All you warmongers, I need some advice. Just for the record I play on Emperor. How do you guys go about building up so many units in the early game? Do you completely ignore producing anything other than units? If not than how do you guys keep up with military? I have no experience with any successful early wars what so ever. If I do go to war early, I always run out of units 2 turns or so into the war and end up losing. I just can't figure out how you guys dominate so quickly! If you can offer any advice, please do. If not, I don't care, just laugh at me (sarcastic).
How do you go about building up troops?
- Thread starter homeyg
- Start date
More or less, yes
Certain cities get certain improvements, but other than that it nothing but settlers, workers & military units.And for extra streamlining, dont bother with much homeland defence- just enough to survive in the critical areas. Take the war to the enemy with all those offensive units youve built (outnumbering your defenders at least 5 to 1), force the enemy to defend so they cant bring the war to you.
Tomoyo
Fate
This time people can tell that you are being sarcastic. 
Originally posted by fret
More or less, yes
What about culture flipping? How do you have time to throw in culture if you're focusing on producing settlers/workers/troops? Or, do your wars end before the AI has time to build up that much culture?
collin_stp
Warlord
I almost always have an early swordsman war. I usually produce one temple (pop rush it depending on other factors) folowed by a barracks in most of my cities (only barracks if the city has good enough terrain without the culture expansion). After that, I have four or so productive cities (and a few unproductive ones) building a swordsman every few turns, cranking them out continuously. When I have around eight (with others coming), I start my invasion. I keep building them until I see an end to the war in sight, in which I will slow down, and start building improvements again.
With eight of them, you can almost always get a first juicy city with your initial attack (with workers building roads to the city afterwards). Then, it depends on the enemy. If you are lucky, and you managed to keep iron from them (very possible in conquests), then it is a cakewalk usually. Otherwise, keep your swords in defensive positions and use them to attack their swords (easy if they are stacked), if you are outnumbered. Another thing, if they have iron (don't bother if they don't, you will be giving away free cities), get an alliance with their other neighbor against them to split up their forces. I usually pay no attention to research (trading gold for all techs after iron working) or any other improvements except temples. (This is on emperor difficulty, btw).
Of course, I don't always do early swordsman invasions, but they really help get you caught up in tech (sue when they have one city left), and increase your civ size. Hope that helps.
With eight of them, you can almost always get a first juicy city with your initial attack (with workers building roads to the city afterwards). Then, it depends on the enemy. If you are lucky, and you managed to keep iron from them (very possible in conquests), then it is a cakewalk usually. Otherwise, keep your swords in defensive positions and use them to attack their swords (easy if they are stacked), if you are outnumbered. Another thing, if they have iron (don't bother if they don't, you will be giving away free cities), get an alliance with their other neighbor against them to split up their forces. I usually pay no attention to research (trading gold for all techs after iron working) or any other improvements except temples. (This is on emperor difficulty, btw).
Of course, I don't always do early swordsman invasions, but they really help get you caught up in tech (sue when they have one city left), and increase your civ size. Hope that helps.
Hi homeyg,
it is a matter of survival to built more military units than on Monarch e.g.
The AI will attack you more often on Emperor and above and will have more units, you will be WEAK in the beginning compared to them, they will start to bully you if you are too weak.
Offensive units are also a better defense for this reason:
3.2.1 of a Swordsman count much higher than two Spearman e.g., because offensive power is rated higher, forgot the formula, in the military advisor screen.
You will have to adjust your building queue and you will not have an easier time and be able to build most improvements first before switching to military units.
The beginning is the real difference - I am quite advanced and winning in my latest demigod game, have no time and mood to finish it soon however, and the only time were it was really different and more complicated than Monarch was in the beginning!
it is a matter of survival to built more military units than on Monarch e.g.
The AI will attack you more often on Emperor and above and will have more units, you will be WEAK in the beginning compared to them, they will start to bully you if you are too weak.
Offensive units are also a better defense for this reason:
3.2.1 of a Swordsman count much higher than two Spearman e.g., because offensive power is rated higher, forgot the formula, in the military advisor screen.
You will have to adjust your building queue and you will not have an easier time and be able to build most improvements first before switching to military units.
The beginning is the real difference - I am quite advanced and winning in my latest demigod game, have no time and mood to finish it soon however, and the only time were it was really different and more complicated than Monarch was in the beginning!
TheNemesis666
Warlord
If I'm playing any of the harder diff's, the AI is way ahead in culture so I build settlers and send them in with my invasion force, burn their cities and settle my own.
[edit to add missing 'if']
I played emperor several times, and I just build like 3 warriors and 1 spear each city (and most of them reg), but I do a lot of phony war to get free tech. While the AI fighting each other I actually build my infrastructure , and I always bring my neighbour in the alliance.
