War and Unhappiness

[epsilon97]

Hello all,

I attempted my first total domination game the other day and I could not handle the unhappiness. During my invasion, my unhappiness hit 27, and this was after I had Notre Dame. Do you worry about this? Or doesn't unhappiness matter once you go total war?

By the way, I went tradition to open, and before I started warring I had 3 very strong, fast growing cities.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Novalia]

it definitely matters as your combat effectiveness decreases when your unhappiness increases..

couple of tips..
raze cities with no NEW luxuries..
when you're sieging a city pillage the farms before you cap it.. this way when you ultimately capture it growth is somewhat stunted..

its helpful to have CS allies.. patronage opener and the first on the right help with this.. pledge to protect a CS when you first meet and the combination is 30 influence which makes them friends at a minimum..

 

[justanotherturn]

before ideology, it can be hard to maintain happiness with "total war", but a nice religion solve most of your problem usually.

 

[joshua43214]

I find 3 strong cities about optimal for domination, though I do not let them get super tall. With Tradition I will grow the cap as much as possible, but I limit the expos to under 15 pop and settle them with an eye to production and economy and unique resources. You really only need 2 cities for domination, so I make sure that they will provide plenty of happiness or gold or I do not settle.

Consulates will help a ton with happiness. I find myself chasing the happiness techs as much as other techs in domination as well. So I end up wanting printing press early.

I pretty mush torch everything, so I also like Tradition for this reason. Going liberty will help if you are not going to torch everything.

 

[paralistalon]

Yeah, it's important to monitor your happiness while on a conquering spree. Sometimes I only have enough spare happiness to capture/puppet about 3-5 cities before I have to try to work out a peace treaty so I can boost my happiness back up. I've always been more of a puppet person instead of a razing person because of my fear that an AI will just re-settle that land, but find what works for you. I usually war in waves throughout the game, so I can imagine it would be harder to manage the unhappiness if you try to conquer the world all at once (granted, you'd probably win a quicker victory pushing through all the capitals at once if you can manage). You want to stay above 10 unhappiness due to all of the negative things that start happening at that level. Certain policies really help with managing happiness, such as the one where you get a happiness for every military building. I think there's another one that gives +2 happiness for each luxury, which could also be big, although it's kind of out-of-the-way at the bottom of commerce. Additionally, certain religious buildings will increase happiness.

One tip that sometimes works is to capture a city, then let the AI capture it back. When you capture it back again from them, the pop of that city will be really low, maybe even 1 pop. This will make it either a quick raze or a lesser hit to unhappiness. Also, target enemy cities with a lot of wonders, because these will usually allow you to break even on the unhappiness.

 

[FrostK]

Sometimes I want to take all map, all cities, all CSs[?], everything and raze nothing. What you need for this:
1. Strong religion. [nice pantheon+2 gold per city/1 smile for 2 cities + pagodas + cathedral/1 smile from shrine]
2. Focus science.
3. Do not build wonders after you started your total war. Conquering wonders is better. [Exception - wonders which give you free policies]
4. With faith buildings your culture should be ok, annex cities as soon as u have enouph faith to buy i.e. pagoda. You can start with tradition, but u ofc. need liberty, then patronage [if u want to leave some cs], commerce and autocracy/order.
5. In game with Assyria I had 50+ cities and was -27 unhappiness after taking 6 cities through peace deal. But 20 turns later after takinf autocracy and some annexing, building some barracks I got 100+ happiness.

This is for Immortal or lower diff, can not do it on deity thow.

 

[Flash1]

A question on how to handle this situation.... Greece has been seizing cities and has upset virtually everyone with the other Civs denounciation and DoW.

I was Rome, I was ask numerous times to go on the hunt. I wasn't ready yet. I still needed a couple more Legions and my Ballistae (awesome units). If I decide to go warring... do I just attack or DoW first? I will have to pretty much attack two cities at once, no big deal. If I get close and he asked why my units are near his borders and I say, not doing a thing. He knows I plan to attack him... but I get hit with a building if I attack him because I broke my promise by moving units on his border.

How do I set up an attack against Greece with all my "friends" and neighbors already at war with him without encurring to many penalties. How far do I push? I could hit the capital but need to get through two cities first. or liberate Byzantium?

 

[JeSuisNapoleon]

If he asks you why your units are there, you need to DoW right on that screen to avoid diplo hits, otherwise keep your promise afterwards.

Dont have your units on his border. Hold them back a tile or two until your ready, then move up.

Important: There is no reason you should not just DoW him with your allies if there are one or two other civs at war with him already. He will be distracted. Keep your armies back and defensive. Wait. If the war starts going badly for him, he might offer you a peace deal anyway, and it could be profitable, even though your not attacking. And, the whole time you could be building armies / buildings so its not like your loosing anything. If you have some units that can pillage nearby tiles then so much the better.
just dont loose any units.

 

[phillipwyllie]

...do I just attack or DoW first?....

Since this against an aggressive Greece you must got to war but be the last one to DOW, and don't be the one to eliminate Alex. Diplomacy is sometimes a delicate thing and can be easily upset with the warmonger hate generated from just a single DOW. If all your friends are already at war with Greece then you will receive a nice bright green "we fought against a common foe" diplo modifier with all civs that are at war with Greece.

...How do I set up an attack against Greece with all my "friends" and neighbors already at war with him without incurring to many penalties....

Denounce first, and hit next turn. You will find those who hate Alex will be more easily bribed to do DOW him. For those who wont go to war you need to kill all of his units as when he is perceived weaker than the civ you are trying to bribe then they may well join in.

....or liberate Byzantium?

Liberating is always a good thing, especially if you recall Theodora to life.

 

[bison21]

What difficulty are you on? I won a domination victory as Greece the other day. At peak times, the unhappiness caused by ideological pressure was as high as 72. There were a few turns where I was unhappy, but most of the time I managed to stay above 0.
I went autocracy, all other civs went Freedom or Order. Prora helped me to stay just above 0- it was terrible since I wasn't coastal and I had to wipe out Genghis to get a city to build it in. In retrospect I wonder what difference it would have made to simply liberate the city (his last city was a former citystate) and have less warmonger penalties.

I took the Freedom culture capital and pumped all my culture into it, reducing rival pressures within 10 turns down to nothing and was quickly above 30 happiness while still conquering cities.

As soon as ideologies hit, make sure to build/buy culture buildings in your cities. At that point you probably have some necessary wonders- also, I can recommend commerce for the double happiness from luxury resources, because the AI will likely vote to ban luxuries if they hate on you.

Also, make use of your leaders ability. As greece, I could spend my usual patronage points elsewhere. 95% of all city states were my ally end-game. As Indonesia, make use of the extra lux. As Mister Orange, always sell all your lux if you can afford it, that extra money might help you get that one happiness building you need during a turn of lots of combat. Etc etc