Specific Help on Conducting a War

[wkndwrrr]

I've been trying for quite some time to break out of Warlord difficulty and move on to Noble. I've failed probably five or six times now, getting myself into unwinnable situations. However, in my current game;

Difficulty: Noble
Speed: Epic
Size: Small
Type: Pangaea
Civ: America/Washington
Other Civs: Qin Shi Huang, Tokugawa, Isabella
Vanilla CivIV
Time victory disabled;

I feel I have a real chance at winning. However, I could be screwed if I manage to bungle the war which I hope to use to catapult up my score. Therefore, I am asking for advice.

Recent History: The whole lot of us ganged up on Tokugawa recently, with me taking Kyoto and Satsuma, Isabella taking Tokyo and razing several other cities, and Tokugawa's 'friend' Qin Shi Huang culture-flipping Edo. In short, Tokugawa got killed. This brought me way up in the score, pretty much tied with Isabella, (though Qin Shi Huang is still ahead of both of us) However, despite my best efforts, Izzy began pulling ahead. Even a golden age on my part did not stop this, and I began to lose the tech race. So, I decided to bring a war to Spain, knock Izzy out of the running at least, and bring me to hopefully second or first place.

Overview:


The Invasion Force:

Note: as you can see, the stack does include a large number of catapults, they are just not visible on the side-bar list.

Invasion Path:


The Political Situation:




The Problem:


Note: Qin Shi Huang has a massive, technologically advanced army, and is on good terms with Isabella.

The Question: How should I manage my country so as to allow me to destroy/conquer large portions of Spain in order to knock it out of the running, bring up my score so as to allow me to have a chance at a victory condition, AND avoid having a war with Qin Shi Huang, or at least a large scale, long one, until I am ready for it?

 

[Cer]

1) it looks like you have no state religion. Good choice, if you want to avoid war with Qin and can't (or don't want to) adopt his state religion.

2) if you do not have any resource-trades going with Qin, try to get one. In my experience, the AI usually does not like to lose a useful health or happiness resource in order to declare war.

3) sometimes the best course of action is to go after the leader even while he has technologically superior units. Sometimes you can trade a bunch techs and suddenly be tied for the lead in tech, by using (for example) trading opportunities with Qin and Isabella both. (maybe Isabella has some tech Qin doesn't, and you can get it off of her in trade.) You'll be helping both civs you want to hurt, but helping yourself a lot more.

(say I have drama and several other civs do, as well. I might trade drama to rome for literature. then i trade literature and drama to china for guilds. then i trade guilds to rome for code of laws and music. then I trade guilds to spain for .....)

If you're lucky, just one tech you start with can get you 10 techs for yourself, while you wind up spreading 3 techs each to a couple rivals.

 

[wkndwrrr]

1) it looks like you have no state religion. Good choice, if you want to avoid war with Qin and can't (or don't want to) adopt his state religion.

2) if you do not have any resource-trades going with Qin, try to get one. In my experience, the AI usually does not like to lose a useful health or happiness resource in order to declare war.

3) sometimes the best course of action is to go after the leader even while he has technologically superior units. Sometimes you can trade a bunch techs and suddenly be tied for the lead in tech, by using (for example) trading opportunities with Qin and Isabella both. (maybe Isabella has some tech Qin doesn't, and you can get it off of her in trade.) You'll be helping both civs you want to hurt, but helping yourself a lot more.

(say I have drama and several other civs do, as well. I might trade drama to rome for literature. then i trade literature and drama to china for guilds. then i trade guilds to rome for code of laws and music. then I trade guilds to spain for .....)

If you're lucky, just one tech you start with can get you 10 techs for yourself, while you wind up spreading 3 techs each to a couple rivals.

1. The problem with this is that Buddhism has spread to NONE of my cities, so as much as I want to switch to it, I cannot until it spreads some more. I do not have Theocracy set up.

2. Thankfully, I believe I have several resource trades going with Qin.

3. I am dead last in the tech race, so I can't trade any
techs at all, unfortunetly.

Question: If I declare on Isabella, and Qin then declares on me, how should I handle it? Should I try and wrap up the Spanish war ASAP, or just keep pushing and hope for the best in the homeland? (I am pumping out longbowmen in all of my cites in case of a Chinese invasion) Is taking out Isabella worth the risk of getting invaded by the game leader?

 

[wkndwrrr]

Bump.... I'd kind of like some more advice before I make a move.