[BTS] Need Combat Help

[Knightfall]

I can almost never seem to win wars against the AI, even though I play on low difficulty (Warlord). The same thing always happens every time I play; I have the misfortune to spawn next to an aggressive leader like Shaka or Ragnar, and never make it to the end of the game because I get tired of fighting endless AI deathstacks and ragequit sometime around turn 300 or so. I try building diverse stacks, I try using terrain, I use the right civics (Nationalism, Monarchy, etc.), but nothing ever seems to work. I loose 5 or 6 units trying to kill one of his, he slaughters 10 of my units with barely any damage, and any damage he does is almost instantly repaired because he always has more units coming up from the rear. If I was playing on a higher difficulty I would assume that the AI gets combat bonuses or free units, but I feel that that is probably not the case here. Can anyone help?

 

[AcaMetis]

AIs on higher difficulty get many more free units, cheaper upgrades, and cheaper to build units. I don't know what kind of deathstack a Warlords Shaka can field, but I imagine that Deity Gandhi could rip it apart.

The first issue here is not a matter or warfare, it's a matter of diplomacy. If you're not actively conquering someone there's usually no reason to be at war, so you want to do what you can to not be. Diplomacy is how you avoid getting DoWed on by an opportunistic neighbour by carefully giving into their relatively meaningless demands, bribing them to go to war with others to ruin their diplomacy or bribing others onto them to stop them if they're plotting war on you. Keeping an AI like Shaka from DoWing you all game can be hard even for veteran players, but it's possible.

The second issue is a matter of tech. If you need 5 or 6 units to kill one unit in a stack than you're fighting too close to tech parity. Ideally you want to peacefully tech to some kind of military breakout tech, and than roll over the map with an army of these superior units that AIs can't defend themselves against. On Noble it's quite easy to tech all the way to Cavalry before any AI gets even close to Rifles, so you can roll over the map with them. With that it should be well possible to win before T300. My personal record (as in my only standard/normal speed game I actually played out to completion) won Domination 1575 AD (T225) with a Cavalry rush nearly wiping out four AIs (one died early to Genghis Khan, another peace-vassaled to me), and I'm sure it could be won much earlier than that.

 

[Fippy]

Maybe some basics can help you
* Form stacks that fit together, which means 1 move units (melee, siege etc) or 2 movers (mounted).
Running with a stack like 3 chariots, 1 Horse Archer, 2 Axes and 2 Swords is not good. Mounted want to move with other fast units, they are all about speed.

* Counter units are those with bonuses against others or from defending..like Axes, Spears, Archers in cities.
When being attacked you want only those, while chariots i.e. have little use. Or you can throw catapults at enemy stacks and kill them after everything is damaged.
Mixing too many units makes you weaker on both defense & offense, as not all are equally useful.

* Try focused rushes..for example after teching Bronze Working and if you have copper, use forest chops (!) for half a dozen Axes quickly and visit AIs like Shaka.
Keep building more units while your first stack moves out, as backups, but don't wait for them. Writing and open borders help with looking at what they have, and how many units you really need before the first attack.

* Can always make ceasefire if you are strong, so there's little risk in declaring on those guys and taking chances. Be ruthless like they are

* Once cities are better defended, you can use siege. Your typical attack stack should be 50% siege & 50% cleanup / stack protection units.
Many players build not enuf cats, Trebs and so on. Other units are ment to fight easy battles while siege damage everything.

