Help the newb beat Warlord please

[Micky Onimusha]

Lately I've finally been able to conquor Cheiften (God I suck) but now I've moved onto Warlord and lost my 1st 2 games at this level. I usually eliminate most civs early except the one I can't find *I like Continents* until they are too well defended. Last game I lost via points, the other game I lost in a diplomatic loss.

Anyways, some advice please.

My basic tactic has been to eliminate all civs on my continent ASAP then start to settle all uninhabited islands. It doesn't seem to be working though? Also, last game I tried the tactic that I read here about making a military alliance with like 400 gold per turn, then selling a tech for about that price, elminate the civ in 1 turn and con that opp. Trouble with that though is when it came to 1 on 1 and I built the UN it was always inconclusive (because Cleo was annoyed with me, very annoyed) and they were ahead of me pointswise.

 

[lbhhh]

Your basic tactic is good. It seems like you need to become better at invading another continent to conquer the last AIs or reach the domination limit. I'd recommend this article it should help you out.

Warfare: Attacking & Defeating Enemy on Another Continent

 

[Micky Onimusha]

thanks, I'll start reading it

 

[Sparrow3]

Micky:
If you are going for Diplomatic victory it is probably best to let the other Civs live. Chopping them back to one or two cities on an island, while you gobble up the rest of the world is ok. Then just before the UN is complete try to get the little Civs polite towards you and mad at you opponent. Example: having all the small Civs at war with Egypt would be good. Trading with the little Civs or gifting them things (gold,techs,etc.) would probably help also.


If you want to conquer Egypt (the last Civ), build up your army and invade. 6-8 transports full of MA & MI can do a lot of damage. Pay particular attention to Large cities (large culture) and cities where the wonders are built. If you can capture or destroy them, you will reduce Egypts ability to accumulate culture. Thus allowing you to over take her point wise.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

Thanks. I'm gonna play a Continent as the Romans on a huge map with 16 opps. Any special advice for them (As you can guess I'm gonna go for an early conquest to get the entire continent)

 

[mistat137]

Don't forget about the power of Stealth Bombers either. Depending on the game size, you can usually attack another continent from our own cities because of their tremendous range.

With a large enough force of Bombers, you can destroy all units in a city along with killing some of the citizens. And, in most cases, the AI is poorly defended against massive air assaults, even when city after city is attacked with the same strategy. This can save you the loss of Modern Armor when taking multiple cities.

Has anyone else noticed that the AI does a poor job of building defense against bombers, particularly in building sufficient mobile SAM units? At most, I encounter 1 per city, and that may only take out one bomber out of 6.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

Oh yeah by the way, how much should I defend my cities in each era.

Currently its been for me:

Ancient: Spearman & Swordsman/Archer for each city/town and a Spearman for each lux/strat resource.
Medievil: 2 Pikeman/Musketman for each town, same + a Knight/Cav for a city. Pikeman/Musketman for each strat/lux resource.
Industrial: 2 Rifleman/infantry for a town, 3 for a city, 4 for a metropolis.
Modern: Same as above except MA/Infantry. I never bother with Mobile SAM, just the SAM battery for my towns/cities, should I get them?

Also, I make coastal fotress's whenever I can

 

[Arathorn]

Micky,

That's a LOT of units. Your unit upkeep is probably holding you back from getting a tech lead. You didn't mention what government you play in, but any government is going to hurt under that kind of unit upkeep.

You don't need to defend each lux/strat resource with a defender. If it's near a front, it might be worth it, but if it's in your core, don't bother defending it. You will be facing foes on the front and they won't make it to your resource in the core, unless you're in BIG trouble.

Now, I run REALLY light on defenders in general (I average less than one/city, but I'm not a good data point for that). I simply can't imagine having that kind of troop concentration and not wanting to go out and bonk some heads! 2-3 on border cities, probably but there's no need for more than 1-2 in the core.

One other thing to consider is that it's usually better to do defense by offense rather than by letting their troops assault your cities. That is, let their troops come close but then hit them with all (maybe not quite but close) your offensive troops before they attack your cities. Think of your civ globally, not one city defending vs. the hordes.

You don't mention any kind of artillery (catapults, trebuchets, cannons, artillery, radar artillery). You're really missing out on great kill ratios by ignoring these fine units.

Arathorn

P.S. A save game from your latest game would probably help lots of people give better insights.

 

[lbhhh]

Coastal fortresses are mostly useless, I only build them if my city is actually under maritime assault. SAM sites are a bit mor usefull but at a late stage in the game its more effective to have some stacks of mobile sams(4 per stack) ready to instantly move anywhere you are under air assault with your completed railroad network. FYI, a stack of 4 mobile Sams should shoot down 51.77% of bombers. Of course you also need lots of Jet fighters to protect the areas around your cities.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

I make Coastal Fortress's cos usually they take about 1/2 turns to make and no upkeep.

Governments wise I usually go either:

Peace-Wise: Depo-Rep
War-Wise: Depo-Monarchy-Facism

Tends to keep the upkeep I want. New towns usually only get 1 unit to defend them until they reach City level. I'll lay off the resource defences.

By the way, since learning Captured workers cost no upkeep I always use them over Workers, so basically I lose no money via Workers except near the start when I don't go by that defense system.

 

[Arathorn]

You change governments that often? That could be a problem, too. Even a religious civ shouldn't change so frequently. Strive for no more than 4 government changes in a game. I almost always change once and stay, but I can see good reasons for a second change, occasionally. More than that is usually a problem.

