Noble - watery domination

[Continental Op]

Well I had been stuck with noble for a long time and only won once with Genghis using very early rush technique, but nothing since, so I went back to warlord for a while, playing some crazy role playing games in an attempt to pick up something new. After a couple of games I went back to noble, and was really surprised that I absolutely ruled the game, and managed to pull a space race victory with Mehmed, huge Earth2 map, epic speed by 1926. I know it might not sound that awe-inspiring for some of you guys, but for me it was phenomenal.

So I started another game to see if I just got lucky (epic speed, shuffle, huge map) and rolled a solid leader (Hannibal) but a map type I really am not that comfortable with - islands. I've never been that much of a navy guy and pretty much just ignored it in the past. To challenge myself further, I decided to aim towards domination victory this time, so now I really must build that strong navy.

I was isolated at start, but Augustus, Will and Hammy were close by in their islands. After worker techs and alphabet I pretty much beelined to astronomy and traded for the other techs. I have a good tech lead and I am on my way to be the first to circumnavigate. Found Napoleon and Vicky on the way, and they are both very lonely and very backwards.

So the question is, what is the best way in trying to attempt domination from this position? Should I attack my trade partners and take their islands first? Or those poor heathen hicks I find on my journeys in the big, unexplored sea? (speaking of heathens, my former best buddy Hammy quite annoingly and unsensibly just switched to Christianity, I guess he really must have seen the light) Or just colonize peacefully unsettled islands and wait for modern warfare? I guess map trading is not a wise policy in this case, everybody seems so very interested in it.

 

[Nyarlathothep]

Definitely keep your maps until you have the circumnavigation bonus for your ships.

After that, you can trade them away if you want. If I remember correctly, your -maps-, not your ships, must prove that the earth is round, so if you accidentally give a Civ the missing part, they might get the bonus instead of you

On Domination, I really cannot give you any tips. I normally go for Conquest like this... if you want to try it: research Feudalism, build an invasion fleet, get 2-3 cities from everyone, then vassalize them. Begin with the strongest opponent you can cope with, then go further down until you've got all of them in your bag.

Hope some of this helps Have fun with your game!

 

[michmbk]

If you have a tech lead, then galleons/cannons/CR maces can easily do the trick. Not sure where you are with respect to lib, but maybe teching lib to within 1 turn and then get all of steel's prerequisites to take steel with lib. Do all of that while building your maces, and then switch to cannons. You can whip them if you want it to be faster. cannons/maces will destroy anything pre-rifling, and can be pretty effective at rifling if the cannons have CR 1 & 2.

 

[Continental Op]

Thank's for the tips guys, I will write them down and try them next time I load the game. By the way, how many maces and cannons do I need? And of course I have to build some longbows too to defend my newly conquered cities, how many of those I need per city?

 

[Scoottr]

Is a domination victory incredibly hard with islands? I'd think your wonders would be about useless since so many are dependent on being on the same land mass, your cost skyrocket because you aren't close the to capital...

Never really played to many, if any, water heavy maps...

 

[michmbk]

Communism becomes an important civic to prioritize if you're going to have multiple cities on several different landmasses.

As far as how many - depends on the targets. On noble, a stack of 15 cannons & 15-20 maces will do plenty of damage, but if it's a soft target like Gandhi, you might need only half that. I wouldn't worry too much about defensive units - if you're hitting the AI with a tech lead and a decent stack, they're not going to have much fight in them. Maybe bring along a musket or two for each city if you want.

 

[dalamb]

maybe teching lib to within 1 turn and then get all of steel's prerequisites to take steel with lib. Do all of that while building your maces, and then switch to cannons.

I've had this work in an LHC (isolated start) as Victoria; the FIN trait meant I was 'way ahead in tech. Also, later you can upgrade your CR II maces to gunpowder units, which don't get CR promotions themselves.

 

[Continental Op]

I did as suggested and decided to attack the strongest player in game - Augustus (plus I liked the historical connotations, Hannibal vs. the Romans all over again). And those cannons are awesome, I only lost one when taking Rome with its giant stack of defenders. The only problem is Augustus himself - that bugger just won't capitulate. I've already taken five of his cities, but no. I should have taken more defenders, to the next city I will have to leave one of my attackers. It's a good thing that I already have promomoted some of those maces to rifles. But this really is taking longer than I expected.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Good option on water maps is frigates + cavalry. It's like spies+cavalry, but they never fail and you don't have to ship them back every time.

 

[smackthewise]

For heavy water maps, I often love to play peacefully until modern warfare. By this time your have a fair amount of cities, lots of money and hopefully enough production to build a decent force very quickly.
I usually attack this way;
-Destroyers surrounding enemy islands. At least 10-15
-Transports filled with marines. At least 4 marines per city depending on defenders. 1-3 full transports for backup and heavily defended cities.
-Once I have flight, carriers full of fighters. At least 8 full carriers.

I usually buy most of the army through US, warfare is quick, painless and not tedious! And lots of fun It also usually prevents captured cities from dying out from cultural influence. A few transports full of tanks can be helpful for inland.

 

[Psimon]

Take out any city where the Great Lighthouse appears.

Courthouses, the maintenance costs are going to eat you up otherwise.

 

[bhavv]

When playing Hannibal, Great Lighthouse and Compass for Cothons should be your priority.

Compass also allows you to get lots of tech trades if you have AI who like to trade.

 

[Continental Op]

My god. Obviously I'm going to win this time again, but it's going to take me a LONG time. 1961, and I still got only two vassals. I'm building space parts again, just in case - I wouldn't want to win by time! Perhaps I'm not ready for prince just yet.

 

[Nyarlathothep]

Just try it. What can possibly happen?

When I first-tried any difficulty above noble, I got trashed the first 2-3 times. After that, I became better. Do not feel discouraged by that

Every difficulty level, the game becomes different (at least when you're learning them gradually). So just open your mind for new ideas and concepts every time you step up one level and you'll be fine. Eventually!

 

[Continental Op]

I will try it at some point, but I think that now that I've finally got the hang of Noble, I'm going to stay in it a couple more times, try different map types and victories before I try a harder level. Winning is fun for a change. Maybe I should even try out a cultural victory, never tried that before. I will have to read some articles first, because I have no idea how to pursue a cultural victory. Diplomatic victory is pretty easy to achieve by accident, don't know how to do it properly though.