Warmonger for newbies...please give me some strats

[Karma Cowboy]

Hi

I like Sulla´s guides. They are very detailed and made very great.¨

What I really want to see is a guide on how to warmonger succesfull.

I have thought on playing Inca and from early start surround their cities and keep the progress at low for them. It seem cities are insane hard to take which really is big mystery. Its okay that some culture gives more defence but really why should cultural cities get 60-80% of defence for some pyramids or wonders. It makes no sence at all. But I guess its to make the cultural game more strong.

Other ideas could be to play persian. I guess their immortal is great to have. It requires horses though. Dont know how strong they are or how to play them.

The same can be said about the mongols which have the kesnik which is good also.

Have tried to play the Romans and used their praetorians but it turned out badly. They seem to lack strength vs cities badly. I guess you could go around and pillage everything when the coward hides in his base.

Dont know any other civ that is good for warmongering.

Please give some links to posts in here with warmongering explained or some guides for it.

If city defences were made worse, it would require more units from all in the game and there by make the tech period longer. This would prolong the late-game.

I agree with ppl in here that is confused over why you suicide a catapult. If a siege engine is being suicided to attack then frankly whats the point of it. Yeah it gives damages to all the stack in there but still it must be a solution that is not optimal for the game.

But I am interested in getting to know some warmongering strats and guides!!!

 

[BlackMage]

Well, the cultural defense bonus is meant to emulate the fact that men fight harder when what they are defending holds significance for their country. Look at Stalingrad. The city was demolished, absolutely devastated, yet the Red Army fought on, because with Stalingrad, the German Army had a straight shot to Moscow. That compounded with the fact that the city was named after their leader was the Russian's "cultural defense bonus".

The Romans actually are one of the better warmongering civs because the Praetorian has such a huge strength bonus. 8STR that early in the game is huge, seeing as though their biggest rivals would be 5STR axemen with their +50% vs melee and Horse Archers, which only have 6STR. You just need suicide cats to wear down the enemy so they are not as strong when you attack and to bombard the cultural defense bonus down to 0.

 

[Neurospasm]

Just building on what BlackMage said, you'll need catapults. The amount you need depends on how well defended the city is. If there are say 6 units defending, I'd use around 4 cats with my other units (you may want more or less depending on your play style or your strategy). I move them adjacent to the city (defended by my other units) and bombard until the city provides a 0% bonus. Then suicide the cats. Catapults have a weak base strength (5), but ideally they will damage all 6 units in the city.

I agree, it doesn't make sense for a long range siege unit to die while attacking, but it's for the sake of gameplay balance. It's a worthy trade for damaging all the units in the city, and the more units you attack with a catapult, the more dangerous the catapult becomes.

When attacking, try not to clump up all your units into one stack if the enemy has catapults. Collateral damage will ruin your army.

Also, unit choice matters, A LOT. Don't think, "Ah, my swordsman (strength 6) has the upper hand on the fortified axeman (strength 5)." Strengthwise this is true, but axemen have a bonus against other melee units. Likewise, archers are extremely good defenders, and you'll need appropriate counters. Consider the enemy's unit composition before you start throwing units at him.

 

[Crimso]

Speed and combined arms are the most important factors in war. Always bring a large, mixed army where you have a counter for anything the AI will throw at you. Also, keep your conquest on a fast, steady pace. I always go for a two or three pronged attack. Plan ahead the routes your armies will take.

 

[Scholastic]

Blitzkrieg.

Bomb the crap out of your opponent's city defenses and military units with air units, and then move in with tanks once you have it as close to zero as humanly possible, then consolidate your power in that city with infantry. Rebase your planes in the newly captured city and do it all over again.

 

[DraconisRex]

Well, I don't know of any guides. But there are some technologies you're going to need. Construction so you can build catapults is vital. Plus barracks and the Vassalage & Theology civics are very important.

To get this ball rolling, I work my butt off to build Stonehenge. It gives a very early boost to generating great prophets which can be consumed to get you to these important early game warmongering civics. I also like to get the Parthenon which doubles your "great leaders" production in the early/mid game.

Some civs are aggressive and you get an automatic "Combat 1" promotion adding 10% to your unit's strength. But that only gets you a bit of upfront promotion (2xp) that won't make much of an actual difference if you have Barracks plus the Theology & Vasselage civics enabled.

I think the best early strong civilization for war mongering is the Romans with the unfortunately named Praetorian unit. Early mid-game is the Japanese with the Samurai, especially if you rush their civics to get them enabled early. Late mid-game are the English with the Redcoats, though the Russians with Cossacks give them a run. Late game are the Germans with the Panzer that will wipe out any other same-tech armored unit on the board and can hang reasonably well with Modern Armor due to it's 50% strength increase against armor.

