How to stop massive AI onslaughts?

[Solo4114]

The AI does tend to build up a TON of units, although a lot of them can be technologically outdated. A lot of this -- I suspect -- is due to tech trading among the AI. All you need is, for example, Mansa Musa as an enemy and suddenly even backwater nations will have good technology, at which point they just crank 'em out.

I suppose all you can do in a situation like that is either pray for a buffer civ between you and the psycho AI (which didn't happen here), or kill 'em off early, before they can solidify their power.

If you like the game and haven't started a new one, you can always try restarting at 4000BC and see if a different strategy would work better. I'd bet an earlier war with the psycho AI would help a lot, if only to keep them off balance. Might keep 'em wasting settlers too, if you do it early enough. That keeps his population low while yours is (hopefully) growing. The tough part is that Genghis, Alex, and Monty all have early UUs probably to defend against this very strategy.

Of the three -- at least in my experience -- Genghis seems the least susceptible to flipping out and trying to kill you at random. If you bribe the hell out of him early on, he might make a good attack dog.

 

[Killroyan]

Yeah the diplomacy trade is the best route to go with the extra defenses I have to bring in. Didn't have time yet to try it out. Propably not sooner as tomorrow. But hell, any game that gives me a good fight for the money is a good one. As I said I love the fact that the AI actually outsmarts me.

 

[Yva!n]

Also you havent seen SODs until you've had Napoleon allowed into modern times.

 

[Paeanblack]

It's important to make sure all the other civs have a big bloody war every so often to ensure someone doesn't end up with an army that can crush your remaining troops after you have a tough war. The AI smells weakness.

A little tech bribe here and there is a nice way to keep the rivers running red. I generally bribe the underdogs with key military techs to sic them on my competition. If the underdog is starting to get really pummelled, either gift them some defensive troops or bribe them to sue for peace.

If you keep the AI civs at each others' throat, it's much easier to maintain a tech lead and avoid being anyone's worst enemy.

 

[ownedbyakorat]

The key is to get the AIs to waste those stacks against each other. Then when they're embroiled in conflict, you step in with your own stacks and seize what you please. (Easier said, I know...)

 

[Ceritoglu]

Theres been some great advice above that very much holds true when I'm waging a war. You've been unlucky with your geographical positioning, usually I take out the warlike civs around me early on to avoid getting a pummelling later on. Kill em before they kill you. Do so and your region should become an epitome of tranquility by the time you enter the mid-game.

 

[Killroyan]

You are right about that Ceritoglu. I would do that normally also but this time I had 2 peace keeping cultures between them which I had to take out first. I took out my left side first. I realize now that the left side wasn't really peacekeeping with Huanya Capac. But he had only had a few cities. Rome was more of a threat but I realize now that I really had a bad start on my island. Huanya, Alex, Julius and Genghis on the same continent with only Qin Shi Huang as a normal advisary.

Went back 100 years and start to develop different tactics like making more canons to destroy the romans faster. Making more riflemen instead of cavalry because they are defensive stronger. Researching assembly line to get to infantry instead of biology and artillery. And changing diplomacies. I want Qin Shi on my side badly so he acts as a buffer (no more open borders with Alex).

Thx for the advices guys.

 

[Garand]

In my current game as the Germans, the Japanese declared war one me once and sent two SoD's full of war elephants and horse archers to my easternmost city which was lightly defended. I rushed in musketmen and knights from my nearest cities to shore up the defences, and the SoD's actually changed direction and headed to the second best city in my empire, which was a hub for trade and research. I only had a couple of musketmen in the city, and the Japanese units arrived before I could reinforce the city enough. The city fell, which was a major blow.

I set all of my cities on musketmen and knights and had to desperately hold on to a couple of other cities. Eventually I wore down their stacks (After having half of my empire completely pillaged) and counterattacked to destroy the stragglers. I retook the city they took (Which dropped from size 12 to size 2 and basically restarted at square one) and assaulted and took Kagoshima, then sued for peace. In short, my tactic was attrition which worked faster than I expected. Once their primary units were destroyed, I could counterattack at will and win most of the time.

The worst game I had for war and SoD's was in Civ III in a game as the English. I was on a continent with 7 other civs, and at once point I was at war with no less than 4 of them. I had fought every other civ on the continent in at least one war, and none of them were of my instigation. At one point the Russians declared war on me and sent the biggest SoD of obsolete units I've ever seen through Mongol territory to hit me (mostly longbowmen, musketmen, and cavalry). I fortified as many cannons and riflemen in the towns on the front as I could, and managed to hold.

In another civ III game as the Greeks, the Celts had run away in total size by taking over fully two continents to themselves... and these were not small continents. They controlled probably 1/3 of the total land area. I had bad luck and had no oil in my lands, so I found an oil deposit in the far north of their continent in the tundra in a place their borders hadn't reached. I loaded up a galleon with a settler and sent him the 30+ turns to reach it and founded a city. When I discovered flight, I immediately rush built an airport there, knowing I would likely be at war with the Celts eventually. And eventually they did jump in a war against me. I was airlifting in 10+ infantry EVERY turn just to hold the city against 20-30 cavalry attacks EACH turn, and losing most of the infantry. It was unreal, and this just kept going for at least 10 turns.

