Is it better to attack early or late?

[POWER]

Just a simple poll to see what is best for everybody. Is it better to attack in the ancient age, middle ages, industrial, or the modern. There are many different problems with each like if you attack early it takes a long time but if you attack in the modern ages the AI has a bigger mililtary and nukes and it can be tough.I usually attack during the modern ages.

 

[Immortal]

middle ages, I like pikemen and longbowmen, they're great when the other people dont have them.

 

[Traquenard-fx]

I never attack in ancient ages and beginning of middle ages, because it time of build things to be more strong after that. Civilizations that make wars at the beginning will be less devellop and more weak later.

 

[Magnus]

I say:

Attack early and often. Territory gained early is big for score!

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Depends

 

[slothman]

I wait until my lead in science and I have RR's in my territory. I also like cavalry since they can move 3 tiles which means I can attack a city in the same turn without having to gradually move the units in his land. Since I go for replaceable parts almost right away, I get better infantry and artillary, useful fo hitting the enemy from 2 squares away and defend with little chance of losing. I may actually try to keep peace until these conditions are met. Possibly even spending alot of money and resources per turn.

 

[vanx]

I never did this with any previous (civ/smax/etc) games, do with civ3.

I kill early and often. Playing deity level, it's the only thing that works for me. I never get ahead in tech, culture or get wonders .. unless .....

I'm a military maniac in this game.

 

[Guan Yu]

i agree with the last thread, i find that i am never an equal in anything unless im playing persians and im alrite with techs, but i will lack units.

attack when you get your uu. unless your uu is near the end then focus more for the bowmen/spearman combo that always works.

then when you do get knights, use knights for quickness.

but becareful who you attack, you'll get screwed later in the game if you doublecross 2 much

 

[Bamspeedy]

Depends on what size map you are playing. I like to play huge pangea maps, so the middle ages-industrial age works best for me. Often on a huge map, by the time you get a sizable army (in the ancient era) to your neighbor, your units are obsolete. I also like to have all my cities built with all the improvements, so when I run out of stuff to build.....it's time to build that earth-conquering army!

 

[Captain Pugwash]

I dont know how you guys manage to avoid early wars. If you dont attack early, how do you get enough cities to support a large army ? Certainly under Monarchy the size of your attacking force depends on how many cities you have and you can only build prob a dozen or so yourself without having to take some from the other civs.

Or maybe you go straight to republic and support the army with money. I always go to war at every opportunity as early as possible as long as I have a clear war aim..which is usually to grab some nearby cities. Wars without a gain are pointless.

 

[Windwalker]

Originally posted by Captain Pugwash
I dont know how you guys manage to avoid early wars. If you dont attack early, how do you get enough cities to support a large army ? Certainly under Monarchy the size of your attacking force depends on how many cities you have and you can only build prob a dozen or so yourself without having to take some from the other civs.

Or maybe you go straight to republic and support the army with money. I always go to war at every opportunity as early as possible as long as I have a clear war aim..which is usually to grab some nearby cities. Wars without a gain are pointless.

I think the poll is about when is your preferred first attack date... I usually end up in an ancient era war, but it is usually thrust upon me by an overzealous agressor (*cough*zulu*cough*). I may end up taking a few cities, but I will wait til the middle ages (and knights and cav) for my civ conquests. I find that swordsmen duels are just too slow for my taste, and they can become obsolete before they can dominate more than 1 civ (unless you're really jammed in). Still, swordsmen early are key for my survival... Horsemen have been rendered a lot less effective by the patch, as retreat is based on unit level, and I usually don't make barracks in ancient era...

So middle ages it is, unless everyone gets knights and cav before/same time as I do, in which case I wait until tanks in late industrial...

- Windwalker

 

[Daaraa]

Depends.

I voted for Industrial because by then you should have a tech lead and therefore cavalry before anyone else. Although you get Mil. Trad. that allows cavalry, it usually takes a few turns to position and upgrade your units.

However, for 2 games I have attacked in early ancient era and really hammered the English both times. 1st time they left York unguarded or barbarian-emptied and so I took it. The only other city they had at the time was London. We shared a med. continent and I had 3 cities plus York so they were then inconsequential for the rest of the game. 2nd time the English threatened me and so I took London from them with horsemen. Taking thier capital before 1000BC really set them back.

Middle ages is good if you got knights or equaling UU to fight with and they don't.

By the time I make it to the modern age the AI is still mid to early industrial so no big deal.

All these games are either on regent or monarch huge world, 8 civs.

 

[Richard III]

I used to say "late," but playing a great game as the Aztecs right now where I'm gone hogwild with early conquests. I wasn't my fault: I usually set my geography at random and this time I've been left in a world with big continents but very little land, so we all got crammed together. And the Zulus picked a fight so I conquered them. And the Persians picked a fight (probably to get at my near-monopoly of iron) and so I'm just about finished conquering them. And it's not even 1000AD yet!

The benefits of early conquest are starting to grow on me. Now, if I could only just get a great leader...

 

[Magnus]

Additional note:

AI civs early on will not have huge armies as they are geared for expansion, and not warfare until the land dries up. Thus you can be pumping out units to take cities THEY are wasting time building for you! Also cultural flips are not an issue as nobody has strong culture early on. If you can end ancient times as the biggest civ, you can walk thru the rest of the game.

PS - any warfare by me on another continent always waits for the marines and ships with big guns before such a daunting task is attempted.

