My problem is I'm a terrible warmonger, I much prefer to be a peaceful builder,and I can never seem to build enough military. For example, last game I was stuck between three larger civs, two of whom were my religion, one who wasn't. I expected the attack from the other guys at some point, and had about 7 units in my captial, way more than I usually do. Well war gets declared,a nd teh guy shows up on my doorstep with around 40 units and takes my captial in two turns. My other cities had no chance of producing anything fast enough to do anything (this was on epic speed).
How the heck do you counter something liek that and still have improvements in your cities? i was having trouble keeping the places happy and healthy as it was. I couldn't even get my religion buddies to join in on the battle!
Very frusttrating.
Yup. I had this trouble when I was playing on Warlord. War skills are something you need to improve.
Consider this. Which AI seems to do best in your games? The ones that war, thus taking more cities and growing large? Or the ones who sit teching, get declared on and end up as a vassal?
The AI that attacked you... the best defence would have been to see that coming and attack him first. Building up a stack of only ten to twelve axes or swords early on can pry two, probably even more cities from an opponent. Try it one game. Settle three or four cities then build a stack of axemen and declare on the nearest guy. See if you can take him out. An AI capital is usually a much better city than any you can site by yourself and will give you a significant advantage and set you up for a better game. In most of my games I only ever build 4-6 cities and then capture the rest from the enemy. Remember you'll also be capturing workers most likely which will save you having to build your own and will be gaining gold, allowing you to do some more research. If you don't kill them entirely you may even get a tech or two in exchange for peace.
Once you've given your enemy a kicking, settle down and get your newly expanded empire under control but importantly, keep building units. Use slavery to whip some out. You don't necessarily need to war all the time but you should always be ready for it. Watch the power graph and make sure you're not on the bottom. Pay attention to who's furious with you. Where is their closest city? What's defending it? etc.
It's all about practice. Warlord really is pretty easy and as you grasp the finer aspects of warfare you'll wonder how you ever got defeated on it.
Try this in your next game.
In your capital, build a worker first. Have the worker improve the land while you build a warrior for your capital. Then two more warriors and one settler. Send one warrior and settler off to plant a city. Have the second warrior escort your worker to the second city, building a road as he goes. Get your capital to build a worker for the second city then a settler and another warrior. Get those cities out there before the AI steals all the land.
Research the techs you need immediately. You don't need agriculture if there's no corn or wheat. Research Animal Husbandry to see if there are horses. If so, consider an army of chariots early on. If not, bronze working will reveal copper, allow slavery and also allow workers to chop forests to get those settlers built faster. If no copper then Iron Working is your last resort.
Once you have 4 or more cities and your research is starting to plummet due to lack of gold get that army coming. Ten to twelve of either chariots, axes or swords. Find the nearest Civ and get as close to his city as you can. Chances are he has three archers or less defending it. If you managed to whip or chop barracks in any cities then promote to city raider and start attacking that city. When you've taken it you're gonna want to leave one unit behind to guard it, preferably a unit that doesn't have city raider. How many units do you have left? Given your success there, could they take a second city from the AI? If not then hole up in that city while the AI tries and fails to retake it then make peace. Make a bigger army, finish them off.
Practice and have fun. ^^