Help me get rid of Gilgamesh?

[theskald]

To whom it may concern,

I recently began a new game after learning just how badly failing to block off rival expansion can hurt you and rolled Charlemagne (he really is bad, isn't he? The rathaus barely makes up for it) on a large, rocky, continents map. I earlyish rushed Wang Kon, and just recently had a successful campaign against Huayna Capac. Now I'm all alone on this continent except for Gilgamesh, a fellow hindu that I'm good friends with and I want dead . Here's how the world looks now.

My two newest cities should cut him off from expansion into my lands, though I'm not at all fond to the sites I thought they were necessary. It's a quarter past 1000 AD and I'm pretty sure I still have three unknown civs to face on another continent. I'm unsure of how to proceed, and could use some advice.

I was after a domination victory. Is it too late? I'm thinking I took too long to destroy the other two civs and now victory is out of reach. So should I:

a) stay on Gilgamesh's good side and focus on exploration and research.
b) Go for it and immediately start producing a massive army (I have elephants, trebuchets, and landsknechts galore, he has the protective trait, walls, longbowmen, and Chichen Itza )
c) call this game lost and do something else.
d) ???

I've managed to found Hinduinsm, confucianism, and taoism, and Capac had Buddhism and Christianity, I stand ready to aggressivley spead all religions to new lands and am a stone's throw away from music and some cathedrals. I'm also set for the Globe Theatre and plan to draft like mad once it's done.

Anyway, does anyone have some advice? From what I can see, he has no spearmen at all, but several mounted units, so elephants should be very effective.

 

[Refar]

You have a decent size empire - if you change your win target to someting peacefull - say Space Race - you can do it without killing Gilgamesh...

Otherwise... the game is just a bit past halftime (if it's normal speed...) Plenty of time left to kill everone who might be left on that map... twice.

If you have a good feeling with your current army, you can open the war-round right now, take a few cities, then call for a break (probably getting something nice from him).
Seeing you are short before Liberalism, you could also concider waiting till Rifling - go straight for it of course, to not make the waitng time longer than has to. Perhaps prebuild a couple of CR maces which you can upgrade later.

Once have your continent, build up some nice pro0duction cities, go for Assembly Line and say "Hi" to the rest of the world with Infantry.

 

[Incan Emperor]

Well once you meet the rest of the world they will all be Jews, making it very difficult to stablish any trade relations with anyone, and you will most likely still end up warring against them too, so I think you are better off keeping him as an ally.

You can still pursue Space/Cultural if you are to lazy to attempt a Domi attacking overseas.

 

[theskald]

Well once you meet the rest of the world they will all be Jews, making it very difficult to stablish any trade relations with anyone, and you will most likely still end up warring against them too, so I think you are better off keeping him as an ally.

You can still pursue Space/Cultural if you are to lazy to attempt a Domi attacking overseas.

That's a good point, I hadn't considered that. 'm worried about how active his soldiers seem to be suddenly, but trying to attack overseas may be best for now. I appreciate the help.

 

[Incan Emperor]

That's a good point, I hadn't considered that. 'm worried about how active his soldiers seem to be suddenly, but trying to attack overseas may be best for now. I appreciate the help.

Its funny how having all religions except Judaism and Islam (which may not have been founded) actually makes it worse, other wise if they had a religious collage you could war, say against one of them thats mutual enemy with the other two civs left, bribe them into the war, and Voila!

Otherwise if they all share religions they are more likely peaceful, and have cimented years of positive relations, meaning that unless you adopt Free Religion soon you will end up warring with them all, and if you wipe Gilga out you will be the lonely bad guy in the story.

 

[theskald]

Its funny how having all religions except Judaism and Islam (which may not have been founded) actually makes it worse, other wise if they had a religious collage you could war, say against one of them thats mutual enemy with the other two civs left, bribe them into the war, and Voila!

Otherwise if they all share religions they are more likely peaceful, and have cimented years of positive relations, meaning that unless you adopt Free Religion soon you will end up warring with them all, and if you wipe Gilga out you will be the lonely bad guy in the story.

Gah! I wish I had thought of that before I went and snatched them all up! It makes me a lot of money, though.

Refar, it's on epic, large size map. I'm not sure how I'll ever take out two or three more civs before it's too late, after having to find out where exactly they are, who's the easiest target, who hates who, and building up an armada of galleons, I'll already have an obsolete army by the time I get there. Mid to end-game warfare has been posing big problems for me, especially overseas. Would setting up a colony or two for production work, or is that just too costly to be feasible? I don't see how there is enough time to carry out a domination victory. How would you go about it, knowing that, as I found out just now, there is one more continent essentially the same size and shape as mine with Alexander, Ragnar, and Quin Shi Huang. I've been trying to get Alexander to convert to stir up some trouble, as Gilgamesh just finished the AP and I ended up with the majority after some missionary work, but again, how can domination be accomplished so late?

 

[Incan Emperor]

Gah! I wish I had thought of that before I went and snatched them all up! It makes me a lot of money, though.

Refar, it's on epic, large size map. I'm not sure how I'll ever take out two or three more civs before it's too late, after having to find out where exactly they are, who's the easiest target, who hates who, and building up an armada of galleons, I'll already have an obsolete army by the time I get there. Mid to end-game warfare has been posing big problems for me, especially overseas. Would setting up a colony or two for production work, or is that just too costly to be feasible? I don't see how there is enough time to carry out a domination victory. How would you go about it, knowing that, as I found out just now, there is one more continent essentially the same size and shape as mine with Alexander, Ragnar, and Quin Shi Huang. I've been trying to get Alexander to convert to stir up some trouble, as Gilgamesh just finished the AP and I ended up with the majority after some missionary work, but again, how can domination be accomplished so late?

