Emperor level Warfare

[Risiko]

I'm challenging myself with Emperor games, and though I haven't won yet, I tend to stay near the middle/lower middle of the points score throughout the game.

I have a simple question. All of my opponents tend to have a higher 'power' score throughout the game (the chart that shows military strength). Often the distance between me and my opponents gets pretty large. Obviously this makes mounting any sort of city capturing impossible. Anyone have any tips to overcome this?

 

[Shadzy19]

Its perfectly normal at emperor and above that you are way down in power score , you can usually still win the wars even though you only have about 1/3 of their units as long as your land isnt to spread out so you have few city's that needs lot of defense.
Having only 1 or 2 city's that they can attack is optimal , get some walls in there if needed .

The AI's pretty much suck at war , when U/they declare just dont go out your borders untill they have attacked with their SOD and wait to counterattack .

 

[Munch]

I'm challenging myself with Emperor games, and though I haven't won yet, I tend to stay near the middle/lower middle of the points score throughout the game.

I have a simple question. All of my opponents tend to have a higher 'power' score throughout the game (the chart that shows military strength). Often the distance between me and my opponents gets pretty large. Obviously this makes mounting any sort of city capturing impossible. Anyone have any tips to overcome this?

Often that power graph can be misleading - it's not impossible to take someone out who has double your 'power'. Their power will likely be spread across their entire land, and to overcome this you need considerable localised power; nothing screams localised destruction more than a huge stack of (suicide) siege weapons. If you have one or so 'troops' per defender in the city you want to take, and a similar amount of siege weapons, you should be fine on the offensive, and if played well you will mostly have to rebuild siege weapons, and hardly ever replace your actual troops.

If their power rating is significantly higher than yours, it is likely that they will see you as an easy target, and will attack first. In this case, try and have siege weapons ready to suicide their stack when they are within your borders (so they heal much slower), and generally try and engage them within your own borders as much as possible (this reduces the war weariness you experience and increases theirs). Also when attacked, draft and whip as much as you need!

The power graph itself takes into account many things, not just army size but technology and land as well (I think).

 

[Zanttu]

Obviously this makes mounting any sort of city capturing impossible. Anyone have any tips to overcome this?

You got one point wrong here. You don't need to be higher in power to be able to conquer AI. If your power rating is half of theirs, it's really possible to win a war against them. Also note that if they have bigger empire, they will have bigger army even if the city garrison in each city isn't big. One of the strengths of human player is warring. Human knows where to attack, when to attack and with which unit. Just read articles/posted games on these forums and practice. There are many possible tactics to use against an AI.

 

[kcmarkwell]

Score doesn't really mean much especially on higher levels. Try not to get down on yourself if the score is looking bleak. Concentrate on one particular speciality (mass city spamming, tech fiend, war monger) and devote your time into that area. As your stacks of death march and conquer your enemies, their score goes down as you raze/capture cities

 

[Johan^^]

The civilization score system is just broken in so many way. Power/overall score etc. does not say any thing about the possibilities of winning. I´ve won games where i´ve been the lowest in overall score for at long time. I´ve lost games where i´ve been nr 1 in score.....(damn diplomatic victory )

Most important thing on higher levels is to specialize in any aspect of the game. You should always have a clear game plan on how you want to evolve and win. This point is not where most people fail, but a the point where they have to change their game plan in order to win.

So my advise is to keep playing emperor level even though you lose, because this will challenge you to be creative when evaluating your game plan as the game plays out.

If you stand at a cross road in the game and cannot dicide on which way to go. Save the game and go with one...If i does not go well, load and try the other path. This will increase your judgement capabilities in the future.

 

[madscientist]

I'm challenging myself with Emperor games, and though I haven't won yet, I tend to stay near the middle/lower middle of the points score throughout the game.

I have a simple question. All of my opponents tend to have a higher 'power' score throughout the game (the chart that shows military strength). Often the distance between me and my opponents gets pretty large. Obviously this makes mounting any sort of city capturing impossible. Anyone have any tips to overcome this?

I am a monarch level BTS player who can win at emperor but usually loses. Some suggestions for military at this level in my experience

1) Size of the empire is still the biggest thing. Expand early and try to right the economy after taking out a close neighbor.
2) Economy is very important, but turtling with a great economy and few cities to turn out troops is almost as bad.
3) Use diplomacy, concentrate on one AI who is close and not friendly with another neighbor.
4) Pick a leader with 1 military trait (agressive or charismatic) and 1 stronge economic trait (financial, organized, philosophical). Best options IMHO: Ragnar, Hannibal, Alexander, Hammarabi, Lincoln. They give your troops and advantage over another AI, and will allow you to keep up in tech for an up to date army.
5) Alternatively, you can use one of the big three economics leaders: Liz, HC, Darius.

And learn the difference between patience and agressiveness.

 

[The Rook]

I have a simple question. All of my opponents tend to have a higher 'power' score throughout the game (the chart that shows military strength). Often the distance between me and my opponents gets pretty large. Obviously this makes mounting any sort of city capturing impossible. Anyone have any tips to overcome this?

If there is plenty of space between yourself and your nearest rival, that sounds like a desirable scenario. If you can cut them off with a couple of frontier cities, you can fill in the back space at your leisure. I wouldn't consider war to be a necessity unless your expansion prospects are bleak. With the GW, it is quite possible to beat Emperor without a single skirmish.

As others have mentioned, you don't need to be higher in the power graph than your target to beat them in a military struggle. The AI needs the extra units to make up for its stupidity. Collateral damage is key to defeating those giant stacks.

 

[Risiko]

Very helpful.

 

[DrJambo]

Hannibal (Fin/Char) is an absolute dream to play as. His UU is solid if you get horses and the UB is also good if you're given access to the coast. Plus, if you're using him, he can't be one of your AI opponents!

Lincoln (Phi/Char) is my second favourite, and only slightly loses out to Hannibal because of the later UU and the poorer UB.

I've managed to win comfortably at Emperor using both these civs.