 

[Tobiyogi]

Like @AcaMetis I think that it is crucial to avoid an unwanted war at any cost. In times of peace you want to maximize your econonmy and military units are only for keeping your cities happy. Watch the Deity-players on Youtube and you will see that they even avoid connecting their copper or iron in order to keep on building cheap warriors for city garrison (who will never fight). I can recommand to watch Absolute Zero playing De Gaulle. On that map he is boxed in from the very beginning, also Shaka is very close. From that playthrough you can learn how to make aggressive neigbours pleased or at least keep them busy while growing your cities. A "cheesy" strategy is to declare war on a very distant civ you don't care about. Then you can bribe in Shaka (f. ex.) into that same war and soon you will be friends. Before declaring make sure that Shaka would declare on them as well, otherwise you will be alone. A bribe is much cheaper when the dowed civ is already in a war (here with you). You can gift cities, you can adopt same religions, you can trade techs for a "friendship price", these are other ways to please someone. It is useless to fight someone like Shaka because it will consume endless ressources. He does not even build any wonders or good infrastructure, so even if you take a city, it is not a guaranteed benefit.
As for active warfaring, others can give you better advice

 

[Gumbolt]

As discussed in a previous thread I think his issues stem from basic game play. On Warlord it would take the AI well past 500bc to really form any serious stack. They start with one warrior and a settler in 4000bc. So in theory could be rushed by 5-6 or less warriors early on.

Just done a test run 1000ad . The AI normally had 1 city by circa 2000bc.

I sat on cities to 1000ad with a map filled with shaka. I did little micro but sat on 4-5 cottages. I had civil service and machinery before they came at me with swords/axes/impi. Some of the Shaka on map had HBR.

The reality is even on Warlord you have a long time before any Ai attacks you. Even then you can hold off a stack with 4-5 defensive units in a city. I got machinery way before some AI had some of the basic techs.

I think set up a game on the forum and let's se how you are playing the game.

 

[Knightfall]

AIs on higher difficulty get many more free units, cheaper upgrades, and cheaper to build units. I don't know what kind of deathstack a Warlords Shaka can field, but I imagine that Deity Gandhi could rip it apart.

The first issue here is not a matter or warfare, it's a matter of diplomacy. If you're not actively conquering someone there's usually no reason to be at war, so you want to do what you can to not be. Diplomacy is how you avoid getting DoWed on by an opportunistic neighbour by carefully giving into their relatively meaningless demands, bribing them to go to war with others to ruin their diplomacy or bribing others onto them to stop them if they're plotting war on you. Keeping an AI like Shaka from DoWing you all game can be hard even for veteran players, but it's possible.

The second issue is a matter of tech. If you need 5 or 6 units to kill one unit in a stack than you're fighting too close to tech parity. Ideally you want to peacefully tech to some kind of military breakout tech, and than roll over the map with an army of these superior units that AIs can't defend themselves against. On Noble it's quite easy to tech all the way to Cavalry before any AI gets even close to Rifles, so you can roll over the map with them. With that it should be well possible to win before T300. My personal record (as in my only standard/normal speed game I actually played out to completion) won Domination 1575 AD (T225) with a Cavalry rush nearly wiping out four AIs (one died early to Genghis Khan, another peace-vassaled to me), and I'm sure it could be won much earlier than that.

Maybe some basics can help you
* Form stacks that fit together, which means 1 move units (melee, siege etc) or 2 movers (mounted).
Running with a stack like 3 chariots, 1 Horse Archer, 2 Axes and 2 Swords is not good. Mounted want to move with other fast units, they are all about speed.

* Counter units are those with bonuses against others or from defending..like Axes, Spears, Archers in cities.
When being attacked you want only those, while chariots i.e. have little use. Or you can throw catapults at enemy stacks and kill them after everything is damaged.
Mixing too many units makes you weaker on both defense & offense, as not all are equally useful.

* Try focused rushes..for example after teching Bronze Working and if you have copper, use forest chops (!) for half a dozen Axes quickly and visit AIs like Shaka.
Keep building more units while your first stack moves out, as backups, but don't wait for them. Writing and open borders help with looking at what they have, and how many units you really need before the first attack.

* Can always make ceasefire if you are strong, so there's little risk in declaring on those guys and taking chances. Be ruthless like they are

* Once cities are better defended, you can use siege. Your typical attack stack should be 50% siege & 50% cleanup / stack protection units.
Many players build not enuf cats, Trebs and so on. Other units are ment to fight easy battles while siege damage everything.