Eventually I managed to get a peace treaty, but late in the game as I was fighting the Hittites to try to prevent them from building the spaceship faster than me, the Celts jumped in the war against me, and despite my best efforts, the two oil towns I had were just overwhelmed and razed, leaving me totally without oil. Needless to say I lost that game.

SoD's are frustrating and dealing with them is hard to say the least. In Civ IV, using attrition in cities to hold them a few turns while using artillery counterattacks with collateral damage seems to be the best tactic. Sorry for the long anecdotes, but I thought they were interesting.

 

[Killroyan]

Well guys, thx for all the advice. The best thing I did was going back a 100 years and set to full war production so I would get big enough to withstand all attacks. I researched assembly line as soon as possible to get infantry. Try to keep peace with Shang Chi and focussed on the romans as fast as possible. After about 100 years of hard fighting I had taken over the romans. Kept bribing Alex and Qin Shi from while to while to keep them happy.

In the meanwhile I was building up my empire very quickly. Took out the romans and then quickly turned to all normal political setting to produce growth. Then after 40 years of peace they backstabbed me again, but I was more prepared. All cities covered by infantry and machineguns. Although I lost 1 town and my land was badly razed/pillaged I managed to get rid of all the invading forces and the push onwards to the backstabbers. China was gone in about 40 turns and now the greek are following having modern armors knocking on their towns. Mwuhahahaha. Still my score is just 6000 although I have more then 60% of all the land. Well I have another 89 turns to go before the game ends. My capital has already reached legendary culture but no win yet.

 

[fortytwo]

When I want war, I declare war and wait about 10 turns for the bulk of the enemy's army to show up, always in the most obvious place, and after that stack is destroyed I move in for the kill, usually bypassing the easy cities for the major city with the wonders, or the religius capital. Diversify your army and be ready to chase random mounted units as they make to pillage your borders. If you can hold off pillaging, then you're golden.

If I don't want war, I typically give in to any extortion, unless unreasonable, and know that giving in/not giving in is nothing but a matter of how much time I've bought myself to build/upgrade units to discourage a war. So of course I start building an slightly better army.

If war comes anyway, I nip it in the bud by going to slavery (and Nationalism/Univeral Sufferage if possible/necessary) and maybe even Theocracy, in order to quickly and massively militarize. Almost all cities go to building/rushing units.

When I've weathered the storm and I'm ready for peace, I usually take a city or two, even just to destroy it, in order to convince the AI to hesitate before they pull this stunt again. Some leaders will war and war and war no matter what, especially if they've done it once.

 

[fortytwo]

I will also add that the biggest mistake you can make that will make you vulnerable to an attack is not researching military techs. You need to know at all times what unit a draft will get you, as Macemen are very different from Musketmen, but just one tech away.

Also, ignoring Horseback Riding or Guilds can make it a nightmare as you police pilaging units that have flooded your territory. Even Engineering for that matter, as Pikemen are critical to routing mounted units.

 

[Older than Dirt]

The advice you gave, fortytwo, about declaring war and waiting a few turns for the AI to show up is most effective. I have found it much easier to destroy the enemy just inside my border where I have the movement advantage, get lots of promotions, heal units fast, and reduce the number of potential defenders, especially cats and cans. Also, there is less exposure it there is another civ which may attack you from another direction. It really smarts to be just about to crush a civ and be sneak attacked on the other side of your civ.

 

[ScarletFox]

i would have tried option 3 and 4. try to build a fort, stop the onslought or at least slow it down, and then do diplomacy, buy peace if necessary...

 

[NuWorld]

I have the reverse situation. Washington is defending, and seems to have an endless stream of grenadiers with Garrison 2 coming up to replace those he already has in place: the new ones immediately fortify, while the older ones, already fortified, take the brunt of my attack while the new ones gain defence. So I'm bringing up a stack of 14 catapults, two with Barrage 3 and the rest with Barrage 2, which I shall hurl to their glorious dooms to whittle his men down to a more manageable strength before my own troops in successive waves swamp the city. I'll be getting cannon in a few turns, so losing catapults doesn't worry me.
Other strategies ? Split my forces and attack in more than one place ? Not attractive, because it would take too many moves for my catapults to crawl across enemy lands.

I had a similar situation, had to attack Ghengis. It was my cavalry-grenadirers-cannons vs grenadiers-knights-musketmen-catapults (+ he had quite a few elephants & macemen). We shared a long border, so I had to attack 4 cities at once (he had 6 cities). Well, I actually attacked 2, other 2 were decoy attacks so he won't bring any reinforcements. It worked. 2 decoy stacks were made of some obsolete longbowmen-crossbowmen-skirmishers, about a 12-13 in each stack + couple of cannons each. I just crossed the border and fortified them in a best possible place I could find. They lasted for 3 turns but destroyed most of the defense from nearby 2 cities + some others which came from cities behind front line. Meanwhile, I took other 2 cities swiftly and in next few turns I took all 4 cities that were left. I had highly promoted cavalry & grenadiers, so I could afford to take last 2 cities without cannon support.