How to wage war in a democracy

[yoshi74]

How to wage war in a democracy

I think is it possible and useful to fight a war while staying in democracy. This article should show how to do it witout falling due to war weariness.

The best time to do this in in the middle of the industrial age, more specificly after the research of replacable parts. It would be harder or even impossible when your opponent have tanks in significant numbers.

This article is based on How Does War Weariness Works at the war acadamy. If you aren't familar with it, I advice reading this article, because i won't repeat it.
Instead I will show how to use it in practice.

But first: Why fight a war in democracy when there are viable war goverments(communism / faschism).

1. You want to stay in democracy to keep up your reseach. Forcing other civs out of demo, while you stay in it can increase your tech lead significant.
2. Your civ isn't religous, so switching to a war gouverment will cost you several turns of science/money/production and even population (due to starving). When switching back after the war the same, which can accumulate to 10+ turns, which normally are at least two lost techs.

I devide this article in three parts:

War preparation
Starting the war
Fighting the war


War preparation

First you have to secure the happiness of your citiziens. Build all happiness buildings unless you already have. Marketplaces and police stations too. Having the woman suffrage will help, but isn't a must. The same for sistine chapel / j.s.bachs. If you have them great, if not there isn't much you can do about it in the industrial age. (Exept your enemy owns them. Then try to capture them asap.)
Also luxuries are importent. If you haven't enough by yourself, buy them (and make sure your partner stays at your side). If your enemy own some luxuries you don't have, you can count them in as long as you can get them fast.

The second thing is your military. This strategie needs replacable parts, because it provides us with two of the three units we need: infantery and artillery. The third is an offencive unit like cavalry. Tanks are even better, but then you probably waited to long and your opponent have them also. The war could start instantly the turn you got replacable parts, when you build enough rifleman/cannons and have the money to upgrade them. Build a sizeable force and get ready for the next step.


Starting the war

Declaring the war by yourself isn't a good idea, because it will add big deal of war weariness before the first shot is fired. This should be avoided. [edit: this has proven to be false]
Ideally the ai will declare war at you. Try to provoke them with demands / units in her territory. If they dont give in, you have to relay on spy missions. The chances to success are low enough that you can safely assume your spy will get caught quite fast. When the ai is already furios at you, it will quite surely declare war. Because this isn't an unprovoked war you don't get the -30 to war weariness, but it won't increase it eigther. The good think is you get the war decleration during your turn.

When your at war, its time to gather some friends. I don't advise to invite everyone into the war. There are two types of civs you should make your allys.
1. Strong civs near the enemy / near you. Often in CivIII your current friend is your next enemy, so this would weaken them and your aren't in danger to face them on the other side of the sword (or gun...)
2. Civs you are dependend on, e.g civs who provide you with luxuries and/or big piles of gold/turn. Otherwise an embargo/war declaration could destabilize your happiness.

Civs who don't are in on of the two categories, maybe even weaker/back in tech can be left out. Maybe the remain neutral, maybe the join forces with on of your allys. This doesn't matter.
They could also join forces with your enemy, which isn't bad at all. Because when someone declares war at you, your war weariness drops. Just make sure you can handle this addional threat.

Well, now we have friends and foes, its time to go to business.


Fighting the war

You must know that there are three things which really pump your war weariness up:
1. Losing Cities
2. Getting attacked
3. Losing units

There are other things as well, but the above are the most significant and can (and should) be avoided.

1. Three words: Don't do it! You prepared the war and have the superior strategic/tactical mind. If you lose cities you eighter don't had enought military, underestimated your enemy or messed something else up. At this time of the game the human has such a big advantage above the dumb ai, that losing cities by force should not occur.

2. Getting attacked seems harder to avoid, but is possible. The ai likes to pick on easy targets, and avoids harder targets. Thats where your infantry comes into play. They rarely (almost never) attack infantry without tanks. Haven't fought an ai with tanks in recent times, but i assume you need mech.inf. to scare them away.
Easy targets are all offencive units, worker, artillery and weaker defender. Even a tank, while having a def.value of 8, is often attacked by enemy cavalry. I think its because they are an much more offencive threat than an infantry unit.
So theres an easy rule: Put an infantry on every stack near your enemy. On every worker close to the border. On your attacking stack. On everything within the reach of your enemy. And a cavalry can enter three spaces deep in your territory! Don't give easy targets. Thats where you have your allies for.
Of course this will slow your war a little bit, but its worth it.

