Imbalanced wars

[RedRalph]

I play on Noble, and I'm a warmonger. I usually have a technological edge over my victims, but its generally a fairly small one, si I may be sending tanks against riflemen as opposed ot infantry, or Currassiers against Longbowmen as opposed to Knights. My question is this, has anyone ever won a war against a rival with a big tech advantage, or lost a war against a rivla way behind you in tech, just through sheer weight of numbers?

 

[Soneji]

Nope not lost, had to abandon plans of smiting them down?

Yes, only to sue for peace.. address whatever military hic up there was... go at them again.

I am similar to yourself, Noble.. and a good couple of techs ahead before I start my campaigns..

 

[hecubus]

I've lost to a technologically inferior Montezuma. The giant stack of Cuirassers, Cannon and Riflemen he amassed as he went 'round vassalizing the entire world ended up on my doorstep about 20 turns before I completed a cultural victory. My Artillery and Infantry stood well, but the sheer numbers he brought to bear overwhelmed me.

I've also managed to capture cities from Cyrus using a technologically inferior (but vastly more experienced) army of Axemen/Catapults/Gallic Warriors against Longbows and Knights.

 

[tomaalimosh]

one I get siege weapons, I have no problem attacking civs with the same grade of units they have.
All you need is a steady flow of expendable siege units, one or two veteran siege units, a few expendable green attack units, and a group of elite city raiders, and you go throug them like a hot knife through butter.

And I play Monarch

 

[Peng Qi]

In my experience it's a lot harder in Civ4 to beat a technologically superior opponent than it has been in any prior Civ game, which is exactly the way I like it.

On that note, I have gained ground against tech superior opponents, and I even smashed one Mehmed to death with a pile of axes while he was just about to get longbows, but that obviously isn't that far ahead of me.

 

[Soneji]

Oh and I would add..if I am below in tech I may not go for a full frontal war... maybe just throw everything at their capitol to raize it, and any holy cities. I'm happy if I have no units to come home with, but their city is rubble. Then sit behind my walls after that.

I can do that more often than not, but a complete victory over a more advanced country... nope

 

[sabo]

Oh and I would add..if I am below in tech I may not go for a full frontal war... maybe just throw everything at their capitol to raize it, and any holy cities. I'm happy if I have no units to come home with, but their city is rubble. Then sit behind my walls after that.

I can do that more often than not, but a complete victory over a more advanced country... nope

Yup, if you are inferior and you are able to concentrate on one city and take it or raze it most of the times they will sue for peace, and they will generally give you something for it too.

 

[Soneji]

Or keep coming at you demanding a city back as part of the peace process as the germans were last night!

I had every religion bar Taoism.. raized it to the ground as AC pipped me to it by 3 turns. -2 hit with every other civ is always funny!

 

[sabo]

U can always give it back to keep the peace, I will do that if it's a small non-productive, non-wonder city

 

[vilemerchant]

Yeah if you're not going to push on and actually conquer them it's often worth giving back that crappy little city that's probably drowning in enemy culture anyway.

 

[Soneji]

No, I raised Berlin on another continent.

He then demanded a size 6 city on my continent that I had captured as a barb city.

Figure that..

 

[Dan Quale]

A long time ago in warlords I was sporting somewhere between 250-300 war elephants/axemen/cats, at around 1500 AD emporer. Let me just say mansa musa's muskets/calvalry were outclassed, and It was just a complete slaughter by superior numbers. He was my 2 city vassal within ten turns.

 

[ezwip]

I play on Noble, and I'm a warmonger. I usually have a technological edge over my victims, but its generally a fairly small one, si I may be sending tanks against riflemen as opposed ot infantry, or Currassiers against Longbowmen as opposed to Knights. My question is this, has anyone ever won a war against a rival with a big tech advantage, or lost a war against a rivla way behind you in tech, just through sheer weight of numbers?

I have crushed Shaka numerous times when he had a tech lead. I've not seen many others mention him but he's always big on the games I play, and refused to get along with me no matter what. I've become a pro at taking him out. I'll steal an island off his coastline, or plant a settler there if possible. Then I use that as a resupply base and start raising his coastal cities. This works fine against any civ that is not near you. If you are there raising their cities it might take 20 turns for them to get to you. By that time you have done enough damage and can declare peace before they even arrive. Just leave a few frigates on your coast to keep an eye out for the ships. When you see them end the war. A few turns later their tech lead is falling and you are on the rise. Maybe you can pay someone else to declare war on them now. There are many ways to get an advantage on someone in a lead but this is my favorite. Another is if they are a religious rival and everyone is sharing their religion, sneak in a spy and some missionaires then flip it to yours. Ahaha, now switch over to the religion he was using (works best as spiritual of course) and get everyone to thump him.

I've had plenty of occasions where I had the tech lead only to see my favorite coastal city or capital fall in an instant to some chump civ. Sometimes they will even go so far as to raise it. The AI is pretty good.