Extra workers and waiting to war: Some observations from my recent games

[xatsmann]

Hey FH, you're enjoying the different ways to win at monarch it seems .

And about early war or not, this should really be situationnal.
Like lilnev said, a second capital site is worth a lot of hammers, but razing a few border cities is worth almost nothing (I compare the cost in hammers for axes with the value of building research instead, to have some rule of thumb).
I have a few situation in mind that lead to different answers :
- boxed in = war. It's not about what you capture, it's because later you won't be able to go to war efficiently. The trigger is if feel I'm not able to settle 4 good cities on "my land". I then forget about settlers and go to war.
- very near neighbour = war. second capital + free workers is enough to be greedy.
- very good land to settle = no war. I want my cities in the right places, not in AI fashion.
- specific wonder strat = no war. You just can't build axemen and great wall + pyramids in the same time.

How do you finance the war? I've an issue of builiding for war and then running out of money and being forced to disband units. I assume you're playing on Normal speed since, from what I've read on the forums since I've not really played any of the other speeds, on the slower speeds you don't have the finance issues come up nearly as often.

 

[xatsmann]

I quite commonly go to the stars without knowing Monotheism. Archery, HBR, Music ... these are dead ends. I don't think it's happened yet, but one of these days I expect I'll win without ever learning Hunting.

peace,
lilnev

What level are you playing? Don't you need Archery and HBR to defend yourself against Barbarians with Axeman or Horse archers?

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

It seems to me that horses are scarcer than they were in Warlords(Bronze is kinda rare too) and I find myself just defaulting to archery a lot, because bronze and horses are either nowhere to be found or a suicidal distance away. I've lucked out with having Iron, but I never had the nerve to go through IW without having at least archers. Native American archery units are disgusting, I highly suggest not passing them up. Hell, you may even want to prioritize them. If only we could get Bowmen or Skirms with that stereotypical Totem Pole...

 

[manu-fan]

How do you finance the war? I've an issue of builiding for war and then running out of money and being forced to disband units. I assume you're playing on Normal speed since, from what I've read on the forums since I've not really played any of the other speeds, on the slower speeds you don't have the finance issues come up nearly as often.

You get money for every city your capture, and you lower the slider so you're not bleeding too much.

Say you take a city and get 100gp. Then, you can have your slider at -10 if you know you'll get another one soon that will net you 100gp.

Cheers.

 

[lilnev]

What level are you playing? Don't you need Archery and HBR to defend yourself against Barbarians with Axeman or Horse archers?

Mostly Immortal, though I'll probably play Emperor for a while to get the feel of the new mechanics. Sometimes I do need Archery, but if possible I skip it -- either by hooking up Copper or Horse, or by posting enough fogbusters. In some ways, the barbs are less threatening on higher levels, because the AIs spread out so fast that there just isn't that much fog. HBR is expensive, and I've never been fond of horse archers. They're bad at taking cities, and easily countered by spears. Sometimes I'll pick it up late to build cavalry, or for stables if I foresee a lot of elephants. Plus, if you avoid HBR you can build chariots as cheap garrison troops until very late in the game (they're obsoleted by gunships).

peace,
lilnev

 

[Gnarfflinger]

Actually, you can still build Chariots after HBR. I was using Immortals with 5 exp coming out as Cyrus. I found it helped...

 

[obsolete]

I quite commonly go to the stars without knowing Monotheism. Archery, HBR, Music ... these are dead ends. I don't think it's happened yet, but one of these days I expect I'll win without ever learning Hunting.

peace,
lilnev

I also avoid the whole monoethism tech tree, as it's all junkers and get worse the higher you go. However the last time I mentioned this, I got a lot of flack by people who insisted techs in that tree like theocracy were game-winning techs. So I've sort of keep quiet about that as of late.

Though, in certain situations I will take advantage of monoethism, but rule of thumb is I refuse to take it, even when an AI tries to GIFT it to me.

 

[jihe]

hahaha, did this once.

I quite commonly go to the stars without knowing Monotheism. Archery, HBR, Music ... these are dead ends. I don't think it's happened yet, but one of these days I expect I'll win without ever learning Hunting.

peace,
lilnev

 

[Gnarfflinger]

obsolete, I find that it's easier just to take the tech so the AI will quit bugging you, trying to get you to take Monotheism in exchange for something useful--and many times more expensive...

I will use Theocracy in the event of a war. I like having well promoted units.

 

[MangleMeElmo]

I also avoid the whole monoethism tech tree, as it's all junkers and get worse the higher you go. However the last time I mentioned this, I got a lot of flack by people who insisted techs in that tree like theocracy were game-winning techs. So I've sort of keep quiet about that as of late.

Though, in certain situations I will take advantage of monoethism, but rule of thumb is I refuse to take it, even when an AI tries to GIFT it to me.

There's a nice little prize at the end of the religious tech branch called The Spiral Minaret. I go for it if I have stone and a widespread religion, because it's an excellent cash cow that doesn't go obsolete for a long time. Great for funding large armies necessary for ending the game.

 

[obsolete]

When you take junkers like that, it occupies a tech slot which means you'll run into more WFYABTA. So when it comes to getting REAL techs, you can't trade for em anymore.

I would much rather trade for better techs, getting advanced units, then feeling solice in that at least I have a chance to make a promoted unit. There isn't a comparison.