3. O.k, without counter attacks we won't loose units in defence, but we are fighting an offencive war. Try to avoid heavy causalities. Taking an big enemy city or even their capital may be a big victory, but if you loose ten units in the process, your citiziens will look different at it. Loosing a lot of units on the offence may be o.k. for an communism/faschism warlord with a big running war economy, but el presidente can't afford it!
Thats what you have your artillery for, and hopefully enough of it. Theres a lot written about this, so ill keep it short: Bombard every defender down to one or two hitpoints (infantry in bigger cities always to one hp) and THEN attack. Make sure you have infantry ready to secure the city and also the units who stand outside, when they spend all their movement points during the attack. This should reduce your causalities to a minimum.


Well, thats it. Comments, suggestions and corrections are always welcome. And have fun being an elected warlord.

 

[Commander Bello]

Sounds pretty good to me
Couldn't detect any logical error in your argumentation.

 

[planetfall]

Originally posted by yoshi74



Starting the war

Declaring the war by yourself isn't a good idea, because it will add big deal of war weariness before the first shot is fired. This should be avoided.
Ideally the ai will declare war at you. Try to provoke them with demands / units in her territory. If they dont give in, you have to relay on spy missions. The chances to success are low enough that you can safely assume your spy will get caught quite fast. When the ai is already furios at you, it will quite surely declare war. Because this isn't an unprovoked war you don't get the -30 to war weariness, but it won't increase it eigther. The good think is you get the war decleration during your turn.

Alternative to failed spy missions, is to build forts and especially barricades. Ideally along a choke point. At this late stage, AI reacts like it does to Germany being 1-2 techs away from Panzers and declares war before you are fully ready.

Otherwise agree with Bello, good summary. You might add something about the length of time you can remain at war. The key variable is the number of luxuries. If you got them all you can conduct careful war almost the entire game. If you only have one or two your war will be limited to 20 turns.

== PF

 

[yoshi74]

thanx for the comment

I used barricade's quite a lot, but start leaving it now. Unless theres a really good geographic layout its very costly in termes of workertime. And manning them all with infantry often relocates your military building to much on defence. Thats bad because as long as this wall is isn't closed, you still have to deal with invading units. Its good to control the position where an ai might attack, but with railroads that is less important. So building more cavalry and artillery might be a better choice, especielly when focussing at an offensive war.
However, fortifieng choke points is always a good idea.

An ai who declares war before your ready is always an problem. Buts one which must be dealt with in every game.

As for luxuries: The more the better. One or two might really are a little bit few. Thats why i adviced buying some or going for some your enemy has. The less you have, the better the chances you can conquer something usefull. In this case its maybe even better to delay the building of hospitals. Smaller cities are easier to control and can still build a good army (and provide a good tech eighter)

 

[Woody]

The only thing I would add/disagree is losing units. Heavy loses can be tolerated if the result of those loses is getting the war over quickly. I will sometimes do a pure calvary rush with few defending units because even though loses are high you can often completely eliminate the enemy in five or less turns ending the war before werriness has a chance to build up.

 

[yoshi74]

In very short wars of cource you can get much easier away with greater losses. I didn't added the time factor because it's common sense for a long time that short wars are not a big problem in democracy.
But when your target is your strongest neighbor, you usually have to plan a longer campaign. And thats the situation where careful planning is required.

 

[Zardnaar]

Originally posted by yoshi74
In very short wars of cource you can get much easier away with greater losses. I didn't added the time factor because it's common sense for a long time that short wars are not a big problem in democracy.
But when your target is your strongest neighbor, you usually have to plan a longer campaign. And thats the situation where careful planning is required.

