What to do with an early Gilgamesh?

[Cornhog]

I had a situation where I spawned next to Gilgamesh, Huyana Capac and William of Orange. As the Aztecs, I had no intention of attacking the protective, vulturific Gilgamesh, so I quickly used my Jags and wiped out the Incas and nearly wiped out William before I had to sue for peace.

But then I saw the inevitable: Gilgamesh was virtually trapped by my empire. He wanted to attack someone. He's an evil dogpiler. And I couldn't attack him first because he is a stud early game. He has protective archers, vultures AND he gets that creative culture bonus. So when William attacked me (something I was very ready for) Gilgamesh took the opportunity to backstab -- despite sharing my religion and being pleased with me.

This frustrated me because I saw it coming since the dawn of time. So I'm wondering what's the best path to take when dealing with Sumer? Someone like Sitting Bull or Togu is tough at the beginning but if you stall, they'll fall behind and be easy pickings. That's not the case with Gilgamesh; furthermore, he won't let you wait. Does anyone have a better answer than siege, siege, siege!?

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Make friends with him.

 

[ShannonCT]

Use an early warrior to worker steal and scout his land. After you've researched BW and Archery, send over a couple archers and prevent him from hooking copper.

 

[DaveMcW]

Does anyone have a better answer than siege, siege, siege!?

pillage, pillage, pillage

spy, spy, spy

axe, axe, axe, axe, axe

 

[michmbk]

In one of the forum games where we played Monty, Gilgamesh was the only other AI on the continent, so it has at least a little similarity to your position. In that game, I boxed him in heavily, stole a worker, and fortified a couple units on his copper. He stagnated long enough for me to build enough axes/horse archers to take him. It took awhile though.

I tend to think playing nice with him is a good approach. sharing religion, gifting a resource and trying to get him friendly if possible. But you have to be careful he doesn't get too big - with that creative trait and protective, he can be a nightmare to beat up later. That's why I look for opportunities to box him in, even more so than other civs.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I would try bribing him into attacking someone else. He's much less likely to DOW you if he's busy fighting someone else. That will probably buy you some time until you need to deal with him.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Run his favorite civic + religion and he's friendly. Then go after other people.

 

[Lansky]

If you do not want to kill him off then there is only one other option

Share a religion
Adopt HR and make sure he does the same (favorite Civic)
Gift him whatever he asks for

He is actually pretty easy to get to Friendly but you do of course need to do it before he gets antsy and declares.

 

[royal62184]

Don't know if it is mentioned but you can beg for 10g which starts a 10 turn peace treaty. Got this little trick from obsolete so I don't take credit. This at least prevents the dogpile long enough for you to finish some of the war.

 

[CynicalMagician]

Neutralize his creative defence bonus and his protective bonus by waging your first war with him defensively in your own lands. Unless he's got a massive unit advantage, there isn't really a reason for you to lose a defensive war against him. Take the veterans from your first two wars and camp them out on forested hills and then wipe his stack when he moves onto flat land.

If you've wiped 2 other civs, you should have more land than him, so use that advantage to get to trebs and maces (or cannons and rifles) before him and then run him over.

 

[UncleJJ]

I don't really see how he can be a problem unless he has cats and you don't. Monte is Aggressive and so if you have copper you can make shock axes, and they rule vultures. What has Gilgamesh got that can deal with them fortified in a city? Chariots... maybe, then a combat 2 spear will sort that problem. With roads between cities and a wall whipped / chopped into the city under attack it should be a doddle to resist his attack.

 

[Jamuka]

Camp some archers on hills in his cities that are nearest to you. Hopefully he will be encouraged to settle in the other direction.

 

[Crusher1]

Axes early or Cats and Axes a bit later. If those windows don't work for you then steel + cannons + any thing to mop up.

 

[Learningciv]

The AI sucks at war. It only takes a small number of units in a defensive war to wipe his entire stack presuming you have a rough idea where it is going to come from.

 

[JammerUno]

Swamping him with HA and swordsmen usually works. Even CG2D1 archers on a hill with 40% cultural bonus 'only' only get a 185% bonus, one FS and one FS chance, so 8.55 strength plus FS. CR2 swordmens are 9.3 (aggressive gives 9.9), so those aren't bad odds. Non-hill cities are better odds with CG2 archers at 7.05 strength.
It's doable, especially if you go after non-hill cities first to get some promos and take plenty of troops.

Also Giggles may be a defensive stud, he's got nothing on offence. Like mentioned before, you can wage a defensive war until you get to construction while you take it to Willem.

 

[ABHPage]

My present game started with me (Rome), germans, gilgamesh, and another guy which I don't remember. I've had some trouble eradicating gilgamesh (he tends to build all cities on hills with archers and longbowman), but I don't see how this is a big problem. All I did was building enormous stacks of Praetorians, get their xp up by killing germans and the other one. Then I had a couple of high-leveled praetorians. Gave them mostly city raiders and strenght promotions. Then I seiged Gilgamesh, and every city I'd sacrifice a few freshly-made praetorians and catapults. When the archers were weakened I took them out with the high level troops. Repeat for all his cities.

 

[Rupe-dog]

I actually took him out by chariot-rushing him (Prince level) in a game where our capitals started out about 10 squares apart. I popped ponies in my BFC and said "wth, let's give it a try."

The real irony of that game was I ended up losing by AP-cheese to Ghengis!

 

[SnowlyWhite]

shock axe as agg... otherwise, even a plain c1 axe has 60 or something odds against a c1 vulture; his stack is hopeless in the field in classical - just don't be an ai, don't sit, get out and attack in the open.

and generally check him often; while he doesn't declare at pleased, he's one with the highest chances to declare at cautious. Even worst, his UU is offensive and comes early(one thing to make him more prone) and his ub is at priesthood and reduces maintenance even more(another reason to make him prone to decl.)

 

[Phil725]

Gil does declare at pleased. So unless you can get him friendly by running HR and sharing a religion, then you better prepare for a future DoW if you share borders.