Early war

[Nightmare99]

Hi i wonder if you guys wait until you got currency and or cast system
before you do an axe rush if not how do you finance an early war or are you only doing a very short war the first one?

 

[Unconquered Sun]

No, no, and the AIs are nice and accumulate money for you. Just keep on taking their cities. You start the first war when you have some advantage over AI archers. Any UU, or chariots/axes suffice.

Also, partially building the right wonders when you have stone/marble is a far better way to get money than wealth.

 

[Rots]

One game I played I deceided to declare war on the first nation I discover...

It was olny in a about 15 turns... that was a very early war!

I wage war when I think I have an advantage. Although often I just play nicely and use other means. I prefer to get others friendly with me, then I get them to go to war first

 

[Preston85]

Game i'm currently playing I wanted to get better at early wars as I never got used to expanding through taking city's when there is area to just settle instead.

I have just started war against that Jap fella, year is 550 BC and i'm Casear. I want to use my UU before he has access to his, by waring I do two main things:
Stop him expanding.
Hurt his research (and mine to).

Bit of specifics about this game:
I'm on Prince (think thats it, whatever the first level is where AI gets advantages).
I built 3 city's (Capital + 3 = 4 total), two are going to be nice money makers, two are good production.
I got Iron in my capital area (Prats! yey).
Spammed Prats (5) and a 2 axemen for protection with a couple of chops (half of capital has forests).

Took the city the Jap's put that bordered my captial with no loss. Healed while moving an fresh built Archer down and saved to think about what to do next when I play tommorow with the next city in the "path" being the capital on a hill with archers...

I think previously I tried to expand to much (6 cities) and bring big armies that took to long to make then deploy giving the target time to research and expand. I kept producing prats and an axeman in two of the cities (throwing in an archer) to replace any lost units while they heal in the captured city.

Keep your number of cities low (but good quality), get 5 or so offensive units then go while building replacements and defensive units, you can cottage your commerce cities while attacking to expand. I would of started the war sooner if I could of grabbed a worker (thats 5-10 turns of hammers that you save to build offensive units) but didn't get the chance.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nightmare99]

Ok thanks for the advice but if the other civs are not close in the beginning then its better to build some more cities right?

 

[Rots]

A good trick with city building is to place them so it stops other Civ's moving into your area.

In the game I'm currently playing there is 4 of us (yet to discover other Civs) on one main continent which fortunately is shaped like an hour glass. Myself and England are at the bottom, USA and Japan are at the top.

Fortunately for me I started in the bottom middle and the first city I built (not including the capital) was placed in the narrow middle section of the hour glass which completely prevented Roosevelt from entering the bottom half.

I then discovered England which was tot he left of me so I quickly built cities on the left side to prevent her for gaining to much land and resources.

Unfortunately for Japan he is constantly trying to get me to stop trading with England and USA (his enemies) and Roosevelt has also placed his cities in a similar fashion to me (he had an as good start on the top half).

Right now I'm moving troops into the US side and am about to launch a full scale war against Japan. Poor sucker is screwed. US, England and myself are all good friends as they have adpoted my government and religion etc. I'm going to get them to declare war as well, so it will be an early "World War", in our known world anyway.

 

[jerVL/kg]

Earliest war I ever fought -- five turns into the game, my warrior is 2 steps away from a goodie hut when who should pop up in the square next to him but Elizabeth's scout. Guess who didn't make the hut... (*)

As for other early wars...depends on the map, depends on the neighbors. Usually I'll wait for catapults or even macemen, giving the AI time to build some nice Wonders and Holy Shrines for me. Isn't that thoughtful of them? However if I'm boxed in, or the AI has a critical resource that I need (or don't want him to have, such as JC & iron) I'll get started on them early. Sometimes I'll push all the way to their capital, if the war goes well and I can afford to keep the cities.

I've been spending a lot of time playing isolated starts on archipelago maps, however, so typically I don't get the chance to invade anyone until Astronomy. One time I met Mansa Musa & Louis XIV right when they were at war, and Mansa asked me to join. All I had were caravels...so I invaded Louis with Explorers. (Those suckers can take out 2-3 units before going down!)

(*) P.S. The hut gave me a map.

 

[The Navy Seal]

I just wait until I have axes or swords before I go to war unless I meet someone earlyon in the game that lives near me then I fight them if I know there not working on archery Issy if you find her early you know what she working on Medditation so you can get her early And some of the others.