Like @AcaMetis I think that it is crucial to avoid an unwanted war at any cost. In times of peace you want to maximize your econonmy and military units are only for keeping your cities happy. Watch the Deity-players on Youtube and you will see that they even avoid connecting their copper or iron in order to keep on building cheap warriors for city garrison (who will never fight). I can recommand to watch Absolute Zero playing De Gaulle. On that map he is boxed in from the very beginning, also Shaka is very close. From that playthrough you can learn how to make aggressive neigbours pleased or at least keep them busy while growing your cities. A "cheesy" strategy is to declare war on a very distant civ you don't care about. Then you can bribe in Shaka (f. ex.) into that same war and soon you will be friends. Before declaring make sure that Shaka would declare on them as well, otherwise you will be alone. A bribe is much cheaper when the dowed civ is already in a war (here with you). You can gift cities, you can adopt same religions, you can trade techs for a "friendship price", these are other ways to please someone. It is useless to fight someone like Shaka because it will consume endless ressources. He does not even build any wonders or good infrastructure, so even if you take a city, it is not a guaranteed benefit.
As for active warfaring, others can give you better advice

As discussed in a previous thread I think his issues stem from basic game play. On Warlord it would take the AI well past 500bc to really form any serious stack. They start with one warrior and a settler in 4000bc. So in theory could be rushed by 5-6 or less warriors early on.

Just done a test run 1000ad . The AI normally had 1 city by circa 2000bc.

I sat on cities to 1000ad with a map filled with shaka. I did little micro but sat on 4-5 cottages. I had civil service and machinery before they came at me with swords/axes/impi. Some of the Shaka on map had HBR.

The reality is even on Warlord you have a long time before any Ai attacks you. Even then you can hold off a stack with 4-5 defensive units in a city. I got machinery way before some AI had some of the basic techs.

I think set up a game on the forum and let's se how you are playing the game.

Ok, let's see if I'm understanding your advice correctly. In general, I should:
- Avoid war unless attempting a domination/conquest run, staging a rush to take out a weak neighbor, or to take certain strategic assets (resources, wonders, etc.).
- Consider paying tribute in order to avoid war.
- Don't mix fast and slow units.
- Use cheap/outdated units for rear-area garrisons.
- Try to play the AI civs off against each other.
- Chop/whip to build a sizeable early-game army if you feel threatened.
As far as the issue of AI stacks, my problem isn't early-game, it's late-game. In my last game, by around turn 350 Ragnar had a deathstack of about a dozen promoted Grenadiers that nothing on Earth could kill. I think all told he had something like 15 Grenadiers, 25 Riflemen, 10 Cavalry, 8 Airships, plus a bunch of other random stuff.

 

[lymond]

Ok, let's see if I'm understanding your advice correctly. In general, I should:
- Avoid war unless attempting a domination/conquest run, staging a rush to take out a weak neighbor, or to take certain strategic assets (resources, wonders, etc.).

Not sure where this idea came from, but absolutely not correct. One should always look for opportunities to expand via the sword.

- Consider paying tribute in order to avoid war.

Giving into their demands or requests will a) give a peace treaty b) improve diplo. If the demands/request are reasonable then there is no harm giving into it. For many leaders, rejecting them can lead to them immediately or soon after plotting war on you. A few more peaceful type leaders don't care as much, but you still may want to boost diplo regardless for whatever reason.

Of course, if you are preparing to attack a leader that makes a demand there is probably no point in complying, especially as it will delay your imminent attack.

- Don't mix fast and slow units.

Generally, yes this is true. Mounted warfare offers some tactical advantages over slow units. So for instance, if you go for Horse Archers or Curs, you should be building attack stacks of only those units.

- Use cheap/outdated units for rear-area garrisons.

Ha..warriors are one of the best units in the game. I usually build quite a few early for spawn-busting and nearby early scouting anyway. These guys will become MP in cities later.

- Try to play the AI civs off against each other.

Always a good idea. You will get more savvy with this concept with more experience A big part of this idea is understanding the differences between the leaders - who they tend to like or not like based on how they are coded.

