Help me out with Conquest

[AbyssalLoris]

I've been trying to win this game off and on but haven't been able to. I play on Noble. Please don't laugh, I know many of you do it on Deity.

The thing about my game style is that I'm not super-organized and haven't mapped out exactly what I want to do for the next 30 turns. Playing this game for a while has led me to believe that I need to be organized and accurate with my moves.

In any case, I usually prefer the culture route and like to culture-flip nearby cities etc, but going down that track usually leaves me low on power and provokes attacks from other civs. When war happens, I'm usually underprepared. For this, my favorite leaders are usually Elizabeth or one of the other Philosophical types.

Out of frustration, I have decided to go the military route and I like the idea of being the aggressor. I want to do this as early as possible in the game. Lesser rivals means more manageable. So I'm looking for tips on a conquest victory. I need an Aggressive leader. I might be inclined to pick Alexander, but wonder if his UU is all that good. Genghis Khan looks like a good choice.

To put this in context, I was playing one of the scenarios (South America). Lots of jungles. But I found it very difficult to get horses as they are few and selectively located. Horses I feel, are critical to GK in order to make Keshiks. What would you do if you found a critical resource was located far away?

If any of you actually read my long post, I hope for some strategical tips.

PS: I should mention that I'm looking for a good leader suggestion for the South America scenario keeping conquest victory in mind. Also, how to exploit this leader's bonuses if I want to wipe out civs early. Please note that I DO NOT have warlords.

 

[Sryth]

Dont worry at what diff you play at. I myself play at noble as well(trying for next one though)

Now, If you are tempted to pick Alexander, then by all means go for it. AGG will be very helpful in getting a strong millitary. The PHI is also good for the extra GPP. You dont have to worry about the UU being bad, imo I think its a good unit. Just dont mass produce them, they are great against mounted units(chariots, horse archers, etc), but if you dont have enough axemen and swordsmen, you wont be able to kill other axes/spears/swords and take cities.

 

[dr_s]

The one thing I did that improved my early warmongering the most was play a couple games on tiny pangea maps.

 

[rabidveggie]

I like going with Rome as a lot of people do. Praetorians are super good and on Noble you can take down a computer early with 6-7 Praetorians and go from there. But by all means go with the civ you want, he'd probably work about the same.

 

[Ecofarm]

Play as Inca. Build worker/Qs. Beeline priesthood, start the oracle. Build settlers (2) when at happy cap. Research mining to have something to do with your worker (besides starting with agriculture). Writing, Masonry, Math. Finish oracle (you have to delay quite a bit, leaving time for settler building and a couple Qs). Take construction with oracle. Research BW. Produce catapults in all cities, whip them (your worker/s have only been building farms and mines). Standard size map, normal speed, noble difficulty - the world is yours. It helps to have a nice gold tile in cap, but this is not necessary.

 

[The Green Man]

I'm in the same boat as you: a Noble-difficulty culture/space race player trying to learn how to conquer and dominate. Here are some of the things I've learned (or am trying to learn):

1. Generally speaking, go for Bronze Working as early as possible. There are no less than four reasons for you to do so:

-- reveals copper, preferably in time for your first settler to claim it;
-- allows you to make axemen once you've connected to the copper;
-- enables the slavery civic;
-- grants your workers the ability to chop forests

Put those four things together, and you have the means necessary to start an early war. Find and claim copper, use the slavery whip and chopping of forests to rapidly build a barracks and some axemen. Promote your axemen with City Raider (or maybe Cover or Shock, if your leader of choice is aggressive, and you know what kinds of units your doomed neighbor has been building).

2. Plan at least one of your first few expansion cities as a production city. Dedicate it to the construction of military units to the exclusion of all else. Remember that you don't just need an invasion army: you also need defenders to thwart a counter-attack, and reinforcements for anticipated losses. If your army isn't costing you money in upkeep, it probably isn't big enough.

3. Before you march off to war, decide whether you plan to keep the cities, or raze them. If you're keeping a city, send city defenders (archers) along with your raiders, and go easy on pillaging; if razing, a chariot or two in the stack can pillage an improvement and move in the same turn, and should pillage as much as possible to pay for the war effort.

4. Time is of the essence. Make sure your invading army is big enough to take the target city in one turn of fighting. Don't give your opponent time to send reinforcements or to produce new defender units.

5. Extortion is your friend. Alphabet and Currency allow you to demand techs and money respectively; if possible, squeeze all you can from an opponent with a temporary peace treaty before finishing them off.

