Expand or attack?

[Malchar]

I usually don't ask for help here on the forums here because I'm still rather new and inexperienced. However, I thought that I'd see what people would do in this situation. The file is attached, but I don't know if many people will be able to load it up because I'm using the BUG 4.0x mod (which includes Better AI).

I can explain the situation in case people can't load the save file. Early game I go for a strategy of building as many wonders as possible. My southern neighbor Hammurabi dies to a super early barbarian attack before he even gets a second city. I swoop in and take the capital for myself and expand westward towards Pacal. My main cities are on the northern edge of the landmass and the Hammurabi capital is on the southern end. There isn't that much space between my two regions, but Pacal started building cities there.

I have a ton of wonders up, including the one that gives +2 per specialist, so I should be able to win the culture war. Anyway, I was basically set on attacking Pacal to clean up the middle of my land, but then I noticed some islands above my capital and also some below the Hammurabi capital that I could expand to. Should I attack Pacal first or ignore his annoying cities and expand onto the islands? Of course I can do both eventually, but my military is a little weak so it would take a considerable effort to get it into shape.

 

[azbestor]

Get all useful tiles on your mainland,then start colonization.
If that includes wiping Pacal,or reducing him to thundra/ice fishing villages,do so.

 

[Shurdus]

It possibly would have been more effective to have used the hammers on workers and settlers rather than on wonders. In that case you would already have the land and an easy win.

Not to be disrespectful or anything, but wonder hogging is not that good in general unless you really know what you are doing.

On a sidenote, being new sounds to me like perfectly fine for asking questions. How else would you learn, right?

 

[Malchar]

With my particular city placements, I was hoping to grow my borders big enough so that Pacal wouldn't be able to sneak inside. I agree that the wonder strategy is rather difficult at first. This is one of my first few games attempting it. I think it does in fact make the most sense to attack Pacal and then later expand to the islands. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[ICNP]

The problem with wonders is that while powerful, you could instead be building settlers, or even better: Military. 250 of Axemen will get you more wonders then just building one.

 

[MyOtherName]

Anyway, I was basically set on attacking Pacal to clean up the middle of my land, but then I noticed some islands above my capital and also some below the Hammurabi capital that I could expand to. Should I attack Pacal first or ignore his annoying cities and expand onto the islands? Of course I can do both eventually, but my military is a little weak so it would take a considerable effort to get it into shape.

Some questions to ask yourself:

1. Is Pacal of any use to you alive?
2. Which land is better? Pacal's or the islands?
3. If Pacal's land is better, will settling the islands first slow down the war effort (e.g. you need lots of to wage war), or help you get there sooner? (e.g. you need lots of to get to an important technology) If you don't know, you probably want the .

 

[Brosee]

I usually don't ask for help here on the forums here because I'm still rather new and inexperienced. However, I thought that I'd see what people would do in this situation. The file is attached, but I don't know if many people will be able to load it up because I'm using the BUG 4.0x mod (which includes Better AI).

I can explain the situation in case people can't load the save file. Early game I go for a strategy of building as many wonders as possible. My southern neighbor Hammurabi dies to a super early barbarian attack before he even gets a second city. I swoop in and take the capital for myself and expand westward towards Pacal. My main cities are on the northern edge of the landmass and the Hammurabi capital is on the southern end. There isn't that much space between my two regions, but Pacal started building cities there.

I have a ton of wonders up, including the one that gives +2 per specialist, so I should be able to win the culture war. Anyway, I was basically set on attacking Pacal to clean up the middle of my land, but then I noticed some islands above my capital and also some below the Hammurabi capital that I could expand to. Should I attack Pacal first or ignore his annoying cities and expand onto the islands? Of course I can do both eventually, but my military is a little weak so it would take a considerable effort to get it into shape.

Sorry, using BUG 4.2. I can't open your save file. Usually as a rule of thumb, wonder spamming is bad. Although the failed gold is good, and should be attempted only if you have the associated resource. If you are industrious, then wonder spam is a valid strat I guess. Early useful wonders I can think of are, oracle, stonehenge, mids, GLH.

I am not sure what you meant by winning the culture war but I assumed it is just to push the borders out enough so your neighbour's culture dont eat too much into your land. Usually I just conquer them and solve the problem.

War is always my first option. If you are weak militarily, just pump out units. Assuming your cities are placed correctly, at least 1 should be heavy production. Throw in a HE, and military Academy and pump units out like crazy. You should be able to pump 1 unit out per turn.

Settling on islands this early might not be as good. Logistic issue to create transports to ferry your settler and works over. And I think there is added maintenance costs if cities are on a different landmass.

Of course there is the option of living peacefully with pascal for a while longer to keep him as your tech partner. But usually I prefer to just kill them off, take their land and recover later. Their land is also really good most of the time with improvements already and they give you tons of workers.

Amass enough units then hit them hard and fast. Try to have enough force so that you can finish the war fast. Dragging out wars hurts your economy since you have to combat ww for a longer period. With the large amount of wonders I assumed you have a holy city. Start to spread the religion around in preparation for your economy tanking during the war. The gold from your holy city is really attractive in the early games.

 

[futurehermit]

If you eliminate Pacal, you will win. If you don't, you may win.

Wipe him out when you know you can do it.