How many units should I have so I can play a peaceful game without being creamed by the AI because I'm too weak, and what can I do to prevent that?
Most games, I'm doing well until one of the AI declare war on me, often with little warning diplo-wise, and then they basically eliminate me. Anyways, I want to be mostly peaceful, but still have a decent military ready in case the AI starts anything...how do I do that?
First, it depends on what level you're playing. Most of the time on Prince and above you can't really expect to play a peaceful game from start to finish unless you master diplomacy very well. When trying this you usually get boxed in with only a few cities, which in turn means you fall behind in techs & power and you quickly become a sitting target.
If you do manage to have a decent number of cities, you'll have to constantly build defenders to be sure of keeping up in power with the AI. Make a Heroic Epic city and keep pumping out the best units you have. Don't forget the navy, you don't want a landing party near one of your less defended cities. Also, since it costs you quite a lot to upgrade, most of the time it's cheaper to build new units and delete the really obsolete ones especially if you're not going to war anytime soon. Keeping a warrior around when everybody has riflemen is of no use and it only costs money.
By the way, many times the AI will declare on you because you're weak, not because they hate you. Getting them to "friendly" or keeping up in power are your only options.
I play Prince. If there is a close neighbor, or someone like Monty close to my borders in the early game, then I often axe-rush them, so it's not 100% peaceful. I just don't know what to do with my military after that. Also, I'm usually a leader in tech, right behind, or even with the financial civs of the game. Since it's almost impossible to be 'friendly' with everyone...I guess I'm going to have to try that Heroic Epic city thing and replace my units...
I play Noble. I find that around 3-4 troops per city is a good defensive garrison, plus one cavalry unit per city (all cavalry units in one group in a central position).
I have found that keeping an ai sweet with gifts, same religion, favourite civic, giving in to extortion goes a long way. Also keep an eye on who is about, as you said kill monty if he's nearby, but catherine is the worst. I always keep my main forces in border cities.
Keep an eye on the power graph; if you're below half the power of the leading civs you're heading towards being a victim. Build/upgrade enough units to keep you in the top half of power and you should be fairly safe from opportunistic attacks.
Hmm...I gotta watch the power graph, because I'm pretty sure I'm always the lowest or second lowest in power...Is 3-4 troops per city enough though? I understand that border cities need more troops, but I don't want to spend too much money on military if it could be better used elsewhere...
Suggestions
1) Smash ealry agressive civs that are near. Monty is an example. Shaka, Alexander Napolean are others. Creative civs are also a problem. Set your parameter and borders early.
2) Make friends. Keep the popular religion even if you found and shrine a different one.
3) Watch the AIs for possibility of keeping their favorite civics. Monarchy for Ragnar/Cathy, Free market for mansa Musa/Hannibal, Org relion for Hatty and brennus etc...
4) Bride civc to go to war with each other.
5) Grovel and tribute. People like Julius, Napolean, Ghengis like people who tribute.
6) Build armies as big as possible when you think you have enough build some more. Put them in border cities. You do not need 5 units in your capital other civc have to go through several other cities to get to it (exception, costal capital.
I play Noble. I find that around 3-4 troops per city is a good defensive garrison, plus one cavalry unit per city (all cavalry units in one group in a central position).
Below Prince, that was typically how I played as well. Only went to war if invited to by a powerful AI against a weaker one that was relatively close by. Also made certain that my religion was the same as my most powerful neighbour (didn't matter who founded it).
But in Prince, I don't think that you can go this route successfully. Anytime that I have tried, one or two AI's have come after me (and not necessarily the Agressives either). I still try to coordinate religion and hand out presents, and trade to my disadvatage, but they simply don't care and will come at me simply because I am weaker than they. So learn to be a warmonger (the threads in the War Academy are a HUGE source of material) and then go out there and have at them!
I've heard of this mysterious Power Graph, and have even seen it on several screenshots posted in this forum, but I have never seen it in any of my games. Is it F8, right? Did it come in with a patch or only with Warlords or something? I have I think the earliest release version of vanilla only, not Warlords.
It's F9, or the right-most button in the upper-right, below the Civilopedia. You will see the score graph, just select Power from the drop-down menu in the upper-left.
When you go to look at the score and how you rank against other Civs (I forget the keyboard command) there is an arrow next to the score button on the left. That is a drop down menu and one option is power (thers are production, GNP I think). Also if you go to the demographics screen you can see the number of soldier and rank.
I think thats important right there. You can bribe weaker AIs to war with some of the warmongering AIs. That will keep them busy for a while, and they shouldn't be able to beat you too much in tech. Also, for a space race, if you keep up in tech then you can get spies out to the top dogs in case you ever have to destroy their production.
