What to do when neighbour is a warmonger?

[besset]

I play mostly on emperor. When my only neighbour is a warmonger, what is the best course of action? Do you always go full authority? Even if you arte not a warmonger civ? or do you just get the 10% combat strength and science per kill policy? And what do i do if they have an early UU? Like songhai with the mandelau cavalry, literally oneshots everything and because of AI bonuses he tends to get them very early.

 

[Txurce]

I play mostly on emperor. When my only neighbour is a warmonger, what is the best course of action? Do you always go full authority? Even if you arte not a warmonger civ? or do you just get the 10% combat strength and science per kill policy? And what do i do if they have an early UU? Like songhai with the mandelau cavalry, literally oneshots everything and because of AI bonuses he tends to get them very early.

Focus on a statistically meaningful military early on. Against Persia, building your border cities on hills can be enough. Against Songhai, go for Construction and build walls asap. Or just bite the bullet and try to cripple them before they get that critical head of steam. If you commit to it, it's not that hard to do... and it's very, very satisfying. Try a couple of test games where you commit whole hog to this approach, and learn how to work it.

 

[CrazyG]

I play mostly on emperor. When my only neighbour is a warmonger, what is the best course of action? Do you always go full authority? Even if you arte not a warmonger civ? or do you just get the 10% combat strength and science per kill policy? And what do i do if they have an early UU? Like songhai with the mandelau cavalry, literally oneshots everything and because of AI bonuses he tends to get them very early.

Try to stop him from connecting horses.

Generally I find that the best course of action is to kill him if you really are that close. You don't have to be authority and commit to fighitng forever, just knock him down to 1 or 2 cities so he becomes irrelevant, then enjoy the increased amount of land you have access to.

 

[Workerspam]

Emperor player also. I never go authority; I've accepted it simply doesn't fit my preferred play style. If I start next to one of the early belligerents (Songhai, Zulu, Aztecs, Mongols, Huns, Persia) I beeline military techs, build a formidable early force, and make sure cities I settle in their direction are in defensible locations. If I can steal settlers I will; it's only a matter of time before they declare war so if I can preemptively weaken them, I do.

Once we're at war I'll often remain at war if I'm in good position. Peacing out to allow them to rebuild and launch a new offensive is a suckers game. I'd rather keep harassing their cities and units while building my infrastructure; by this point I've already built my military units, they might as well keep busy.

Lastly, adjust to your specific opponent. As CrazyG mentions, Songhai's UU isn't as worrisome if he has no horses. The Aztecs are brutal in forests and jungles; avoid settling where they can use them.

Persia has been my most difficult early opponent lately; those Immortals are tough to counter. I've found beelining for Swordsmen to be the only reliable counter if I can't settle good choke points.

 

[ElliotS]

Just want to add that you 100% don't need to go authority. In many cases Tradition is great, because it gives you more production in capital than authority super early. Progress can deal too, it's just harder.

 

[CrazyG]

Just want to add that you 100% don't need to go authority. In many cases Tradition is great, because it gives you more production in capital than authority super early. Progress can deal too, it's just harder.

Science though. Good if you want to rush horsemen.

 

[crdvis16]

There's lots of ways you can play that scenario:

1) Turtle - go tall with Tradition and only settle a few very easy to defend cities (settle on hills that have good natural terrain as obstacles like hills/rivers/lakes/mountains). Get walls very early and be sure to get a military that is suitable for defense. I tend to prioritize ranged units a tad more as I will probably be hiding near/behind a walled city with a few meat-shield melee units so that the ranged units can attack with exposing themselves. Make sure to take into account the attributes that make your opponent a good warmonger and avoid giving him advantages (as others have said, don't fight Aztecs in forest/jungle). This could be a good strategy for the likes of Babylon, Korea, etc.

2) Warmonger harder - go Authority and take the fight to him. Make sure you can counter his UU or other attributes that make him an effective fighter. Other equal warmonger civs could be good candidates for this tactic or civs that have a natural synergy with authority.

3) Divert his aggression - get the warmonger to target other civs instead of you. Having a decent military might be enough to send his attention to an easier target, not having a military at all will make him see you as easy pickings and you will never get his friendship. Not settling too much in his direction can ease border tension. Getting early diplomatic modifiers with the warmonger can earn you his friendship (embassies, open borders, trading, denounces people he denounces). You can give them early gifts (a lux, GPT, whatever) to get the positive trade modifier. Basically become his henchmen. You may still get DoW'd by him early on before the modifiers take place but oftentimes warmongers don't hold much of a grudge from early wars. Some of the warmongers make pretty loyal friends as per their flavors/traits while others are backstabbing bastards that should probably not be trusted. Civs that might opt for this strategy could be civs with strong economies (someone like Morocco) or who like to trade (Netherlands comes to mind).

 

[admfischer]

I'm just having a tradition nightmare game, surrounded by the Persian, the French, and the Danes as Austria. They are extremely good at preying upon weak neighbors now. Persia puppeted two city states before turn 120. China was dogpiled by all three warmongering civs and lost its capital before turn 150. And they are coming after me as right now, despite of all those fortunes and resources spent to please them. Except the French, who has now decided that we should be friends, but they're notorious backstabbers.

• Big tactical AI bugfixes (AI unleashed bro)

Apparently this recent improvement in AI is doing wonders for the warmongering civs.

They also somehow learnt how to use siege weapons properly, so it seems apparent to me that giving them any time to build catapults was a big mistake for me. I'm really lost how to handle the situation like this.

 

[tu_79]

I do. I'm back at king. I have to see if I can still beat the game in that difficulty.