I think some people are are not thinking straight !
There is no rule saying you should go for the capital first.
But, as futurehermit said, in 95% of the cases, you ensure the win (of this war at least) by doing so.
someone mentionned the last ALC.
Look how easy it was to finish china after taking it's capital!
I just don't understand how someone can argue the other way round, it's so obvious!
Some rules of thumb in this matter:
- you don't want to wander into enemy territory too long (exception if you want a pillage war only).
- you don't want to attack a city defended by more units than you have = you want to take cities fast, not giving your opponent time to reinforce.
- you want to win something = capturing lowly peripheral cities isn't a goal.
Applying those 3 rules of thumb, you find that except in the situation where the enemy's core cities are more than 3 turns away, it's not a good idea to spend time taking small cities before hitting the core cities.
Why?
1) because the AIs start building loads of units when you declare
2) most of those units will be finished in core cities, not in peripheral ones
3) most of those cities will go reinforce the capital.
conclusion : if you intend to capture the capital, you need to go there asap.
There is no rule saying you should go for the capital first.
But, as futurehermit said, in 95% of the cases, you ensure the win (of this war at least) by doing so.
someone mentionned the last ALC.
Look how easy it was to finish china after taking it's capital!
I just don't understand how someone can argue the other way round, it's so obvious!
Some rules of thumb in this matter:
- you don't want to wander into enemy territory too long (exception if you want a pillage war only).
- you don't want to attack a city defended by more units than you have = you want to take cities fast, not giving your opponent time to reinforce.
- you want to win something = capturing lowly peripheral cities isn't a goal.
Applying those 3 rules of thumb, you find that except in the situation where the enemy's core cities are more than 3 turns away, it's not a good idea to spend time taking small cities before hitting the core cities.
Why?
1) because the AIs start building loads of units when you declare
2) most of those units will be finished in core cities, not in peripheral ones
3) most of those cities will go reinforce the capital.
conclusion : if you intend to capture the capital, you need to go there asap.