Main points are-
1. See whos around you. Warmongers like Monty, Cathy, etc. are bad news.
2. If a warmongerer is near you that you haven't killed, if you get defensive pacts with other AIs around you then your in good shape. You just make peace a little later, and the AI is kept busy fighting the other AIs. Often times in late games, a massive war breaks out as a bunch of defensive pacts are enabled, but you need to have acouple up-to-date units in threatened areas and let the dogs fight each other over the steak.
3. Often, 2 AIs will keep asking you to stop trading with the other. Go ahead and severe contact with one of them. Assess the risk and go. If Monty doesn't want you trading with Ghandi, screw Ghandi and please Monty temporarily. You're right when you say that it is impossible to keep everyone pleased, but a cautious or even Annoyed Ghandi is much better than a Cautious Monty.
Spock, great assessment except about Montey/Ghandi. Monty is the one AI I would not trust at all, he can be friendly all game then stab you in the back and send a stack of knights against your modern army. Anyone else I would do it but not Monty.
Yeah... I guess Monty is off in his own special land of nuttville. But if you get Monty pleased with you enough so that you can bribe him into war, then it might pay off to be on Monty's good side for a little.
For my third point above, even though you might be reluctant, it can be important to do it. Even if Ghandi is your top tech trader with you or trades resources with you, all you need to do in non-huge map is keep close enough in tech to get spies. If you bribe AI's into war, eventually only 2 or 3 strong AI's will be competing for the psace race. 2 or 3 top dogs are easy enough to get spies out there and keep sabotaging their last spaceship part until you are done.
This is all really good advice. I used to be an addicted builder . . . "Army? Why?" Reading the articles in the War Academy certainly helped me become an effective warmonger (though I haven't tried a conquest victory yet, but I've done domination a few times).
Here's the main thing I learned to use even when I play for a peaceful game: always be building units. I will rarely go against this, not build a unit in any city for a few turns at most. If I keep it up, invariably I get attacked and it hurts.
The other thing I've learned on my own is to maintain an offensive force for defensive purposes. Nothing is sweeter than decimating some invading SoD with a bunch of cats/trebs and mopping up with a few macemen. You don't want their stack freely pillaging your territory while you wait for them to attack your cities where your defenders are huddled.
Monty a nutcase? I find him completely dependable. He'll backstab you every single chance he gets. Isabella is my personal nutcase. She's usually fairly bizarre, but my most recent game I shared her religion, had a civ between us so no common border, was trading a lot, gave in to her one demand to stop trading with someone else, and she was pleased with me. And then BAM she invades with a stupid stack that didn't even get a chance to pillage a single plot -- never reached a city. WTH was that about? And then never sent anything else for twenty turns or so before she finally agreed to speak to me. Agreed to peace, paid 270 gold and 19 gpt and was immediately pleased. Can you say "severe PMS"?
I was glad she didn't send anyone else because Alex dogpiled the next turn (probably bribed as he was lower in tech than even her). He paid by being kicked completely off the continent, though. I left him his single-plot island on the other side of the map to wallow in freakish misery.
So to sum up: even when playing peacefully, you must think militarily (or select "always peace" option).
Create a "buffer state" by signing OBs w/ a civ that hates the aggressive ones (Gandhi or Asoka), then letting them settle. If a land invasion of your territory is drawn up, the buffer can be bribed to mobilize in your favor. And if he doesn't, at least he doesn't have OBs w/ the warmongers. It should give you enough time to beef up your military in order to strike back hard.
How many units should I have so I can play a peaceful game without being creamed by the AI because I'm too weak, and what can I do to prevent that?
Most games, I'm doing well until one of the AI declare war on me, often with little warning diplo-wise, and then they basically eliminate me. Anyways, I want to be mostly peaceful, but still have a decent military ready in case the AI starts anything...how do I do that?
3. Often, 2 AIs will keep asking you to stop trading with the other. Go ahead and severe contact with one of them. Assess the risk and go. If Monty doesn't want you trading with Ghandi, screw Ghandi and please Monty temporarily. You're right when you say that it is impossible to keep everyone pleased, but a cautious or even Annoyed Ghandi is much better than a Cautious Monty.
one very important thing is to pay attention to how they feel about each other. an AI will only demand that you stop trading with his "worst enemy". that's whoever he's maddest at as long as he's annoyed or furious with somebody. if he's cautious or higher with everybody, he has no worst enemy and it's your lucky day. if he's cautious or higher with everybody that you care about, then it's also your lucky day. in that case, you're likely not trading with his worst enemy since you don't care about that guy. he probably already doesn't like you enough to trade, so you won't have any ongoing trades for your designated friend to demand that you cancel, and if you do, you can cancel them since you've already decided which party you want to get the -1 with.
yes it is impossible to keep everybody pleased with you and with each other, but that's not necessarily what you need. you can do a very useful substitute by deciding who you do want to please for now, and who is on the "you're going to be rejected everything anyway, i don't care about you, get out of my face" list.
