war going nowhere - what do I do?

[edge]

I am currently playing a bloodlust game on prince level. I am fighting a two front war; a naval invasion of Russia, and a land war against my viking neighbors on the other side of an isthmus. I cannot take over any of the viking cities, yet have a strong defense that they cannot penetrate. Americans on the east side are hostile toward me, and the russians are getting tough to beat because they keep trading tech with everyone else. Noone will let me sue for peace. I have fallen mildly behind in science.

Any suggestions?

 

[xeven_god_of_helsibahr]

Yes, I have some.

Things To Do:

1.) Build up your defences, unless you started the war, don't try to invade...just wait it out, because if the AI can't invade, it'll get tired of fighting you.

2.) Build tech improvements and jack you science rate up as high as you can get it with out losing money from taxes (ie, make sure the income is more than the cost).

3.) Try to contact the other civs EVERY turn. If you come in contact with one, ASK FOR PEACE!

NOTE: If it's not already built, BUILD THE UNITED NATIONS!


Things To Do When You At Peace:

1.) Build Roads and Railroads, if you have not done this already.

2.) Build irrigation and farms.

3.) Trade techs.

4.) Steal techs.

5.) Build more cities and pump them up with city walls and you best defensive units. Also, conect them to your Empire with Roads/Railroads.

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<IMG SRC="http://civfanatics.com/others/Xeven.gif" border=0>

 

[Smash]

What units are you meeting?
walls?
what is the best unit available right now?
what wonders do you have?

Generally,I would take a "scenario" approach.I would change every citizen into a scientist in all cities size 5 or better.Then go after the next most effective military technology.Then I would change them to taxmen and start incrementally rushing units.You won't lose population until the food box is empty.Then put the citizens back to work for a turn.
Then I would set up a ship chain to the enemy.Maybe a few caravans then start delivering troops.
I would also use diplomats to steal any techs they have I might deem neccessary.

 

[Dogberry_Old]

I would quit & go find some real ( human ) competition. No excuse for playing the AI now that you can convert to MGE

Dog

 

[Az]

Oh even if we all blame the AI playing against it can still be interesting...........

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[SlowwHand]

Nothing stunts a Civilization's growth like a prolonged war.

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It's In The Way That You Use It

Tuatha De Danann Tribe
ICQ 51553293

 

[Andu Indorin]

Build the Great Wall; build the U.N.; build diplomats/spies; build Howitzers.

Which is to say, it's hard to give advice without some pertinent facts: What are the most advanced units available?

 

[Mongol Horde]

Originally posted by SlowwHand:
Nothing stunts a Civilization's growth like a prolonged war. <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/tank.gif" border=0>

Only too true mate. Yet inreal life a war can be a real boost to your economy/scientific development. I had never realised this mismatch until now.

 

[shotdown08]

Just hold off the Ai until you steal some techs from the more advanced civs. Try to concentrate your forces on one viking city and hopefully the vikings will sue for peace so you can rest for your next attack.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally posted by Dogberry:
No excuse for playing the AI now that you can convert to MGE

Oh, there are plenty of excuses... I don't know for sure what nights I'll be able to play, I only have a couple hours at a time when I do play. I occasionally have to stop for 1/2 hour to get a screaming child back to sleep... The excuses go on and on.

Back to the original question - Options to consider in addition to what's already been said:

Keep taunting the vikings and get them to attack your defenses (assuming they really are impenatrable), but don't commit your resources to a frontal attack. Let them waste sheilds attacking your defenses while you focus efforts elsewhere.

Then set a goal for the war and focus as much of your civ as possible toward meeting it. Do you want to destroy the Russians, cripple them, or just get them off your back?

Don't fight a long dragged out war with only a couple cities supplying resources. Have every city that is even remotely close enough to help dedicated to the war effort. If you can bribe their cities, then build dozens of dip/spies and crank your tax rate way up. If the russians are ahead in tech then steal what you need and/or get it when you bribe the cities. Don't be afraid to set your science rate down if you need cash. Even if you can't bribe (opponent in democracy), you can use the cash for rushbuilding troops to develop an army quickly. Don't attack a city until you know you have enough resources to take it. If it is available through tech or Statue, strongly consider Fundamentalism until your goals are acheived.

Even if you just want to stop the war, you can usually get an offer of peace or cease fire once you capture a city. Just use that time to either assemble a better attack force or fortify your defensive positions because the AI will undoubtedly come after you again.

Without knowing your specifics it's hard to guess what the best approach is. Knowing what units are available, what governments and improvements are present and avaialable , and the general status of yours and the enemies' civs would help.

Let us know how it's going.

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DEATH awaits you all...with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

 

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Mongol Horde:
Only too true mate. Yet inreal life a war can be a real boost to your economy/scientific development. I had never realised this mismatch until now.