Now, if you want to go to war right out of the box, the Persians with their immortals (+50% against archers) is outstanding. Most early cities are defended by 3 strength archers which this thing can mow down even with some cultuaral bonuses. But you have to have horses and be aggressive right out of the start because technology will soon make these obsolete.

The most important thing about Warmongering is combined forces. If you don't have combined forces, you're in trouble.

Something I do differently is that I don't like to barrage the cities too much. I avoid this because it destroys all the improvements. I'll reduce them a bit, then use a couple of "disposable" catapults/cannons/artiliary to soften up the defenders. If I have aircraft, multiple Strikes against them too.

Anyway, the main key to "war mongering" is being aggressive and keeping up the aggression without tailing off too bad in research and building improvements.

 

[DraconisRex]

I should add, I hate the Keshik. It moves well and makes a nice scout, but Kubli Khan just got his *** kicked by hitting me with waves of Keshiks & catapults which I just cut down unmercifully because I rushed "guilds."

 

[Yooka]

I have read, and am beginning to see, that one of the biggest ways of knowing if you can hack it as a warmonger before declaring on someone is the size of your army. On the info (graph/stats) screen, you can tell the rough comparitive size and strength of your army, even compared to those civs you haven't met yet. If your army isn't even 5th out of 7 civs, don't bother - unless you're pretty sure you're the only one with gunpowder or planes, or something.

Building an army till you're one of the biggest means money. So once you see it's getting tough to finance this thing without major sacrifices, you need not only to declare in hopes of taking money from an enemy city - you also need to pillage towns and mines. That money can add up.

 

[handy900]

It depends on the map, game speed and difficulty. I began at Noble and refined a Persian strategy which allowed for a win on a pangaea Always War Monarch map. I think this will work on emporer, but perhaps not beyond that. I will find out soon.

Here is a link to a Prince succession game using the Immortal "GOS" Rush Strategy.

Pillage with an Immortal, then sentry him next to each AI city. The AI can't deal with it. Like I said, works for Always War with no ocean to cross on epic. [Pangaea, Inland sea, etc.]

Overview:

In C3 AW games Greebley introduced me to a tactic of placing a cheap Sumerian spear next to an AI city. The spear could pillage a little, and if fortified on a nearby hill would cause the AI to whip their cities and hide their workers. I began to think of this as the Greebley Oppression Strategy ("GOS"). The application of the GOS in C4 with Persian immortals has worked extremely well playing epic speed. The immortals pillage, and then sentry on a hill or in forest near an AI city. Each turn the immortals ensure no AI improvements have been made. The AI workers are afraid to venture out while the AI archers cower behind their walls in non productive cities. As the game moves along the AI stagnates. Meanwhile the Persians are busy chopping barracks, settlers and immortals and rolling the nearby neighbors. Cash is not a big problem since the immortals can raze cities for the Persian treasury. Keep a city if it offers a new lux or resource, otherwise raze it. This is a bit of a gambit since you need nearby horses for this to work, but this has yet to be an issue on C4 resource rich maps.

 

[Karma Cowboy]

Thanks for the replies, keep them comming also with other civs.

I guess I am not the only one that wants some tips on how to warmonger. Maybe you could make some advices to other civs like the japaneese or mongols...or...

Warmongering seems often so a cruel word to me and I guess ppl online gets pissed of when facing one but since many cities can be hard or even impossible to take at a early stage it might be better just to call it harrashment to get a lead or win if it goes well. If you can contain them to one city it might halt their production and winnng chances to a minimum or at least give you a head start before they break free.

Nice strat with the persians...I def. like that one.

Yeah the horses can be a problem but its the same with romans. You need to have iron and I do believe its more easy to get horses.

And on that note many players out there on the mp games know for sure that romans means trouble and when. It might be a more secret until too late with the persians.

 

[handy900]

Yeah the horses can be a problem but its the same with romans. You need to have iron and I do believe its more easy to get horses.

I have noticed this also. Each game so far the horses have been inside the Capital borders or just outside and easy to claim with city #2. Iron seems to be a little less plentiful. I seem to either have iron or copper near me, but copper won't help Rome so much.

 

[Karma Cowboy]

Handy900, the guide is not finished it stops at 3240....

 

[handy900]

Handy900, the guide is not finished it stops at 3240....

It's not a "guide' per se, it's a succession game that has just began. I linked it in case someone wants to follow the flow (which has only just began) of a Persian Always War game. Reading succession games has opened my eyes to a lot of good strategy & ideas.

The comments I made above were based on solo games as Persia. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[jupiterkris]

"Dont know any other civ that is good for warmongering."

U can try Spain - Isabella .
Play safe culture game until mid Medieval, Guild tech .
Then build Conquistador and start warmongering .
With Spiritual, U can optimise civics for ecomy/war without anarchy .