and then if you have some luck, and pay attention to the diplo screen (not everyone has the patience to check it as often as i do, i'm rather obsessed), and if the stars/map/religious groups align, and the people on your "i want to please these guys for now" list are cautious/pleased/friendly with each other, you can trade with them freely, since they will not demand that you cancel trades with each other. well, as long they remain that way. even if one or more drops to annoyed with another, if they're furious with somebody else they're not the worst enemy ... yet. but you can't take for granted that it won't change.
like, i want my health resources. if i don't have rice, and i don't have a relatively easy way to get rice for myself, i want to trade with someone that nobody scary will come demand i cancel trading with. that would make me lose 2 health, and lose -1 relations with one side or the other, not good. if i can get it from someone on my "you're the list of friends for now" list, and he's getting along with everybody else on that list, then it's totally safe to trade with him for now.
i'm really careful with diplomacy, far more than sane people are, i admit it. but it helps me. now granted i need the help since i am like the world's worst warmonger *giggle*. i'm not good at early wars and i have a broad definition of early. so i need all the help i can get. probably most people don't need to rely on diplomacy even 1/10th as much as i do, and i know that some people hate to have to deal with it, they'd just rather bash heads. i get a kick out of it. part of the beauty of civ4, so many different ways to play! but maybe these thoughts will help somebody out in some future game.
example from a recent game spoilered to spare those bored by my ramblings. caution: this game was wicked fun so i'm quite overenthusiastic still.
Spoiler:
get this ... i just won a game with Aggressive AI turned on (i had never tried that before, but it was for an RB event so i said what the heck i'll try it). and the only leader that ever declared war on me was Montezuma. he'd have done that in an always peace game, you know he would have! genghis, hatty, peter, isabella, fred, huayna, saladin, julius, alex, toku, ... none of them ever picked a fight with me. a big part was religion. my religion spread to several key parties, part naturally and part due to my effort. i used that as part of my way to pick the "i want to please these guys" list. part of how i picked them was to pick the warmonger-y ones; they like each other behind-the-scenes anyway so why not use that to my advantage? i also manipulated religion to make somebody not get along with the rest ... i wanted to kill saladin, so i sent him missionaries of a different religion, so that he'd change and my friends would not like him as much, and then i'd not get as many "-1 you declared war on our friend" penalties. the guys in my religious group got along with each other, so i traded with them. if at any time they looked like they were going to start bickering and become worst enemies, i cancelled ongoing trades (OB/resources) just in case, so that i wouldn't get negatives if they did come demanding. i never got a single "you refused to stop trading" or "you traded with our worst enemy" penalty except with freddy, hatty, and isabella. they were all permanently on the "i don't care about you" list, so that was fine. well, permanently meaning "until the warmongers killed them". and every time one of them died i got more nervous, since then i looked like more of a juicy target i'm sure. but no one who mattered to me ever gave me those annoying negatives. and even with those folks dead, nobody picked on me .
now here's how much i needed that diplomacy to help me in that game ... i started thinking "okay i have to kill saladin, i need his land and resources, and he's the safest one to kill since the only new neighbor that gets me is the ocean, rather than say, montezuma" in 700 BC. i finally got around to declaring the war in, well, 1178 AD. that's rather a long time. mind you, i had some things to take care of, shiny wonders to build, etc. i played poorly in some ways due to i constantly misjudging the speed of they'd research stuff, it was prince and i'm not used to them being that slow. and it took an awfully time to get saladin to stinking convert to conf to save me -1 with 4 people, so that wait was not entirely due to me stalling from fear. but i mean seriously folks, how many of you would wait that long? that's your proof right there of how much i need this kind of help, and the fact that only monty ever declared on me in a world with Aggressive AI turned on (and a world where i had luck, mostly good, some bad) is your proof that it can work .
i am little miss hippy diplomatic jedi mind tricks. it doesn't always work. the point of this ramble is that it saved my candybutt during that game, amazingly astoundingly well. you can clearly see that i needed all the help i could get, given how much time it took me to declare on saladin *giggle*. but i did totally demolish saladin him once i finally got started! and both times that monty declared i won, yeehaw! and i had a LOT of fun and surprised the heck out of myself. the goal of the game was cultural victory, never allowed to run slider above 20%. for me the biggest OMG i won moment was realizing i'd survived from 4000 BC until 1872 AD, when the last two hit legendary. the official victory message on the screen? that was like bonus points in my head. the diplomatic screen at the end with those guys i'm always scared to meet sitting at pleased without civics and religion bonuses? doublebonus. i actually don't even know what my official in-game score was, i don't give a flip. i lived through it, that's the wow part for me, and i hardly even had to fight. it was one of my most fun and surprising-to-myself OMG-i-did-this games and therefore very high on the silly scoring system in my head.
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