Preparing For War

Darth Tribble

Friendly Neighborhood Conqueror
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
117
Location
Earth
I'm the Dutch and I share a continent with the Incans, Danish, Songhai, and Romans.

I have three cities: my capital city, a desert city that really just exists to secure iron, and a coatal city.

The Songhai wiped out the Romans surprisingly fast and the war was pretty much over as soon as it started. Askia now borders Pachacuti, my friend, and I am thinking about liberating Rome. Would I get a warmonger penalty for that? Should I even worry about liberating the Romans?
 
no warmonger penalty if you liberate the city. In fact you get a negative warmonger penalty so you can even take a city, then liberate the next and no one will hate you if you do it in this order. It's a fine idea if you feel Songhai needs to be shut down and you want extra cities. Probably not worth your time if you won't be keeping the cities though because I guarantee you songhai or danish or someone will just wipe rome out again when they see how weak they look this early in the game.
 
I've been considering claiming the capital for myself while liberating the rest of Rome a keep some units there to discourage Songhai aggression.
 
WE,of the Traveling Hoard, have seen hundreds of worlds across the Eons, accursed by Loki and his 7-, 9-, and 13-sided dice; having been cast into a multitude of Civ's, save Venice; OUR Sworn Enemy .

OUR Battle Sages have tried to piece together the Lore of Yonderwhen, Our ancient homeworld, and the worlds WE have since been dumped on; after WE beat Loki at a floating crap game and STOLE his 11-sided die . This has been the 1 Holy Relic WE have kept across time, *IT* prefers to stay with US .

Across Our histories, the Battle Sages have PROVEN, time and again, many battle tested ideas :

1) Before thinking about war, have ALL your economies working, and a HEFTY Gold Surplus !, as proven by Cynthia IV, the Insulted; when the Venitian ambassador hinted that Her nail polish was tawdry and out-of-date, She had her killed, DW'd Venice, and lost Our 3 cities in 28 turns; and was publically crucified by the Venitians .

2) When thinking on DW-ing, build an army you can AFFORD to use or lose, for the ONE target chosen, AND NEVER SKIMP ON HOME DEFENSE FORCES; proven by Titus XVII Atlantium; in His sub T250 win in Roman garb, ruling over 12 AIs. His secret : build an army for EACH target .

3) Trade routes are weapons of MASS ECONOMICS !!, and must be protected by safe routes and careful timing, steering them AWAY form intended war-zones; as proven by the short reign of Yngvi the Louse, who had all 4 of Our TRs with China, and then DW'd China; resulting in a 37GPT recession, causing US to lose 5 of our cities . Yngvi's public apology was to be staked out in the Milepost Stadium, and eaten by wild pigs .
In a popular uprising supported by the clergy, Gwen the Barmaid ascended the throne, took back Our 5 lost cities and annexed China, becoming "Great Queen Gwen"during Her 58 year reign .
As a result of Yngvi's Idiocy, WE have embraced the "Caravansary Trade Routes" mod to counter Our Sworn Enemy, Venice .

4) Where possible, WE shall be peaceful while expanding; encouraging Trade and the Arts while building Forces to Prevent outside aggression; YET if some Bozo DW's US, WE shall finish that Bozo; as proven by Ava I, the Violinist; in Her T264 Cultural win .

5) WE shall be Ruthlessly Merciful, where possible, by founding a purposely desolate city to "gift" to a targeted Bozo BEFORE WE take Bozo's last good city, to avoid the warmongering penalties; as proven by Nicolo XXVI,the Insultor, in His T389 Diplomatic win . Zero resources 1 tile islands are preferred, and 1 tile inland cities with 2 of Our Citadels adjacent to that city for exiled Bozo AIs; make wonderful trading vassals .

If you want to know more of what Our Battle Sages have to teach, bring hard cash, as Our Sages are an offshoot tribe exiled from the Ferengi.
 
The other cities are actually closer to me, but I'm not interested in them.
That makes it awkward to liberate Rome first. But at least you can use your roads through Roman territory to get the road gold bonus and railroad production bonus.

Also consider taking Songhai out of the game. If their last three or even last two cities are Rome cities that you liberate, you will have very little or even no warmonger penalty.

WE shall be Ruthlessly Merciful, where possible, by founding a purposely desolate city to "gift" to a targeted Bozo BEFORE WE take Bozo's last good city
I think that is very poor advice. (1) It gives you a permanent SP/tech penalty. (2) Yes, the warmonger penalty for the last city is probably double the penalty of what went before. But what went before will have earned you plenty of warmonger hate. So I really don’t think there is any utility with this ploy. (3) Leaving the AI with their least good city cripples them about as much as leaving them only with the terrible city you gifted them.

The main reason to kill them IMHO is so you don’t leave them around to denounce you and otherwise be annoying.
 
The main reason to kill them IMHO is so you don’t leave them around to denounce you and otherwise be annoying.

Yes, and they can be very annoying; If you are trying to get a world religion/ideology vote passed it's so much easier if there is one less opposing voter :lol:

They will also constantly denounce you and may by doing so trigger a wave of other denouncements or DOW's.
 
To Our Good friends, Beetle and BigChiefLizzy, I welcome thy advices, and offer my own .

In "Aztecs on a Lakes mod map", 1) Once you get to page 3+ of the Economic Outlook section; and have a 12 tech lead upon the surviving AIs, the SP/tech penalties (I find) no longer hinder me at all.

2) YES, indeed those warmongering penalties do stack up; HOWEVER, as the Aztecs, with the Honor tree filled out; DO WE REALLY CARE about them ?? At this point, I already had all the CSs allied with me, had forced World Religion AND Ideology through the WCongress, and was rapidly gobbling up any unclaimed territory still on the map to further ISOLATE the AIs into inaction .

3) Nicolo had it correctly,"NEVER do an enemy a small insult"; and so I don't . The targeted AI has lots of stuff I want; land, resources, culture buildings, and GWorks; I WANT THEM ALL !

When working a cultural VC, infrastructure is important, yes, but early in the game GWorks are hard to come by, growing them yourself (Guilds and Their specialists) before the WFair . Thus, after looking at the World Politics section of the Diplomacy dropdown, a target is selected for LOOTING; its Wonders and GWorks are what I need/want for MY Empire, and I'm greedy !!

4) Allowing an AI any 'good' city with ANY infrastructure AT ALL, opens that miniscule possibility that an exiled AI COULD be able to attack with the hopes of fending off barbarians; which I will make moot . If that AI CAN take down barbies, it interfears with MY cash-flow .

5) If those 1 city AIs denounce me - yawn; if they DW, they've got 4-8 turns to live .
 
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