@homeyg : BTW : how do u manage without war?
, and I always bring my neighbour in the alliance.@homeyg : BTW : how do u manage without war?
Just to elaborate on Longasc's point, which I think is a good one - I'm not positive, but I believe the formula for calculating 'military strength' (in comparing militaries through the F3 screen, etc.) is HP*(3*A+2*D)+bombard for each unit (then I think they add 4 or something too). The point being that if you have a bunch of swords (HP*(3*3+2*2) = 13*HP), they're going to seem as strong to the AI as twice as many spearmen would (HP*(1*3+2*2) = 7*HP each). Keeping this in mind, I no longer build many defenders, but rather mostly offensive units - both for the advantage in getting bullied less (and demanding more when sueing for peace), and also for less war weariness by attacking rather than being attacked.
I guess my point is that you may want to consider orienting your military growth more towards offensive units, which may get you less demands and should help you to kill off attackers before they would've reached those extra defenders anyway. Good luck!
I guess my point is that you may want to consider orienting your military growth more towards offensive units, which may get you less demands and should help you to kill off attackers before they would've reached those extra defenders anyway. Good luck!
G
Gainy
Guest
I'll give a quick example
My first city will build it's explorers, and a defender. Then i'll build my settler.
My first city will then build a Barracks, and then a few Archers (hopefully with the help of a fallen forest or two)
By this time, my 2nd city will have built a (or maybe 2) warrior(s)/settler (approximately). It will then go on to build a regular archer. Btw, alot of the time I restart unless I get a free settler/city, so that would be doing pretty much the same as my '2nd' city.
With this relatively small army, I will harass the AI, take their workers, capture their settlers, and take their cities.
I then sue for peace, and do it all again. Works like a charm
My first city will build it's explorers, and a defender. Then i'll build my settler.
My first city will then build a Barracks, and then a few Archers (hopefully with the help of a fallen forest or two)
By this time, my 2nd city will have built a (or maybe 2) warrior(s)/settler (approximately). It will then go on to build a regular archer. Btw, alot of the time I restart unless I get a free settler/city, so that would be doing pretty much the same as my '2nd' city.
With this relatively small army, I will harass the AI, take their workers, capture their settlers, and take their cities.
I then sue for peace, and do it all again. Works like a charm
As you started this thread asking the warmongers, i'll give my insane warmongers point of view to this so called 'culture' thing everyone's talking 'bout down in the shire
For the first 4000 years culture is something your people are in awe of, becasue everyone else has more than you, once you get into the AD's you dont care they have more than you because youve got a bigger and longer stick than your cultural neighbour and every time they try to be 'cultural' and flip your city, or build a wonder, you just get your big stick out and teach them a lesson. Flip my city? I'll take it back plus I'll destroy you! If your lucky I might just take 5 city's from you and then rape you of all your gold and techs. I'll also STARVE your people to death so there are no people left to flip in the first place! Hah! flip a city if you dare AI!
But you need culture to fill in the gaps in my sphere of influence?
No you dont, we want units, lots of them, early and cheap. Upgrades are easier than building for the warmonger because they have LOADS of gold. No need to research, just beat the crap out of the 'culture' people until they squirm and hand over techs for nothing. To fill in the territy gaps between cities, we just use cities and lots of 'em. NO huge gaps between cities becuase we are 'cultural', pah! says the warmonger, ive never seen 'culture' build 30 swordmen and kill an opponent 50 tiles away by 10AD!
Happines from culture? Meh! My citizens are greedy and they get their happiness from luxuries, luxuries we have BEATEN out the AI. If your an AI near me with a luxury, you better get out the prayer book. Theres no time for 'happy' buildings in the warmongers eyes, every turn you're building a pointless Colluseum or cathedral you are wasting valuable shields that could be used to build stacks and stacks of AI killing units, always at hand to steal luxuries! 'Happy' buildings are for pasafist wimps!
Culture is just a side effect of libraries to me in extreme warmonger mode.
Of course I do. In Emperor level, After my infrastructure (if I play Germany, I just build library and barack in some places, I ussually got SunTzu) is done, I starts building military units. However if cities size has reached size 5, I would build marketplace (aquadec if necessary) before units. Little by little I am stronger than AI, and about equal culture with the strongest AI culture. When I have enough units, I would start a real war. It's usually happen couple turns after I got Chivalry (and ugrading my horseman) and keep real war and phony war until end of game. I dont build temple (except I play reg. civ), cathedral, colloseum. I do build bank if city size 11, factory (if city size 11 and not corrupted). I do build granary on my worker and settler factories only, but I always capture pyramid wonder . Even I just build library and University, I ussually end up win by culture (ussually couple turns after building UN), since I always declare war with the strongest AI (of course, I allied with all others AI ).
