To Mobilize or to Not Mobilize

[hbdragon88]

I agree fully on this - mobilization limits you. I had a very bad incident where the stupid French didn't die when I finally took Nottingham away from them. The 'settler in a ship' thing seized a city away from me. ARGH.

 

[Finvola]

I have never used mobilization, and I probably never will

 

[Ninakoru]

I think mobilization is hard to use well. I think these are the most important points:

- When you WILL end all your wars (this must be pre-defined before mobilizing)
- How much will improve your unit production.
- Have all priority improvements perfectly assigned before (including wonders of course)
- Military situation: You are going to attack/ defend, they outnumber you or viceversa...

Lets discuss some wrong points of some posts here:

- You can CONTINUE wonders and any inprovemente PREVIOUSLY ASSIGNED.
- Mobilization is not oriented to conquer support, its more (more, not totally) oriented as a last-resort measure, like draft. Renember that to make barracks and airports in recently conquered cities can be as useful than building temples, marketplaces, ect. (those can be built AFTER war with that civ, meanwhile faster healing/ airlift)
- If you are having an easy time with your game, mobilization of course have nearly no point. Try higher dificulty levels

I think of mobilization as a part of a Last-resort-ultimate-war combo: Research/ Entertainment: 0%, Monarchy, Mobilization, then draft 2 citizens per turn, with the money rush build units on not-core/ semi-core cities, these ones will be greatly enhanced with mobilization. Every single city switched to Barracks/Airport/Combat Units. And then ..... :rocket2: MOAHAHAHAH !!

 

[Yndy]

I'm not sure whether to strongly support mobilisation or not. I don't want you to fail using it and then consider I'm giving you bad advice

I use it every game for limited periods mostly toward the end of wars.

I strongly support Ninakoru's comments except the 'measure of last resort' thing. I use Mobilisation to win wars that would otherwise end with draw.

At the beginning I have armies ready for combat but after 10 turns of war I have either won and I am finishing the last AI town or I am in a stalemate position with the AI throwing units every turn and me not gathering forces quickly enough. Then I mobilise. I improve the number of units i build and many times I am able to gain initiative again.

Tassadar said mobilisation can help you reduce build time from 2 turns to one but more often helps me reduce build time from 3 turns to 2. Maybe i build cities closer to each other that you (I'm between OCP and ICS) but mobilisation helps me a lot.

Re: building temples to expand borders. That is not absolutely necessary. You can just take the next city and the borders will expand in your back but not in front. You can also build one new city between two enemy cities. Temples do not end subversion (military does).

PS: I do not strongly support mobilisation but I think it's useful when the time comes. And time comes at least two times per game. Oh, and don't forget Golden Age + Mobilisation will boost your production so high that you can't imagine (it happened to me once)

 

[sgrig]

I'm currently mid-way through Industrial age, and I'm at war with the English who are one of the most powerful civs. I'm playing as Russians. Just after the war started, I mobilized because England had an MPP with Celts who are the largest civ, but at that point I got my golden age as well! I used my cossacks for the first time and had my Golden Age. So currently I have mega production in all of my cities, meaning I can build any unit in 1 turn, I have about 20 production cities, so this means I'm producing 20 units per turn, which allows me to field a substantial offensive force plus keep good defenses in my cities, and have the border with my other neighbours sealed. So I'm quite happy with the result of mobilisation, especially that there aren't any wonders to be built at the moment, and all of my core cities have all the possible improvements. I anticipate that by the time my GA ends I'll destroy at least one of my enemies and seriously cripple the other.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by Ninakoru

Lets discuss some wrong points of some posts here:

- You can CONTINUE wonders and any inprovemente PREVIOUSLY ASSIGNED.
- Mobilization is not oriented to conquer support, its more (more, not totally) oriented as a last-resort measure, like draft. Renember that to make barracks and airports in recently conquered cities can be as useful than building temples, marketplaces, ect. (those can be built AFTER war with that civ, meanwhile faster healing/ airlift)
- If you are having an easy time with your game, mobilization of course have nearly no point. Try higher dificulty levels

- You can, but the perk of mobilization is to provide an extra shield in each square worked, and continuing wonder building doesn't get those extra shields
- You can build those after the war, but if you have neighboring civs with massive culture value, you risk the chance of letting the city defect. And you want to push ahead, not stake it out in a city hoping that it doesn't defect
- True.