- Chop/whip to build a sizeable early-game army if you feel threatened.

Obviously, if an imminent attack is in-coming you are going to prepare for it. However, a really big thing you need to learn or rather grasp is the idea of playing the game more offensively. Don't let them come to you..you go to them. I know you have been adverse to warfare up to this point, but if you really want to excel I recommend getting some teeth and going on the attack more often.

As far as the issue of AI stacks, my problem isn't early-game, it's late-game. In my last game, by around turn 350 Ragnar had a deathstack of about a dozen promoted Grenadiers that nothing on Earth could kill. I think all told he had something like 15 Grenadiers, 25 Riflemen, 10 Cavalry, 8 Airships, plus a bunch of other random stuff.

This last point leads me to the most important point I want to make here. You are still extremely inexperienced with this game. Here you are talking about Turn 350 which is extremely late in the game. What needs to change is your perspective, and that probably will not really change until a) you make the effort to really learn the basics of this game b) challenge yourself more.

With that said, I recommend that you play at least on Noble level. There's really no point playing below Noble (neutral bonus level) when below that level the human player gets the bonuses. But play a shadow game here with normal settings/normal map (Pangaea is best for learning)

Once you start learning some key basic concepts, that actually don't directly relate to combat, you will start blowing the AIs away and complete victories far sooner than Turn 350.

 

[Gumbolt]

T350? 1930ad? You should of had your spaceship by then! Sounds to me like you built 4-5 cities and then just watched the game go by. Then you wondered why your struggling as the Ai keep expanding and building larger and larger stacks. The Ai may start slow on Warlords but if you leave them alone for 350 turns they will manage to build stacks.With artilery or cannons you would of eventually taken down that stack. You should of had infantry at least by 1930ad.

You really wanted 20-30+ cities by 1930ad.

In any case moaning about what happened late game is not going to help you here. It's what you did in first 100 turns or so that are killing your game. You really want 6-8 cities by 1ad. You should have a huge tech lead by that date. You then use this to attack the Ai with Cuirs or rifles/cannons.

I would wtart a new game and post updates each 20 or so turns. Posting your 1930ad save is almost pointless

 

[AcaMetis]

Not sure where this idea came from, but absolutely not correct. One should always look for opportunities to expand via the sword.

But when those opportunities don't present themselves at all you want to avoid getting DoWed by someone who's cities/resources/wonders/etc. you can't take, right? At least I don't see value in getting DoWed by a Shaka that's on the other side of the map, you'd want to bribe someone else on him and keep him busy.

As far as the issue of AI stacks, my problem isn't early-game, it's late-game. In my last game, by around turn 350 Ragnar had a deathstack of about a dozen promoted Grenadiers that nothing on Earth could kill. I think all told he had something like 15 Grenadiers, 25 Riflemen, 10 Cavalry, 8 Airships, plus a bunch of other random stuff.

This is definitely an early game issue. I had one game where Toku DoWed me around...I want to say around T250 or so? It's been a while since that game. Point is that Toku, very early relative to T350, DoWed me with a gigantic doomstack of 60+ Samurai, Trebs and Pikes.

But because I had a good early game, I had already teched up to Cannons and Cavalry, compared to Toku who didn't even have Gunpowder. And because I saw the DoW coming (and that I couldn't use diplo to prevent it) I had wheeled around my army, who were beating up Joao for daring to start plotting war on me after I refused to give him 4K gold in tribute, and told my cities to prepare a small stack of cannons to deal with Toku's invasion stack. Ultimately that 60+ doomstack managed to make two moves into my empire before a rain of cannonfire and my entire army of technologically superior units wiped it off the map. Not sure why Toku thought he could succeed where Joao was getting his rear end handed to him, but he thought wrong.

I would recommend posting a shadow game, T350 is very late to not have already won the game even if you're trying to peacefully go to space.

 

[lymond]

But when those opportunities don't present themselves at all you want to avoid getting DoWed by someone who's cities/resources/wonders/etc. you can't take, right?