I fight most of my wars in a Democracy. The longest I want to be at war is 20 turns- and that only so any military alliances I have made expire. 5-10 turns for a war and a quick blitz with cavalry or a punishment campaign will usually win it for you. You don't have to smash the AI just weaken them a bit (probably fatally). Not quite sure why you would want a long war in Democracy when a series of short wars will achieve the same result more efficently.

 

[Ision]

Yoshi,

well written and logical article! good job!

Personally when I play peacefully I play very very peacefully – so I rarely war (except that first neighbor smack, to make sure I have at least a mid-sized empire). After that any wars I have are purely defensive and highly artillery oriented. My days of ‘democracy’ warmongering are way behind me. Basically for me it’s only 3 choices: Peaceful Builder = demo, Balance of Power = Republic, Warmonger = Monarchy and later Fascism.

Nevertheless, your article is right on the money and very useful to the player that would like to try his hand at some Demo ‘quick blitz’ wars.

Ision

 

[yoshi74]

Zardnaar:
When having alliances your automatically in for the 20-turn campaign, which is already quite long (unless you take the rep hit, but that could bring other, very long wars in the future). Without alliences maybe your enemy gets some friends, which would also increase the overall time your war goes on.
Addiontionally, the cavalry rush is a more valid strategy before an enemy can use infantry in numbers. Even a lot of rifleman in bigger cities require IMO the usage of combined arms.

And whats so unefficent in fighting a longer war without heavy losses, carefully planned and skillfully done? .

Ision:
Thanks .

Well the article could also apply to a peaceful player who expects his neighbors won't be long friends anymore. And in the late game theres always someone who may look greedy at you.
Of cource the war declaration can be skipped, but the other parts can (and should) be appllied in an more defesive war to. And sometimes the best defence is to reduce the troublemaker down to rubble.

 

[Zardnaar]

I use the artillery stack of doom as well. I favor blitz tactics where you make peace at the 1st available opportunity. I also tend to have the happiness wonders- usually seized off the AI. With 8 luxury resources and Universal Suffrage and if things get dire the luxury slider its not to hard to maintain a war for a long time.

I rarely attack an AI except in the early expansion phase or in the Industrial age when I need a resource. I also try and fight an AI that I can get a strategic resource, luxury resource, or a wonder city off them. I'm addicted to having 7-8 luxury resources all the time.

 

[TerraHero]

i find luring my oponent on a tile with sub very effective

then u will get that boost in happiness and its not hard..juz cement a city in with subs where u know they got a fleet.

 

[yoshi74]

Yes, i heard about it. But i didn't wanted suggest the abuse of game bugs . Because that makes victory to me somewhat ... less valuable. But thats my opinion. On single player everyone can play the way he likes it.

 

[scoutsout]

Your piece was well written, my compliments.

I agree with most of what you wrote in this article. Some of what you wrote should apply to warfighting regardless of your form of government - particularly your thoughts on preparation and diplomacy/alliances. Your strategy is fundamentally sound.

The only basic thing I disagree with you on is that the mid-industrial age is a "good" time to go to war. For reasons I've discussed elsewhere, there is a real risk of getting involved in a protracted war during this period.

Having said that, I think your tactics for fighting during this time period are also sound. The approach of "send waves of fast units" works in some time periods, but not so well here until you have Tanks.

The use of Artillery in offensive campaigns are discussed in the War Academy and in some older threads like Infantry and Artillery on the Attack and one I started a while back titled "Combined Arms" Explained.

These generally focus on the specific tactics, rather than the broader strategy your article encompasses.

Again, nicely done Yoshi.

 

[yoshi74]

Thanx

The only basic thing I disagree with you on is that the mid-industrial age is a "good" time to go to war. For reasons I've discussed elsewhere, there is a real risk of getting involved in a protracted war during this period.

The reason i favor this period for war is quite simple. Defense is really strong comparing the values (10 def vs. 6 att). But the strict usage of combined arms is very succesfull and allows quite fast campaingns. And the computer just dosn't has a clue how to do it. There is never a period in civ where victory is bound so heavily to a combination of three units. The power of the modern armor rejuvates the power of a fast unit rush, which can be done quite good form an ai. But combiening three unit types is something they never learned.
So, well, its nearly an exploit of the ai dumbness

 

[scoutsout]

Originally posted by yoshi74
...the strict usage of combined arms is very succesfull... There is never a period in civ where victory is bound so heavily to a combination of three units. The power of the modern armor rejuvates the power of a fast unit rush, which can be done quite good form an ai.

