Question about war - War economy or limited war?

[Martinus]

I have a question how do you guys normally conduct your wars, when you are the party in "control" (i.e. you initiate the conflict, and it is not a total war, but an attempt to ravage the countryside of your enemy, or maybe get 1-2 cities).

Do you switch your economy totally to war economy (meaning both switching the civics to the warlike ones and production to units in all or most of your cities) or do you try to conduct the war while still maintaining your "peaceful" growth (meaning you stay with "development" civics, such as Representation or Free Speech, and designate 1-2 cities to produce units, while the rest continues as if it was still peace, building libraries, theatres, etc.).

[Fosse]

I seldom switch civics just for war, and especially not for a war that should only last a few turns.

Many war civic bonuses, when I have used them, have really only been helpful before the war, and not during it. Theocracy and Vassalage don't actually help you wage war, they help you prepare for it.

I have in a few cases where I was either the clear victor of a war before it began or where the war was iffier but I knew I was losing the tech race, switched out of war civics before the war opened and returned to buildings while it was waged. In the latter case, it was in situations where I was spiritual and the forces involved were so huge that the number of units I'd churn out over a 5-6 turn war weren't going to make a huge difference in the fight, but getting Universities in place sooner might make a huge difference in the game.

If a war goes on long enough to take advantage of Police State's unit production boost, though, then keeping the other civics in place will definatly benefit as you'll probably be building units throughout.

[djpsychonaut]

Originally posted by Fosse

Many war civic bonuses, when I have used them, have really only been helpful before the war, and not during it. Theocracy and Vassalage don't actually help you wage war, they help you prepare for it.

I agree with this... Theocracy and Vassalage help prepare for war, so if I'm planning on taking out a neighbor these are the civics I adopt.

Generally though, I don't try to fight wars only to take 1 or 2 cities unless I'm pretty far ahead of the other civ. The reason for this is because if you leave them with too many cities, I feel that they'll always try to get them back.

Also, if you're really that far ahead of them, why not take more than just 1 or 2 cities? I usually only settle with such a small victory when it looks like a stalemate is developing. What I'll then do is declare peace, build up my military, re-declare war and then really take them out!

When the war's on though, I set my economy to a total war footing on a gradual basis. I'll allow all of my cities to finish whatever construction they're doing and then switch them over to building units.

[Commy]

Generally, I have such a large defensive military (lots of archers, longbowmen, machine guns...) that even if war is declared, I can simply place defensive units everywhere in my enemy's territory...offensive units will attack any armies coming at my, and the defensive units will raze the countryside and keep enemy units in their cities...

War civics don't really help me, because I won't really be changing my producitons...the only switch I might make would be theocracy if I thought I needed a few extra units produced...changing from free religion or pacifism, my two first choices, won't be nearly as bad as changing from free speech to vassalage...

[Drachasor]

The only time I'd consider switching civics would be when I was forced to keep my culture at 30-40% to keep everyone happy. Then facism becomes very attractive.

For the vast majority of the game, however, war doesn't cause any significant weariness. Hence I usually maintain my science output at the very least, and often have several cities continue to work on buildings and non-war projects.

I tend to go more full-bent on unit building before a war. I like to attack with overwhelming numbers. That way I don't have to replace as many units and the enemy has less time to adapt.

-Drachasor