 

[Ninakoru]

Trick to stop Mobilization (If you are religious, it may worth it): Change your Gobernment !!

It happened to me yesterday... In last Game one of my neighbours, Egypt betrayed and attacked me. I was on Democracy, and i were too focused on building improvement Hospitals and factories and egypt had a bigger military, and i was making universal sufrage. I changed inmediately to war-time and popping calvary / infantry from most of my cities, But the problem showed when war weariness begin to hit me hard (a loong war), and I wanted to swith to hoover, better for my play/stile and map than Sufrage...

Then i changed to Communism, and then suddently was on normalcy !! nice, very nice. Switched to Hoover and with then production increase, no need for war-time status while counter-attacking and conquering him

 

[Obssesed Nuker]

Mobilizing also ends when you declare WAR. So its good for pre-war build up also.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Originally posted by Obssesed Nuker
Mobilizing also ends when you declare WAR. So its good for pre-war build up also.

WOW! If that is true, you have uncovered the real reason and best use of mobilization!

The problem I had with mobilization was that you couldn't control how long it lasted... but if you can mobilize in peacetime to build your army and then it end when you go to war.... well, watch out!!!

Thanks for this gem of stratejery!

 

[The Templar]

I've mobilized when my back has been to the wall - one memorable occasion was when the Chinese invaded with a huge stack of infanty. I pumped out infantry, arty, and cavalry to counter the offensive. Then, I got tanks and started pumping those out. Used the gov-switch trick to get out from under mobilization.

I'll have to try the mobilize-before-war trick next time I play.

 

[cromagnon]

What's with everyone changing their avatar? First CGannon, and now Sultan?? Just when I was getting used to the limerick-spewing sizeable sultan too...


On topic: I did try mobilizing, but I'm not sure I got much of an appreciable benefit (or penalty, for that matter). And it seemed to end on its own when I made peace with one of my enemies.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Originally posted by cromagnon
What's with everyone changing their avatar? First CGannon, and now Sultan?? Just when I was getting used to the limerick-spewing sizeable sultan too...

I tuned in today and found alot of people wearing their retro jersies. I assume it is some kind of pre-planned move that I just missed the announcement on.

The old Sultan will be back soon enough.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by Obssesed Nuker
Mobilizing also ends when you declare WAR. So its good for pre-war build up also.

What? I thought it only ended when you signed a peace treaty.

 

[Grey Fox]

Originally posted by hbdragon88


What? I thought it only ended when you signed a peace treaty.

If you start the mobilization during peace, you can end it by declaring war.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Originally posted by Grey Fox
If you start the mobilization during peace, you can end it by declaring war.

I am unhappy to report, that at least in the latest game I am playing, Celts on Monarch level PTW 1.14, this is not true. I was mobilized for war, I declared war, we stayed mobilized. I wait for peace to get those temples built.

 

[Ninakoru]

Originally posted by Obssesed Nuker
Mobilizing also ends when you declare WAR. So its good for pre-war build up also.

FALSE. At least on my version. Mobilization ONLY end when you sign peace treaty with all civs.

If you go war-time and then declare war to a civ, you will STILL at war-time, UNTIL you sign a peace treaty with ALL civs at war.

 

[Grey Fox]

It has always ended when I declared war though...

 

[sabo]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash


WOW! If that is true, you have uncovered the real reason and best use of mobilization!

The problem I had with mobilization was that you couldn't control how long it lasted... but if you can mobilize in peacetime to build your army and then it end when you go to war.... well, watch out!!!

Thanks for this gem of stratejery!

I agree, I didn't know you could use it that way. cool!!

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

But see my later post Sabo10- it isn't true. You are mobilized for war until the war is over regardless of your condition when you start mobilizing.

I think changing governments would end mobilization (haven't tried), but that is a case where unless you were a religious Civ you'd be committing suicide to try it during a war.

 

[cromagnon]

I thought that was documented in the manual. Now I'll have to find that dumb paperweight...

(anxiously awaiting Wildfire444's imminent thrashing of the manual.