True. In real life, war does stimulate economy.
This is Civ, and hundreds of year pass in a heartbeat.

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It's In The Way That You Use It

Tuatha De Danann Tribe
ICQ 51553293

 

[edge]

I had Great Wall, but it expired and I have walls in all my cities now, built by hand.

This game I mentioned on Prince level is not looking quite as bad as before. I employed a couple of your tactics to conduct a better capture of another Russian city. When I last wrote I had 2 Russian cities, well defended. The Russians were wasting lots of units trying to take back the first city I took, and failing.

I just filled about 4 transports with military units (mainly cannons and fanatics) and one ship entirely full of diplomats. I sent in the wave of diplomats while landing about 2 ships worth of cannons. The first two diplomats took out the city walls and coastal fortress, so I bombarded with my cruisers (one lost) until I could move my forces in one turn later. Their counterattack took out most of my cannons, but I still got a decisive victory. I am now getting ready to take another russian city while building up their sub-par railroad network. Meanwhile, everyone wants to be at war with me, but I have the Vikings bashing headfirst into an impentrable fortress I have made.

One other thing I have been doing differently recently: I used to waste a lot of units attacking military units that wander around between the enemy cities. I realized this was dumb, for while I take out their units, the enemy cities just make more. But if I try to take the cities right away, then deal with the units in the field, I lose less because I can defend my units once I have a foothold on their territory. Plus, they won't have as many places to build new units.

 

[Mongol Horde]

Sounds like you are learning edge. There is also another reason for concentrating on the cities rather than the ones that are just wandering around because you will find that when you take the city some of the wandering around ones that were supported by the city will disappear. Bonus

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally posted by edge:
Their counterattack took out most of my cannons, but I still got a decisive victory.

I have personally never had good success mounting an offensive with cannons. They end up as sitting ducks because of the one movement point and crappy defense (unless you are travelling a Rail net from a well defended fort or city.

I always use two-movement units for offensives so they can move into position and attack in the same turn. That's just what I've found works well for me.

(If anyone can tell me how to have success with the one-move high attack units (i.e., catapult, cannon, artillery) I would like to hear about it.

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DEATH awaits you all...with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

 

[Supernaut]

Tim, the only way I have had any success with one MP attackers is to stack them with good defenders. That is still not guaranteed to succeed, and it can be both nerve-wracking and annoying finding out that the city has loads of cavalry or something in/near it, who all jump on your lads as a counterattack - I hate watching my musketeer's power bar getting into the red and wondering if there is going to be another attack or if I have survived.

 

[Mongol Horde]

Yeah, what Supernaut said, it helps if the city has a hill or mountain square next to it. Also if I am attacking particularly weak defenders I will risk it at two third strength you wanna be looking at veterans only here though.

 

[edge]

Tim the Enchanter,

One thing that helps with cannon attacks is a railroad net that is already there. The russians had a nice amount of railroads already built, so If I landed my cannons in the right places, I could keep them away from the cities for a turn and then move them in to attack. After I took over the eastern cities, I extended some more of the rail lines to the coast so I would not have to sail around the whole continent to attack the other cities farther to the west.

 

[PinkyGen]

If you have the ability, concentrate on the one enemy you are already committed too and defeat them. In your case, be defensive everywhere else, and focus on the russkies.

Another good but risky idea is to lower your science and raise your tax rate very high. Then, with the money, use diplomats to bribe the Russian cities. You'll get some money back and any techs they have anyways, and the city will already have defenses in place. This was very effective in the MGE succession game before it ended. To ward off falling behind in tech, steal from the other Civ's you are defensively fighting against if possible.

 

[edge]

Thanks for the suggestions. The russians have two cities left. Spies are great. I bribed about 5 of the cities and remain defensive against everyone else. I am number one in science, and I think I'm going to win the game (it is a bloodlust game). It may take some time; the other opponents, though not as large as the russian empire, are pretty well defended and have good navies. We're just getting into planes now.

 

[GJ]

I can only say one thing:

No nukes. PLEASE. They might look appealing now, but nukes give a lot of score/production-lowering pollution. Avoid the Manhattan Project wonder for the time being.

Meanwhile, when I get into the flight stages of the game, I like using helicopters as support units, because they can take enemy cities.

If you're getting into flight, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea (if you can find time) to build airports in some of your largest shield-producing cities. Then make a capture of a larger civ's city and defend it like mad. Buy an airport (incrementally) and use it to shuttle in one extra unit per turn. Then do this for the next city...and the next...and so on until you can ship in 4 or 5 extra units as they come up. I've conquered large empires this way - playing carefully and defensively.

The trick to late-stage wars is footholds... get one and make it produce, and you should have an easier time.

-GJ