Help with World Domination

se7en

Chieftain
Joined
Apr 17, 2003
Messages
96
Hey there, I'm looking for some help with my war game. Space race is my go-to game type, and I can consistently win, followed by cultural. I play at Prince (for 100% wins) or Monarch (for a challenge).

My games typically start with making a try for an early religion plus some kind of prophet wonder so I can build a shrine. I get a nice level of gold going (making money at 60% on the tech slider) so I can capture a few cities without going into the negative. Next step is to whip up an army of 10-15 modern units with seige support and head towards my nearest neighbor. I usually give them a good beating and end up with a decent number of nice additional cities and continued gold surplus. It's when I tangle with my second neighbor that I have problems - it always seems like I get into this situation where I'm building a lot of units (focusing only on strategic buildings as necessary, everything else all-out unit production) but I get bogged down at one chokepoint or another where I push hard and gain a little ground, then the enemy pushes hard and takes it back, and we just kind of have this back and forth over a city or small bit of land which seems to never end. At this point I start to fall behind because I'm not making effective use of my material. Major tech milestones I've met around the time I bog down are iron working, code of laws, construction, then macemen. I use lots of suicide cats and end up producing mostly those after I've got my base of city capture swordsmen which eventually get upgraded to macemen.

I do automate workers, so there's that, but I don't feel like that's affecting my game too much - at least with the specific problem I'm having. Typically I'll play Montezuma for spiritual/aggressive, but I run into similar problems with other civs except possibly Rome since their UU is so dominant.

Any thoughts? I really want to master the CIV war approach, and not just with Rome. I'm happy to dig into some academy articles/AARs if anyone has any recommendations.
 
My games typically start with making a try for an early religion plus some kind of prophet wonder so I can build a shrine.

Try not doing that.

More specifically, instead of trying to overrun your neighbors with research, try overrunning them with land.


Your basic approach of preserving your attacking pieces and burning siege sounds reasonable (the devil's in the details, of course). If you are bogging down, maybe you need to choose your targets most carefully.

There's a tendency to attack the enemy cities in order of distance; better (where possible) to choose the prize you want to capture and commit to it. You don't need to win the entire war at once, so long as you win a big enough piece in the initial strike that you start the following war with a significant edge.
 
Although different tactics can be used on Prince vs. higher levels, I recommend checking out some Absolute Zero's Let's Plays.

Big mistakes I see from your write-up:

1) Automating workers (big no-no), especially early....it really does make a HUUUGE difference
2) Thinking Aggressive is a great warmonger trait (Spiritual though is good)
3) Thinking all your warfare has to be done early.
4) Self-teching Iron Working...unless I misunderstood your statement (often you don't need to self tech it)
5) Going for an early religion...ugh

Prince is a pretty easy level once you get some basics down. Sounds like you are fairly new to the game. Point is to take some things I say with a grain of salt since I play high levels. You can often take out 1 or 2 AIs easily on Prince with a warrior rush. However, no point rushing if AIs aren't withing say 10 tiles or so.

Even if taking the warmonger approach, you don't necessarily need to do all your warring early. If you are getting bogged down or stalemating against an AI, learn to call it quits. You can take a city or two and sue for peace for some techs and gold. OR take Cease Fires for a more temporary peace so that you can heal and gather more troops.

Also, don't forget the diplo side of warfare. (AZ does this a lot in his vids) Learn to play AIs against each other. It can make things a lot easier.

Not sure if economy is a major issue. However, don't feel that you always need to keep the slider at 60% or any % above zero.

(By the way, not a big fan of the Rome civ myself and I think the UU is overrated...again, more applicable to higher levels though. One of the best and fastest ways to fight the early game is Horse Archers)
 
Without going for an early shrine how do you keep up science research? Or do you not, and then recover later when you consolidate? It may be as simple as learning when to stop fighting and heal - I tend to go all in and basically end up in a neverending war (and am admittedly unfocused - I just kind of mass up, capture a city, mass up, capture a city, taking "bites" out of other civs without any goal other than to move towards global conquest). I also tend to stay away from horses because of the gap between cavalry and gunships - although I guess by that point you've kind of got the game won?

What's a good civ to learn the warmonger strategy with? What are the traits, aside from spiritual, that rank highly?

One note with self-teching - I play with tribal villages, random events, and tech trading off in SP games since I play a decent amount of MP where those are always off.
 
Without going for an early shrine how do you keep up science research?

Binary science and specialists. After Writing you can lower your slider to 0% for a while. Get up libraries in cap and high food cities and run scientists. Create an academy in your cap with first GS. Either settle the second GS or use it to bulb something like Philo or possibly Machinery. (Note: Binary Science is a somewhat advanced tactic and takes some practice when to know to raise the slider. You get away with a lot more economy wise on lower levels like Prince, but it is a critical tactic on most high level games.) Also, Currency is IMO the most important tech in the game. The boosted trade routes and more importantly, the ability to build wealth and trade for gold helps immensely. Of course, if you are warmongering, you get a lot of gold in conquering cities - use that to either fund research or support your troops.

One note with self-teching - I play with tribal villages, random events, and tech trading off in SP games since I play a decent amount of MP where those are always off.

Standard Single Player will have tech trading ON. Tech trading off would be a niche type of gameplay. You will find many of the forum games don't have huts and events on. It is really a matter of taste. I don't like events at all and huts usually are a disadvantage on higher levels. However, on Prince huts should be fine.

MP vs. SP is quite different as far as tactics.

I also tend to stay away from horses because of the gap between cavalry and gunships - although I guess by that point you've kind of got the game won?

Not really following your logic here, but my games are usually over by that time. Mounted warfare is very effective and fast if executed correctly. Horse Archers are a great way to conquer a lot of land early if used in the right timeframe. Lots of threads and Let's Plays related to Horse Archer rushing. Just another way to play the game and war.

What is it about these civs/leaders that makes them good? Asoka I get with spiritual/organized and improved jails, but what about the others?

First of all, don't get too caught up in UUs and UBs. Overall, you can win with any Leader in this game.

Asoka is a great warmonger for a several reasons. First, the Fast Worker is THE BEST UU in the game. You will conquer a lot of civs with your massive Fast Worker Stack of Doom. Seriously though, the worker in general is the most important unit in the game. (another reason you should not automate them). Fast Worker just makes such an important unit even better. You can get your empire up and running faster to be more efficient. Organize helps with maintenance costs in general which helps fuel the war effort and keep research going. Spiritual is nice for quick changes into war civics or strategic religion switches to gain allies. Don't forget AI favorite civics as well. Spiritual is a great trait for diplomacy and should not be overlooked for that fact. Diplo can be important in war as well.

Dutch - Creative and Financial...nuff said

Khmer - Again Creative and also Expansive, which is my personal favorite trait. Fast Libraries and border pops and quick granaries and worker production.

Granary - Most important building in the game
Worker - Most important unit in the game

^^^once you understand those two points it will change your game

edit - VoU makes excellent point as well

edit2: Regarding holy shrines...not that I ever rely on them anyway, but don't forget that you can simply just conquer them. Let the AIs do that work for you.
 
As long as the AI is at war, they're much more likely to build units. So if your offensive stalls, take peace right away. Even give the AI a non-military tech if necessary to get that peace. You don't have to have any intention of staying at peace more than 10 turns, but you don't want to be fighting trench warfare while the AI abuses it's production advantages to outmuscle you.
 
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