Problems with Dschenghis Khan on Prince level

[FlyingSwan]

One other crazy thing you can do,which ive done in a handfull of games,is attach some Great Generals to your trebuchets,give them the morale promotion for +1 movement and off they go with the cuirissars.Fit them with the accuracy promotion to take down more defences.You dont want to be waiting around Knocking the defences to 0%,just bombard and then attack in the same turn-as elite troops said above,mounted troops is all about speed.That 1 turn of bombarding with 2 will GGs will reduce the defences by 48% which will get you better odds.

From reading above posts I believe you captured the great wall-gives +100% GG points for fighting in your borders-and with Genghis bieng IMP you should be swimming in Great Generals by now!

Edit-or you can go for city raider III on the trebs with the cuirissars,Im not sure if the trebs will take out cultural defence 1st,Id have to check,either way Bombarding with Knights is good,as are the Odds for attacking with a CRIII Treb.

 

[Todelotti]

From reading above posts I believe you captured the great wall-gives +100% GG points for fighting in your borders-and with Genghis bieng IMP you should be swimming in Great Generals by now!

Indeed, I just got GG number 6 I used the first one for a medic general and attached all others to my Heroic Epic city. Don't know if that is the best strategy but the highly promoted units that the HE city produces are nice.

Would it make sense to stop production in a few cities, turn down research a bit after Rifling and just produce wealth for a few turns in order to get money to upgrade outdated units? I would especially like to upgrade all the Keshiks and Elephants to Cavalry.

I started to attack without siege weapons now and it worked fine. 2 cities are captured without too big losses. The Impis seem to be good units and were tough as well against my horses btw, not only the longbows.

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, cuirs do a good job vs. longbows. Cavalry of course even better. I can't tell with 100% certainity without seeing the save, but based on what you've written, I'm pretty sure you can shut down teching completely after you get rifling. You don't need any more techs to win the game. Slider to 0% until you've upgraded the old units sounds like the right move. I wouldn't build wealth for this during a war though. Better to build new units.

It's best if you can accumulate wealth before you reach your target tech, in this case it would have been MT. You can for example create a Great Merchant or two for trade missions right before MT, then you can upgrade several HAs and Elephants to cuirs on the same turn you get the tech, and go to war immediately. Units are only good as long as the opponent doesn't have appropriate counter units. On noble they are so slow to rifling that cuirs have a very large window of opportunity. On higher levels, if you get them fast enough, the window of opportunity can still be very large, but it gets shorter. Which makes it more important to get the army out faster after you reach the tech.

 

[Todelotti]

YEAH! 1535 AD - Conquest Victory!

I never had a win so early, even not on the noob levels! I definitely did a lot of basic things wrong in the past which you helped me to correct now. THANKS TO ALL!

Just 4 final questions:

_ When you go for a domination or conquest win which are the best world wonders to build (and which should I skip)? In this game I went for Great Library (seems to be an always useful multipurpose wonder), then Hanging Gardens (the free additional population point seems to be always useful as well), Notre Dame (additional happiness against war weariness), Taj Mahal (Golden Age is always useful) and Statue of Zeus (to disturb enemies with war weariness). Are there other possibly better wonders? Do I overestimate some of the mentioned above?

_ If you are in a longer war which are the best civics to choose? I went for Police State (was possible because I captured the Pyramids from Sury), but it was kind of competing with Hereditary Rule. I'm not sure what is better. Then Nationhood because I was worried when the war with Shaka and Willem started to be overwhelmed but it turned out that I only drafted a single unit. Maybe Vassalage is better due to the experience points? And I changed to Theocracy for the exp points.

_ What exactly does it mean when a building becomes "obsolete"? I see that I can't build that building anymore (for example walls or monasteries). But do they also lose their effects, i.e. does the defense bonus from walls disappear or the culture/research bonus from monasteries that I already have built? I can see those buildings still in my city's building list with their boni, so I guess "obsolete" really only means "can't be built anymore", right?

_ And last but not least: If I want to start a new game with again a more military focus (towards domination or conquest) which leader would you recommend? Except Ghengis of course (although after this game I really like his horse army )... And this time it will be a new try for Prince level!

 

[dutchfire]

* You can win without building any wonders, and you are more likely to build too many than too little. The Great Library is nice, Hanging Gardens you can build if you've got nothing else to do at that point, but the Statue of Zeus you might as well skip. AIs are not so affected by war weariness.

* Draft more. Especially when you can draft rifles, drafting rifles is one of the strongest ways to get military units in the game.

