War: Sue for Peace or Wipe them out?

[Black Waltz]

At the minute I've just finished a war against the Egyptians. I tried to get a spy into Thebes and failed - they declared war.

They are much larger then I, but the border that I share is small, around 10 squares across. However, in an earlier war with the French they had captured a lot of French costal cities that the French couldn't defend with them being over on another continent. Anyway, I managed to defend by placing infantry along a mountain ridge so there was only 1 route to go. They had 46 tanks, I had 20 odd, yet due to this plan I was able to quell the attacking force, then I launched my counter attack.

I had moved my tanks into the once French cities, and took them over once I had destroyed their tanks. I retook one city that I lost and then proceeded on. I had my fleet pounding their costal cities, my airforce was bombarding their cities and softening it up for my troops, and the Egyptians were virtually powerless.

However, war weariness took hold, so I pushed up my luxery rates very high, and proceeded to raze a couple of Egyptain cities to present less chance of the caputred cities flipping. Then I sued for peace.

HOWEVER: Did I do the right thing? I had took a 5th of their total land area, but they could only produce cavarely since I had conqured their only source of rubber in their area of control.

So should I have pressed on an defeated them? Or did I do the right thing? I now have tanks and cruise missiles, but their empire is large and they've no doubt been expanding their offensive capabilities again.

 

[Furry Spatula]

well it depends. If you think you can take them without too much trouble, kick the crap outa them. They are gunna be real po'd with you so take them out before they get nukes and try to get you.

 

[Zouave]

"At the minute I've just finished a war against the Egyptians. I tried to get a spy into Thebes and failed - they declared war."


That's about all Espionage is good for - get the other guy to declare war on you!

 

[holyman]

 

[Greadius]

I've used espionage very effectively to scout the enemy...

I've had the identical problem with the Egyptians. They were more powerful (technically) but I had the better strategy/units. I defeated their defense capabilities and my people clamored for peace.

Its like trying to answer the question: should the U.S. have gone to Baghdad after defeating the Iraqi army in desert storm. Its a matter of balancing politics with combat ability.

In my opinion, it is best to carry on the war as brutally and AGGRESSIVELY (I've found I soften up after the intial momentum) as you can keep your citizens happy. Once they start protesting en masse to the point where it is effecting your advancement, call it off.

But if the Civ has been aggressive in the past and you share a border, mass troops and plan for another battle. My favorite strategy is to use the 'down time' when you KNOW there is going to be another fight to prepare a naval invasion fleet and sneak them near the back of their empire. Its not practical in a real war since it takes a long time to carry out (after 100 years the naval invasion is finally ready... good thing these guys didn't run WW2). Then, when the war breaks out (including if you start it) you can hit the flank of their empire, which the AI rarely defends with more than 1 or 2 units a city.

Raze if you don't want 'em, keep them if you think you can win the war.

 

[SanPellegrino]

I agree with Furry, they'll never forgive you and if they should get strong again, they will make you feel it.

 

[SteveLS]

The question was....

War: Sue for Peace or Wipe them out?

Answer....

Sue for Peace, then wipe them out.

During your period of peace, build your armies back up, position them for the assault. Then provoke the enemy until war is re-declared. Repeat as needed. They're gonna hate you forever anyway, might as well destroy them, eh?

 

[Black Waltz]

Well it now looks like I've lost my chance. France, India, Greece and the Babylon's have now just declared war on them. Only Greece has a border with them (albeit a little one) and they are busy wiping out the rest of the Egyptain defenses. In the meantime I've built the Manhatten Project and Apollo Program, so should I keep out of the war and claim the Space Race, or should I declare war against the Egyptain's to make sure I do win the game with an increased Teriroty grab then the rest? I have enough troops now to wipe out the Egytian's without any fear of defeat myself. The Egyptian's have no way to produce Rubber, and no-one is trading with them. I think I crushed their chance to defend against me when I conqured their Rubber. But I don't know whether I should attack and conquer their luxeries, of which they have a few, or let the others weaken themselves but grab the land whilst I grow scientifically, but may lose out if the Greeks have increased production if they conquer more Egyptian cities...

But god, I love this game. I saved it and then launched a Tactical Nuke at a few Eqytian cities. SO much fun.

 

[Arathorn]

Trade rubber to the Egyptians so they can hold out a lot longer against the Greeks and coalition. They'll bankrupt their towns with the draft, slow down the Greeks, keep everybody in war, letting you be the only one happily in democracy.

Then choose crushing the world or the space race.

Arathorn

P.S. I totally agree with the making peace (you did ask for money and gold and cities, right?) when you did, unless you could have wiped them off the map in less than about 4 turns, it was worth it. (Unless you're playing a religious civ, in which case you could always just change governments (probably to Monarchy) and keep rolling):shottie:

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Wipe them out........All of them!!!! bwahaahaahaa

 

[sgrig]

I usually have major wars quite late in the game, as I can only get serious conquests done after I get Cavalry/Cossacks, and since I usually ally with somebody to destroy a nation, I usually tend to fight to the end.

I don't want to anger my allies by quitting a war before our alliance expires, but in industrial/modern times, 20 turns is usually enough to kill most of a medium-sized civ (provided it is not on a different continent, of course). Hence, these wars usually end with the destruction of the enemy.

So far in my games I've never been really weak, so I could ally myself with the most powerful civs and together vanquish the smaller/weaker ones. Then as new territories are annexed to my empire, I become more powerful, so I can pick on a stronger enemy and so on. That's the theory.

But in my current game, thanks to me, the Egyptians have become very powerful (almost as powerful as me), after together with other allies we destroyed the English and Americans (I set the advanced Egyptians against the backward English and Americans, so they captured large territories). So before I thought that I would keep Egyptians as my allies and have a go at ruining some other civs together, but unexpectedly now the only civ with which I have a proper land border are the Egyptians! So the question is: to be or not to be? That is to start a war or not? Should I have a great war with Egypt now or keep an alliance with them and maybe RoP and destroy a couple of other civs and save the grand finale for later?

 

[Jimcat]

I hate to wipe out civilizations, or to see other civilizations wiped out. (Except the Persians.) I try to play a peaceful trading and research oriented game. The more civilizations there are, the more markets for your goods and research.

In my most recent game, I've been playing the Germans at Regent level on a large map. Started out with ten civilizations and it was pretty fun. Now I'm into the 21st century and only six "superpowers" are left -- soon to be five, the Zulus are doomed. It's gotten downright boring, and I'm trying to win the space race ASAP so I can rack up my victory and start a new game.

I find that, even if you win a short war against a neighboring civilization, you can get back into their good graces over several turns by selling them science and luxuries and not committing any more aggressive acts. This is more true with religious/commercial/scientific civilizations and less so with militaristic/expansionist ones.

Of course, your plans can be upset by outside influences such as your neighbors signing an alliance with someone else, or by your own actions like bungled espionage attempts... (-;

 

[Black Waltz]

Well they continued in the war against the rest of the world, so I decided I would gain a bit of their land. *evil grin* I violated their borders a couple of times with battleships, etc, and kept on demanding that their Workers leave my land. In the end they moved Cavarly onto my land - I asked them to move their troops or declare war - they declared war.

To pre-empt this I had switched into Republic to decrease War Weariness. Now I have Modern Armor and I'm crushing the Egytians. I have conqured several diffrent sources of luxeries, etc, to sell to my friends and I'm getting rid of one of my major competitors. I've gained about 10 cities out of this latest attack, and I'm going to build a few more cities on the unocupied squres.

To top it all I had a source of coal pop up in a City Radius which already had Iron... Iron Works here I come! *does a dance and marks this game as his best yet*