I need some pointers to help step up my warmongering...

[MufasaTheMighty]

Hi, everyone! I'm posting here for the first time, although I have lurked about in many topics trying to better my Civ4 strategem. But allow me to ask for some pointers:

I'd like to start a game and jump into a more land-grabbing approach, using the Portuguese Empire. I have all three expansions, as you could probably guess. I have experimented many times with different civilizations at Warlord, and only twice so far I have won. The first was a time victory with Bismarck, the second was a space race with Elizabeth.

Now, I want to try getting a domination victory, and the Portuguese Empire has a very interesting trait combination. However with a few playthroughs, I have been frequently boxed in by surrounded Civs and haven't constructed a strong enough military to actually rob some land from them and even attempt vassalage on them. Even the Carracks are of no help to me when I try to find uncharted areas, since the other civs SOMEHOW decide to send ships of their own and plant annoying colonies nearby mine.

Should I focus less on the expansion and more on military might during the early game? Or actually amass an army in the Renaissance/Industrial eras and take on the AIs?

 

[Sir Janus]

Welcome to the forums, MufasaTheMighty

You could try a very early war - try to steal your nearest neighbours first worker then park your warrior in a well defended spot right next to the capital. Send another unit to pillage any resource improvements they have. This will totally cripple them. You can then take the city at your leisure (though it might be a bit tricky if they are protective, if the city is on a hill, or if they have a resourceless early UU such as a skirmisher ).

You then have two very good cities and lots of land to expand into. This should give you a very good starting point to build a good lead over your opponents. Then you can take the rest of the continent and then concentrate on vassalizing your overseas enemies.

BTW - If you have only won a couple of times at warlord level then there are probably one or two simple things you are doing wrong. If you post a saved game on here at about 1 ad or a bit later then people will probably be able to give you a few simple tips that would improve your game enormously.

 

[MufasaTheMighty]

BTW - If you have only won a couple of times at warlord level then there are probably one or two simple things you are doing wrong. If you post a saved game on here at about 1 ad or a bit later then people will probably be able to give you a few simple tips that would improve your game enormously.

Duly noted, although the saved games I had on both those victories are on another computer and not the one I have currently. But in a nutshell, the Elizabeth victory was where I really put effort into it. I actually annihilated Mansa to the south of my empire as well as Alexander each with a stack of Redcoats. Those two were so far behind in military techs that it was practically a mercy killing.

As for Bismarck, well... I didn't really try. I mostly turtled my empire until the turns finally ran out.

 

[Emac78]

I am definitely not an expert but I play on noble and multi-player. I find the best strategy for myself is to expand to five cities. Just use your capital to build in this order.

warrior(one warrior to protect your capital, you can start off building a worker if you start with a warrior and you will have things for your worker to do) - worker - warrior, axeman, or archer - settler - worker. Keep repeating this pattern until you have five cities. Don't forget to build a scout unless you started the game with one to explore. I usually build a scout after the first worker is finished. Right around the time your third city is founded you can start building the units, barracks, temple, library, granary, or wonder at your capital if you want. This will slow down your expansion and it might be best to wait but it is up to you. In all the new cities you founded, it is best to probably either build an archer or a building.

If you have a strategic resource like horses or copper around your capital, then you can consider a rush. Otherwise, it seems best to expand as much land as you can without draining your treasury. After you have about five cities, you will want to have currency and code of laws before you expand much more. Once your borders start to come in contact with another civ, it is time to consider your options on how to proceed. This is when to start considering war.

I don't have BTS but I do have Warlords so I'm not familiar with Portugal but I know they are imperialistic so it seems that expansion should be your best strategy with them.

If you are going to be aggressive, you will want to make bronze working, animal husbandry, iron working, archery, horseback riding, construction, and metal casting your top tech priorities.

 

[flyingchicken]

Tip: Never compromise. War is war, not research or city infrastructure time. Always build units prior to and during war; focus on hammers.

Edit: To answer your questions, earlier is better if you're going for conquest (maintenance cripples). Later is okay if you're going for domination.

 

[Genv [FP]]

Tip: Always assume for the worst.

 

[Jerrymander]

Tip: Always assume for the worst.

If you don't, you die. :/

Unit spamming is generally the way to win most wars, especially early on.

 

[Sisiutil]

Welcome to CFC!

I haven't played as Joao yet, but here's my take on him going solely by his unique characteristics.

Joao starts with the same opening tech combination as those wonderful warmongers, the Romans (Fishing and Mining), so that's promising. You may want to regenerate until you get a coastal start with seafood if you feel like giving yourself a bit of a "gimme" early on. Mining is the pre-req for Bronze Working; research that tech first so you can find and claim a source of copper with your second city, as well as enabling whipping and chopping.

If you find yourself boxed in, fighting your way out as early as possible is the way to go. Joao has advantages here, besides being one tech closer to BW. Expansive provides a slight boost (+25%, IIRC) for Worker production (though only from hammers, not from food), so you can probably get a couple more Workers produced. These extra workers can lay down roads to strategic resources and to the enemy, and chop forests to accelerate builds. Imperialistic also means Joao produces Settlers faster (again, from hammers only), so you should be able to get your second and maybe even a third city founded quickly.

Expansive also means Joao produces granaries twice as fast, so prioritize Pottery as an early tech (starting with Fishing means that, like BW, you have its pre-req--bonus!). The granaries will help you replace the population you whip away on units quickly. Having Pottery early and extra Workers means you can also get an early start on cottages, which will ultimately help you pay for the expanded empire you're about to hack out for yourself.

