Natural Warmongers

[Pantastic]

I've never seen the AI bypass a city that's it's target regardless of how many defenders are there; I think that what happened was Monty had some other city as his real target and just happened to be walking by the one you defended. Was there a holy city he could have been gunning for? Pillaging just happens, if it's only 1-2 units then I'll kill them, but if it's big stacks then I'd rather lose all of the improvements on the other side of a city than lose a bunch of units. And, again, going rifleman vs rifleman like that, grenadiers are just made to punsh rifleman-heavy stacks.

In one game I had Quinn throw cavalry and riflemen at a city on a hill defended by 5 machine guns (drill 2-3), 5 city defender 3 infantry, 2-3 misc defenders, and 2 full offensive stacks (5 CR3 infantry, 3-4 combat/pinch infantry, 1 medic infantry, 1 MG, 4 cats, 2 cavalry). I didn't count how many, but it was enough to wipe out 5 of the MGs, 4 of the defender 3 infantry, several of the miscellaneous combat infantry, and leave most of the rest wounded for a while. This in spite of the fact that my other border cities had only 1 infantry and 1 MG and my deep cities had crap like archers and axemen 'defending'.

 

[The Keeper]

When I go for an early war - this is my goal.

Start off researching mining->bronze working->Iron working.

I build 1 extra city and try to have a barracks in both. One of the two should be good production. After IW, you can research the appropiate worker techs.

Use my warrior to scout the closest civ's cities. Find out where they are and what resources they have. Instead of grabbing an early worker, I let them improve.

Once I get about 6 of my initial attackers (axes, swords, prets, jags) I go to war and take a city. And then another and then another. On prince/monarch, the enemy usually has 3 cities by this point. Occasionally 4.

After they are wiped out, I then begin building. I have captured 3 cities bringing my total to 5. 3 of these cities have had workers working hard for a while, so they are ready to produce.

I try to have my economy back in the green by 1AD running at least 70% science. That is my general goal. If I can do that, I have had an extra successful start.


This start goes strictly against builders going for wonders or religions. All your initial focus is on war. In the early game, if you want to focus on war - stick to it.

 

[BadHorsie]

Or just build a fort and put a stack of units to be promoted in there as bait.

That's quite a good idea, but I think they'll just bypass them as well.

I think that what happened was Monty had some other city as his real target and just happened to be walking by the one you defended. Was there a holy city he could have been gunning for? Pillaging just happens, if it's only 1-2 units then I'll kill them, but if it's big stacks then I'd rather lose all of the improvements on the other side of a city than lose a bunch of units.

Yeah but they pillage EVERYTHING, right round my city, leaving it able to do nothing. The capital is a holy city, but they're definitely going for the border city closest to them.