large map and hardly room to put 4 to 5 city's?

[jan33]

well as said above i played my last game on a large map (hoping to be able to expand a bit)when i got to 5 towns all the ai's had build city's around my city's (just before my culture influence frontier)so the only way to expand further is war....i was in the south of the map and one guy came all the way down to block me..all to put a town that will give him nothing but block me....
any advice? yeah huge maps maybe but still

 

[Rathelm]

You can use large maps, but make sure you put less AIs in.

 

[svv]

...so the only way to expand further is war

...any advice?

I think you have it.

 

[WTBCzero]

I think difficulty level affects it too, at least on Warlords.


When i first played on Warlords, i played on large maps with the default number of civs at noble level. I had room to build four cities before starting my first war around 1AD.

When i moved to Prince, i played on a number of large maps with the default number of civs. There was a huge amount of land- my borders didn't touch another civ's borders until 1000AD. This annoyed me, since this seemed to cripple the AI, who build the oracle around 100BC (all wonders built late) and still didn't have construction in 900AD (they were all far behind in tech).


So i increased the number of civs to 12 (including me), and now the map plays normally- i have room to build four cities and then expand through war.




So, if you're using Warlords, play large maps with the default number of civs at Prince level or higher.

 

[jan33]

a darn difference with civ2 or even 3 where you could conquer the whole world,wel mostly in civ2 because in 3 with the corruption.....well i guess it must be possible here to just need to find the way

 

[B1sh0p]

I may be the last person that should give advice, since I've been in a rut lately, but war seems like your only option here. I've grown much more fond of war lately. I used to be intimidated by it. But really, when you've expanded as much as you can, and if you're not in the lead by then, war is really the best option. Even if it's just to take a few key cities, or a few key resources. Anything that will give you the edge on the other civs.

Just think about it this way. If you don't go to war to expand, one of the other civs will. Better that you take all of that weak civ's land than one of the other civs.

Oh, and by the way, I've found running State Property is an excellent way to still "conquer the world" as you put it. Takes away all maitenance costs. Allows you to have a huge empire, with not as much of a hit to your economy. In my current game I was forced to use "aggressive negotiations" and State Property has kept my economy from collapsing.

 

[drkodos]

Is there a civilization that has been around on the planet Earth for over 6,000 years and successfully avoided war or not used it as a method of expansion?


Civilization is a war game, masquerading as a strategy game.


I think the whole concept of building and expanding through peaceful measures is altruistic fantasy; one that is completely detached from the reality of putting different civilizations & cultures, with different and divergent priorities, on a planet with a limited set of needed resources.

War, what is it good for?



Winning.

 

[Meatbuster]

Sometimes I'd rather be hemmed down to 4 cities, so I can just march over to my neighbor and declare war... rather than go on a cross-country road trip or build more settlers. Even 3 cities are enough for me to produce enough Swords/Axes/earlyUU + counter units for my first war.

 

[cabert]

Even 2 cities can be enough! check acidsatyr's immortal discussion thread!
And I'm very often in a 2 cities then war situation, since my second city is more often than not purposely set for it : production city, on the way to a (target) neighbour.

 

[TheRealCzar]

Nice post drkodos, I agree that Civilization is impossbile without war, but then a lot of people play games to act out altruistic fantasies

I would always plan to attack and assimilate my two or three nearest neighbours as early as possible, usually try to cripple/kill one before cats, then finish the job and take out another few empires when cats are available. Tech is directed at iron working, construction and code of laws to facilitate. A millenia or so to develop the empire, build roads, courthouses. Make specialised cities etc. to get the economy up to 70/80% sci, then on the verge of grenadiers, its off to finish the job.