Once you have a decent-sized army of Axemen built, say a half-dozen or so that don't need to be devoted to city garrison duty and/or barbarian butt-kicking, go after one of your neighbours. Ideally this should not be a Protective civ, or the Babylonians, whose Bowmen are almost as bad as Protective Archers, especially for Axemen. Don't get me wrong, conquering a Protective civ with an early Axe rush is possible, but it's harder--you'll probably need at least twice as many Axemen, and may need Swordsmen to finish the job. Especially if all the cities are on hills.

Joao's UU and UB don't show up until the early mid-game and late mid-game, respectively, so they won't be much help early on.

Good luck and happy axe-murdering!

 

[NeverSurrender]

3 words for you...

Chopping

Slavery

Axemen

 

[UnlockPotential]

If you decide to war in the Rifleman/Infantary time, then Machine Guns are your best friend

Just yesterday in Multiplayer this guy sent 12 Infantary against my border city with 4 machine guns and 3 rifleman. Few turns later he had 4 Infantary and I had lost only 1 rifle and 1 machine gun. The war stopped next turn.

 

[tal77]

I can only win monarch games with João (but it's problably because I'm portuguese and want my country to look good )

What I do is build 3/4 cities, and start right away attacking my closest neighbor. Since João is Imperialistic you gain many Great Generals, so I can build pretty early build 2CR Swordsman or especialized axeman. Researching metal casting is also a must, +25% production is very good to build more troops.

When I finish the neighbor, I start building my empire, because my economy is crippled. But what matters is to have more land than the other civs (hard lesson I had to learn...). When I have my research rate at 70%, I look at the next neighbor, and finish him off. Then, just aim to a space race victory. With a great empire, with great cities (3 capitals) it's hard not to win.

In terra maps, being João is almost cheating . I finish off my first neighbor like I said first, and then focus on researching optics. When other civs research astronomy, I already have builted the best cities in the new continent

I hope this helped.

 

[Wolfshanze]

If you decide to war in the Rifleman/Infantary time, then Machine Guns are your best friend

Pfft... Machine Guns are purely defensive and meant for fixed fortifications... and as we all know, fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity.

If you're at war, the best defense is a good offense... the only time you need to have (or spam) MGs is if there's a very obvious choke-point the AI must move through, such as a mountain pass or narrow peninsula.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

Make one of your early cities build military and nothing else (except the barracks ); at high levels I may have 2-3 cities building only military for the whole game - this is usually enough to win the game.

And when I say "build military" I mean it, don't decide to build a market because 'I'm not at war with anyone and the extra gold would be nice'.

 

[UnlockPotential]

Pfft... Machine Guns are purely defensive and meant for fixed fortifications... and as we all know, fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity.

If you're at war, the best defense is a good offense... the only time you need to have (or spam) MGs is if there's a very obvious choke-point the AI must move through, such as a mountain pass or narrow peninsula.

War is not always one sided attack

Fixed fortifications are a monument to man's stupidity? Are you saying cities are stupid?

And the best offence is the best defence

For example;

Again, rifleman/infantary era

You are moving you're upgraded rifleman stack, only to encounter Infantary and Cavalary. You're stack get's ravaged by them. Now if you had a few Machine Guns and had a worker or two quick enough to build a fort than, more often than not, you'll win.

Read the whole post next turn ...

 

[MufasaTheMighty]

After a playthrough as Portugal, I have made it to 1900 AD. The domination victory might be out of my league at this point, despite having Isabella to the south and Frederick and Wang Kon to my west all vassalized. It started by capturing half of Frederick's cities, including his capital of Berlin, while Iz actually decided to become my Vassal out of friendliness (And probably FEAR). Then I turned my sight on Wang Kon, capped three cities using Infantry and Cavalry, and proceeded to capitulate him as well.

But now my problem lies with the Khmer even further west. They are MONSTERS in terms of land grabbing, and they even have vassals of two of my friendly AIs, Zara and Ramesses. They easily control half the continent Portugal is on, and their military, although mostly Riflemen, Cavalry and various pre-gunpowders, vastly outnumber my units. And with about 20+ cities, I might be in trouble with Domination in the long run...

 

[flyingchicken]

Get nukes. If you're willing to pay the price of global warming, nukes really level the playing field (from being half the power score of my rival in one game I was able to bring him down to half my power score by totally nuking his unit concentrations). The less evil thing to do is a heavy use of bombers, but they really don't pack that worldwide oomph of nukes.

 

[MufasaTheMighty]

Planes might be a challenge to obtain since I don't have Flight researched yet, and that I have no land access to Oil (and neither do the other Civs, since many of them have yet to get Combustion). Nukes on the other hand are more plausible, since I just got through with Fission and it'll take me 18 turns to unlock The Manhattan Project. Not to mention I have TWO uranium sources in my empire!

Therefore, in those 18 turns, I'll need to research Rocketry, take a few more turns to build up/Universal Suffrage ICBMs, and get radioactive on Survayarman. Now, I wonder how many nuke impacts would it take to ultimately get him into capitulation?

 

[Sisiutil]

I don't think the AI will capitulate because of nuclear strikes alone; theoretically, they can recover from those. You have to capture and/or raze cities to get them to bow down to your superiority. The idea, then, is to use the nukes as "super siege weapons"--weaken the city and its defenders, then move in ASAP with a stack to capture or raze the city in question. Using the nukes on a coastal city, then following up with several Transports brimming with your troops, is a good way to do this.