 

[Shaitan]

I prefer to build infrastructure in the ancient age then mobilize for war when knights come around. Most of the middle ages are a time of constant expansion by conquest. When riflemen pop up, the wars are put on hold.

That said, my current game is exactly opposite. Playing the Iroquois on a continent without horses forced a change in thinking. I went for a dense city pattern and maximum culture output. Bypassed Monarchy totally for Republic (I don't think I've ever done that before) and constantly purchased more culture buildings as fast as the treasury filled. Good spice and gem stores combined with a soft bargaining style have made polite and gracious neighbors. My army is a joke - 1 unit in each city and most out of date. Many workers keep the total force count high. I have culturally acquired 11 cities so far and am currently waging a cultural war against the English border cities. Looking at the histograph, my culture is more than half of the entire graph. That's right - I have more culture than the rest of the world combined. Due to border expansion with my cultural acquisitions my land size is now comparable to the 4 other big players so "score" is basically a 5 way tie. The only war I've been in is one America declared back when I had only 2 cities. I bought them off after they lost 2 warriors and have not had an armed conflict (except barbarians) since. It's quite possible that I'll never declare war in this game.

 

[bewebste]

Yeah, I'm in the middle of a game playing the Iroquois, too. I usually don't attack in the ancient era, but mounted warriors just kick so much ass, I couldn't resist. Those American spearmen never stood a chance. I also managed to get two great leaders, so I built one army so I could build Heroic Epic and Military Academy, and used the other to rush the Sistine Chapel. I'd say that attacking early with a militaristic civ might be a good move, since you might get a wonder or two for free via great leaders.

I'm playing a continent map and managed to get a very large, nice continent all to myself, save two little Russian villas over in the mountains. I got all my culture stuff built ('cept Research Lab), but was having trouble doubling the culture of the French, so I figured I needed more cities. Unfortunately, the French were a little too far away to attack, but the Zulu were nice and close, and since I'm still playing 1.16 (1.17 made me crash ) they had 113 Impi that they couldn't upgrade (does the AI ever disband units?). Not much match for my cavalry/infantry, although moving all my troops over on galleons was a major pain in the ass. Now I'm commie-rushing temples and cathedrals, which offset the unhappiness plus do a little ethnic cleansing, getting those Zulu citizens out of my cities.

 

[GTCiv]

Originally posted by Magnus
I say:

Attack early and often. Territory gained early is big for score!

I agree ... if you atack you can block the enemy cientific advances because it drain their resources ...
and bargain by treaths their knowledge advances ...

 

[MrFrodo]

On Regent level I always attack in Ancient times, focusing on
my Unique unit if I have one. Otherwise, I use either horseman
or Swordmen+catapult. Depending on whether I get Horseback Riding or Iron Working first. I try to take out the
closest civ that allows me to minimize the number of
land borders with other civs. I disagree that this weakens
you, because you will need that land eventually and better to
have it sooner, where you can build it up, rather than later.
Also, you might get some great leaders that will surely
strenthen you. Plus, you will be better than the AI at
getting this attack going fast and quickly decimating the
other civ. Usually I end the
war with a Peace Treaty and get anything I might need from
that civ, leaving them harmless with a 1-3 cities left. Sometimes
I can get 2 civs out of the way before Middle Ages
(especially with Mounter Warriors).

I like to play a kind of cyclicle strategy where I am on the attack
as soon as I learn a powerful new unit and then once I've used
that unit to clobber another civ or two I go into buildup mode,
switch to Republic or Democracy and make my nation
strong until the next big unit comes along. So really I like to
attack at least once per age. The cycle goes something like:

1) Ancient times: attack 1-2 civs with Sword+Cat or Horse rush.
Once learn Republic, go to peace and build up
until.

2) Middle Ages: Go straight for Chivalry and attack 1 civ
with Knights. Go straight for Military Tradition
and attack another civ or finish off the first
with Cavalry. Usually can stay in Republic the
whole time. If not, once war is over
switch to Republic
or if you have Democracy, switch to
that, build up terrain, hope you got a
GL to make imperial palace.

3) Industrial Age: After a Sanitation, Nationalism, go for Tank
ASAP. Once you have Tank, Mobilize for War
and pump out disgusting amounts of them.
Conquer nearby Civs. Use Great Leaders for
Hoover Damn, reposition Palace to minimize
corruption. In this war you pretty much have
to Raze every city or place massive troops there
(with 117f). If you must, switch to Monarchy
or Communism to avoid disorder. In my latest
game, I must make an average of 10
tanks a turn. And I got there first, so I'm pretty
much in charge.

4) Modern Age: Always over by this age so far. But I'd focus on
destroying any civ that is close to Nukes.


This works great for me on Regent/Pangea/Huge/16 Civs or
Standard/8-12 Civs. But the great thing about this game is
that it probably wouldn't work very well on other settings.
Every game is a little different. For example, if you are stuck
on an island by yourself none of this will work.

 

[GTCiv]

Originally posted by Magnus
I say:

Attack early and often. Territory gained early is big for score!

I agree ... if you atack you can block the enemy cientific advances because it drain their resources ...
and bargain by treaths their knowledge advances ...

 

[GTCiv]

Originally posted by Magnus
I say:

Attack early and often. Territory gained early is big for score!

I agree ... if you atack you can block the enemy cientific advances because it drain their resources ...
and bargain by treaths their knowledge advances ...