Following some great advice on these threads, I've had good success with domination strategies at lower levels and have recently moved up to Immortal. I've had several decent starts, but it seems like I need to finesse my early mid-game strategy a bit. I'm wondering about what advice others have. All of the games described below came as Trajan, but I'm guessing most strategies wouldn't be civ-specific. Baths, legions, roads, monuments and trading posts all have early advantages, which is why I like playing Trajan, but other civs obviously have different advantages that may also be very strong. These games are all standard size, ancient start, continents, standard time.
Specifically, playing as Rome I've settled 2-4 cities depending on the map, then successfully rushed a likely neighbor with Archers, Legions, Heavy Chariots, Spears and Catapults. By the time I'm done with my first war, I've got highly experienced light artillery and some other good units, plus riding the Eurekas has me about ready for Crossbows, to take out the walls my next opponents will have. If the map is friendly, it can go OK, but otherwise problems arise. Here's a few specific questions about problems that I'm encountering at this point in these higher-level domination games:
1. Compared with lower-level starts, my conquered cities seem to have a much greater problem with war weariness spawning barbarian hordes. I can combat that OK with different amenity strategies, but I'm curious about any strong recommendation for the best way to plan for this issue. What formula triggers barbarian spawn around unhappy conquered cities at Immortal or higher, and what's the most cost-effective way of dealing with it?
2. In a few games, the most challenging possible opponent after my first conquest is my closest neighbor and the only obvious target for my next attack. I've prevailed, but conditions can be problematic. In one recent game, before even reaching the capital I had to capture two walled Scythian cities that made effective use of missile defenders, unexpected horse attacks and encampments to pick off some of my prized high-bonus crossbows. (My usual strategy of pillaging with wounded units to heal them was useless in the kurgan-spawn wasteland around Tomyris's cities.) I captured the capital much more easily because I picked up muskets and field cannons at about this time, but this means I was much later finishing my second conquest than I might have liked. And I needed to build a substantially new army for the next foe (geography says Cleopatra, who has lower score but higher military numbers than I do), since I lost so many troops to Scythia. A Pyrrhic victory indeed. What could I have done differently before attacking Scythia, who did not appear to be planning an attack on me? When facing a tough neighbor and unfriendly geography with a medieval/classical army in an Immortal or higher domination-strategy game, is it better to port the troops over a distance to attack a weaker opponent right away, or possibly just hold on to material while building up and out and then promoting up to niter-based Renaissance units?
3. In one Immortal game, I had what seemed to be an exceptionally good start, with a naturally isolated resource-rich coastal position near many city states but not countries. So I was REXing aggressively, with about 5 cities that never faced any barbarian or player pressure. My closest neighbor was Saladin, on the opposite side of a long mountain chain. I conquered him early around 1100 BC. I continued exploring my large 2-continent landmass. But within a few turns I discovered that I was now alone there. (Except for the Norse, who pulled up with their navy to compliment my own fleet about this time.) Over time, I found the world's other main (very distant) landmass, which was home to Norway, Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and England, even though it was much smaller than my own land mass. This presented a similar situation to what I described above. I could see that Norway (with whom I allied to get the Eureka) had discovered more technologies than me and I might risk falling too far behind if I just sat still. In an Immortal or higher domination game in which you have a medieval army and no more opponents on your home continent and do not have a clear tech lead, is it better to transport your troops immediately against a distant but weak opponent, or spend time building up and out organically until you get niter-based Renaissance units?
Specifically, playing as Rome I've settled 2-4 cities depending on the map, then successfully rushed a likely neighbor with Archers, Legions, Heavy Chariots, Spears and Catapults. By the time I'm done with my first war, I've got highly experienced light artillery and some other good units, plus riding the Eurekas has me about ready for Crossbows, to take out the walls my next opponents will have. If the map is friendly, it can go OK, but otherwise problems arise. Here's a few specific questions about problems that I'm encountering at this point in these higher-level domination games:
1. Compared with lower-level starts, my conquered cities seem to have a much greater problem with war weariness spawning barbarian hordes. I can combat that OK with different amenity strategies, but I'm curious about any strong recommendation for the best way to plan for this issue. What formula triggers barbarian spawn around unhappy conquered cities at Immortal or higher, and what's the most cost-effective way of dealing with it?
2. In a few games, the most challenging possible opponent after my first conquest is my closest neighbor and the only obvious target for my next attack. I've prevailed, but conditions can be problematic. In one recent game, before even reaching the capital I had to capture two walled Scythian cities that made effective use of missile defenders, unexpected horse attacks and encampments to pick off some of my prized high-bonus crossbows. (My usual strategy of pillaging with wounded units to heal them was useless in the kurgan-spawn wasteland around Tomyris's cities.) I captured the capital much more easily because I picked up muskets and field cannons at about this time, but this means I was much later finishing my second conquest than I might have liked. And I needed to build a substantially new army for the next foe (geography says Cleopatra, who has lower score but higher military numbers than I do), since I lost so many troops to Scythia. A Pyrrhic victory indeed. What could I have done differently before attacking Scythia, who did not appear to be planning an attack on me? When facing a tough neighbor and unfriendly geography with a medieval/classical army in an Immortal or higher domination-strategy game, is it better to port the troops over a distance to attack a weaker opponent right away, or possibly just hold on to material while building up and out and then promoting up to niter-based Renaissance units?
3. In one Immortal game, I had what seemed to be an exceptionally good start, with a naturally isolated resource-rich coastal position near many city states but not countries. So I was REXing aggressively, with about 5 cities that never faced any barbarian or player pressure. My closest neighbor was Saladin, on the opposite side of a long mountain chain. I conquered him early around 1100 BC. I continued exploring my large 2-continent landmass. But within a few turns I discovered that I was now alone there. (Except for the Norse, who pulled up with their navy to compliment my own fleet about this time.) Over time, I found the world's other main (very distant) landmass, which was home to Norway, Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and England, even though it was much smaller than my own land mass. This presented a similar situation to what I described above. I could see that Norway (with whom I allied to get the Eureka) had discovered more technologies than me and I might risk falling too far behind if I just sat still. In an Immortal or higher domination game in which you have a medieval army and no more opponents on your home continent and do not have a clear tech lead, is it better to transport your troops immediately against a distant but weak opponent, or spend time building up and out organically until you get niter-based Renaissance units?
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