and please keep us updated!

 

[Anarcomu]

Kill them as soon as you can, raze non-capital cities. You won't have to invest in defense at all after that, seems like a better move than investing in defense instead.

Except for barbarians. But they are way less of a threat than the Zulus.

 

[H0dgvikin]

This went easier than I thought—I goaded the Zulus to war once my walls are built, spend 20-30 turns chipping down his units before taking Umgungundlovu and peacing out for war weariness reasons, at which point he's a rump state 7 techs behind me. Planted my second citadel during the 10 turns of peace, then in my second war I'm using Trebuchets and Knights against his spearmen on his capital, which soon feel. Austria's UA helped a bit, between an allied Ragusa's unit covering me early on, the Barb camp quests giving me an early great general, and a couple units from a militaristic city state, but overall, I don't think I need them to win. This game might be an anomaly since he doesn't even have any spearman or archer by turn 56 (no idea what his AI is doing). Regardless, here are some observations that might be useful to future readers.

Spoiler At the end of the first war :

- AI seems to prefer not settling a city when warring. Even though my army never penetrated his hinterlands, the Zulus never settled the areas behind him, with a settler resting in his capital. Immediately after peacing out, he sent the settler to the east and settled a city there.

- AI also seems to prefer churning out units instead of infrastructure at war. Which means given sufficiently long war, he's going to fall technologically behind. This matches my other anecdotes when playing a warmonger: usually if I rush sufficiently early against a neighbor, the neighbor will be crippled by the war. It's usually the second target that's the hardest, since they have basic infrastructures up already for a protracted war and I still don't have any highly promoted units.

- There really isn't a dichotomy between defense and offense. I needed more units to defend against the Zulu horde anyway, and the moment the Zulus exhausted his offensive force is the moment I can move in and start sieging his city. There isn't a reason not to go for offense if the situation allows.

- When you play tradition, you don't really need that much cities early on. I'm staying in a 4-city core throughout my war of the Zulus since the lands are otherwise uncontested. Most of my yields come from my capital so not settling prevents my happiness from tanking even further.

- Terracotta Army is strong, even for a peaceful civ if you are warring. I killed probably 20-30 Zulu units which means I get almost as much culture as the Oracle gives. And the worker speed improvement is surprisingly useful, between setting up my road networks and improving my new cities. Even if I didn't go to war again, it'll still be worth it.

Tactics wise, nothing much to add (we already have an excellent post a few days ago that). Use of roads and aggressive citadel plopping helps. God of protection also helps a lot when defending. One other thing is that, when dealing with aggressive warmongers, it's easy to goad them into war with you via aggressive diplomatic prompts (Going to attack us, swine?), which means they'll send their units to you. Could be useful if you already have your roads set up and your cities in defensive positions, since you heal more in friendly territory.

And a couple completely unrelated screenshots later on in the game, just for fun

Spoiler Welcome to the Republic of Austria, the bastion of freedom in the modern era! But if you wish for something more rustic, enjoy yourself in the Zulu reserves, still practicing their quaint medieval customs! :

Yes, the Zulu is still in medieval era after I built the Empire State

Spoiler And on another continent, behold the partition of Portugal among the lesser nations! :

I've seen city state capture cities many times, but this is the first time I've seen an AI player completely swallowed by a coalition of city-states. Go, the Papal States!