. I dont build temple (except I play reg. civ), cathedral, colloseum. I do build bank if city size 11, factory (if city size 11 and not corrupted). I do build granary on my worker and settler factories only, but I always capture pyramid wonder . Even I just build library and University, I ussually end up win by culture (ussually couple turns after building UN), since I always declare war with the strongest AI (of course, I allied with all others AI ).Originally posted by binyo66
Of course I do. In Emperor level, After my infrastructure (if I play Germany, I just build library and barack in some places, I ussually got SunTzu) is done, I starts building military units. However if cities size has reached size 5, I would build marketplace (aquadec if necessary) before units. Little by little I am stronger than AI, and about equal culture with the strongest AI culture. When I have enough units, I would start a real war. It's usually happen couple turns after I got Chivalry (and ugrading my horseman) and keep real war and phony war until end of game
With my experience, it is very difficult to win by culture on Emperor. But thanks to you guys I realise that you need to take away the other culture threats by destroying them, not trying to compete with them.
Another thing that I've found with the culture is that if you are in an early war and have a good initial attack, you've wiped out some of their culture in the first couple turns, and it's pretty hard for the AI to recover if you keep hitting them with strong units. Before I start a war, I look at their cities to see which ones are the most important to attack. I also like to build roads up to their cities so that your army can get there quickly.
As far as city improvements go, I usually build something if the city needs it but I usually figure out another way (the exception is, of course, barracks.)
If you don't mind the rep hit from this (and if you're trying a Conquest victory you probably don't care what the AI thinks of you), try this. If you run low on anything like gold or become technologically backward, go the AI that you're at war with. Take all of their stuff in exchange for peace, rebuild your army, then finish the AI.
As far as city improvements go, I usually build something if the city needs it but I usually figure out another way (the exception is, of course, barracks.)
If you don't mind the rep hit from this (and if you're trying a Conquest victory you probably don't care what the AI thinks of you), try this. If you run low on anything like gold or become technologically backward, go the AI that you're at war with. Take all of their stuff in exchange for peace, rebuild your army, then finish the AI.
I look for two main things early on in the game: a good city location to use for building my army, and the weakest adjacent civ. The army building city should be able to get to 5 useful shields quickly, and 7-10 useful shields eventually. It's going to build a barracks (maybe after a reg warrior or two, for scouting and MP duty) and then it does nothing but produce Vet units. Early on I NEVER build spearmen, just Warriors. The Warrior upgrade to Swordsman is much more powerful, especially when using the AI's money (from trades) to do it! If I don't have Iron, and I can't trade for it, I'll build or rush a bunch of archers to form the offensive punch that I require. It's fairly easy to have 20 Vet warriors available for upgrade by 1000BC, even with just one city building them.
Anyway, you want to develop a second core of cities; this will likely require you to take land from one or more of your neighbors. The weakest one is easiest, if their land is acceptable. Perhaps they already had a war, or have developed slowly. You should have little problem taking them on. You might even take on a stronger opponent, if you can line up allies. Techs are good trading chips to form alliances.
If I'm a Religious civ, I might build/rush some temples, or if I wanted to expand the radius of a given city to gain a nice resource. Otherwise, no early temples. Having a good amount of culture definitely helps against flips, but I wouldn't let a lack of culture hold me back. I build granaries in cities with food bonuses. And some barracks in my army producing cities. The rest of my cities build workers, settlers or Galleys, once I have Map-Making. Until I've got my basic empire in place (2 cores), those are my builds.
If I don't have Iron, and I can't trade for it, I'll build or rush a bunch of archers to form the offensive punch that I require. It's fairly easy to have 20 Vet warriors available for upgrade by 1000BC, even with just one city building them.Anyway, you want to develop a second core of cities; this will likely require you to take land from one or more of your neighbors. The weakest one is easiest, if their land is acceptable. Perhaps they already had a war, or have developed slowly. You should have little problem taking them on. You might even take on a stronger opponent, if you can line up allies. Techs are good trading chips to form alliances.
If I'm a Religious civ, I might build/rush some temples, or if I wanted to expand the radius of a given city to gain a nice resource. Otherwise, no early temples. Having a good amount of culture definitely helps against flips, but I wouldn't let a lack of culture hold me back. I build granaries in cities with food bonuses. And some barracks in my army producing cities. The rest of my cities build workers, settlers or Galleys, once I have Map-Making. Until I've got my basic empire in place (2 cores), those are my builds.
