Warmongering

[Eurostud]

I've been trying to get a steady method for taking over civilizations via wars and battles. I always have bad habits or don't make the right decisions early on, causing me to have extremely low battle odds.

Any basic tips on how to take over civilizations?

 

[Spammurabi]

Get a couple of decent production cities up, build 6 or 8 axemen, preferably after barracks so you get a city raider promotion with maybe a couple of spearmen for anti-chariot escorts (more vs. Egypt or Persia) and rush them in the early game.

Suicide catapults and other seige units to do collateral damage to your opponent's city defense stack after taking down their defenses is also critical. Build lots and lots of catapults.

 

[Eurostud]

Thanks. Now I've got another question for you.

I use Ragnar now as my person of choice. I can't seem to find the perfect time to attack a civilization. I can get swordsman and the special unit significantly earlier than catapults, so by the time I get catapults to bring along with the army of berserkers and swordsman, everybody else has the same units and has macemen almost.

Any clue when the right time to attack is? I'm going to try attacking within the first few turns if possible, but that's hard to do

 

[bonafide11]

Thanks. Now I've got another question for you.

I use Ragnar now as my person of choice. I can't seem to find the perfect time to attack a civilization. I can get swordsman and the special unit significantly earlier than catapults, so by the time I get catapults to bring along with the army of berserkers and swordsman, everybody else has the same units and has macemen almost.

Any clue when the right time to attack is? I'm going to try attacking within the first few turns if possible, but that's hard to do

Well, go for catapults earlier. Construction is a cheap tech than both Civil Service and Machinery, and you need both to get macemen. So don't put off construction so long then

 

[InvisibleStalke]

In the early game - pre catapults - you can attack any time you like provided you have iron or copper (or a UU like immortals).

Whether an early attack is worth it depends a lot on how close the enemy are and what their resources are. In general its worth attacking an enemy that is:

- Not protective or creative - you will lose more units than you want to. You may want to prune them but you probably can't take them out.

- Is not an aggressive civ with metals. If you are next to an aggressive civ and they don't have metals, take them out as soon as you can.

- Is reasonably close to you - their nearest cities should be in spots that you could consider building a city yourself. There isn't much point in attacking a civ with cities 20 squares away - wait until later.

Once you decide to attack, you need to get 2-3 cities up quickly and focus them on building units. You will need at least two workers and will chop and whip to get an army of 8-10 axemen plus a couple of spears if the enemy has chariots. Each city will build a barracks first then nothing but military until you have your army. Then attack.

When you decide to go for early war you need to be singleminded about it - you can't build your economy or wonders at the same time. Most probably you aren't focussing on building enough units quickly enough.

For later wars, the process is the same except you need to include lots of catapults. The AI doesn't build enough catapults, so even if they have construction you can beat them by just building lots more catapults.

For Ragnar, you can't just beeline for beserkers. Beserkers can't fight without catapults so you need them first. If I was going for a domination win with Ragnar, I'd be planning on rushing one opponent with axes, the next when I get catapults and a third when I get beserkers.

 

[Ecofarm]

Research Metal Casting. Build a forge and run an engineer ASAP. Build Colossus. Research to CS. Great Engineer lightbulbs machinery. Produce Berserkers. Circumnavigate and scout coastal cities with 2 caravels. Research to Astronomy. Build/whip 4 Galleons, add Berserkers, bake foreign cities at 360' for 1 hour. Don't worry about catapults unless you are playing higher difficulty levels. Amphib archer citys (1 galleon per is generally enough). You should burn 2-4 cities the turn you declare. Remember: do not let them see you comming; leverage 6 move galleons (+1 Viking, + 1 Circumnavigate) to amphib from beyond vision the turn that you declare. Denying them even 1 round of preparation should be leveraged by attacking multiple cities. Your caravels will make this easy. You can then bring cats/lightbulb engineering. Burning 2 or 3 cities on turn 1 should be sufficient to end competition from that civ.


In MP, I've done this alone (FFA) and 2v2 with Inca. Each time without cats and a stunning victory.

Island map anyone?

 

[mice]

Build/whip 4 Galleons, add Berserkers, bake foreign cities at 360' for 1 hour. Don't worry about catapults unless you are playing higher difficulty levels. Amphib archer citys (1 galleon per is generally enough). You should burn 2-4 cities the turn you declare. Remember: do not let them see you comming;

Really? you send the berserkers in without cutting down the culture defense?

 

[manu-fan]

Get 2 or 3 cities up and running. Get Iron or Copper and churn out Axemen or Swordsmen. Maybe 1 or 2 Spearmen. If you have a close neighbor, you should be able to take them out early while they have only 2 or 3 cities. Even hilly culture protected capitals can be taken down with a numbers advantage. It may take a 7 unit (Swords/Axe) army to win against a 3 archer city.

If you find you don't have a close neighbor, you may have to expand (4 cities and much later) to take them on. Get Construction and make sure you have 4 or 5 catapults (with more in production) before taking them on. You need to wipe out a Civ before it gets Longbows. You'll be facing Archers and Spearmen with maybe the odd Axeman/Horse Artcher/Chariot thrown in. When attacking, bombard with your Cats, and don't be afraid to wait until next turn to attack with Cats before attacking with other units.

Once the enemies get Longbows, you usually need to have Macemen and Trebucets.

Cheers.

 

[Eurostud]

Yeah, I've been making the mistake of attacking people that are too far away, like 20 squares away.

Now, by "a lot" of catapults, how many do you mean exactly? Around 10 or more?

Also, by wiping someone quickly that's next to me, you mean attack in the first few turns of the game, I assume, correct?

 

[Ecofarm]

Berserker C1 CR1 vs. Longbow CG1
8.8 v 6
CR1 cancels CG1
40% culture
8.8 v 8.4
longbow in city
8.8 v 9.9
on hill?
8.8 v 11(1strike)
fortified
8.8 v 12.5
so, 9 vs 13 when hitting longbows. a 2:1 ration should be ok. Obviously, if they do not have longbows, or a hill, or 40%, or fortified, or promotions...

Being able to hit from beyond vision is more of a benefit in MP, as an AI will keep minimal defenses in most cities. In MP, I recommend time consuming individual attacks. A city with 1-2 archers/axes/spears is often taken with the same number of Berserkers.