Gandhi strategy?

[zxcvbob]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to play as India. Played several half-games, trying different things (king and emperor level) What about this?

Build holy sites, but don't bother with the +2 great prophet card and don't try to build Stonehenge -- you want a pantheon, but don't really care that much if you get a religion. Rush horseback riding (building a few archers along the way) and start spamming elephants. Add a battering ram and a catapult when you get those techs. Go kill a neighbor Build more holy sites, shrines, stepwells, etc. You want to accumulate lots of faith. Switch to the Theocracy government, and get your warmonger on, buying knights and crossbows and more elephants (etc) Usually you don't even have to declare wars except for that first one, the AI's will declare war on you.

Faith-buying most of your military also frees up a lot of production for building campuses, commercial districts, and wonders.

 

[zxcvbob]

I started an India game last night. King level, on a small Pangaea map at standard speed. Normal rainfall, normal resources, and whatever else you can select. It takes a long time to get to Reformed Church if you beeline it; I had Theocracy confused with Monarchy. I probably should have built more theater districts.

I steamrolled Brazil and then Germany (Brazil had eliminated France already, so I've captured 3 capitols) and I haven't even bought any units yet. I'm catching up now on scouting out the other half of the map, then it won't take long to wipe everybody out. I have the largest military already; I have over 2000 faith banked, and I'm just getting around to building temples. Everybody hates me, but they are still buying my luxuries.

I expect to see AI rebels whenever I wage a long war because of the double war weariness thing, but I haven't seen that in any of my games even when I drag a war out for >30 turns -- AI declares war on me and I take my time killing all their units and refusing any peace offers.

So Gandhi makes a fine warmonger, but you need to start your conquest before switching to Theocracy because it takes so long to get there. This may totally fall apart at higher difficulties

 

[Callduron]

Skip religion.

Build an early Encampment and race for the first Great General. (ie spam projects). If you get him your Varu mob is now strength 45, move 3, -5 strength per adjacent Varu to enemies. Take 6-8 of them with the General, a ram and a tower and go round knocking over cities.

Once someone gives you Jesuit Education faith-buy Universities in those cities.

 

[zxcvbob]

I didn't realize the GG gave units an extra movement point. And it looks like there are 3 GG's in the Classical era. I've been knocking over Medieval cities with ease using 2 Varu and one each: swordsman, ram, crossbow, and catapult. (and another Varu standing-by in case one of the others gets in trouble)

With 6 or 8 of them and the extra movement point from the general, they might clear the whole map before Reformed Church. Thanks, I will try that next after i finish this game.

 

[Callduron]

The GGs do stack but not all of them appear in each game. Usually there's only one Classical/Mediaeval and no Ancient ones at all.

 

[zxcvbob]

Okay, it was going well (new game) until Germany built medieval walls and must also have taken the Bastions policy card. (only way I can think that his city is suddenly 55 strong this early in the game) That stopped my elephants cold even with a great general and battering ram. Crossbow is not doing much damage either. Going to drop back while I build a bunch of catapults, Meanwhile he should be accumulating war weariness, and he's also at war with Russia so maybe they'll wear him down a little.

I've already killed all his military and razed the city he forward-settled at me and captured a city that has Hanging Gardens.

 

[Victoria]

With 6 or 8 of them

As long as you have the gold of course... I was bitten by Varu excitement before and got carried away. I had to BBQ a couple

 

[Bobfregman]

Been awhile since i used Ghandi but when I did i always ignored the faith aspects of his bonuses and focused on the Varu. The -5 bonus is really strong and IIRC it stacks if enemies are adjacent to more than one Varu. If you can get a great General this is great but even without the Varu has the longest service life of any combat unit in the game imo. They're the most powerful unit from horseback riding to stirrups but even then they continue to hold their own admirably throughout the entire medieval era. They start to show their age once musketmen show up but even then they remain useful in a support or secondary role. They're basically obsolete once infantry, field cannons, and cavalry enter the fray but by that point you've definitely got your money's worth.

 

[zxcvbob]

I haven't played '6 in a while; just started playing again. And I think Gandhi is my favorite leader. I usually try to get an early religion, and I take the new "warrior monks" belief. When they are first available they can capture cities pretty easily. Later in the game, they still make cheap cannon fodder. (unfortunately I can't keep them alive long enough to accumulate lots of promos) They fill in the gap while you're waiting to unlock Theocracy and can start buying real units with faith. I'm about to win a cultural victory now, and most of my culture was stolen, although I've started generating a lot of great people recently from all the captured districts. The only wonder I've built myself was Great Zimbabwe. I didn't even start about half the wars; the AI's declare a joint war against me and I kill one of them, then settle a lucrative peace deal with the other.

At higher difficulties you probably can't get a religion (I'm playing King again) but you generate tons of faith anyway and the strategy should still work.

 

[I_pity_the_fool]

Build holy sites, but don't bother with the +2 great prophet card and don't try to build Stonehenge -- you want a pantheon, but don't really care that much if you get a religion.

It's actually quite possible to get a religion on at least immortal without crippling yourself too much. In my case it took 9 turns worth of prayer projects (3 projects of 3 rounds each). It appears that for quickly building districts you want to ensure that you are not too far ahead in tech. This leads to things like researching the 3 starting techs til you have 1 turn to go and then switching to something else, researching civics until you're 49% finished (don't want to accidently boost the civic and increase your project cost, and hard researching stuff you don't really need.

I realize that both the cost and yield of great person projects scales with tech/civic progression, but I've found it's just faster to avoid finishing techs like this. Maybe it's that with the first prophet costing only 60 points, a few short projects leads to less waste than several long ones.

 

[I_pity_the_fool]

I got the strategy from this guy here:

The first few turns are interesting. And of course seeing crusade or defender of the faith being used to catch up in "expansion" is very nice as well.

 

[penda2018]

I haven't played '6 in a while; just started playing again. And I think Gandhi is my favorite leader. I usually try to get an early religion, and I take the new "warrior monks" belief. When they are first available they can capture cities pretty easily. Later in the game, they still make cheap cannon fodder. (unfortunately I can't keep them alive long enough to accumulate lots of promos) They fill in the gap while you're waiting to unlock Theocracy and can start buying real units with faith. I'm about to win a cultural victory now, and most of my culture was stolen, although I've started generating a lot of great people recently from all the captured districts. The only wonder I've built myself was Great Zimbabwe. I didn't even start about half the wars; the AI's declare a joint war against me and I kill one of them, then settle a lucrative peace deal with the other.

At higher difficulties you probably can't get a religion (I'm playing King again) but you generate tons of faith anyway and the strategy should still work.

My favourite game was with India - King Level. Focused on winning a religious victory but found myself firefighting against stronger civs. Then had to stop Sumer and Greece winning Science victory. Eventually won by a scored resolution (300) turns. It was a cliffhanger of a game but owe most credit to single spy. At Agent and Master Spy levels he won tech boosts, disrupted space rocketry which got me ahead in the space race - I had to supplement his efforts by changing my policies and Science Infrastructure leading to recruiting great scientists. If i could have named my Spy it would have been 007 but was happy to settle for Parmveer.