What is the most efficient way to clear out a continent?

[thenooblet22]

I am a warmonger addict that can usually clear out a continent, expand, and boom. However, now that I moved up to Huge Continents, I find it nearly impossible to conduct this as smoothly as on Standard or Large.

Here's my last two attempts:

Spoiler :

My first attempt was with Rome, Augustus. Luckily, I was blessed with one of the best starting positions ever. Starting in front of a peninsula, I didn't have to worry about vigorously expanding since I had a supply of land behind me. I concentrated on researching the basic improvement techs, following with Iron Workings and Alphabet for later research. I naturally grabbed the Great Wall since I would be razing every captured city. Beginning with about 10 Preats, I began my conquering while building a second force to head north. Though the conquests were succesful, I realized my bulky forces were way too slow for a quick sweep. Reinforcements were impossible and this delay forced me to pay heavy supply mantanaince, which impeded my research and economy. I was forced to delay my research of Code of Laws and Civil Service to start researching for some Horse Archers for reinforcements. Long story short, the continent was eventually cleared out around 900 A.D. Now this is way too late for expanding and recovering, however, I tried. I found myself falling behind in technologies to Mansa Musa who is 1/6 my size. I was eventually invaded by Montezuma with a swarm of knights, which I couldn't ward off with a few Riflemen.

My second attempt I tried with the Mongols. To battle my last problem, I sacraficed speed for power. The Keshiks looked good on paper, but after I pumped out 6 of them, I found them being beaten down like flies. Since a Barracks+Ger XPed Keshiks usually get a 70% battle odds, I usually lose 2 out of my 4 attacking. To me, that's too many units to be pumped out of 5 core cities. I haven't finiehed my game only because I feel like I am going no where. With Alexander and Shaka, still to deal with, I can already predict the disasterous results.

In short, Praetorians take too long to make across the continent. The mantainance cost of the units drained my economy leaving me stagnant until teh continent was cleared in roughly 900 A.D., making the expansion difficult to recover from. Keshiks are quick, but are easily countered by Spearmen or well-upgraded Archers. I can't support the amount of Keshiks that would be needed to conquer the land on time.

To give you an idea what time frame I'm looking for, in past games I've been able to conquer the lands before or early into the A.D.'s. Please, anyone got any battle suggestions?

EDIT: By the way, my difficulty is Noble or Prince.

 

[CivSetä]

How many cities you usually build before first war? Try building only 2-3 cities to grab vital resource(s) (bronze, iron or horses), build relatively small attack force (4-6 praets, 6-8 axes or 10+ chariots) and declare war. Usually it is wise to go for capital first, as AIs usually build/whip lot of new defenders there during the war and capital has highest cultural defence. And even if you lose most of your stack, those few experienced units still alive are easily able to take minor cities defended by 1-2 archers without promotions.

I think that in the beginning it is much more economical to build 4 axes instead of one settler, because those cities you are going to capture already have improvements and excess population to whip improvements, like courthouses.

 

[TylerD]

Play the more turn games - epic and marathon. More turns to complete "actions" (moving fighting etc.) giving you more time to make it across a continent.

Of course this is not a strategy post so I'll go back to lurking now.

 

[cabert]

huge maps are not normal sized ones, you cannot expect the same results
If you want the same results, you need to go epic or marathon, like tylerD said.

I don't play huge maps, usually because it's too long and my computer doesn't like them

 

[manu-fan]

I find that the perfect balance (for me anyway) is Large - Epic.

Cheers.

 

[Winston Hughes]

Does anyone ever play Huge-Quick? I'm imagining axes taking many hundreds of years to cross a continent, only to find that the enemy's archers have been replaced with rifles...

 

[thenooblet22]

No, no, no. Sorry if I forgot to mention, but I am playing Marathon. I usually build up to 3-5 core cities while researching my necessary technologies for my army. I'm just asking if anyone has had any better luck with a different civilization or stradegy...

 

[HiroHito]

Does anyone ever play Huge-Quick? I'm imagining axes taking many hundreds of years to cross a continent, only to find that the enemy's archers have been replaced with rifles...

trying to picture it: hilarious !!! LOL

 

[Elandal]

Are there enough turns in quick that all civs of a huge map get to even make contact?

 

[cabert]

Are there enough turns in quick that all civs of a huge map get to even make contact?

sure
satellites help

 

[carl corey]

Hmm, what are you building in the newly conquered cities anyway? If you want to continue, just build a Granary and whip Praetorians from them, you'll have your mobile force. Once the city is too far from the front it gets a Courthouse then peaceful buildings. Once you have Alphabet/Currency you can also directly build Research/Gold to keep up your research and unit and city upkeep costs. And when you get to Rifles don't forget that with Nationhood you can draft them. If there's a war still on, or getting close, switch to Nationhood and draft a Rifle from any city that can do it and boom, instant army! I've had a game in which a long-time ally turned on me but since I had really huge cities that time drafting made it very easy to cope with whatever he sent.

One more thing: I don't get this obsession with the Unique Unit. At one point you're normally get to meet the counter, so why don't you use backup units? For example your Praetorians may prove inefficient if you meet a guy that has Elephants. You really need some Spearmen there. In an Egypt game I managed to win two wars with mostly War Chariots, but then I switched to Swords/Axes/Cats as main force. You just have to know when to stop using the UU exclusively and build some helpers/replacements.

Oh, and think of razing some of the cities you conquer. You don't need each and every city! If you also have or conquer the Great Wall you won't even be bothered by barbarian cities spawning behind your lines.

 

[cabert]

Oh, and think of razing some of the cities you conquer. You don't need each and every city! If you also have or conquer the Great Wall you won't even be bothered by barbarian cities spawning behind your lines.

Although I agree with this mostly, let me just add that barbarian cities WILL spawn if you raze most enemy cities. The Great Wall will simply allow you to disregard them

 

[carl corey]

Thanks for clearing that up. It was what I was aiming for but it came out wrong.

 

[carl corey]

I just remembered: Augustus is Organized, so you get cheap Courthouses. Well then, that's the first thing you want to whip in your new cities then, followed by the Granary for more effective whipping. And after the patch Creative also gives cheap Libraries, so the cities that are no longer building units can focus on that. If you put a couple of citizens to work as Scientists in every city you shouldn't have a problem with your research. You'll want farms and mines all over the place, cottages will just take too much time to mature.