Well sure, there is a diplo component to this game one must learn. Again, I don’t know the original source text to understand the context KF took, but regardless:

Avoid war unless going dom/conquest

is wrong

 

[Gumbolt]

Agreed wars are useful for space and culture. Winning games often means some form of war. Land=power on civ 4. Especially with a hammer economy when you have state property and workshops. Even culture requires 8-9 cities to max out spread of religions. Assuming you are not using spy tricks to do this.

I learned when I first started playing this game a small empire just churning out sueless builds like colloseums, aqueducts, temples, cathedrals, banks and theatres does not win you games.

 

[Knightfall]

Not sure where this idea came from, but absolutely not correct. One should always look for opportunities to expand via the sword.



Giving into their demands or requests will a) give a peace treaty b) improve diplo. If the demands/request are reasonable then there is no harm giving into it. For many leaders, rejecting them can lead to them immediately or soon after plotting war on you. A few more peaceful type leaders don't care as much, but you still may want to boost diplo regardless for whatever reason.

Of course, if you are preparing to attack a leader that makes a demand there is probably no point in complying, especially as it will delay your imminent attack.



Generally, yes this is true. Mounted warfare offers some tactical advantages over slow units. So for instance, if you go for Horse Archers or Curs, you should be building attack stacks of only those units.


Ha..warriors are one of the best units in the game. I usually build quite a few early for spawn-busting and nearby early scouting anyway. These guys will become MP in cities later.


Always a good idea. You will get more savvy with this concept with more experience A big part of this idea is understanding the differences between the leaders - who they tend to like or not like based on how they are coded.


Obviously, if an imminent attack is in-coming you are going to prepare for it. However, a really big thing you need to learn or rather grasp is the idea of playing the game more offensively. Don't let them come to you..you go to them. I know you have been adverse to warfare up to this point, but if you really want to excel I recommend getting some teeth and going on the attack more often.



This last point leads me to the most important point I want to make here. You are still extremely inexperienced with this game. Here you are talking about Turn 350 which is extremely late in the game. What needs to change is your perspective, and that probably will not really change until a) you make the effort to really learn the basics of this game b) challenge yourself more.

With that said, I recommend that you play at least on Noble level. There's really no point playing below Noble (neutral bonus level) when below that level the human player gets the bonuses. But play a shadow game here with normal settings/normal map (Pangaea is best for learning)

Once you start learning some key basic concepts, that actually don't directly relate to combat, you will start blowing the AIs away and complete victories far sooner than Turn 350.

T350? 1930ad? You should of had your spaceship by then! Sounds to me like you built 4-5 cities and then just watched the game go by. Then you wondered why your struggling as the Ai keep expanding and building larger and larger stacks. The Ai may start slow on Warlords but if you leave them alone for 350 turns they will manage to build stacks.With artilery or cannons you would of eventually taken down that stack. You should of had infantry at least by 1930ad.

You really wanted 20-30+ cities by 1930ad.

In any case moaning about what happened late game is not going to help you here. It's what you did in first 100 turns or so that are killing your game. You really want 6-8 cities by 1ad. You should have a huge tech lead by that date. You then use this to attack the Ai with Cuirs or rifles/cannons.

I would wtart a new game and post updates each 20 or so turns. Posting your 1930ad save is almost pointless

But when those opportunities don't present themselves at all you want to avoid getting DoWed by someone who's cities/resources/wonders/etc. you can't take, right? At least I don't see value in getting DoWed by a Shaka that's on the other side of the map, you'd want to bribe someone else on him and keep him busy.

This is definitely an early game issue. I had one game where Toku DoWed me around...I want to say around T250 or so? It's been a while since that game. Point is that Toku, very early relative to T350, DoWed me with a gigantic doomstack of 60+ Samurai, Trebs and Pikes.

