Every game ends the same.

[sav]

Getting a little frustrated with CiV, because it seems since jumping from Prince to King, every game ends the same (with few exceptions).

Prince was too easy, and King games that get past about 1700 tend to be closely-run things, but the problem I"m having is those games are few and far between.

Almost every single game ends between 1500-1700 or so with an impenetrable carpet of doom from the AI, wielding an army that would bankrupt any human-player civilization.

What am I doing wrong? I can be way ahead in tech, but obliterated just through the sheer size and relentlessness of the AI's attack, worn down to the point where I can't research anymore and the AI catches up, eventually wiping out every city I have in about three turns.

I like the game, but when every game follows virtually the exact same template, it's getting harder to bother with it. CIV I found far less predictable.

 

[Shurdus]

It sounds to me like you are not aggressive enough in your approach. You can bribe AI's to wage war with each other. THis causes them to smash their carpets of doom into each other, so that both armies are trimmed down somewhat. Also, if you declare early enough on an AI - or have an AI declare war on you - you should try to beat their units down as effici"ently as you can. You may lose some meatshields, but you should not lose more than 10:1 or so. Maybe 5:1 if the map is particulary unfavorable.

After the waves and waves of baddies are gone, push up so the enemy has no chance to build up an army again. Doing so, the AI should be a little puppy rather than a carpet of doom wielding behemoth.

Good luck!

 

[bozosmithy]

its sounds like you are probs building to many building and not enough units to defend as if you have enough units they dont even try and attack at the start

 

[Johan de Witt]

If the enemy still has a carpet of units? Hurdle up in your territory and use the enemy's lack of sight against him. Obliterate his army with batteries of ranged until his reinforcements dry out.

Then advance slowly.

 

[ense7en]

There's no way this should be happening unless you aren't taking care of things on the military side.
King isn't that difficult compared to prince IMHO. I've went from prince to Immortal in the last few months without too much trouble, though it's definitely more of a challenge.

One of the things i used to do was build my three or four cities and then try to turtle up for the rest of the game.

While this can sometimes work, it's not so ideal.

Always have a decent army.
If you are way behind, you WILL be attacked, whereas it's much less likely when you actually are comparable to the AI.

When the AI attacks, if you can, i try to take at least a few cities as puppets, as it adds to your gold, science, and culture output, which all helps.

Usually you can take a capital or two as well if the AI is dumb, which is really nice for getting wonders.

So while you can try to play a peaceful game, it's a lot easier at the harder difficulties if you can wield a solid military while en route to your cultural/science goals.

 

[joncnunn]

The German AI will build carpets of useless units; easy to kill when they DOW you.

You only need to be concerned about the carpet if it's at or ahead of your techs.

 

[Derpy Hooves]

Went from prince to king, king to emperor and emp to immortal without having to do any real strategy adjustments, still didn't hardbuils a single unit until I had 10 or so cities, especially not in the beginning when there is so much useful stuff to build.
Start conquering early on, keep your units alive and get them upgraded well (always 3x bonus vs flat or rough first, this unlocks the extremely powerful upgrades like double attack and extra range) last emperor game I had to fight endless waves of pretty high tech units, constantly set up positions, guard your siege weapons, use and abuse hills, with a handful of units I eventually conquered the bastard who sent the units and anyone stupid enough to live inbetween my mid Asian capitol and Hiawatas South African one.
This was a game where I built absurd amounts of wonders and buildings and spawned next to Monty, so it's not like I did a streamlined build.
I can send you a replay if you want to get some idea of how to deal with waves upon waves of units, Lets plays from people like Wainey should also be able to give you some idea of how to deal with this.

 

[Ranos]

Defense is the key. Your greatest defense is ranged units, especially siege. As soon as you can, build a few siege units and put them on hills where the AI might launch an attack. You'll also obviously need some melee units to help protect the siege and mop up whats left after the siege do their work.

After you have withstood the AI attack on you, launch a counter attack immediately and puppet/raze the nearest cities.

Keeping your military strong and up to date is the biggest key in Civ V.

 

[sav]

Hmmm, it does all seem to boil down to the military, doesn't it? I thought I had a plenty strong enough military to hold off a reasonable attack, but the carpets are just ludicrous.

If I do manage to hold it off, what usually happens is someone at the other end of my empire will unleash a carpet, and so on... will give it a go, but I fear building a bigger military will just end with me being stuck in the stone age the whole game!

Cheers!

 

[Tokira]

I believe that offense is the best defense when you start near the AI. If you have the "They covet the lands that you own"-message on any of the AI's, it is very likely that they will DOW you at some point. Due to this I always eliminate such threats as early as possible by one way or another. Getting two AIs that are close to eachother to DOW eachother (you can bribe them to do so with a relatively cheap price in most cases) is another good way. This also decreases the likeliness of them forming an alliance against you at some point.

Personally I have never faced a situation where the AI would have had a much bigger army than mine even on immortal which is the highest difficulty level that I normally play. I think that this could be caused by either that I like playing on maps where it is very crowded so that I don't have to build many cities (which also means that the AI usually doesn't have much space either) or that I tend to start the game by building a lot of units and continuing to do so through the game. If you hate the AI building up a vast army, I recommend you to try playing on, for example, a tiny map with 12 civs.

Edit:

I fear building a bigger military will just end with me being stuck in the stone age the whole game!

Culturally you might be on stone age but if you build libraries, universities and observatories, you should be fine scientifically Also purcashing the units (or buildings) is a good way of getting the things done without 'wasting' the precious hammers of the cities.

 

[sav]

Well, I tried... spent the early game almost exclusively building up an army. 500BC, massive unbeatable carpet of doom from Hiawatha. I don't get it - how can he possibly have three times as many units as me by that point, when all I've been doing is building a military?

I know, bonuses etc, but it's stupid.

 

[ense7en]

It can definitely be a challenge.

In my most recent game on Immortal, England declared war early and it took me until rifles + Artillery to actually be able to really push back due to her insanely annoying longbows hitting me from three tiles away.

I only had three cities, and it took a while build up a military to do anything more then hold on/defend.

While you will never be able to pump out as many units as the AI, you are much smarter in battle, especially on defense, so usually one can hold off the AI quite well due to using ranged units far more intelligently.

Another thing to note is the city-states.

And allied city state can be a HUGE help, and i try to grab at least one or two if it can help funnel the AI through a chokepoint, or if the CS blocks off a good entry route.

One CS alone can keep the silly AI busy for a long time, allowing you to build up more units or focus on covering a certain area better.

 

[sav]

Okay, I'm having MUCH better luck this time around. I think I underestimated what everyone means by building a large military. Somehow this game, I have a massive military and an economy that's showering me in gold. Not sure how I did it, but I'm in the strange position of leading after about 200 turns. Thanks!

 

[Ranos]

Okay, I'm having MUCH better luck this time around. I think I underestimated what everyone means by building a large military. Somehow this game, I have a massive military and an economy that's showering me in gold. Not sure how I did it, but I'm in the strange position of leading after about 200 turns. Thanks!

That's kind of how it was for me the first time. I kept getting beat and realized I needed a bigger army. It kept not working for me and then one game it just clicked.

 

[ense7en]

Trading post spam on the puppets = lots of gold

And keep an eye on the demographics for numbers like military.

If you are at the bottom, you'll be a big target.
I don't try to be #1, but keeping at least somewhat in the middle or better will go a long way to deterring the stronger AI from hurling themselves all at you.