Increase the free units at the beginning to 2

[Pep]

In several of my games, I've been able to annihilate my nearest neighbour in 10 turns or so (noble settings) with my first warrior. I usually send my warrior only to explore, but if I see an enemy capital undefended I take it.

Civs which start with a scout instead of a warrior have a great disadvantage in particular. The AI can't do anything in this case...

To prevent this early "exploit", I think (at Noble) all civs should begin with 2 units: 2 warriors or a warrior and a scout. If you are isolated on an island, you can send your 2 units to explore. But in other case, you cand leave a warrior defending your capital (the defensive bonuses garantee that a fortified warrior can survive an attack of even 3 enemy warriors).

 

[majk-iii]

I would have voted for 2 warriors OR 2 scouts... that is IF two of anything, but i really dont see a need for it... so; Leave as is.

 

[Spearthrower]

I've been able to annihilate my nearest neighbour in 10 turns or so (noble settings) with my first warrior

I know it is obvious.... but just don't do it!

Problem solved.

 

[aronnax]

or you could move up a level

 

[FuRRie]

I never understand how people find an empty capital.
If i find a Capital even under 8 turns it ALWAYS has a warrior inside.

 

[Soneji]

AI cheats, you watch his solitary warrior go for a wander.. Send your two in to his city (second from a hut in my last example).. one move away and a warrior pops up in his city. He did not have BW for slavery (if thats right).

However one game I manage to take out the Americans and the Indians with a stack of warriors and a Woodsman III in there!

 

[Spearthrower]

I never understand how people find an empty capital.
If i find a Capital even under 8 turns it ALWAYS has a warrior inside.

I expect that the OP is, unwittingly or not, engineering this situation.

If you play on Marathon (or modded slower speeds) you can sometimes find an enemy without any defenses in place. It seems like the AI *sometimes* gets it into his head to send out his initial warrior - maybe he sees a hut nearby or something and once it's out walking... it doesn't turn back. I've seen it a few times out of dozens of games, it's easy just to *not* attack the city though.

On Epic or Normal, I've never come across this, but I guess it's still possible if the AI does do something like this.... just on faster speeds, the AI is more likely to quickly cover itself by building a garrison.

 

[Sir Janus]

The palace should have a free Palace Guard - cannot move, cannot attack but has good defence.

English palace guard wipes out all bears in the area

 

[DigitalBoy]

I've never destroyed an undefended AI capital before, but then again, I usually play as a civ that starts with a scout.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I think this would be ok if playing on larger maps and a longer game speed.

 

[joza]

i agree with the op.. why not? and the idea with "palace guard" is nice also

 

[Grimus]

How about you get "nothing" at the start instead? (Besides the settler of course).

I always liked the idea of a single, little "seed" eventually spawning something huge and intricate over time. That's what initially fascinated me and got me into strategy games when I was younger.

Would make the decision to build a worker first "all the time" a bit more difficult. Grab goodie huts, explore, defend (or attack) vs. improving your ever important "tiles".

I don't know though, that would be a bit of a drag though... right now, getting that extra unit to start with spices things up sooner.

Just don't be "cheesy" and attack your neighbors with your initial warrior and make sure there's plenty of "breathing room" between all civs on your map.

 

[Sephlock]

This has happened to me, but its very very rare- anyway, a lot of the time there is no appropriately placed hill which will enable you to see if the enemy has a warrior in their capital or not.

 

[Dominico]

Wow you also must be playing on small maps to be able to bump into the AI so quickly. Its rare for me that i can find the Ai city quickly in my games. If i do then its tough to see into their city without attacking first. Finally if I can see in and there is nothing there to defend then i would have no complaints about being able to do this.

Its such a rare situation that you deserve their city because of the luck/skill involved in it happening.

What size maps do you play on? It would be worth turning up the difficulty as a few people have said.

 

[bob_x]

I've never seen an empty AI city. They always are full of Archers. AI races to discovery Archery then spams their cities with Archers.

But at Emporer level, the AI still colonizes a lot faster than me. Emporer level so far seems impossible to beat.

 

[MrTomothy]

I've never seen an undefended city on Noble, but I have taken a few with just one warrior, simply by sending two of mine out there. Its something that gives me great joy, but feels slightly cheap at the same time.

 

[OKScientist]

I usually raze/conquer 1 or 2 capitals in early game. Playing Prince/Marathon, Large.
For this purpose, I specifically move my warrior towards where I think a capital may be (meaning, scouting the coastline is not my first priority).

So I agree, even on Prince, it's too easy on Marathon speed.

 

[Esgaro]

Just play on Monarch or above. The enemy will always have an archer in their capital. Problem solved (unless you are Capac). Lower difficulties than that are usually a cakewalk anyway.