When should we declare war on Rome?

[Civman2004]

It seems fairly established that if a war is to occur, we want to be fighting the Romans. The timing of this war (if it does happen) seems to be a fairly contentious point. I am polling to try to determine the WOTP. The options are.

Option 1 - Declare War before Chivalry
Option 2 - Declare War shortly after Chivalry
Option 3 - Declare War a fair while after Chivalry (say more than 5 turnchats after discovering Chivalry)
Option 4 - Do not declare war
Abstain

If any of the first 3 options win, the Foreign Affairs Ministry will draw up some viable ways of implementing that option, including lines of attack, making them declare war on us, etc. Some examples within each sub-option would be as follows
If Option 1 wins: Declare war now, once swodrsmen are in position, in 1 Turnchat, etc
If Option 2 wins: Declare war as soon as we have upgraded 5 horsemen, 10 horsemen, all horsemen, etc


Relevant threads:
Poll showing Romans are the enemy:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=99710

Discussion:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=99975

It is going to be difficult to gain consensus on these issues. Please be patient with myself and BH as we strive to determine accurately the WOTP. Constructive comments are welcome (here or PM)

 

[Cyc]

If Option 1 wins: Declare war now, once samurai are in position, in 1 Turnchat, etc

I believe you mean when the Swordsmen are in position.

 

[RegentMan]

Let's wait until we get the big dogs.

 

[Civman2004]

@ CYC you are correct - edited

I've been convinced by those arguing for a wait until Samurai - which means that both Foreign Affairs Minister Blackheart, and myself as deputy, recommend option 2.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Give me 15 Samurai !!!
Conquer Rome in 1 war. After that: never war again.

 

[MOTH]

I say that option 1 is the best. A few reasons:
1. We need to be ready to take on Rome before they get Iron hooked up.
2. We have a military costing us 14? GPT. A few of the Swords dieing would not be that bad of a think. If we get 2-3 cities quickly and then sign a 20 turn peace this will also reduce the burder our military is placing on our economy and research time.
3. Triggering our golden age when we have a few more cities never hurts.
4. If we take 2-3 cities and then after the peace the Samurai's first target in the next war can be Rome, instantly taking the head off the beast.

 

[Sir Donald III]

Well, with the Settlement race winding down, (other than 1 little corner, all the available land is in Deserts or the French Tundra,) our neighbors will probbaly come to blows soon enough. Let us let this pot boil, while letting our Horsecount... wait, if a 20 Shield increase = 40 Gold, then to upgrade from Horse to Saamurai = 80 Gold.

I'm not sure whether we should just War with Rome now, or wait until this Land Crunch comes to a Boil and people go to war for "no reason."

 

[invy]

I would start war now!
1. Rome doesn't have good counter to our swordsman.
2. We can spam Swordsman cause they are cheap.
3. Horseman to Samurai Upgrade is expensive.
4. Waiting to build Samurai army will take too long.
5. By the time we get Samurai Rome will be very weakened and 2-3 Samurai's will finish of any stubborn resistance.

 

[Furiey]

Get on with it! (Option 1)

We have 54 units with 42 allowed, so our military is costing us 12 gpt. We have 9 Swordsmen (with another due in 1), 6 of which are doing nothing but sitting on a mountain. Get them earning their keep! Yes - we'll lose some, of course, but we can do a bit of territory consolidation before Rome gets Iron and we get Samurai, leaving Rome in a weakened state for later. Remember, this is Vanilla - we can't upgrade Swordsmen, we might as well use them in the age of Spearmen when they're still useful, rather than have them sitting around as obsolete units, never having been used and costing us support.

By now of course I mean once we are in position, access roads built etc - but we need to get on and do it if we are going to.

 

[Sir Donald III]

Heck, if we do it "Now", then we can use them against Pompeii, and Rome will Never get Iron.

 

[Black_Hole]

we are only 3 techs away from chivalry, what we should be doing is stocking up on horsemen

 

[snipelfritz]

Wait for Samurai

Spoiler :

no seriously

Spoiler :

WAIT FOR SAMURAI

 

[Chieftess]

We have the swords in position. What are we waiting for? Roman Knights?

BTW, if we wait this late (and it's already late), there goes any hope of us not letting the other continent meet ours before we control it... Besides, our tech pace is *SLOW*!!! If we wait for Samurai, we could be going up against Muskets. (The other continent is far ahead of us).

 

[blackheart]

To arms to arms!

 

[invy]

I would like to ask everyone to comment on Eastern province (Edo) building qeues. It will become battlefield soon, but i hope we will quickly invade Rome. Almost all cities, including small Corrino, can spam Swordsman in 3-4 turns. Rome can't defend against that with their Spearman. Why waiting Samurai?

 

[Civanator]

If I get a chance I may be able to draw up a battle plan, but witht he amount of school work and football don't count on too much on a plan today.

 

[RegentMan]

I'd like to change my vote from waiting for samurai to attacking now!

Moderator Action: Vote changed.