How to conquer a superior civ

[sethos]

In one of my games, the Spanish were my direct neighbours.They had more than 25 bigs cities (>= size 20). They were Democrats, I was in Fundy. The Spanish began to bribe my cities.
They were the leading civ, and their techs were superior to mine.
What could I do? I had the UN, but peace treaties wouldn't keep more than a turn.
I had enought money to bribe their cities - but, as I mentioned, they were in Democracy. What could I do?
First, I switched to Commie and built tons of vet spies (about 600, I estimate) - my cities weren't as cheap as before.
They poisoned the water of the Spanish cities again and again.
After the spy attack, nearly all spanish cities had size 1 - only one fat city left. It was easy to conquer - for the Spanish had lost about 80% of their military strength (a size 1 city cannot support many units).
Now I began to build freights. They were delivered to the last fat spanish city.
And the spanish did what I expected: they switched to fundy
My vet spies went on shopping tour and bought the rest of the spanish empire. I became a Democrat and let my cities celebrate. Soon the conquered cities had their former size. I only needed to rush buy some happy improvements (temple and so on).
The cities had already aqueducts, sewer systems, city walls, market places and so on.
What do you think of this strategy?

 

[funxus]

I like it, and might try it some time
I'd rather capture their city when they're large though. So I would have gone the military way

 

[sethos]

The military way? I had dragoons and cannons, they had cavalry and artillery, I had conscription, they had amphibious warfare ...

 

[funxus]

Mkay... that makes it different. You could have stolen their techs though. If they have railroads, and you have vet artilleries, you could take out a couple of cities per turn, then rest for a while and then go for the next cities. Spies could've been used to bring down walls and allow free movement. I still think it was a smart way.

 

[mgeary]

That was good! But I'm in a game now where there are 4 out of the 7 civi's that are about the same size. I'm playing as the Germans which are the largest but not by much. The Zulus, Persians and Egyptians have formed a pact against me. I know I can fight 1 or 2 of them at the same time. But if they all 3 invade me at once I don't know. I've seen them place troops on our borders like they are getting ready to invade.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

The key to winning is to keep the other civs busy with each other. Do not piss off civs that shares a land border, end a war on victorious terms ASAP, and always break up alliances between other civs with money.

 

[sethos]

Normally I'm at war with 6 civs ... Normally bribery ist my strategy.

 

[sethos]

@ mgeary
Try to bribe one or two cities where the AI troops may come from.
The units will disappear.

 

[mgeary]

Well the Celts got into the pact and the Persians and Egyptians attacked my cities at the same time. I've never seen AI have so much aggression before. The English did come to my aid by attacking the Zulus. The Indians are staying neutal.Has anyone else seen AI act this way. And the Barbarians are discovering tech and it shows it on my screen.

 

[sethos]

AI civs are very unfriendly if you're the #1 civ. The only chance for peace - destroy them. They will sneak attack you all the time - even if they have only one city left.

 

[bellisaurius]

You were right to try to get them to change governments, sethos. But rather than build 600 vet spies, it would heave been easier to look at one of their cities that only produced a couple of shields, take enough units to cover those spots, plus a couple to cover the rail line to that city (you're looking at about 10-15 units, tops).

Also, peek over the walls to see how many offensive units are in there to know if you need a fort (ironic that two of the most important offensive units can't attack anything). Given your weakness, you might need more defensive units and forts (ie more engineers). You can hoold out if you've got vets.

Now, when the Ai's turn comes up, he will probably attack one or two of your guys, (hopefully, you isolated the city, so this won't effect anything) and you will remain at the end of his turn covering his shield squares. Since he's in democracy, he will only be able to support 1 unit. The alternative is he goes into fundy so he doesn't lose those units, but then you can bribe him so it's OK.

This will leave one unit in the city (well as long as other city's units aren't in there). Taking the city at this point is pro forma.

 

[coco861541]

I just pump out dozens of howitzers from my major industrial cities and bombard the crap out of the enemy. Howitzers make a weak attack force with their shocking defence but their attack makes up for it...

 

[Alice]

Nice strategy Sethos, I just loooove spies. I prefer taking new cities by more traditional methods :die: , but when that's not possible spies are always the solution to me!

 

[Kamilian]

ok. i was Democratic and used Spy warfare. I made my Spies perform minor tasks so that then they are veterans wiht experience, Then I bribed if I had enough money and they werent Democratic also. If I NEEDED more money, or they were Democrats, then I went to war to make sure there was no international outrages, Industrial-Sabotaged their cities improvements (mostly Defensive such as SAM Battery, City Walls, Coastal Fortress, etc.) and poisoned water supply. At times when I felt like Planting Nucler Weapons where they had SDI-ed, I quickly became Fundamentalist to avoid the rest of the world turning against me and partitioning my lands. Then I Paradropped and took some of their (formely-major) military and/or wonder of the world producing cities. That made it easier especially if they were a Nuclear Power - they would probably only be able to have like one Nuke cuz most of their production/military infrastructure was destroyed by me. So an Espionage War mixed with Military Campaigns together are a formidable strategy to take a superpower quickly. Remember, though - you must have a good amount of Happiness improvements and Entertainers, a powerful and solid economy, trade routes with ur allied or peace-treaty friends, good military/prodcution base and infrastructure, good science rate, and finally - if u plan on planting nukes within SDI cities, make sure ur a Fundamentalist. Otherwise, even if youre at war with the victim civ, the world will be so outraged that they will condemn and destroy you all together. A series of global attacks will mean that you will be dead within a few turns for sure - they will also use Spies, Nukes, etc. And they'll have a quite good reason too - getting rid of a threat to human life.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

As one has said elsewhere, a one turn war with Democratic airpower is my preference, and it has yet to fail me.

 

[Morgasshk]

All it takes is hard and fast...

If you know that you are planning on taking them over, or they are your main competition, then prepare...

Build a defence base in all of your cities - ie 2 good defnesive units and crank up to full military capacity - ie - fundy - each city build the 2 defence and 6 attacking - eg - have 10 cities - you will have a force of 60 units - build railroads to the enemy if possible (blocking at far end with fortress and a couple of units) pile on your uits and smash them... then again on harder difficulties (king, emp, diety) this will be a ***** and prolly won't work - I tend to get a ratio of 1 kill for 5 of my units killed on these difficulties when attacking superior units - so would go with fundy govt, lots of tithes and money, spies, and buy the cities... (until you get enough tech's to equal their power...