Mid to Late game war help (Warlords)

[RobEllin]

Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster etc etc. No amount of reading in the War Academy or the ALCs is helping me get over my inability to war in the Renaissance or Industrial era, like so many other people.

So here I am, hoping some of you guys could look at this save, where I am playing as Ragnar, and give me advice on how to proceed? (advice on cities, buildings and improvements are welcome, but secondary to helping me move this game along).

My thoughts are go to war with Shaka, then Asoka then Tugu and finally Saladin. Is this possible, and if so how do I go about it? Then if not, what are my next best options?

The save:
http://www.helen170.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gamesaves/Ragnar AD-1658.CivWarlordsSave

Game Info: Warlords, latest patch, Noble, Epic Speed.
Mods: Improved AI, Blue Marble, Civ4Alerts.


A little background for those interested:
My initial plan was so expand, work on my economy until I got berserkers and then build up an army with Trebs and take out as many civs as I could. Un/Fortunately an opportunity came up to attack Brennus with Axes and Cats which lasted until he was wiped out. Once that war finished I had that much land to settle it seemed pointless going to war until I had taken that land for myself. By the time I had it all settled and profitable, Berserkers were nearly obsolete and my initial plan was out of the window.

I then started peaceful negotiations and aside from a small war with Shaka (trying to attempt what I have asked for advice about) I haven't really done much. I have actually played beyond the posted save, where I decided to turtle up and go space race. However I got bored and would really like to improve my late game war'ing.

 

[oyzar]

This is the era of drafting and cavs. If you have a techlead nothing is faster than a cavrush(easy doable on noble, though maybe not if you wared alot...). The other option is to draft huge numbers of riflemen and suplement them with some sige weapons. With a good globe city you should be able to draft a large number of riflemen from that city alone(beeline rifling). All the other cities can draft 1-2 each with enough happiness buildings(remember +2 happiness from barracks) or 1 every 10 turns. Agressive riflemen is nothing to sneeze at. Backed up with trebs they are able to demolism pretty much anything.

I haven't looked at the save but might later if so i'll give some specific advise... a screenshot would be preferable of course...

 

[JujuLautre]

Didn't look at the save and have no time for this, but just one thing: it seems that you had no plan for the war and that you just started it for opportunity reasons. This is wrong. You need to have a plan before the war, a plan for the war, and a plan for after the war. Also, it needs to be justified. If you got enough land after taking 2 or 3 cities to build up peacefully and finish your opponent in a second wave, why continue the war and slow your economy down?

Work on the words of Sun Tzu my friend

Oh, and welcom to cfc

 

[RobEllin]

I'm at work right now, but if it helps for people who don't, or can't load the save. I'll post up some world map and advisor screens later.

Good point JuJu. My initial plan was Domination and I've been wanted to go to war for ages, however I am one of those that has to wait that little longer, just to build that one last building (which turns into 2, 3 and so on). I think my economy and position (in relation to the people I want to attack) is strong enough to do it.

As per oyzar post and what I wrote above, one thing I need to do is get into 'Total War' mode. Change civics, draft etc.

 

[oyzar]

Looked a bit at the save. You have waaaaaaay to few workers(8 workers and 15 cities where you should almost never go under 1 worker per city...). You can grow most of your cities allot more if you micromanage them more(i almost always micromanage every city every turn). If you are aiming for domination win you have quite low land for this stage of the game. You do have some army already and can easily take out most of shaka with that. Switch to nationhood and start drafting like mad(once every 10 turns in every city or so), get up a globe theater city to draft more while building canons. That should make you roll over your opponents in no time. If you really want a domination win it is certanly possible but seeing the game go this far it might be just as easy to just lay back and win space or something.

 

[RobEllin]

What position would you say I should be in (domination % wise) at this stage of the game?

I really need to work on the way I conduct wars mid to late game, so I may load up an older save and play through using the aforementioned war strategies. I could play to the same Year and the compare the saves.

I agree with the workers. Once I had settled Brennus's land and made it profitable, I had another expansion to my west. Rather than build more workers, as my original lands wern't fully developed yet (as you can see), I just moved all my workers to the new land, preferring to build the new shiny buildings I just researched instead. Got to get out of the frame of mind, no matter how many times I read about it.