But because I had a good early game, I had already teched up to Cannons and Cavalry, compared to Toku who didn't even have Gunpowder. And because I saw the DoW coming (and that I couldn't use diplo to prevent it) I had wheeled around my army, who were beating up Joao for daring to start plotting war on me after I refused to give him 4K gold in tribute, and told my cities to prepare a small stack of cannons to deal with Toku's invasion stack. Ultimately that 60+ doomstack managed to make two moves into my empire before a rain of cannonfire and my entire army of technologically superior units wiped it off the map. Not sure why Toku thought he could succeed where Joao was getting his rear end handed to him, but he thought wrong.

I would recommend posting a shadow game, T350 is very late to not have already won the game even if you're trying to peacefully go to space.

Well sure, there is a diplo component to this game one must learn. Again, I don’t know the original source text to understand the context KF took, but regardless:



is wrong

Agreed wars are useful for space and culture. Winning games often means some form of war. Land=power on civ 4. Especially with a hammer economy when you have state property and workshops. Even culture requires 8-9 cities to max out spread of religions. Assuming you are not using spy tricks to do this.

I learned when I first started playing this game a small empire just churning out sueless builds like colloseums, aqueducts, temples, cathedrals, banks and theatres does not win you games.

Alright, you guys have convinced me; I need to rethink my approach to this game. In a few days I'll be starting a completely new game, posting regular updates here as recommended. Does anyone have any civ/leader recommendations?

 

[AcaMetis]

First off, with regards to updates, remember that early turns are much more important than later turns. Ideally you want to start with an update every 3-5 turns or so, since which direction you scout/tech path/worker management/etc. are all going to come up frequently. Not strictly necessary to do perfectly on Noble of course, far from it, but it's something you'll have to learn if you want to climb up the difficulty ladder.

Second, as for map/leader, Pangaea with standard generation settings, the standard number of AIs, bog-standard setting - Huts and Events off, everything else unchecked - and all victory conditions enabled. Leader doesn't really matter, just make sure it's not a leader with an early UU that can roll over the map. So no HC, or either Egyptian/Persian/Roman leader. Beyond that pretty much just pick whoever you want.

 

[pigswill]

Any leader you like really. Settings as AcaMetis recommended. Post the starting save (and screenshot if poss) before playing any turns to discuss settlement, usually SIP (settle in place) but not always.

 

[Gumbolt]

I would suggest Noble level. How about Spain?

 

[Knightfall]

First off, with regards to updates, remember that early turns are much more important than later turns. Ideally you want to start with an update every 3-5 turns or so, since which direction you scout/tech path/worker management/etc. are all going to come up frequently. Not strictly necessary to do perfectly on Noble of course, far from it, but it's something you'll have to learn if you want to climb up the difficulty ladder.

Second, as for map/leader, Pangaea with standard generation settings, the standard number of AIs, bog-standard setting - Huts and Events off, everything else unchecked - and all victory conditions enabled. Leader doesn't really matter, just make sure it's not a leader with an early UU that can roll over the map. So no HC, or either Egyptian/Persian/Roman leader. Beyond that pretty much just pick whoever you want.

Any leader you like really. Settings as AcaMetis recommended. Post the starting save (and screenshot if poss) before playing any turns to discuss settlement, usually SIP (settle in place) but not always.

I would suggest Noble level. How about Spain?

For a leader, I was thinking Hannibal, since he's a balanced leader with a strong early game, which is where I need to most help right now, without being totally OP. I agree with Pangea as a map choice (its personally my favorite). Posting updates about every 5 turns sounds good too. The only things I do disagree with are difficulty and game settings. I know that Noble is more competitive, but I think I'll stick with Warlord for this one game, as I feel I still need the extra little boost. Also, I prefer to play with huts and events on for immersion and fun, although I do realize that may throw off my strategy slightly. Does it matter if I play with tech trading on or off? The reason I ask is because I usually play with it off because I'm used to having it just not be there in the first place, but I have a feeling that that may also be one of the reasons why i struggle.

