Victories

[Antha]

Are cultural victories one of the easist ways to win? All the games, but 1, that Ive won, 10 (played about 20-25 total) have been cultural. The other was a domination win, I was the only one to start on a big continent, rest were on islands. I have a hard time setting up a attack, I can muster the forces, but getting them there and actually keeping enough alive is my undoing. Could the way I have the setup have any affect, map size, level and such? I play Chieftain (no comments), still learning the game, continents, 60% water, about 4 billion year world, no barbs and 5 random civs, mine included. I looked in the Strategy section of the main page, War something, but I guess Im looking for a tips/hints guide to staging a successful attack. Only civ that Ive been able to attack and actually win a few key cities was Spain, before they get the conquistador, boy does Isabella get mad Of course, I usually dont end up getting bullied by the AI anymore, they are usually polite to me, since I have the tech they want, but I want to be able to kick their butts also.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Map size does make a difference in some victory conditions. 100,000 culture win is much more easier on a huge map, because of all the cities you have. Much harder to do that on a tiny map, unless you control nearly every single wonder. Difficulty also plays a factor. Often on Deity, the AI will launch a spaceship before you can accumulate 100,000 culture (unless you destroy most, if not all the AI). And on higher levels it is harder to get the early wonders.

For industrial-modern age warfare, I recommend reading the articles about using artillery.

Before striking an AI, have at least a stack of 10+ offensive units (depending on size of AI, difficulty level, units you are using, etc.). Very early in the game on lower difficulty levels you can get away with less than this. On deity I have a stack of 10-15, on monarch and below, my initial stack sometimes has as few as 5 offensive units to capture their border cities. Make sure the units are at least VETERAN, not regulars, and the most powerful offensive units that are available at that time. VETERAN Knights/horsemen/swordsmen vs. Spearman and Cavalry vs. Pikeman/musketmen are pretty powerful. If you are facing Greece or Rome you will have problems using horseman because of their UU's that have a defense of 3. The Zulu impi will cause problems for horsemen, since the horseman can't retreat from the impi. Have re-inforcements being built to replenish the forces that die, so you can continue on with the attack, and leave the wounded behind to heal up. It is a good idea to bring some defenders with the stack to protect the offensive units from a counterattack, but when I use horsemen, the defenders slow me down, so I don't build any defensive units. If you are building swordsmen, there is little need to bring along spearman, since both units offer a defense of 2. If you are in Republic or Democracy you will want a very large stack to ensure the war is short and sweet to prevent war weariness.

Each AI city typically has 2-3 defenders in it (sometimes more, often times early in the game less than this), so you usually want 3-4 times as many offensive units as they have defenders to ensure you'll capture the city that turn. The more powerful of an attacker you have vs. how weak/strong their defensive unit is will affect what ratio of units you'll need. Try your best not to attack from across a river. If the city is built on a hill or is a city/metropolis, you'll want more units because the city will have more defense.

There are basically 2 styles of warfare. One is to take that large stack, grab a few cities, then settle for peace. The other way is to keep pounding away until the civ is completely destroyed. The 'non-stop war effort until they die' tactic does usually cause you to fall behind in infrastructure because you are devoting more resources towards military instead of temples, libraries, etc. So while that 1 civ is destroyed, others may pull ahead of you.

 

[Scyphax]

I find cultural victories the easiest win also but I think it is because a culture win requires some different skills to a dominantion victory and I am better at building than fighting.

The diplomatic victory can also be an easy win but this requires another set of skills - trading and boot licking.

I find the size of map unimportant as I always go for a 20,000 culture points in 1 city win as I get to bored building catherals etc in 100's of cities.

 

[Antha]

Played a game last night on a standard map, continents and 5 civs, all random, me included. I got the Ottomans, so I decided to try for a more military bend, instead of my cultural one. I started out on my own continent, others had to share their 2, so I had to deal with their land grabbing. Luxuries were abundent for me, resources kinda limited, but I had 2 iron deposits, 1 slatpeter and 2 horses. Everything fine, then the Vikings wanted "tribute", told em to shove it, they declared war. No big deal, I had the Art of War, so I had veteran units...loaded up 2 explorers in a Galleon, along with 4 galleons of troops, headed to the Vikings. Explorers destoyed the roads to their iron, saltpeter colonies and cut off 3 cities from the capital. I took boat of units to take 1 city, other 3 boats dropped their loads and kinda just raised havoc. Had privateers (3 stacked) attacking their galleons of troops, so most didnt make land fall. Then Japan signed a MPP with the Vikings, dam 2 sided attack, so I took a city the Japanese dropped on my land, it ended up being leveled (rubble graphic is so annoying). By this time I was able to make ironclads, so I pumped them out, stuck them off the Japanese coast and had them auto bombard the cities. Japan sued for peace, gave it to them. Then the Vikings got Germany on their side, my explorers cut off supply lines to the capital of Germany, they sued for peace about 4 turns later.

This went on for most of the game, me vs Vikings. Vikings kept dragging Germany and Japan in it. My cities were getting mad at me, so in the border cities I imported troops and started building happy buildings instead of troops. Of course Egypt stayed out of all the fighting and was land grabbing End the end I only lost 7 units, 2 explorers, countless privateers, 4 galleons and about 10 workers (forgot all about them out there), while I gained 6 cities and lots of gpt, luxuries, resources and techs. Ended up in second to the Egyptians, of course.

Will say that waging war, or my case basically doing a defensive war, is alot different than doing a cultural win. So I think cultural wins are more my speed or the space race, maybe one day.

 

[egreen007]

In most of the games I have played (easier difficulty) I have had no problem winning multiple ways. But, usually the space race is the easiest. Once you get four or five high production cities you can build the space ship in no time flat.

 

[Eclectic99]

Bamspeedy, your post in this thread is one of the best articles on how to play Civ3 I've seen ...thanks.