Not only do I agree wholeheartedly with these points, but in that post you absolutely nailed it on the need for combined arms in the early to mid industrial era.

As to whether the campaigns are "fast" or not, that's relative, but such campaigns do tend to be decisive, even if they are slower than a tank/modern armor blitz.

 

[zerksees]

A few comments from a PTW perspective to add to a good article:

Terrain. Be selective in your attacks. Let those enemy units come off the mountain tops before attacking. If you must attack them there always use your strongest unit – preferably with retreat capability, and not until your artillery has them at one hit point. Make absolutely sure all units in a city on a hill are at one hit point, since the defenders get the bonus for being on a hill.

City size. Remember the cutoff for defensive bonuses of cities. Size 13 or larger have the best defensive bonus, size 7-12 have a lesser defensive bonus and size 6 has no bonus. Maybe a few extra artillery shots can get that city size down and increase your chance for success.

Mobilization. This is a good option to use to increase your unit counts. If I wanted to make short decisive wars I would want a LOT of units, and mobilization will help achieve this without getting dragged down with carrying so many units in inventory for so long (and paying per turn charges) before the war. I would consider starting it at least 10-20 turns before the war.

Luxury slider. Don't be afraid to use it if your production starts dropping off.

Also check out Moonsinger’s war academy article on the same subject: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_demo_war.shtml

For PTW I prefer Republic.

 

[yoshi74]

Good point on the terrain. I like to add:
When invading enemy territory try to use mountains, hills, forest and jungle to cover the approch. This makes attacks even more unlikely. Also watch careful how the rivers flow. Ctrl+Shift+M can help a lot to get the clue on the geographic situation. Attacking over a river should be avoided. Sometimes thats cost an extra turn, but cuts the losses.

I never used mobilization till now. Don't like the idea to be unable to build anything else. In the industrial age my cities where productive enough to provide a good army. Sometimes its almost too much units to shuffle around (on huge maps... ) But in a close situation i think this can really help.

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by yoshi74
[...] Attacking over a river should be avoided. Sometimes thats cost an extra turn, but cuts the losses.
[...] /B]

If I may add my 2 Euro-cents

Sometimes, an attack across the river really can pay off. This sounds astonishingly at the first moment, but as we all know the AI is not the most clever opponent.

Let's assume that on both banks of the river there are stacks of units. On the southern side there is a stack of the Good (we) whilst on the northern side the bad guys (them) are located. On the northern side there are two or more cities of them within reach.
As we all know, we cannot make use of their roads. So, crossing the river will take one turn with leaving our troops in the open and without the chance to entrench. Bad odds.
But, if we attack with just one unit and make use of our artillery to cut off one hitpoint from every of their units, chances are good that they try to make a counter attack.
And now, odds are good

*Our* defenders are entrenched. *They* run into the defensive fire of our artillery. *They* have to face the additional 0.25 defensive modifier.
And, if they attacked with fast moving units (typically good attackers), there is a good chance that they will either die or retreat to the next city without having done too much harm.
Since we would still have to cross that river, we will not get those units, but their retreat may open the path to their cities. And now we can decide, which of the two cities we are going for. Obviously, we would go for the city to which they didn't retreat...

I admit, that this tactic may be used only under the stated circumstances, but as soon as those are given it really is worth the effort.

 

[planetfall]

So basically you are saying:

-- bait them into attacking
-- hope to goad them into attacking across the river
-- hope some fast movers will be injured and will retreat

All of which makes the river crossing easier.

Is this what you mean by "attack with one unit...odds are good" ?

PF

 

[yoshi74]

@Commander Bello

Maybe usefull when facing enemy tanks. Otherwise the ai very rarely attacks infantry. Even less, when they are already wounded by artillery fire. More likely IMO that they retreat back to the city.

But when facing an strong opponent with a lot of units (maybe someone we try to invade d-day like) this could be really helpfull to survive the first counter offensive.