Newbie Question: Bottleneck plugging?

[Wurth]

Hey all,

I'm a recent civ addict and I've run across a rather interesting situation. I have chosen a continents game with either small or standard size (can't remember which at the moment). After initial exploration, I discovered that my 2 roommates on my starting continent (Stalin and Montezuma) are directly east-west of each other on the south end of a long, skinny continent stretching north-south.

I am alone on the north half of the continent, and I was wondering if it would be smart to cut off their expansion into my half of the continent by building 2 cities whose culture in BFC size just about spans the entire width of the middle of the continent. I tried this already, and was assaulted by 15 units from Montezuma 20-30 turns later. I easily repelled this attack, but I am worried about Stalin following suit. Have I just caused the continent war of the century by making these 2 civs fight over 1/3 of the continent whilst I hog the other 2/3rds?

(other info from what I remember)
Warlord Difficulty
Civ: America

 

[Firewind]

Monty's plain insane, and given a half-decent excuse will attack you, especially if you're an easier target than other nearby victims.

Stalin, I'm not so sure about. I've heard he's almost as vicious, but if you repelled Monty so easily, then the Aztecs might be a choicer target. Then again, Stalin might've started gearing for war with you already.

The move was a smart one - if you have more land, you have more production, so you should be able to beat them down no matter how angry they are at you. Anger is a good motivation, but it doesn't beat a sturdy axe or trusty bow in warfare.

You should probably look to wiping one or both out entirely as soon as feasible.

 

[Single Malt]

If Monty has cities between you and Stalin he will probably go for him. AFAIK, Stalin is a backstabber, so wiping both off the continent would be advantageous. It would probably be better to do that before you have contact with the other continent, as at least they won't have had a chance to make friends.

 

[Wurth]

Heh, it sounds like a great idea to have an entire continent to myself. The real problem is that I've only started playing civ regularly, and my experience with warring has been, how shall we say, an exercise in futility. I have only once eliminated an entire civ in a warlord difficulty (mansa doesn't really count as a civ in my book though ). I'll create a save and try it out, just for the fun of it. I'll even throw up the save to show you guys what I have going, once I get back to my computer.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Single Malt]

The trick to war is to have more units. Pre catapults this means 2-3 axes per archer. One city needs to pretty much constantly make units, to either (a) deter an ai from attacking, or (b) prepare to invade. Remember in war siege and collateral damage are your friend. Also catapults will die regularly, so during war they will need constant reinforcing. ie one city always building cats. Never walk cats without unit support during wartime, as they don't defend well. Also refer to the War Academy for adice on war mongering.

 

[Wurth]

Thanks again for the help guys. I've attached the save from a few turns after the last monty assault. I'm a little behind on expansion, I know, but I haven't gotten around to dot mapping that ugly area. Plus, I don't have to worry about settling that area until the other 2 civs get caravels. My next plan is to rush to trebuchets and take over the front two monty cities. Feel free to check out my save and critique as much as you want . I can take the abuse lol.

I also forgot to mention, I was thinking about leaving monty alive, either as a vassal or just severely weakened. His troops are no match for mine in most situations, and I've been getting really good GG emergence from the fighting. I attached one to an axe and sent/sending him up to a barb city up north to pillage some towns for extra gold.

 

[Skallagrimson]

With the aggros it helps to have a defensive war or two to drain them before you go on offense, so be pleased when they DoW. And be ready.

 

[Wurth]

lol being ready is definitely the issue. I've run a couple scenarios after this point, and it seems that stalin is as restless for war as monty is. My next plan of action seems to be fortifying my defenses in south while populating the northern reaches. From there I'll be able to take the entirety of the continent (I just don't have the production to go after both these civs yet)

 

[Jaaboo]

As long as you can endure their attacks your lead over them will grow because they will be stymied by not making any headway, throwing their hammers away towards your unit's experience. You should be able to gain a tech lead over them and stomp them out when ready after settling your northern lands.

 

[Skallagrimson]

In addition to what Jaaboo said, from the description the bottleneck is a 2 city front. If you can't build enough units to defend 2 cities you may need to practise runs at optimising the whip, and of course, building ENOUGH cities and making them productive enough to have at least 2 of them pump units. That means first and foremost food, and then hammers. Beakers and coins can come in via specialists if need be, so forget trying to mature any of the cottages for now.

 

[DMOC]

This is probably what I would do in a situation like this (I didn't check the save, though, due to lack of time).

I would definitely bottleneck them. Blocking them in is the priority.

However, since I know that Montezuma and Stalin are quite vicious AI's, and that they will likely start out the game "pleased" with each other, I would be sure to concentrate my military garrisons into those two cities. I would build the units which I think can counter theirs. I can find out what units they're building by having a scout or two go through their lands. If I find a stack-of-doom (usually at least 8 units in the early/middle game), it's probably best for me to park a scout there and keep checking back every turn to see where the stack goes, if it does move. Above all, I would check for "We Have Enough On Our Hands Right Now" mode every turn, which shows that an AI is preparing for war.

Meanwhile, while I concentrate troops in those two cities (by the way, I would try to build them on hills are position them so that the center is across a river that faces the AI's), I would build more settlers to expand in the rest of the area for myself. My #1 priority would be to get commerce cities since I will need some way to afford the units I stack in the bottleneck cities.

As I progress in technology and leave Montezuma and Stalin in the dust, I try to do whatever I can to get the AI's at each other. Having more techs than they do means that it's possible for me to bribe them to war. Also, if Montezuma hasn't founded a religion (say the early religions go on another continent), I would try to found two religions (maybe one with Code of Laws and the other with Philosophy) and spread conflicting religions to both of the AI's.

If you've survived the early game and advance in technology, use your superior tech and land advantage to build lots of advanced units and wipe them out.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Just reread the op, warlord difficulty. And he already "easily" repelled Monty, so he's really not asking "how" to keep his position there. He was asking whether the bottleneck was causing the AIs to DoW him.

Wurth, y'know what? You're on Warlord. It doesn't matter. Monty and Stalin could unite permanently and hate you like the devil of their religion, and their axemen will melt under your machine gun fire, for days. Relax. Wait 'till you climb and the game starts to get *difficult*!!!