How to get an epic war going?

[nemesis464]

I always hear these call CIV stories about long wars that go on between civs, with no side really able to get the upper hand.

I've never had something like this. I usually play on Emperor or Immortal, and on that the enemy either 1) Annihilates me early on due to their advantages 2) Attacks me ineffectively, and I retaliate by just outplaying them easily. 3) I attack the AI and crush them completely.

I'd love to have an epic game where we end up capturing and recapturing cities non-stop, but I can't seem to ever get this to happen.

Any ideas?

 

[danaphanous]

If you just want it harder on you, Start a war on multiple fronts. You can almost always outmaneuver a single enemy. Fighting on 2 or 3 sides is much harder. If you want it to be even more interesting get everyone else involved: some on your side some on the other on a pangaea land war. The AI also is also better and has much larger armies when they get aircraft and modern units, so starting a world war after ideology usually makes for a fun modern era.

 

[HiI'mWalt]

I always hear these call CIV stories about long wars that go on between civs, with no side really able to get the upper hand.

I've never had something like this. I usually play on Emperor or Immortal, and on that the enemy either 1) Annihilates me early on due to their advantages 2) Attacks me ineffectively, and I retaliate by just outplaying them easily. 3) I attack the AI and crush them completely.

I'd love to have an epic game where we end up capturing and recapturing cities non-stop, but I can't seem to ever get this to happen.

Any ideas?

Here is an idea....
Set up a huge map. You and one AI. On a huge map. Mano-a-mano.
Victory conditions: Domination.

 

[Mr. Grieves]

Darius can be quite hard to take down during his perpetual golden ages. That one extra movement can make a war drag on forever sometimes.

 

[PhilBowles]

As Poland, France, Germany or England, replace Russia as the ally of Kiev.

 

[CraigMak]

Try a multiplayer FFA with declare war on sight as the rule for all. You will get an epic war going every time.

 

[Callonia]

Try to have Iroquois in your games all the time, theu tends to do really well militarily if he runs away. Huge armies everywhere.

 

[Rathelon]

I agree with Danaphanous. The best war I had recently was a game where I was not teching as fast as usual, and got attacked by 3 AI's nearly at the same time (2 on same turn, the 3rd a couple turns later).

 

[General Tso]

The best wars that I have had occurred when the AI attacked me just as I was getting strong enough to defend myself but I wasn't quite there. If they hit that sweet spot I usually have to fight them to a stand still while retreating and taking loses. After that, between their losses and a few newly created units by me I usually do well.

 

[S.O.T MAHak]

Or just make teams when you setup the game...

 

[Bulldog Bats]

Don't do anything diplomatically, and attack before you are too strong. I once was DOWed by 4 AIs within a few turns, and it took me a while keeping off the big dogs while beating down the little guys.

 

[nemesis464]

Question:

If i turn all all victory conditions bar domination, will the AI only attempt to go for a domination victory?

 

[Blitz Spearman]

Settle aggressively and build melee units. With melee spam you can defend yourself against the largest armies, but you won't be able to effectively capture cities.

 

[sschmalz]

I find fighting on multiple fronts to be fun...

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Question:

If i turn all all victory conditions bar domination, will the AI only attempt to go for a domination victory?

Yeah although they still follow their "flavors" and will build wonders or buildings that don't exactly help a dom victory. The ones with high wonder flavors tend to get trampled by the other AI pretty quick.

Good AI for nice wars tend to be the ones who usually have good production like Russia, Germany, The Huns and The Iroquois. The AI depends on numbers to make up for bad tactics so being able to quickly spit out troops helps. Greece can be tough early on and sometimes later depending on how successful his early game was and how many military CSs he has. Other ones that have done well in the past were Ethiopia, America, The Ottomans, The Zulu, Korea, Rome and Assyria. Babylon can be good or bad, it's 50/50, at least his UB makes his cities tougher nuts to crack.

There are some civs to avoid having in games you want to be militaristic. I always feel like Japan should do better, his UA is perfect for AI tactics, but for some reason he almost always flounders. England and China are the same way, inexplicably inept at war despite having great uniques for war. The trade heavy civs like Morocco, Venice and Portugal always seem to do awful. Portugal beelines astronomy so she's pretty weak in the medieval. Venice is usually so spread out it's easy to swarm his capital plus his UA hurts AI combat tactics (or lack of) since he doesn't have satellites replacing fallen troops. I can't figure out why Morocco is so bad but they're just sad in every game I've met them.

Attacking a civ during the era they have a UU can pose an extra challenge. Suleiman is tough in the Renaissance because he will swarm you with janissaries. It actually forces you to build muskets since CBs just give them a chance to heal.

 

[Blitz Spearman]

Just elaborating more on my previous post: making war with melee/cavalry spam is actually a pretty good tactic since BNW and makes wars more "epic". Just siege your enemy's lands with your army of swordsmen and horsemen without ever capturing the cities. You will rack tons of gold from pillage, cripple the development of your competitors and avoid warmonger hate so you can still have trade partners. And if anyone wants to bring a real army to your lands, there is no better defense than a good old wall of sturdy soldiers.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Before attacking shout "My name is Sanger Zonvolt, THE SWORD THAT CLEAVES EVIL!"

 

[LoneRebel]

Before attacking shout "My name is Sanger Zonvolt, THE SWORD THAT CLEAVES EVIL!"

That would make things pretty epic, all right. This answers OP's question pretty well.

 

[danaphanous]

Attack Korea after he gets his specialty anti-unit trebuchet replacement and turtle boats. can't remember the name but it shoots primitive rockets and has base 26 damage. That plus musketmen to screen resulted in one of the highest casualty AI wars I've fought. For some reason he also seemed to wise up and started killing off my cannons as priority. Luckily the fool only built 2 good cities. Why do some civs stop expanding so early?

 

[otaman1]

How to have an epic war in 3 easy steps:
1. Play on a duel map, deity, and 14 civs
2. As for the civs, choose Aztecs, China, Mongolia, France, Greece, Huns, Celts, India, Shoshone, Maya, Songhai, Ethiopia, Zulu, and Spain.
3. Start the game and enjoy!