Monroe Doctrine? How do you play your continents...

[val]

New here, new to Civ with three whole games under my belt (as an aside, how long do your games take? Mine seem to 30 hours per game).

I've been playing the Romans, just because that's what the tutorial was, and I wanted to master a civ before moving on. I've been playing everything down the middle: avg land mass, avg water coverage, middle of the road temps and climate and planet age. I'm playing at the second level of difficulty.

My question is, how do you "treat" your continent that you're placed on. Each time I've played there have been about 6 AI civs (I haven't specified anything other than random), and usually the continent that I start on is the most crowded. Being militaristic, I've crushed whoever was on the continent, and then I'd love to move on to more commercial ventures, but I never can because someone is always landing on my continent and trying to establish cities. This leads me to crush the town, frequently breaking peace treaties. I can't seem to send the AIs the same message they send me about traveling in their space.

Am I overreacting here, or do most Civ players take a manifest destiny approach? Or maybe the question is, when is your outer border sufficient?

Thanks...

Val

 

[gunkulator]

The AI will only ever settle on unclaimed land. If you want it to be yours, you must settle it. The AI recognizes no claims to entire landmasses just because you happened to be there first. You can wander outside their borders too if you want. You are right that the AI has little respect for your borders. Not much you can do about it unless you are willing to risk war.

As to your question on how to deal with them: Welcome them! You're looking to do more trading and such, right? So go ahead and make deals with them. AI cities settled across the ocean will generally be hopelessly corrupt and of very little actual use to the AI (The same applies if you settle far from home too).

If the AI ever acts up and declares war, those cities become a great first target for you. They'll have little hope of recapturing them. After suffering the loss of a city, the AI will give better peace terms. During peace negotiations, let them have the city back and maybe they'll throw in another tech or two. If they bother you again, do the same thing.

Oh, and welcome to CFC!

 

[farting bob]

I work on securing the whole continat first, or at least own a much larger chunk than anyone else. This is easiest early with fast expansion and maybe a war or 2. I try to get at least a temple/library in every town, this means they will expand the borders pretty quick, and hopefully ocer up any areas where the AI can settle. Occasuioanly you'll get a few cities on the coast that found a gap in your culture, but i wouldnt worry about them unless they start shipping loads of units from their main continat over.

 

[Wes The Great]

The best Monroe Doctrine defense is filling out as much contiguous territory as possible.

How I treat my home continent really depends on what my starting location is. If I'm stuck in the middle I try to conquest toward the ocean for ports with the idea of maybe half the continent under control for more defensive protection. Usually its best to start military conquest against your weakest neighboring opponent then use the growth you've gained to take on bigger AIs.

 

[Steve2000]

Being militaristic, I've crushed whoever was on the continent, and then I'd love to move on to more commercial ventures, but I never can because someone is always landing on my continent and trying to establish cities. This leads me to crush the town, frequently breaking peace treaties. I can't seem to send the AIs the same message they send me about traveling in their space.

Am I overreacting here, or do most Civ players take a manifest destiny approach? Or maybe the question is, when is your outer border sufficient?

Val

You need to make sure that your actual cultural borders covers every tile of the continent. Then the AI will not come looking to settle on your continent. It is not your space until your borders have covered it.

 

[Hornblower]

val,

I find that my games seem to last weeks and weeks but that is because I tend to play them right through to the bitter end and avoid anything but a total conquest victory. In the end I would say each seems to last for between 50 and 70 hours.

When "claiming" a continent as your own you need to be able to populate it as soon as possible with as many cities as soon as possible. If it is free of other civs then you can place your cities with a little more care for maximum output. If you don't have time as a luxury concentrate on having one of your cities churning out the settlers quick smart and building a matrix of closely placed cities. There is a good article on creating settler factories and city placement in the War Academy.

In the middle ages you can develop the Privateer unit which doesn't have a visible nationality to the other civs. These units are useful for sinking any potential foreign settlers intent on making a landing without you having to declare war.

 

[66Scorpio]

I just started my first serious game on monarch level and I am having that sort of problem. The same thing happens on the lower level but it seems particularly bad this time around.

