Your most devastating war

[NameUndisclosed]

What's the most devastating war you've ever gotten yourself into? What could you have done to avoid it?

Mine would have to be a war I got into as Arabia in prince difficulty - as you'll see, I'm still a novice at this game. I was on a huge map with 4 civs - myself, China, the Aztecs and Denmark. I didn't meet any of them for thousands of years. I stole electricity from China and told Wu Zetian I'd keep spying on her when she confronted me about it - a huge mistake in hindsight. A while later my spy uncovered that she was plotting against me, and because her military was so much stronger than mine, I knew the war was coming for sure.

I tried to build up a military, but I was unable to keep up with her - she raced ahead in military might and settled a bunch of front-line cities near my own front-line cities, Baghdad and Kufah, in the southeast and northeast of my empire respectively. My only ally was La Venta, north of Kufah. Sometime in the 1950s, she declared war, along with a couple city-state allies far away. She took Kufah quickly (despite attempts to purchase an army in that city) and began harassing La Venta from there, but because most of my army was in Baghdad, I held her off for a bit longer down there. One of her border cities, Yangjiang, even changed hands a few times. But by the time she drove me out of Yangjiang for the last time the number of military units I had could be counted on one hand. Her military units swarmed all of Baghdad, and it was consumed by the Chinese.

Around this time I signed a declaration of friendship with Denmark, another empire with a much stronger military than mine who was gradually settling up the coast towards my westernmost city, Najran. As the Chinese swallowed Medina, just west of Baghdad, Harald Bluetooth declared war on me - while we were friends! He quickly took Najran and his armies tore west towards Mecca - but the Chinese beat him there. Coming up from Medina in the south, Wu Zetian's military took Mecca, my capital, in just one turn.

All was lost. My only remaining city was Damascus in the frigid north. I signed first a peace with Harald Bluetooth, giving him all my gold, then signed a white peace with Wu Zetian because I had nothing left in my treasury. I instantly denounced the two of them, and a couple turns later China won a science victory. My only true ally in that world had been the Aztecs.

My only save file from that world is from 1941, a few years before Wu Zetian declared war. For most of history barbarians had been ridiculously powerful against my empire, stunting my growth for the longest time. This most likely allowed China and Denmark to get the edge on me in cities, tech and military might. It seems this file's Arabia was always destined to be beset by invaders.

Perhaps if I had begun settling new cities earlier I could've had less barbarian attacks, and spent more time growing my military. It probably would have been good to promise Wu that I wouldn't steal any more techs from her as well, though considering she took the Aztecs' capital before going for mine and Denmark declared war unprovoked, I honestly don't think that would have stopped her from declaring war.

Share some of your stories of wars gone wrong, and advice about how to avoid getting into such wars!

 

[Browd]

Yeah, 4 civs on a huge map is recipe for non-stop barb problems (arguably even worse on Prince since the AI takes forever to expand). All that empty space seems appealing, but it is actually a problem.

My worst war was back in vanilla, playing Monty on a real earth map (probably Prince as well). Spent over 3500 years in a war with Washington. Had no idea what I was doing (didn't even really understand how the promotion and healing systems worked, much less how Great Generals worked), but it was epic.

 

[Heerlo]

One of my worst wars was back on vanilla as well. I think it was when I was trying out king difficulty(yes, I'm not very good). I wasn't doing all that well. Eventually Suleiman declared war on me. I managed to beat him back, but he wasn't the worst enemy.

After I had been fighting Suleiman for a while, a massive Japan declared war on me. I managed to beat back their first army, but that wasn't all they had. I made peace with Suleiman, who was also being attacked by the massive Japan, and we made an alliance of convenience to stop the Japanese.

My troops entered Ottoman territory in an attempt to stop the Japanese invasion. Suleiman was the only thing that stood between me and the full wrath of the Japanese army! It was my trebuchets verses Japan's cannons. He eventually overran ran the Ottomans and then most of my territory. I gave up because I figured all was lost.

But that was one of my funnest games of Civ5. It was fun joining forces with my former enemy and attempting to survive.

 

[JSMCAG]

My most devastating war has been, for sure, the one in my most recent game.
I'm playing on Prince, as Austria for the first time. Spawned in a continent with Genghis Khan (noooo, my precious City-States!), Alexander (NOOOOO, my PRECIOUS City-States!) and William.
William was too close for comfort, so, since the two other powers are forgiving when it comes to warmongers, i decided to take his lands for mine. Meanwhile Genghis Khan took Almaty. Once I finished with William, I declared war on Genghis for the City-State, and Alexander joined in, taking other Mongolian cities. So far so good - cue in years of peace.

