warmonger woes

[jbp26]

I typically play as a builder first, and go to war once my cities are gleaming and prosperous. After reading these forums I decided to try an all out war approach, just constantly producing units and rushing enemies. Its worked swimmingly so far, my Praetorians have conquered half the continent and crippled 7 civlizations before 1000 AD. However I've had two big problems with the game. Well, one big problem with two sub-problems.

Obviously by taking so many cities so fast, my commerce has been destroyed. I have to run at 0% science and still lose a boatload of money eveyr turn. I find I really cant stop going to war, since I need the income to keep the war machine running. The second problem is clearly, I can't progress scientifically.

Now, my understanding was when warmongering, science takes a back seat because you can easily just bully it out of the other civs. This has not been the case. I can't demand tech as tribute from beaten civs, because they dont like me enough to even make it an option. I thought I could demand it in exchange for peace, but even when I knock a civ down to its last city with no units left, they wont even give me a single tech to prevent their extinction.

So, what am I doing wrong here? Is this game recoverable?

[Arrian]

Focus, grasshopper. Take only what you can use profitably. You will get a sense for that with experience.

As for your current game... that sounds pretty darned bad. You may need to poprush some marketplaces and courthouses, and you will probably have to disband a chunk of your army.

When I warmonger, I still do my own research. Very little tech comes my way via bullying. It's not terribly effective.

-Arrian

[SirIlya]

Re: warmonger woes

Originally posted by jbp26

Obviously by taking so many cities so fast, my commerce has been destroyed. I have to run at 0% science and still lose a boatload of money eveyr turn. I find I really cant stop going to war, since I need the income to keep the war machine running. The second problem is clearly, I can't progress scientifically.

Three things:
1) Burn Baby, Burn. Early on only keep superb cities (wonders, capitals and shrines). Burn everything else.
2) Finish the job. Unless your war is just to pillage and weaken, wipe a foe out completely. Once a foe is completely gone their original citizens in the cities you took from them convert to your civilization immediately making it easier to keep your cultural borders and avoid revolts.
3) Take breaks to chew your food. Crush a civ, cripple a couple and then take a little time to get courthouses, etc out. Occaisional outbreaks of peace also reset your war weariness.

[Nugog]

Hehehe - those praetorians can be fun!

However, their power does need to be directed, and at times restrained.

I play warmongering fairly frequently , and you do need to focus on one or two opposing civ's at a time. Destroy them completely before moving on to someone else.

Once you have a nice density of cities, and there is no fixed number due to all the variables, then raze anything you take that is not a sooperdooper city. Unless you HAVE to have it, burn it.

I always have scientific reasearch going on, and I really try to have at least three really good commerce cities, to try and maintain a financial balance.

As I tend to burn rather than keep cities (I aim for conquest, not domination), I find that I usually can work with three mobile stacks, rather than a truely enormous army, as I am not having to defend any new cities.

And rest & regroup between wars. Build your reinforcements then.

Hope this helps.

[Nugog]

Oh - Welcome to 'Poly

[jbp26]

One thing I was considering- is it wiser to annihilate an enemy once you go to war with them, or just take/burn a few cities and move on. By killing them off their former citizens no longer produce unhappiness or anything, but on the other hnd you're committing troops to a beaten foe.

Anyway I gave it another try with just taking capitols or worthwhile cities and burning the rest. I got a ridiculous start (6 gems in my capitols radius!) and it went great, i was conquering, researching, and prospering. Then I got piled on by 3 civs and promptly died. Ah well, I'll give it another go soon.

ps- thanks for the welcome, though I'm not new to apolyton. I registered in 2004, I just never post. I've owned every civ game since the 1st, when i was 11 years old.

[Arrian]

I generally prefer to capture all of my opponents cities, razing only if a city happens to be useless (rare in my experience). Sometimes I have to take them down in 2 bites, though. The first war breaks them. The second war finishes them off.

The basic reasons is that a civ will generally hate you if you attack them (-3 you declared war on us). There are circumstances under which you can turn a civ you attacked into an friend (religion, baby, yeah!), but mostly that's not the way it goes down. So you have a civ that hates you and putting cultural pressure one those juicy cities you captured.

-Arrian

[Nugog]

Originally posted by jbp26
ps- thanks for the welcome, though I'm not new to apolyton. I registered in 2004, I just never post.

Oops - I just looked at your post count

To keep the cities or raze them?

I guess it depends on what sort of victory you are aiming for.

If it's domination I'd keep most of them, apart from the ones that the AI has put in a really stupid location.

If it's conquest then burn baby burn. With conquest IMO it is best to strike hard and early. Keeping too many cities holds you back. I tend to only keep cities if they are commerce monsters, occasionaly if they have huge production. If it is a religion founding city, and a few other civ's follow that religion, I will usually keep it - burning it down really upsets the followers of that religion (no surprise there) and you can end up facing 3-4 opponents rather than 1-2!

Please bear in mind that I tend to play Pangea/Huge/Marathon - so this may not apply to other settings.

Once I go to war with a civ, depending on their size and tech level I usually sue for peace once, sometimes twice if they are a soft touch. I always demand techs. I don't get them, I burn another city. But I always finish them off, if possible.

I also have quite a few scouts roaming around, looking for other civs "back filling" the land I have cleared. As stated in my other post, I usually have 3ish mobile stacks, I usually have one lagging behind that I use to deal with "backfillers".