[Vanilla] How to deal with AI zerg and weird nation placement

[vesp3r1987]

So first part i want to ask is: is there a way to prevent AI spamming dozens of units? This includes CS... I was watching few videos for tips and tricks and they suggest going early wars against CS. However when i tried that i hit a wall... of warriors that decimated my "army"... as someone thats used to civ5 and doing things with 3-4 units per city this is quite the shock.
Second part concern the game itself... it seems that no matter what map i choose (with random civs) the game will always spawn atleast 60% of the AI civs in the same landmass as me. This is kinda annoying as i cant even expand properly w/o stepping on someone's toe

 

[Siptah]

3-4 units per city for an attack isn't bad, actually. I usually try to have 3 archers (= upgraded slingers if possible) in the earlier game stages and 2 or 3 warriors though. Use the archers to eliminate enemy troops. Be careful what fights you pick with your melee troops (avoid attacking across rivers, fortified units, hills etc.), which works similar to civ 5. As soon as you research it, get a battering ram. Those things are wondrous! If your troops are severely wounded, fall back and heal them in your own or neutral territory. The "good" thing is that while AI and CS often have a lot of troops, they don't rebuild much during a war, i.e. if you killed the first round, you've won the war and can take a lot of cities without much resistance. Technically, you can do it with just 1 melee unit, but then you loose a lot of momentum. With 3 melee units, you can let one or two heal without loosing too much of your advantage.

Concerning the room to expand: there often is not too much of it. I feel that on Inland Sea maps, there is the most space available for peaceful expansion. Island plates can also be great for that. On Pangaea and continents, I know exactly what you feel. There's also a few symmetric maps, like the 6 player snowflake or whatever it's called.

 

[Disgustipated]

Don't rush their army, hold back in defensive positions (across river, hills, jungle etc) until their army is eliminated. I usually wait until I have archers, archers will tear them a new one. Slinger are useless to me.

 

[The Highwayman]

Don't rush their army, hold back in defensive positions (across river, hills, jungle etc) until their army is eliminated. I usually wait until I have archers, archers will tear them a new one. Slinger are useless to me.

^This. Since the AI starts with so many units, while at war sit back and heavily reduce their numbers in a defensive position. Ranged units (archers) work particularly well in this case. This works offensively too - draw out their units and pick them apart before sending in your forces to siege a city. It can make a huge difference on high difficulties.

The spawn system sucks so bad. At least they gave us the ability to mod the settings. Try a "Low sea level" to put more land on the map. It has worked wonders for my games. Sometimes another cap is still 8 tiles from mine, but there's an increased amount of land for peaceful expansion most of the time.

 

[Victoria]

. it seems that no matter what map i choose

This often happens when people choose the default size of small. Standard size feels much better.

 

[vesp3r1987]

ok ty all... I notice CS are much more active on wars than they were in civ5. I'll try to deal with them as you guys suggested and just eliminate the troops and then rush them. I tend to go either 2 ranged+1 melee or add one of the special support units that help with siege

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Which difficulty are you playing? This has a big impact on how you can peacefully expand as in Civ6 AIs get a bonus settler as early as Emperor and actually get 2 free settlers on Deity so compared to Civ5 you'll get boxed much faster.

2 ranged + 1 melee isn't enough to do real conquest. It might be enough to take a CS if you are careful but i wouldn't start a war without 3 archers (it will also give you a useful Eureka) and 3 Warriors. As soon as the enemy has walls, Archers will have a hard time knocking down the city while warriors with a Battering Ram will just obliterate it (actually the Ram is so stupidly powerful that i don't upgrade it and occasionally have helicopters carrying my battering rams in the late game ). Also 3 melee units is usually enough to put a city under siege while 2 will only do it if there is no river and they can be positioned exactly at opposite sides of the city and 1 simply can't do it. If the city heals the damage you make it will take you a very long time to take it with archers.

 

[vesp3r1987]

Which difficulty are you playing? This has a big impact on how you can peacefully expand as in Civ6 AIs get a bonus settler as early as Emperor and actually get 2 free settlers on Deity so compared to Civ5 you'll get boxed much faster.

2 ranged + 1 melee isn't enough to do real conquest. It might be enough to take a CS if you are careful but i wouldn't start a war without 3 archers (it will also give you a useful Eureka) and 3 Warriors. As soon as the enemy has walls, Archers will have a hard time knocking down the city while warriors with a Battering Ram will just obliterate it (actually the Ram is so stupidly powerful that i don't upgrade it and occasionally have helicopters carrying my battering rams in the late game ). Also 3 melee units is usually enough to put a city under siege while 2 will only do it if there is no river and they can be positioned exactly at opposite sides of the city and 1 simply can't do it. If the city heals the damage you make it will take you a very long time to take it with archers.

Well im playing on Prince. I tried with more units and to be more agressive toward CS... it ended up with the entire world hating me late game and i was constantly under a war against atleast 2 AI at the same time. Not that it mattered though. Anyways i think ive found some sort of balance where i can win the game w/o trouble. Soon will move to higher difficulty
About the BR - yes i did the same lmao. It was hillarious to lock it with modern era units and go to siege

 

[PhilBowles]

This often happens when people choose the default size of small. Standard size feels much better.

I'm on Huge in my current game (my default until/unless random map size is ever implemented) and fell behind for the same reason - I had a start in a corner barely out of tundra and Georgia moved in on my only reasonable settlement spot (I had slightly more space in the direction of England, but had to clear an alerted barbarian camp and the only good city spot was far enough from me that it could have had loyalty problems if I expanded before getting governors).

Ultimately I simply had to remove Georgia as soon as I feasibly could, focusing entirely on military when I would otherwise have been building settlers. Even then it worked only because I was Nubia and had the production bonus (and excellent archers), as my capital's location was a very low-production area.