A beeline onto Astronomy if all you have is optics, if you do have Astronomy a beeline to flight is the one only thing that can help you, settle/conquer one city only to use it as an airport, fly as many modern units as possible within a few turns, build bombers.

Oh and if domi is our target victory and not conquest settle all the spare land on your continent even the ice/tundra/peak cities you dont want and most importantly convert to State Property before taking a single city in the other continent. Workshop all your land, run 0% science once we get Flight/Radio/Fascism for Paratroopers/Bombers. Upgrade as many units as posible, zerg/suicide/disband/gift the oldest ones, money will be an issue.

 

[Killroyan]

Why would you want to abandon this game???? You have the bigger land, the better cities, even some more room to expand. How is Gilgamesh power graph?? If you can muster a good force and take 2-3 cities of him, sue for peace, attack again and wear him down you can have all his cities by 1600 or so. By then you will be leader in score, land, power and normally science and production. From there on you can do whatever you want. Just make sure you go into free religion so you can trade with the other civs. Get astronomy as the free tech if still available and sent some caravels on the way.

And as Refar already mentioned, tech to assembly line and let the rest of the world meet your infantries.

 

[Munch]

Is Gilgamesh's capital coastal? I can't tell from the screen. If you really wanna take him out then amass protective defenders and catapults along your border and put all your attacking force onto Galleons (when you get Astro) and crush his capital. It's far easier to defend your land border than defend a naval attack, and if he doesn't have Astro then a few basic ships on each side of the land mass will mean his Triremes/Galleys or even Caravels will be fodder for your better/more numerous ships.

That's what I would do if I really wanted to knock him out of the game, but in your situation I would probably just befriend him and team up against the evil western hemisphere of infidels. Then betray him using the above strategy but with modern weapons!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

My advice is to tech to rifling or cannons (whatever you're closer to), and then attack him with a military tech lead. You don't want a war to last for a long time. In fact, you need it not to...because once gilgamesh is downed you need the marines/battleships/artillery or something along those lines to easily invade across continents.

Alternatively, you could do as some of the other posters say and hit him with a hard, fast war now with the intent of taking a few cities and extorting a tech or two. That might save time later and avoid having units go to waste being obsoleted (or paying the upgrade costs).

 

[Catan_Settler]

Man you have so much time to win dom or conquest it's not even funny. I'd hit the other continent with grens/cavalry/galleons or if you want to have the most fun wait for combustion/flight and hit them while researching industrialism. With flight and a good network of airports on your mainland, you'll be able to flood the other continent with troops without dickering around in transports... Although, I'm still a sucker for those higgins boats and usually use both. Either way, the modern era makes for one helluva fun and lightning fast military campaign, regardless of distance. Just build a couple carrier groups (2 carriers, 3 transports, 3+ destroyers) and fill them with fighters and infantry/marines/artillery. Hit two cities on the other continent at once, and start air lifting reinforcements and bombers over. If you have a tech lead when you do this, it's going to be so freaking easy to just steamroll them, I usually try to make it harder by declaring war on everyone on the other continent at once-- just so it's a bit of a challenge. Bombing riflemen or below with planes is what we call "easy sauce" and even when he gets infantry, you'll have moved on to tanks and marines. As for Gilgamesh, you could use him as an ally or steamroll him, it really doesn't matter. With such a nice land mass already under your control, I doubt you'd need the extra territory to keep your tech lead and with a proper tech lead, war is easy. Sauce.

 

[dankok8]

You have a lot of land already, but make sure you settle most of the rest of the continent (settle towards Gilga first) to prevent him from getting it or any civs you may meet in the future. One thing I do notice is that your cities' populations are not very high considering its 1290AD - put some work on growing you cities. The way the game is now and considering the other continent will likely share the same religion, you may want to keep Gilga alive, if only so they dogpile on him rather then only on you in case of intercontinental war.

 

[theskald]

That's the advice I was looking for! I have a pretty solid understanding of the early game, but right around here I lose focus and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. I just checked the power graph and Gilgamesh's has skyrocketed. He's only met me (and the Capac who's gone) so I'm very apprehensive about that. I forsee major money problems if I try to keep him at bay and attack the "new world." I think I will do as dankok said and focus on building up my cities.

To Munch, his capital is not costal, it's another one of those one-tile-away deals. Even if it was, his recent swell in military makes that a less than desirable move, but I will go back and try that strategy once I've finished this game, it's ballsy and I'd like to see the results.

Techwise I've been pseudo-beelining for steam power because almost all of my cities have tons of river tiles and I want levies ASAP. I think, if I remember correctly, this puts me in a good position to go for flight. I think I'll play it conservatively for now and go for levies and airports.

Thank you all, I wasn't sure if I was in a good or bad position, with your advice I may win my first domination victory

 

[Incan Emperor]

I cant stress enough the value of bombers/paras for a quick domination, that combo will allow you to take cities FAST and paras are great since they can be used as the attack force with even better results that tanks since the move more tiles than tanks, they fare well as city garrisons too, once the turn is over you can fly true garrison units and this also allows the paras 1 or 2 turns to heal, drop them on then next target, on a forrested hill preferably, hit the city with bombers and take it and so on.

 

[Killroyan]

If gilgameshs power graph has skyrocketed then better start building your own military to. If he also says "we have enough on our hands" in the discussion screen then you know what is going to happen Build up military and get Gilga.