 

[lymond]

For a leader, I was thinking Hannibal, since he's a balanced leader with a strong early game, which is where I need to most help right now, without being totally OP. I agree with Pangea as a map choice (its personally my favorite). Posting updates about every 5 turns sounds good too. The only things I do disagree with are difficulty and game settings. I know that Noble is more competitive, but I think I'll stick with Warlord for this one game, as I feel I still need the extra little boost. Also, I prefer to play with huts and events on for immersion and fun, although I do realize that may throw off my strategy slightly. Does it matter if I play with tech trading on or off? The reason I ask is because I usually play with it off because I'm used to having it just not be there in the first place, but I have a feeling that that may also be one of the reasons why i struggle.

Please play on Noble. You will be getting guidance and I assure you that you will do fine with help. Noble is actually an easy level once you understand a few things, but playing Warlord level does nothing for you...at all. Play with Tech Trading on - it is a normal setting and an important thing to learn as you move up levels. Also, please play without huts and events or at least huts. Most here play with them off, but especially for learning it is giving you a false positive....free gold and free techs when you need to learn how to tech and how to build an economy.

Hannibal is fine. Personally, I recommend Washington as he has strong but not OP traits and irrelevant uniques.

As for turnsets, 5 to 10 is a good benmark..however, you don't necessarily need to hold firm to this. Most important thing is stopping at key decision points or when you have questions or uncertainty. Post the game for analysis at turn 0 and feel free to always give your thoughts on how you would do things. This is good so we understand your thought process and remedy any of your bad habits or misconception.

Once we decide on where you will settle, you will build a worker first and then post after the worker completes..so around 15 turns on the first turnset. Warrior or scout will roam around the start position in apprx. 10 tile radius to find good city spots.

 

[Fippy]

Lymond often said that Toku is best for learning, without special traits you could fully focus on basics (traits are already advanced content).
You should forget about playing on Warlord Simple reason, you want yourself and the AI being equal.
I think Noble means neither you or AIs get bonuses.
edit: nice timing Lymo!

 

[AcaMetis]

Hannibal should be fine. He does have an early UU that makes an aspect of the game easier, dealing with spear/axe/sword barbs without metal, but that's a very minor thing compared to something like being able to roll over half the world with Immortals. Especially on a relatively low difficulty.

Huts can be very unbalancing, since you can get something like Bronze Working -> Iron Working for free on T10 or something crazy like that while your neighbour gets a small sum of gold and a map. They become more and more favorable for the AIs as the difficulty increases, as well, since later on AIs start with a free Scout, which will never trigger a barb attack, and later still AIs will start with two free scouts so they'll eat up all the huts quickly and leave nothing for the player. Events aren't as bad, but they do require a slightly adjusted playstyle and there are a few events that are potential game changers. To name one example getting the event that spawns I believe 6-8 barbs right outside your borders out of nowhere is pretty bad, especially if you happen to trigger that event and you're next to whoever build Great Wall.

Tech Trading should be on, as having it off shuts down a large amount of diplomacy options and those are very important to learn. Dealing with having Shaka as a neighbour, for instance, is much harder without tech trading than with it, since you've got a lot less options.

I'd also recommend playing on Noble, it's a really easy difficulty to play on if you're at all familiar with the game's mechanics, and rest assured that the regulars here who play on Deity are very familiar with the game's mechanics.

 

[Gumbolt]

If you need huts to win your game you are in real trouble. If you play huts and events this will put off a lot of people helping you. At present you are struggling just to win the game?

On warlord you could be getting free settler and workers from huts. This would make any help rather broken. On Noble you would not get this. It almost makes scout first on warlord viable as the AI would start with warrior only. This won't work on higher levels where worker is 99% right most of the time.

You don't learn the game by relying on huts and free units. You also get 3 free wins vs babs a 10% tech bonus vs the AI too. Plus other discounts on other variables which makes war and expanding cheaper. Warlord is really stacked in the players advanage. You need to embrace game functions.and win on your own merit.

If you really want to play with huts set up a private game. Try the forum game without.

Note also the AI is set to Noble. The player just gets different bonuses or penalties for higher levels. The Ai will never get workers or settler from huts.