Help A Builder Become A Warmonger?

[chrmarker]

I second all the good things said about Rome.

Julius or Augustus is both great warmonger leaders. Not so much for the traits. All traits can be good warmonger traits, all in there own way.
Its the Praetorians that makes the big difference. With strengt 8 its effectively an early maceman minus the 50% bonus vs melee units. With them you can rule the ancient and medieval age. The only downsides to Praetorians is that if you do not have iron you cant build them and it can feel a bit like cheating to use them because they are so powerfull in the early stages. Theres no real counter for them until macemen or crossbowmen arrive on the scene.

 

[pigswill]

Good way to unlearn building is to play a no wonders game -you can't build a single world wonder (tho capturing them is ok).

If you're warmongering then charismatic (cheap xp) and imperialistic (cheap GG) are excellent traits. Organised is also useful for cheap civics and courthouses (to be whipped in your captured cities).

Having said that I'm not a ruthless warmonger like that bloodthirsty cabert.

 

[r_rolo1]

I'm also a buider in my heart, but started ( slowly ) to be a warmonger when needed ( and I'm not as ruthless as pigswill, the only guy so far that managed to grab a dom victory of the Lonely Hearths Club 3 ).
My advice ( along with the pigswill one ): duel maps, pangea, one level up of what you are used to,only conquest victory enabled. Objective: kill the guy as early as possible. Sharpens your mind, believe me.

 

[Napalm102]

I think in most of my games, the first wonder that I build myself is the Statue of Liberty. Occasionally I get to build GL, but building axes and cats to take out nearest neighbour takes priority.

 

[carl corey]

Well, sometimes your neighbour isn't close enough, or you have a wonder resource that will make your hammer investment more efficient, etc. Depending on the situation There are lots of reasons to build wonders. In my last three games I played three industrious leaders and the last time I even got both Stone and Marble! That just begs for wonders.

Of course with someone like Tokugawa I wouldn't go for the wonders anyway. Maybe Great Library at most, but not the rest. It's too much fun to take over cities with highly promoted axes and defend them with highly promoted archers to waste hammers on early wonders. And if I'm lucky I'll even capture one or two.

 

[futurehermit]

To not build wonders as an industrial leader is kinda silly. But it does put a cramp on expansion. Even stonehenge and oracle put a cramp on expansion, although stonehenge is not too bad with an industrious leader.

 

[Sjaramei]

I just have to make a comment about warmonger leaders.

Shaka is a good warmonger leader cause of UB. Genghis is not, imperialistic is a very bad trait.

If you want domination fast i suggest getting a leader with the organized trait. You can whip courthouses almost instantly in newly conquered cities. Fast courthouses means you can support a larger empire sooner. That means every leader with Organized is a potential good warmonger just cause of that trait

So the best leaders for warmongering is in my opinion the balanced ones, one trait for army and one for economics. So Hannibal, Napoleon, Shaka (cause of that insane UB) and both Caesars (cause of Praetorians+Organized) are very good picks for domination wins

To not build wonders as an industrial leader is kinda silly. But it does put a cramp on expansion. Even stonehenge and oracle put a cramp on expansion, although stonehenge is not too bad with an industrious leader.

I had my earliest domination win with Roosevelt a while ago. I started with building 3 cities, built the Polytheism wonders and settled 2 Great Merchants before 0 AD. (running library as well) The extra income/food helped a lot with my early expansion and i was able to get more cities earlier without crashing my economy. (with axes and catapults of course ) So for me the wonders made me get more cities sooner so Industrious is a very interesting trait early on