There are good tips to be found in Sisiutil's guide to military stacks, so I'd suggest it as further reading: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185838

What I'm finding to be hardest for me, is the initial march - playing standard size continent maps, I've usually got quite a bit of distance between me and the nearest AI civ. I'm torn between a long march, or delaying war until expansion has brought me closer to my target. I'm not sure how to handle that; in my current game, I'm trying out staying in expansion/builder mode until my culture and roads have shortened the distance. That may be the wrong thing to do though if I'm hoping for a conquest win.

...which I guess brings up a question: do you intend to win via conquest/domination, or do you just want an early war for empire building while aiming for a cultural or space race win?

 

[Ecofarm]

In either case, you should war at catapults, before if you have the opportunity via copper/horse.

 

[rabidveggie]

Not if your Rome or you think your opponent may be neglecting their army. Sometimes striking first is better then waiting for your opponent to hit long bows.

 

[JujuLautre]

(hey, 1st post here, welcom to cfc JujuLautre \o/ )

I'm actually also playing on noble (although I should move a level up at least; come on, where is the fun of fighting CG 1 archers with CR 2 macemen? , but I'm not sure I will go too much up: playing like this is ok ), and I noticed that, since my first games on the lowest level, I did a better job at the highest levels than at the lowest; where is the logic? Well, I learnt some things on the way:
(and even if they are all said here and there in the forums, well, I don't have links to all the posts where I learnt these )
- as The Green Man said, I learnt the power of Bronze working. Now I don't always beeline to BW, but most of the time. Production boost (chop + + copper) + arguably best ancient times unit (axemen) = r0xx0r; which leads to the following point
- I learnt the power of (early) warmongering; so more easy to go from 3 to 6 cities and gain 3 techs on the way by taking them from someone instead of building/researching that yourself; and the same goes in the other parts (medieval, renaissance...) of the game. Liberalism for nationalism/military tradition is also
- I dislearnt wonder addiction; in some ways this is related to the previous point: why build a wonder with limited effects when you could build a stack of 8 or more units?
- I also dislearnt religion addiction; being an old Civ II player, this aspect of the game had the same "Oooo, shiny" appeal to me that the wonders, and I was always wanting to go to the religious tech first. Well, I discovered that I almost always had problems with them, and that it often was a waste of time.
- I have more focus: I do things because I need them. Build a wonder because I need it. Found a religion because I need it. Hook up a resource because I need it. Send workers to cities which need improvements. Fight a war because I need it. Tech/make money at fastest speed because I need it. Etc. Well, not always, I damit
- I read this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632 and this was of a great help to learn some basic strategies: Bronze Working, city specialization (moslty the GP farm and the science powerhouse); and the advice which, I think, helped me the most: when you go to war, enter in total war mode, and don't build anything but units until the war is over. Well, as a builder-hoolic, this was a great revelation for me
Thanks a lot Sisiutil

After this, to specifically answer your questions:
- going a peacefull way is a way as an other. But do not forget to keep an up-to-date army in case that f***ing Monty or Alex shows up, and don't forget that if a neighbour starts crushing all the other players, well, perhaps this was a bad idea to let him do so
- going the militaristic way does not imply going fast; actually, I go fast when I can (read: I have a weak neighbour who has "Oooo, shiny" cities); but lastly, I began a game where I decided to go cultural through an unusual way (for me): going as usual at the begining (read: war), and picking religions along the way. Well, I expanded due to not having a real close neighbour, and fought my first and only war (to keep power) with Cho Ko Nus and 6 cities instead of axemen and 2-3 cities
- If you want to plan, try first to have global plans: first situation, need production, go for BW. Have a close and weak neighbour? Go to war. And want to extort techs? Don't forget alphabet. Then need to build economy? Go for cottages and Currency/Code of Laws because of the captured cities. etc. At this level, even if you make small mistakes here and there, this is sufficient because you r0xx the AI at planning.
- About the far away resource: if it's really far away, I try to find an other way. No copper here and I NEED to invade my neighbour? Go for Iron (or horses if Persia or Egypt; but why seek bronze in this case? ); No copper but I can do without invading my neighbour? Well, changes of plans. If it's not to far away, either you stick to your plan because you need it, and go for it, or again, change plans or find an other way.

Mmmmh, that's it I think

edit - actually, I was just thinking of "how to determine if you can go up a level"; so this is a question to more experienced player: could almost always winning by domination if possible be a sign that you could go up? Some ways, it means that you out-war the AI, and very often that you out-tech it, since it's much easier to fight with better armies. (forget monty who figths with always-old units). In this respect, you could also win by the UN (because usually 50% of the world pop), by conquest (not everytime, but fairly often - perhaps not in the upper levels), by spaceship (because out-tech), so, well, perhaps it's time to go up