I am doing what I have always done: I build a city two squares from the interloper, and then rush a temple and a library to get a culture flip. That doesn't trigger warfare for the AIs.

My starting continent is currently a dogs breakfast of American, Aztec and (my) Iroquois cities. It's getting better though and I've flipped about a half dozen of the cities. In another one or two dozen turns I should have completely contiguous borders and control of about two-thirds of the continent. Then I will have to mop up the the rest of the Yanks and Aztecs in a quick war of conquest, because so many of my cities will go into civil disorder.

 

[Godwynn]

If enemy civs are on my continent, I crush them. I like to be alone on my island.

 

[cleverhandle]

I am doing what I have always done: I build a city two squares from the interloper, and then rush a temple and a library to get a culture flip. That doesn't trigger warfare for the AIs.

That works up to a point, but don't become too reliant on it. The Iroqs (who I'm also playing on Monarch right now) have a bit of an advantage being religious, so cheap temples can get you solid total culture as well as a fast rush. But with less cultural civs or more cultural opponents (Babylon, India, etc.), you can forget about flipping anything. And I hear it's even more difficult on higher levels. Anyway, flips seem nice as a little bonus but nothing I would rely on strategically in my Monarch experience.

 

[henry k c]

I control the entire continent, then use it as a base to launch a d-day invasion against the other continents. It helps to have a secure continent so you don't need as many guard units.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I always move to establish myself as the most powerful on my continent, then gradually conquer the civs around me. After that, I will begin attacking the weakest civ on the closest landmass to me.

 

[Oddible]

Resources. It doesn't bother me if another Civ has a city on my continent - but if that city holds a resource, then they're in my sights. I'd rather jump to a different continent if there is a resource / lux that I want over there. Also, gets me a foothold on other continents if I ever need it.

I'm a big fan of parity - I try to keep all my fellow civs around the same size - so if I see a little civ getting beat up by a big civ I'll attack the big civ and get others to help. Unless of course its too far gone in which case I'll sweep in like a vulture and gobble up what I can before they go under...

 

[ForbiddenPalace]

Since I only play tiny or small size maps, my games are usually under 12 hours. For continental maps, all I am looking for is to control my home continent, and never really care to invade until the ICBMs are destroying the world. When you have full control of your home continent (i.e. your culture border has covered every tile on your home continent), the AI will no longer attempt to found a city on your continent.

 

[Bob1475]

You will see different play depending not just on style but also level. At higher levels you just can't afford to piss everyone off for the sake of having only one color on your continent. Odds are you will get the city eventually so why waste your own resources buidling it up or conquering it?

 

[Dreadnought]

I do not like to conquer my entire continent when there are more than 3 or 4 people there. Its better to get them too support your...'D-Day'...on the other continent. Their cities will have less corruption and make more units.

 

[henry k c]

You can't trust the AI to support you, they will be more likely to backstab you, even if you have a good reputation.

 

[Bluemofia]

You can't trust the AI to support you, they will be more likely to backstab you, even if you have a good reputation.

Any agressive civ is likely to do that. Especially with an ROP rape.

 

[k-a-bob]

In a game where there are 2-3 others on my continent, I take the whole thing. If there are 5-6 others, though, I probably won't take the whole thing, unless I am going for dom/conquest. But I do not want to be in the middle of many civs, so I would empty out one side, so I would only have a one sided attack if they decided to sneak attack.

 

[Abdomination]

I usually just let my culture assimilate the city they foolishly placed so near my borders. Often, the city is of no use to me anyway, and it is of no use to the computer other than proving him with corruption, so it doesn't really bother me to swallow my pride and let the AI have some of my continent

 

[sennomulo]

I like to play on continent maps, and my first objective is almost always to conquer my home continent, even if I'm going for a builder type victory. This gives me plenty of contiguous territory to play around in, maximizes the effects of wonders that only affect the continent they're built on, immunizes me against culture flips, and makes it exceedingly difficult for the AI to effectively stage an attack. Plus it's cool to look at the map and see a whole continent painted the color of your civ.