Rant

[The Fjonis]

[rant] In the game I'm playing now, I have eliminated all but three of my opponents. Of these, two are very weak while the third is very strong - far ahead in tech, military etc etc. So I was at war with one of the weaker civs, and had eliminated them completely except for one city. Now, in the interturn before I was going to capture their last city, the morons signed a mutual protection pact with ------ the strongest civ. So once the weak civ were eliminated, I now have to face a war which I am by no means prepared for against the strongest civ. I have carefully avoided messing with them so far, in order to build up for a fast and decisive attack sometime in the future. Now, tables are turned. Argh. I guess it will be interesting / challenging / whatever, but still it's frustrating. [/rant]

(PS: Guess who the strong enemy is? Everyone's favourite - the Babylonians!)


The purpose of this thread, you ask? Simply to vent a little and get out my frustration.

If anyone else has similar experiences / hints on how to avoid it / other things they want to rant about, feel free.

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

well show some screenshots and maybe people could help you....

 

[tR1cKy]

Ah, the Babylonians... kill them all! Erase them from the face of the planet!!!! As the absolute ruler of the mighty Roman Kingdom, i bestow on you this holy duty... wait... ah, it's not my game here, sorry.

BTW, is war already been declared? If not, you can simply retreat and let that lousy city-state live for now. If you're already at war, post some info, screenshots or something. If it's not conquest i can examine a save.

 

[The Fjonis]

Hey, tR1cKy, I am the ruler of Rome! (at least in this game ) My favourite civ.

Anyways. Thanks for your interest. Yes, war has already been declared, and I have now allied with the last civ against Hammaburi. After dipping my head in a pile of snow for 10 minutes to cool down a bit, I am starting to realise that perhaps the situation isn't so hopeless after all. I have quite a few units left from my last offensive on the weak civ, and I am now trying to design a plan for using them in this situation too. After noticing how you can very often lure the enemy units to move anywhere you want them by some cunning placement of units, I think perhaps I can unload a pile of cannons and riflemen behind the enemy lines to draw some attention away from my otherwise at risk cities on the Babylonian border. At least that tactic worked well in the attack on the weaker civs, and hopefully the same mechanisms apply here. It seemed, however, like the enemy was more attracted to offensive units than defensive units. Am I right? Perhaps I should unload some cavalry too then...

I might post some pics and reports of progress tomorrow, but now I'm going to bed. See ya!

 

[Grogs]

The AI's seem to always go for the lowest defense units they can find. This is why leaving an undefended worker attracts AI units like flies.

 

[New World Order]

Excellent, I enjoyed the tactics.

Continue destroying the Babylonians. Attack their main stacks of troops. Keep belching out armies, make them pay a severly high price for peace, then destroy them.

Show No Mercy.

 

[QuantumEleven]

I know that this is no longer an option, but for a similar situation in the future - swallow your pride (and your anger) and leave that last rival city intact. Yes, it's annoying you. Yes, you want to crush them completely and utterly under your Mighty Bootheel. But keeping one city alive means that you can extort them for all their money and tech (assuming they have any). If you are playing on a higher difficulty level and running a 0% tech rate, they are a good future source of techs (which they will get cheaply from other AIs)...

Also, IIRC a MPP only triggers if you attack one of their units/cities inside their border - so don't cross their border, wipe out whatever is left of them on the outside, and let them be.

But that's for another time In this case, I too am a big fan of dropping a small stack in their "hinterland" to distract them from my main attack. Works wonders if they don't have railroads... Some artillery, some good defenders, with Battlefield Medecine (if you can get it), preferably on a mountain tile, and you'll be able to hold that position for a very, very long time, letting the AI break its teeth trying to smoke you out. In the meantime, you can prepare your main attack somewhere else in (relative) peace.

Let us know how it goes! I'd love to hear about it...

 

[Rambuchan]

This problem you are experiencing is the very reason why I get EVERY Civ involved in my wars through some kind of alliance - so that my victim doesn't make deals with anyone else.

Leaving the city standing is a good option but sounds like you can handle the Babylonian war just fine. When these twists of fate happen in a game it is often a blessing in disguise, urging you to take on your rivals a bit quicker.

 

[Turner]

Dogpile Babylon. Failing that, make peace with them as soon as you can. Sell all your techs to them for GPT. Do this for three or four techs, and you will economically cripple them. Most of their GPT should be going to you by then, and they will have to start disbanding units and improvements. This will also have the added benefit that they won't be able to upgrade units. When you get enough of a unit lead, goad them into declaring war on you, so they take the rep hit for the broken deal.

Shouldn't be too hard, if you just think it out.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Two civs dogpile wont help much IMO...
Depending on the era you're in, you can make them suffer more or less. If you have enough artys, it's really fun. I've allways admired AI when his inf takes 5 turns to go through my territory to get my Iron and when it looses à HP due to bombard, it goes back. Meanwhile, not many cities of his homeland left.

 

[Turner]

Any civ will help. The AI will be distracted with having more than one front, and that will help take the heat off of you. And if you can get more than one, all the better.

 

[The Fjonis]

Right. Here's an update on the situation:

It has now been five turns since the Babylonians declared war on me. My frontline cities close to the Babylonian borderm Memphis and Elephantine, have withstood their attacks so far. They are defended by riflemen.

As mentioned earlier, I was fortunate to have quite a few undamaged units available after crushing the Zulus (the bastards who made the MPP with Hammaburi). And, since this is DyP, those units were relatively quicly deployable, since the ships in this mod move much faster than in the unmodded game. The result: this turn, I unloaded 17 riflemen, 2 cavarly, 2 cannons and 1 settler on a hill within striking distance of Babylon and another core city.

Next turn, I will found a fort here, which I will use as a base for crushing their core cities. 31 cavalry units and 8 cannons / artillery are ready to be unloaded in the fort on the next turn, and more are being trained / built all the time. I will move the stack of cannons, defended by riflemen, up to the border and bombard Babylon, and then the cavalry will charge.


------------

I was quite amazed really with how quickly I was able to mobilize my army. Mind you, the units I'm using in this attack were originally quite far away, scattered, some wounded etc. It will certainly be interesting to play on. Perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing after all?

I'll keep you posted on my progress if anyone's interested.

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EDIT: apparently the pictures don't work anymore Dunno why, and I don't have them on my computer anymore.

 

[The Fjonis]

I realise that this thread has dropped somewhat in popularity, but if anyone's interested, I managed to pull of the war on Babylon surprisingly smoothly.

They have now been reduced to a worthless city state on an island, which I've isolated. Almost disappointing, to be honest. I think I'll have to try a higher difficulty level next time (this was Monarch) - either Emperror, or Deity if I'm feeling remarkably bold

 

[tR1cKy]

good job Fjonis! You're almost in the domination limit - a manifest destiny for Rome!

 

[Praetorian]

Does not seem that you have something worry about

 

[The Fjonis]

Thanks Tricky!

And you're right, Praetorian. It went all too smoothly for my liking. I seem to have overestimated the Babylonians somewhat. But I can tell you it was a scary and frustrating moment when those buggers declared war on me while I was still only finishing my last job.

Anyway, this concludes this thread, I guess. I'm just going to complete this game, and then I'll advance to Emperror, I reckon. Looking forward to it!

 

[Praetorian]

Anyway, this concludes this thread, I guess. I'm just going to complete this game, and then I'll advance to Emperror, I reckon. Looking forward to it!

Good luck in the Emperor level