* Obsolete monastries (after scientific method) no longer give +10% science. I think they still allow you to build missionaries. All buildings will still give culture.

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, Statue of Zeus is not worth it. The effects of War Weariness on the AI are negligible. Notre Dame is also questionable in a conquest game. During war, you should be whipping heavily to get units out as fast as possible. Most cities except capital should be way below happy cap.

It was already mentioned earlier that the Oracle is very strong. Especially on the lower levels where it takes a while for the AI to get there. Another super strong wonder is the Great Lighthouse, if you are playing a map where most of your cities are coastal. With stone Pyramids are a great build. Representation is the civic of choice there, then run a ton of scientists. Preferably this should be combined with Caste System for more scientists.

Police State is good for wars, if you have the mids. Slavery is a given and Nationhood can be very strong. Just draft more, as mentioned. What is more important is how you use your civics before the war. The war will be easier the sooner it starts. To start it sooner, you need to unlock your prefered units earlier. A period of Caste and Pacifism, preferably during a Golden Age (which you can start with the Great Artist you get fom Music) can do wonders for your lib date if you are aiming for cuirs. During the Golden Age, run as many scientists as possible in a couple of cities, they can even starve during those turns, as long as they aren't losing pop (start GA with almost full food bin). Pacifism gives +100% Great People production, as does the Golden Age, so you'll easily get a couple of Great scientists to double bulb education.

A lot of leaders are great for warfare. Ironically Gandhi is one of the best. The fast worker is an awesome unique unit that is with you all the game. PHI gives you faster Great People to reach lib faster through bulbs, and SPI let's you change at will between Caste and Slavery, for even faster great people. Both are top tier traits, though probably not the easiest to play efficiently. The strongest early rushers are the Egyptians and the Persians. Their chariot based UUs are awesome. All of their leaders are good picks.

 

[FlyingSwan]

If I was recomending a leader it would be Shaka,at prince level an Impi rush works,his AGG trait is great because of his UB the Ikhanda is half the hammers and gives you -20% maintainace,its like bieng AGG/EXP and ORG which is what you want if your conquering lots of citys early on.Also Impis and horse archers mesh together because they both have 2 movement and protect each other-an enemy axe will go for your horse archer,while an enemy horse archer will end up on an Impi spear.

The other two leaders I like for war are Ragnar and Tokugawa,both are a tricky to play because of crap starting techs,but their macemen units make it all worthwhile if you can get them out fast enough-were talking idealy oracling civil service,or having a great tech rate to get them attacking by 1AD

Congrats on your win btw.

 

[Pangaea]

Congratulations with a fine win, that's a good date

Early warring is great with Egypt due to the War Chariot. It is immune to first strikes and has 5 so it's almost like a HA, that you get incredibly soon, as long as horses is within reach of course. Tech AH and connect horse and you're in business. Spears is their biggest problem, but if you war early enough that's unlikely to happen, especially on the low levels, and in any case they can handle spears better than normal chariots due to the higher base strength.

Civics depend a bit, but slavery is an obvious choice. Once you're in "war mode" particularly later in the game with e.g. Cuirs/Cavs, you can win the game by doing nothing but whipping units, so slavery is a given. With decent religion spread, Theocracy is good for instantly upgraded units. Barracks+Theocracy gives two promotions out of the gate, which is nice (CR2 siege for instance).

If you have access to Rifles, Nationhood is incredibly powerful. Draft, draft and draft some more, and you'll have a very powerful army in no time. Nothing in the game can outproduce this method (hammer efficiency). Ballsy statement, but I think it's accurate.

Police State + Slavery is powerful, because those whips are cheaper. I like to use this when mass-whipping Cuirs. Usually easy to 2-pop whip a Cuir with few hammers invested. With decent food for regrowth or city size, you can often whip every two turns from many cities. No problem to overpower an AI then.

Vassalage can be good for extra XP too, but I prefer to use Theocracy instead so I can stay in Buro so that the capital can still keep the economy/research going a bit. Of course, if you're at the last stretch that doesn't matter much, and research is effectively turned off anyway.

Btw, a strong way to start a war is by having the earlier units already built, and when you get access to for example Cuirs, you have lots of money (for instance from a Great Merchant trade mission) and then upgrade e.g. Horse Archers or Elephants to Cuirs. Much faster than having to build a Cuir army first. You can often declare war the turn after you get access to Cuirs, and capture at least one city in the same turn. Then continue to roll over the AIs before they know what hit them.

 

[Todelotti]

Thanks for all the tips and congratulations! I think I will try an Egyptian or maybe Persian leader then for the next game.