First DoW hard as hell - then to easy

[Beengalas]

Fellow members.

I currently play on emperor difficulty and I have had so far 5 games on this level. What strikes me is that I have, in all games, had only one moment of fear. The first DoW on me. Darn that one is hard, the enemy floods me with troops while I generally has 4-5. I'm stubborn and I _hate_ to lose cities so I often have to reload a couple of time. But eventually I manage to find that small small window of success. I repel the attacker and continue on my path to victory.

And then the rest of the game ... nothing hard ever again. Not a singel time has the opponent been close to victory. There are always many more DoW on me, but none scares me after the first one. Like in my current game where I play as Monty on a lakes map. First DoW by Siam was a pain, and I barely managed it. A hundred turns later, 7 civ DoW me at the same time (overexpanding). It ended up with me losing nothing and getting 150gp/t. And I'm quite sure I'll just continue to grow and grow and grow.

Anyone has the same experience? The first DoW is really hard then the rest is just easy.

 

[OverWind]

[...]I _hate_ to lose cities so I often have to reload a couple of time.[...] And then the rest of the game ... nothing hard ever again.[...]

You see the oxymoronish chain of thought?

I used to be like you. I hated to lose wonders or cities, so on all difficulty settings I reloaded if something bad happened, like I lost a city or was beaten to a wonder. - Then Civ slowly got a bit boring, and I realised that it's simply part of the game, and it will make it much more challenging to just let it flow. Most of the time you've not lost if you lose that one city, but you have a setback, and it's a great victory to reconquer it, and then you're not ahead of the AI as much as if you had just reloaded.

But I agree, most games there comes a point where you just know that no matter what happens, you can win this game.

 

[Drawmeus]

First off, what OverWind said - if you're going to reload whenever something goes poorly for you, don't complain that the game is too easy. I'm not going to call you a cheater anything, just... of COURSE the game is easy when you cancel out anything good that happens for your opponents.

Second, the reason only the first DoW scares you is because you're building up your military in response to the first DoW, which carries over to all the subsequent ones. If you start building up your military BEFORE anyone DoWs you, even the first one won't be scary anymore - and often, they won't DoW you. It's your military weakness that is making them want to attack you. At that point, I imagine you'll be ready to jump up another difficulty level.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Very typical for higher levels too. All you need is to overcome the initial danger zone when you're nearly defenseless trying to build a substantial base for the rest of the game and AI invades with tons of junk units. If you managed to repel them the rest is much easier. I've never got beaten at immortal past turn 70 or so. If you loose it happens early on due to an early DoW (DoW's more likely) or really late being outraced by a runaway civ for non-domination VC. Usually culture, since it's takes the longest time.

 

[Beengalas]

Yeah I know reloading when losing a city isn't the the best option. I don't reload any other time but that one. And not always, if its a minor city I generally don't reload. Mostly if its my first 1-2 beside capital. When playing on equal terms with the AI there is no challange. I prefer higher level as they supposedly can give me a challange. But I think the initial DoW is madness. Even if I go for loads of military units.

And secondly, I think they AI DoW in most stupid cases. They have DoWed me many time with totally inferiour army. Like my example above, when those 7 DoWed me, I had a large amount of crossbow and they attacked me with archers and spearmens. It was a slaughter.

 

[Beengalas]

Germany is the civ that has posed somewhat of a danger towards me late game. No other so far. But what strikes me is that they could become a real threat if they actually used their cash. A few games ago they ended up with 150k gold... They just kept saving and saving. Even when I attacked their capital.

 

[woodshadows]

Always be prepared for the worst. If your troop demographics is low, you will likely be a target at some point. If your troop count is relatively high but you've been pissing people off with a high score, expect to be invaded by multiple civs. Try to match your troops to those you expect the opposing civs to bring at you.

In my recent lakes map game on Emperor with Catherine I had expanded very rapidly, taking cities from multiple civs during opportunistic wars. My army was primarily knight based and I had Ram with a huge army close to my second city which was in an exposed condition far from my army on the other side of the map. I built up some pikes/crossbows/citadel and bought up a city state near us knowing he'd declare on me any second. Sure enough he did just that, along with Genghis and Nebuchadnezzar. I was being invaded on three sides at once. Since my knights were close to genghis' border and he was second strongest I decided to rush to grab a city/defeat his army to get peace, simultaneously using a holding action against Ram and and Neb, Neb having chosen to attack my citadel-strengthened city and Ram getting sidetracked with my citystate which I used as a field to trap him in and kill off his elephants one by one.

 

[chazzycat]

for me it's usually the 2nd or 3rd DOW that scares me...the one with iron units. The first rush is usually warriors and maybe a couple archers, which are easy enough to repel.

 

[OverWind]

Normally I don't really have problems after crossbowmen. As long as I keep 4-5 crossbowmen, then cannons, then artillery near my cities, the dumb AI kinda takes care of the rest.

 

[timtofly]

I play on huge maps to give me the first 100 turn advantage of being "alone". I did notice though (on emporer) that the same game after the first 100 turns the first time the AI DoW'd beat me into the ground until I was an age behind with no chance.

The third try, I expanded towards him a lot sooner instead of away, since I did have the knowledge of being able to do so, and that AI never DoW on me the whole game. I also started the third try about 30 turns before the first (actual) DoW. Something changed in that the AI expanded in a new direction and never tried to expand near me (until a lot later). The First DoW was him planting a city next to me and seeing that my capital was open, he attacked. I even tried chasing him back so he could not settle and declared war on him, but he still eventually took my capital.

It was only when I expanded differently first, that the game changed. It was him settling that city differently that totally changed the dynamics. So at emperor there may be a turning point that the AI itself is reserved in DoW. The second time he still out numbered me troop wise, but he never took advantage of that. That was my only (emperor) game that I was never in a war. It may have been a fluke, that he tried to put a city next to me and if that had never happened, the original game would have ended the same as the third attempt did.

But yes, to me the third attempt although enjoyable did seem a little hollow in that it was too easy. I was Catherine and both times had already had horses. The AI was Alexander. It seems that He can be either too aggressive or too peaceful. In my current (Warlord) game, Alex was looking at my American GDR's with his longswords.