Arathorn

 

[Micky Onimusha]

No I don't change governemnts on those, I mean thats my basis depending on whether I'm gonna be a warmongerer or not which is usually decided by how many opps are near me

 

[GR8Madmax]

Originally posted by Micky Onimusha

Peace-Wise: Depo-Rep
War-Wise: Depo-Monarchy-Facism

If you have a large empire (large and huge maps), you might want to give Communism a shot during war instead of Fascism.

For peace-time Democracy is the best.

 

[ColoradoBBQ]

Also, watch your cities in case they are about to revolt. You may think that cities revolting isn't bad because you would fix that easily but the lost gold for research and treasury will add up.

 

[Sparrow3]

Micky:
Arathorn is correct in his analysis of the military situation. I'd move all but one defender out of the interior cities (regardless of size). Station them along the borders and coast line. This where the attack will come. If you only have one spearman defending a coastal city, that is where the sneak attack will come; every time. The same is true of lightly defended border cities.

Alernate between culture building and military in the interior cities. One or two of those cities will have the highest number of shields. Use these to build culture (wonders, libraries, etc.). If these cities are not listed on the (demographics? - F11?) screen you are doing something wrong.

Don't forget to build market places and banks. They keep the money comming in. And play with the research slider. Set it to the highest percent you can and still have plus gold. But also look at the number of turns to research what ever you are working on. I have found that sometimes you can move the research slider from 50% to 30% and only increase the build time by one turn. So, play around with it.

Too large a military can break the economy; so, be carefull how many units you build. Quality works better than quanity. However, the AI looks at quanity to determine if you are weak compared to the other Civs. Check what the military advisor says for each known Civ. Weak invites attack. Average less so. Strong, the other Civ will almost never attack you.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

Well, so far I'm deep into a 1000 turn game (Just about to enter the industrial age). I'm on a small map Pangea with 3 rivals (Me as the Mongols against America, Aztecs and Iroqouis). They are all still alive but the aztecs have been beaten to the point they are trapped on one city in a tiny corner and aren't a threat at all (I stationed an army of crusaders and several Kasiks in front of the city to trap them and make them easy to eliminate if I wish since its guarded by about 6ish spearman).

America and Iroquois are both Polite/Gracious to me (Iroquois keeps changing between the 2). I currently control almost all the strat resources. I think I have all of them except 1 horse and 1 iron. I've been trading horses for Dyes with the Iroqouis sicne they can build nothing better than a Mounted Warrior without my 2 Saltpeter or my Iron (I have the other 7 Luxuries). Now what I'm after is advice of what to do next. I have a Military about as strong as my two main opps. I'm thinking about doing the military/tech money trick on America considering soon I intend to invade them to get the Iron and Horses that I don't control. Is it worth my while to eliminate the Aztecs to get myself a ton of gold?

By the way, I'm not to keen on a diplomatic victory since this game is turning out to be quite a fun game, maybe go for Space Race.

Anwyays, thanks for the advice Guys, I think I'm on my way to my first Victory as the Mongols *Thanks you all* By the way, I've taken your advice on the 1 defender thing, is working very nicely, also, same goes for resources, no defense, so far no probs, although I'm Barricading them so that Boimbers have alot to destroy to cut of the roads and if needed (or space for a unit) I can put a unit over them.

ADD ON:

Ok, continuing further, I've discovered that I control all but 1 source of rubber and all but 2 Oil sources. Should I try and take over those sources as well as the others oir should I just let it be and not hold a resource monopoly. Also, very soon, I think I'm gonna pull the evil tech/alliance trick using the Aztecs and Americans sicne they are furious at me and I'm sick of the sight of Abe.

Also, how do I view the map without units/cities and how can I take photo's of the maps?

 

[Sparrow3]

Sounds like you are doing good. Congratulations!
Depending on where they are located. How about geting America and Iroquois into war against each other. It would be best if they have a common border. I would not do this if your Mongol nation is between them; however.
In a game I am currently playing (Warlord level) my Sumerians were on the north end of the continent. To the south was Babylon and to the south of them was Egypt. I negotiated a Mutual Protection Pact (MPP) and Right of Passage (ROP) with Babylon. Then I attacked Egypt. Babylon declared war on Egypt. It was then a foot race to see who could capture Egyptian cities first. One key factor in this war was that Babylon was heavily railroaded. This let me get my forces into Egypt quickly.

If you want to be really mean about it, spend 20-30 turns taking American cities; then switch sides.

**The command to clear map is: Ctl/Shift/M ; the same keys to get things back.

**Screen shots are: Print Screen to capture; then Paste into a prog. like MS Paint; then save as jpg

 

[genghis_khev]

Micky, I was having the same problems you were and similar problems going up to regent level.

For me the big "advantage" was very early expansion, and I mean like WILDFIRE!!!! In the war academy there is a thread entitled "Faster Expansion: A key Element of the Early Game" by Excilus (forgive me not linking to it. I don't know how). Follow the advice in this thread and you'll soon get tech, power and city quantity lead by end of the ancient era! (I've literally printed this page out I found it that useful!).

As for the next step up all I can say is hang in there. In my current game (only my 2nd regent attempt) I was struggling badly up until I got Democracy. I got it first (probably by a narrow margin!) promply sold it for as much GPT as possible to anyone who would have it!!! Now I own 1 of 2 continents and and heading for a very probable domination (66% on each) victory! I now wonder if I abandonded my 1st regent game too early!

 

[Micky Onimusha]

well, i've eliminated the aztecs and due to a mutual protection pack with the iroqouis, we ended in a war with america. I'm in the modern age now, in the lead in techs. I've bordered off my opps , well, sorta, they have some minor cities. I'd show you my save if I knew how

 

[Archbob]

If your playing on a large or huge map, conquest and domination is probably not the easiest way to win, after you've driven everyone off your continent, start building improvements and go for spaceship victory, its a sure way to win.