Once I start making enough money, I start buying city-states - and this was the straw that broke Alex's back (he appears quite protective of city-states, understandably). A HUGE war broke out between Greece and Austria - with him aiming for Quebec City, while I was trying hard to wall up and defend my empire from the threat. Fortunately, I was able to take the invasion force for quite a while - he had waves and waves of units coming at me! Once his pace began to slow down, I tried to make a move for one of his smaller cities, just to pressure him for peace. There I noticed three things - one, he had built the Great Wall, thus making movement in his lands extremely annoying; two, he had built the Himeji Castle, thus making his units super strong while defending his territory; three, he had Musketmen, while I was still wielding Pikes and using Knights...

Fortunately, he came to me to settle for peace, and even gave me a ton of Gold and all his Luxuries! This had been a long, drawn out war for both of us, so we were both on our limits, and this was a turn for the better.
With the extra gold, I took the opportunity to rebuild my military, repair my lands, and I even had enough money for one more City-State!

Big Mistake! Apparently, I hadn't caught the memo that Alex REALLY likes his City-States - once again he declares war on me as soon as I buy the City-State, and this CRIPPLED my economy.
With his Declaration of War, the Luxuries that he was sending from the previous war was cancelled, thus leaving me at 21 Unhappiness (my fault, I know)! This meant that all my units would be fighting at -33% Strength, but I would also have to deal with random Rebels popping out of nowhere, on top of dealing with Alex as well.
Being drawn out from our previous war, his waves were not as numerous, but were harder to counter due to my military's inefficiency (fortunately, I was able to tech Gunpowder and had some Muskets lying around).
Eventually I was able to sort out my happiness problem, but war was still ongoing - Alexander exhaustion from the last one was pretty much what saved me, as he couldn't quite muster up an attack to break my defense, but his lands were Autrian Meat Grinders. Due to all the buffs he got from wonders, any unit I landed there would be killed in one or two turns, and thus this didn't get far for any side. Meanwhile, I met Hiawatha and Augustus Caesar, the two remaining civilizations of the second continent - and yes, "remaining", as I discovered Caesar had gobbled up China and Denmark (what's with all the warmongers in this game?). In a few turns, he had defeated Hiawatha as well, making him the only civilization remaining in the other continent. Soon enough, he declared war on Alexander, which might have helped me...

Back to our war, this had started in the early Renaissance, but it showed no signs of stopping as time advanced - the Renaissance gave way to the Industrial era, and eventually I had Artillery and Hussars up and running, which made a HUGE difference.
By finally being able to take shots at Alexander without stepping inside his borders, I was finally able to start damaging his units and cities, using spies and Hussars to give me line of sight. Hussars were also useful at taking cities, being the only units I had that could move three tiles inside Alex's borders, thus meaning I could leave them outside of range up until the very last moment.
However, I was still unable to do much damage for a very long time - the Industrial Era came and went, and it was only at Flight that I was finally able to make progress into Greek territory. Eventually, after many turns blasting away, I was able to take Athens, and with it the Great Wall (now obsolete thanks to Dynamite - that Alex avoided getting, even though he had planes just like me) and the Himeji Castle, the two biggest headaches from the entire game!
Once I finally removed Greece's trump card from their play, I was finally able to make peace, and take a look at my empire.

Due to mismanagement from my part, I now see it is poorly improved and bare - the war having taken precious turns from developing my lands. I find myself being only other player with his capital left, making me a very juicy target for Augustus Caesar. And worse, I'm behind technologically (he already has Bombers while I am still using Great War Bombers), AND Augustus has finished the Manhattan Project!...
Not only that, my empire is exhausted from literally ages of war, and I don'y have enough forces to even defend myself, much less take on a force as big as Augustus...

I have no idea how to win this game - and this would be the first time I'll ever lose...

TL;DR: I had to fight Alexander for literally three eras - now Augustus has nukes and I have no way to protect myself from him!

