Viable early-game war

[Bad Wolf]

What are your strategies for engaging in early-game war that doesn't result in a dogpile from virtually all of the AIs for the rest of the game?

I don't always like to warmonger early, in fact I usually prefer to wait for the Renaissance or Industrial age to begin my campaigns. However some civs just peak early in terms of unique units; really what's the point of playing Assyria if you're not going to take advantage of that awesome siege tower? Or playing Greece, Rome or Carthage without getting to use their amazing early-game units?

Is there a certain number of cities you find the AI is okay with you taking? I know they really don't like you taking city-states or wiping out another civ, and I know you can get cities in peace agreements without warmonger penalty. Any other tips?

 

[Sagax]

Limit your exploration. The target may still dislike you, but other AIs will not blame you for something they don't know about. Continent maps work best for that, and you can even wipe out your entire continent without consequences.

 

[danaphanous]

Yeah, if other cultures do not yet know you AND your target they do not get the notification of your deeds. It's easy to control how far you explore. Harder to control them but whatever. I've tried some experimenting with early rush wars. It is hard to prevent them dogpiling, but honestly it doesn't much matter as long as:

1. You are stronger then them
2. Not everyone knows.

I played the Zulu in my domination victory. Wiped Austria off the map early as soon as I got bronze working with Ikanda-enhanced spearmen. Of course I got denounced by everyone on continent but there were 3 civs overseas so I just had to survive without trading or external luxuries until I met them. Then I locked down 30 turns of luxuries and used that 30 turns to rush everyone else on-continent I hadn't wiped out with Impi. They were all dead quickly and I only had to worry about unhappiness after I lost my deals several turns later. Then it was only a matter of teching frigates and wiping the rest of the world out.

It was harder, yes, but not undoable, and the key was limiting knowledge of me. I purposefully never teched boats and never built them until well into the renaissance. You just have to be content with struggling for happiness on your own and be trade-independent. My zulu game taught me how to support a massive puppet empire all on my own power and happiness and taught me there are other ways then trading of getting what you want.

If you don't care about world domination but just want to flatten one other civ early to give you the edge, then do it as early as possible when only a couple people know you to denounce you. As luck will have it, on large continents you'll still have about half the people to meet who aren't influenced by it because they don't know it happened. Then you just have to deal with the few who do know and defend against them.

A few wonderful civs for the early rush:
Aztecs - Jaguars Baby, just build 4 in a row and rush someone. It's easy!
Shoshone - Spam pathfindinders and choose the advanced gear every time. Get 4 composite bowmen before anyone else even has swordsmen! I did this and wiped out my neighbor Ethiopia. I was on a medium-sized continent with 7 civs all relatively close. However only 3 of them knew me when I did it bc I struck so early. I attacked about the time he put out his first worker. So I still had trading partners.

 

[SULOMON]

Spain with one or 2 faith wonders and the faith from wonders pantheon and Holy Order is very good for rushing.

 

[Sagax]

Yeah, if other cultures do not yet know you AND your target they do not get the notification of your deeds.

IIRC you only need to keep your own civ a mystery - AIs can know your victim, but when you wipe the victim they will still see it as "X was conquered by an unknown civilization".

 

[ToothedBomb]

That's not really possible, I think.
If you're lucky other Civs will not look for you, and you can kill someone off without them knowing.
If you play on a continents map, the Civs over on the other continent may be friendly to you when you meet them later on.

I just accepted that everyone is going to hate me for waging war, and I've learned to live with it.
Before the World Congress is a thing, you can always still send trade caravans to city states, and I've had healthy economies without building a single trade unit. Just make sure you're generating a decent amount of science so you don't get left behind with outdated units, and build a big army so the AI wouldn't dare attack you.

 

[shaglio]

Play a Duel sized map. Who cares about the warmonger penalty when there's only one other civ.

Or, if you want more civs than your early victim, play a Tiny sized Continents map and hope that you wind up with only one civ on your continent. Less civs means less chance somebody will discover you before you can finish off your early victim.

 

[danaphanous]

Play a Duel sized map. Who cares about the warmonger penalty when there's only one other civ.

Or, if you want more civs than your early victim, play a Tiny sized Continents map and hope that you wind up with only one civ on your continent. Less civs means less chance somebody will discover you before you can finish off you early victim.

Unless freaking Polynesia is in the game. If he is...he finds you and always knows...

 

[shaglio]

Unless freaking Polynesia is in the game. If he is...he finds you and always knows...

Well you could always play as Polynesia and actively avoid scouting overseas. Problem solved.