No Early Wars

[kgkia33]

Something I've learned from my experience: Do not get into an early war.

As Greece I first researched The Wheel to reveal horse locations and discovered that there was one very close by. Planted a city on it and began researching Iron. Then I found Russia nearby and they didn't even have The Wheel so I figured it was logical to switch research to Horseback Riding and crush them early with a bunch of horsemen. So I produce 6 horsemen to take care of their only city, and suddenly two more pop up. Sh-t. Now I committed to war and have to waste more prod. on horsemen after I lose a few while taking the two smaller cities. Now I get 4 more plus the surviving 2 and head to their new capital. Take that, form an army, and take their last city.

By this time England, who's on the same continent, has expanded their scumbag asses halfway down the continent while I have a claim to only about 5 or 6 cities because of the war.

Now I've meet civs from another continent and I am way behind in tech. Luckily my Republic and Communication with the English allowed me to catch up totally and now I'm a tech away from the Middle Ages.

I still want to know if this is always what happens..Is it always bad to wage an early war?

 

[Voltaire]

I usually play on monarch/regent level, and go to war as quickly as is feasable to. Horsemen are ok, but I usually load up 10-12 swordsmen in a stack and then take city by city. Horsemen I'll keep in my own territory to pick up any stragglers the enemy may send down to cause some damage.

Also, I usually don't start a war until I'm done expanding (standard map usually, for a fairly quick game). Sometimes the AI gets itchy and decides to have at me, but usually not until I'm ready for them.

Usually.

 

[fephisto]

I usually play on the highest barb level, leaving me with a lot of military units after a while, constant warfare!!!!! CONSTANT 8D, peace smeace, I keep hearing about "culchure" and "diplomatic victory" 4 transports with about 16 artly and riflemen in a stack of doom is all you need 8). But otherwise only war once you have your main set of core cities around your 1 capital, your other cores will be gotten via war 8D. To make sure you stay in shape too, let the barbs live 8)

 

[DaveMcW]

Early wars can be a powerful strategy once you know how to do it.

But the #1 rule is DO NOT STOP SETTLER PRODUCTION UNTIL YOU ARE DONE EXPANDING!

If you are going to war, have a city or two keep producing settlers while the rest pump out military units.

You probably won't be able to wipe out a civ, but that's ok! The goal is to slow down their growth and maybe get some techs in the peace treaty. Sometimes they ignore you for a few turns, so if you are done capturing cities just keep your units on defense until they talk.

 

[Yndy]

It also depends on the competition you are facing. If you have two neighbours, land to expand to but you declare war to one guy, don't be surprised if the second AI gets all the land.

 

[Darkness]

If you have two neighbours, land to expand to but you declare war to one guy, don't be surprised if the second AI gets all the land.

This happened to me a lot...

Now I send some settlers along with my military to settle the formerly occupied territory ASAP and that works much better!!!

But I usually go to war AFTER I'm done expanding.... I find the very early war hinders my expanding to much and then I'm lagging behind the whole game...

 

[Gothmog]

Usually I don't go to war at least until I am done expanding. But as with everything in civ3 (esp on diety), you need to look at the situation. If you are on an island with a civ with a power full UU swordsman (like the Persians or Romans) you may want to go at them before they get IW if at all possible. If you are the Aztecs you may want to take advantage of your jags before too much time passes.

Anyway, it is not always bad to do an early war, as DaveMcW says it can be a powerful strategy.

 

[kgkia33]

I don't know, going to war early really almost lost the game for me. If I didn't catch a glimpse of Egypt's galley I would've lost due to the lack of techs.

 

[fephisto]

bu, bu, war is cool!!!!! war is the point of the game!!!!!.....where have the warmongers gone 8(

 

[Ihmotep]

I don't think anyone has answered his question as to why the civ had 2 cities appear out of nowhere

 

[Ronald]

They must have had two settlers

 

[kgkia33]

Imhotep you love bein' a smart ass in all of my threads don't you? Wait 'til you post one :rocket:.

 

[kgkia33]

You spelled your username wrong also. Maybe you should retake that first-grade history class.

 

[coup d'etat]

I think an early war is probalby hands down the best way to get ahead of the game... I play monarch and nearly always wage war to capture enemy cities. On standard map size, I usually find that after founding about 12-15 of your own cities, real estate is hard to grab (if there's any left at all). I think the key to winning any game is making sure you are always #1 in pop score, and it helps lots to be #1 in land area too since resources will more likely pop up in your borders.