 

[otaman1]

China, not yet united, with cities plopped around the landscape. Then one day, in the year 1150, a group of archers were spotted beyond the horizon. There, Genghis Khan (Great General) and his Keshiks met China. In 1205, a group of hordes were rallying up. By that time, China had finished the Great Wall, fearing the Mongols. In 1210, Genghis Khan and his horde shows up at the front door and says "You are soft and vulnerable. Die", which doesn't really make sense since China was in the Renaissance era and Mongolia was only getting started in the Medieval era.

War clashed. The first battle was the Battle of Xian in modern-day Shuozhou, just a few hundred kilometres away from the capital, Beijing. A force of 60,000 Chinese were up against 130,000 Mongols. The Battle of Xian raged on for more than 20 years. Up to the north, the Mongols launched a surprise attack. In 1240, the Mongols invaded Nanjing in modern-day Hinggan. 20 years later, the Mongols had lost at the Battle of Xian but there army was seen going south to Chengdu, modern-day Chengdu. A group of Chinese musketman followed them but were ambushed by Ogedai Khan and his Keshiks. By 1275, Kublai Khan showed up just around the corner at the Battle of Nanjing. There, he led 13,000 Mongols against 3,000 Chinese. The Chinese, losing at first, brought in more backups and won the war decisively changing the course of history. In 1310, the Mongols under the order of Ogedai and Genghis Khan, invades Chengdu. They seek the riches of its city; silk and dyes. With only 15,000 Chinese protecting it, Ogedai led an army of more than 40,000 and Genghis Khan with 340,000. Up to the north, Kublai Khan re-organizes his army and re-attack the city of Nanjing.

In 1340, Ogedai Khan is killed in the Battle of Chengdu. Genghis Khan luckily escaped by a mere death. At that same time, Kublai Khan's army ditched him to fight for himself. He is killed instantly. In 1365, the Mongols had withdrew completely and the Chinese had gone on the offensive side. Losing as much as 340,000 men and women, the Chinese had gone up in soldiers, and the Mongols were starting to collapse. The Chinese quickly took Beshbalik in modern-day Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. The Chinese then regrouped, and launched another attack on the Mongolian capital, Karakorum in modern-day Irkutsk. At the Battle of Karakorum in 1395, Genghis Khan died an honourable death. There, the Chinese quickly took Karakorum, razing it to the ground. The Mongol Empire was done for. Wu Zetian now realizes that she had the power to conquer. She stops the city razing in Karakorum and Beshbalik and sets her eyes to the south beyond the Himalayas ... India. But the only problem ... India already had nukes ... in the year 1400.

 

[OmniPotent42]

I once spawned on the same continent as Atilla, Monty, Alex, and Ghengis...there was no avoiding it.

 

[Viregel]

I once spawned on the same continent as Atilla, Monty, Alex, and Ghengis...there was no avoiding it.

Who were you playing as at the time?

 

[Sabrina]

India. My human opponent was playing as Gandhi in OCC. In a desperate attempt to stop him from achieving a cultural victory, I "married" Lisbon (was playing as Austria) just to find out that I lost most of my extra range ships and units while gifting to the CS (I didn't know you can't gift more then 1 unit per turn). He bribed all the AI players to declare war on me and I had a hard time defending my position in Lisbon against Boudicca, while my remaining extra range ships and units had to cross the ocean to invade India. I ended up attacking, but he built citadels all over the coast, complicating the life of my land units.

Yep, I guess this was the most devastating, except for the only time I tried playing as Korea and was DoW'd around turn 30 and completely destroyed (on prince *sobs*).

 

[Evie94]

Polynesia, Terra, King

I built 3 Cities on the Old World and quickly sent as many Settlers off to the New World as I could. However, my nearest neighbours, Dido to the Northeast and Napolean to the South East, DOW'd me. Previously, I had been allied with both and both backstabbed me on the same turn.

Luckily, my frontline City, Rapa Nui, had been kitted out with the very latest in defence just a few turns earlier: I had two Composite Bowmen on Hills beside the City, another in the City, Walls (and pretty soon after a Castle). Both Carthage and France greatly outnumbered me in the field and Carthage had her Elephants. I just about held on but the tide was turning when Caesar in the East declared War on Napolean and took Orleans. Napolean sued for peace just as my new army of Longswords, several upgraded from Maori's, Composites and Knights powered into the field: in 20 turns, I had conquered Carthage. In 50, Paris, stealing it out from under the nose of the Romans.

But! The lands around Rapa Nui were entirely destroyed. Root and stem, the City had starved down from 7 to 3. Took years to rebuild.

 

[Heerlo]

Wow, some great stories in here.