Early Wars in Warlords

[Rosie Bear]

Hello! New game player btw.

I play Warlords (patched), no mods, Normal Level, on Inland Sea.

Currently with Ragnar (Aggressive and I have access to both copper and iron) but having problems fighting an early war. My axes dont seem to do much damage to archers unless I way out number them (which takes time), or I wait till I get catapults (which also takes time). Or, do I build up and wait till I get beserkers (I could concentrate on a tech lead as Ragnar is also financial) then let all hell loose?

I normally go for the Great Wall to keep the barbs off my back and so I can concentrate on building up an attacking army.

I want to win by taking out all of the other civs. Is this possible on Inland Sea? My vision is to take out early neighbours, then raid the rest over the sea in Viking styleee as I develop better military over the course of time. I would aim to take out the civ and not keep any of its settlements as I build up mine at home.

Can anyone point me in the direction of how to fight an early war?

Many thanks!

 

[Leventis]

There's plenty of stuff on the forum about early war - in brief, most people recommend getting 3 or 4 cities up early, building a stack of axes and attacking between 1000BC and 1AD. In the main, this tends to work quite well on most difficulties and is an effective way to launch your empire. Snoop around the forum a bit more and have a look in a bit more detail.

With regards to inland sea, this map type can be a bit tricky to pull of a domination / conquest win due to the maintenance costs incurred as you expand. If you're keen on the idea though, just keep this in mind and try to get a forbidden palace up asap to help, and maybe look at running state property later in the game.

Anyway, hope this helps a bit.

 

[madscientist]

Early wars to absorb other civs should be done carefully so your economy doesn't crash. Early wars to raze enemy cities and obtain plunder whould be done at will!!!! I say build more swordsmen with city raider I or II with axemen and spearmen support. Have one or two units with medic promotion, have a fe wunits with shock/cover. Generally you need 2 -3 units per archer, maybe more if they are protective leaders. Catapults and Bersekers are great for this but you can do some damage with just swords/axes. Also the AIs will likely have longbows by the time you get cats/Berserkers so waiting will just strengthen the AI. One final note, when you attack a city make sure you take it out first try, otherwise the survivers will be better promoted and more difficult to kill.

 

[DragonHawk]

One thing I would add is to forget building Wonders altogether. Just concentrate on military production in your first 3 cities. Dont be afraid to whip or chop your way through it. You can capture the wonders from AI later anyway
Bronze Working is the top priority in tech (to see copper, to chop trees, and enable slavery )

Oh one more thing, do not keep every city you capture. Just keep the select good ones (capitol is always good) and raze the rest. This way you pay less upkeep for the cities (your economy is probably not going to be good to begin with)

The strategy article subforums contain many articles on improving for higher level (which early war startegies are included). Sisiutil's beginner strategy is good read as well as Getting first win in Prince.

 

[Rosie Bear]

Many thanks to the above posters. Will check out the Sistuil guide but not ready for Prince yet.

I went for the Wall to keep the barbarians off my back, so I could concentrate early on the offensive and not bother with defence in my cities. Later I'll change that as I expect not to have many friends and also I think with Monarchy(?) I can increase happy people with some civic choice.

I also am not keeping any cities that I dont build myself.

I may go for the English next after Brennus (just continue with the buffed up veterans form the Brennus war) to clear land to my left and I think I'm closer to getting Cats than the others are to getting Longbows (actually I've no idea - its just what I've concentrated on and hope to get before longbows make an appearance) - I suppose then I keep up with the tech lead and take out the others one by one.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

You don't need to worry about barbarians. You are aggressive. You have axes. Barbarians are just free experience to your army. Just keep an axe in each city (preferably with cover promotion) and a couple of ranging shock axes to defend your empire. You can go totally aggressive otherwise.

Building wonders is a waste of time with Ragnar - that wall cost you the same as 6 axes. 6 axes could easily have provided for your defense and given you the start of an offensive army. You could easily launch an offensive and taken cities before 1000BC. Play to your strengths - in this case fast early research through cottages (early construction), cottages to support extra cities and fast barracks for better melee units for an early rush.

 

[Rosie Bear]

@InvisibleStalke - Thanks and I see your point. Also I want to use my strengths as early as possible. I got pottery quick and went warrior-worker as my two first constructions to make the cottages. I think I've got a decent research rate going and aim to use that to be military-tech ahead.

I had however discounted the idea of just going axes as in previous attempts the barbs came too thick and fast for me to use the axes against the AI (I'd take out one wave of barbs, recover, and then another would come while I was on the way to get Brennus - perhaps I am doing something wrong).

Plus the Wall didn't cost me gold per turn (not sure how much of a bad thing it would be to have a large offensive and some defensive army with the cost involved - but part of my thinking is to have no defence and hence reduce the cost of the warmongering).

Now, if I had found horses I may have considered leaving the Wall and using a couple of chariots(?) to fend off the axe-barbs, but no such luck at the point of settling my second city from whence I began to get my attacking force ready and built the Wall.

I may try just axes again though, but I'll see how this game pans out.