The key to using early war to help is to make sure that when you goto war, your enemy civ has a reasonable number of cities with pop 2 or more... early war doesnt seem to help much if all you are doing is eliminating, you need to be conquering as well. This way, the time you spend producing a strong military makes up for the lack of settler production. I think it is also important to note that when you expand in this fashion, you start off with a larger military and are more intimidating to other civs and it's less likely you'll get bullied on by a civ with a stronger military. In other words, you need the military anyway you might as well use it to expand.

As has been mentioned, swordsmen are great for early wars. Horsemen can be good for mobility but when it comes down to it, swordsmen are the key to winning wars. Horsemen only have 2 attack, meaning they are still even with a spearman. Put the spearman on a hill of a city of 7+ and the horseman is at an automatic disadvantage. Swordsmen are 3.2, meaning they are superior to spearmen when attacking them *and* are resistant to attacks by weaker attacking units, namely archers and horsemen.

Horsemen in my experience are good as backup units, when you've attacked with all the swordsmen in range and a city has 1 red spearman left, you can snatch up the city with a horseman a couple squares away. Horsemen are good as 'proximity support'... they can often be placed before attacks so they are within range of 2-3 cities. So if you station say 3-4 swordsmen outside 2 cities and you have 2-3 horsemen within range of these cities, If something goes wrong and the last attack fails, leaving a spearman in the red defending a city, the horsemen will more often than not capture the city. It is my opinion an early war is impossible to efficiently win without swordsmen, and I would never wage a war based on my ability to produce horsemen or chariots.

I think another great perk to early war is that when you are winning you can usually pick up a few free techs. Many times I'll start out a game by going all tax and going alphabet/masonry > mathematics > currency as 40 turn advances. Usually alphabet and masonry is aquired by trade but if it isn't (through goody huts more often than not) they are valuable currency. On monarchy, it seems the computer usually doesn't research math or currency so those are great for trading too. I also like taxes high because of the flexibility of money. You can buy techs, upgrade units, etc.

Anyway I'm getting off topic-- basically what it comes down to early war can be really useful, and I would say essential if you are using a militaristic civ; cheap barracks really make a difference. My favorite civ is china (they are easiest to play imo =)), so I goto war early fairly often so I guess thats why I have so much to say about it ... do don't knock early war. =)

 

[UknowsI]

I havent played Civ 3 a lot (but I have played 1 and 3 a lot), but I am doing fine peacefully. Last time I played I started in Argentina (huge worldmap with max enemies) and I was able to win on Emperor without ever fighting (launched space ship 1800 AD). I still have a lot to learn (I dont have the manual so I dont know what half of the things do), so its probably better to fight some more, but I will rather enhance my neutral abilities and hopefully make it on deity one day.

 

[Tassadar]

A very early war is good if you are on a small continent with 1-2 a.i.

But i prefer much,much more waiting for knight, once i got knight my war machine wont stop until i control all my continent ( it mean no more a.i. on it). Knight are the best weapon for an early war, they got strong attack,good defense,move fast and retreat from battle if redline ( most of the time). Most of the time i will upgrade 8-10 horseman, my core city produce knight, when i got a nice stack of 12-15 knight, i start invasion. I dont even fear musketman, a few veteran knight will slaughter them, i only need to take care of counterattacking longbowman, thats why my knight end their turn on hill or forest.

A good way to start the war is;

1.- declare war on the nearest a.i.

2.- make all other a.i on your continent to declare war on them, pay for it.

3.- 20 turn later , end alliance, and declare war on everybody on your continent.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by kgkia33

As Greece I first researched The Wheel to reveal horse locations and discovered that there was one very close by. Planted a city on it and began researching Iron. Then I found Russia nearby and they didn't even have The Wheel so I figured it was logical to switch research to Horseback Riding and crush them early with a bunch of horsemen.

Greece means Phalanx's. Build Phalanx's first, then you will control the ground. Primarily, use your Phalanx's to support your Settler Expansion. If you must attack, use your unique advantages. Build Phalanx's and Swordsmen. Use the Phalanxs to protect your Swordsmen and injured units from counterattacking enemy units. If you must siege, use Phalanx's to protect your Catapults, and knock the defenders down to size.

 

[jorge_roberto]

Originally posted by Tassadar
... i prefer much,much more waiting for knight ...

.. Knight are the best weapon for an early war, they got strong attack,good defense,move fast and retreat from battle ...

I don't think Knights belongs to early wars. They are from Middle Ages.


Early wars have basically spearmen, swordmen and horsemen as players.


I usually start a early war after there are no more free space to create cities.

I use horsemen and swordmen to atack. Horsemen are good to start the ofense (2 movs) and to weak the defensors (retreat). Then, swordmen atack, finishing the job.


When I have to atack a >7 size city or hoplites, I use 3 or 4 catapults as support.