When do YOU start your first real war?

[Arrian]

Last night my first war started when my nearest AI neighbor presented me with an opportunity I simply could not pass up: an unescorted worker building a road through neutral territory.

War chariots against archers and Quecha. It wasn't really close. This ultimately resulted in the worst economic crash I've had in a long time. I spent a few turns at 0% science, and lotsa turns somewhere between 10% and 40%, scratching and clawing my way to currency.

-Arrian

[Solver]

Originally posted by Arrian
War chariots against archers and Quecha. It wasn't really close. This ultimately resulted in the worst economic crash I've had in a long time. I spent a few turns at 0% science, and lotsa turns somewhere between 10% and 40%, scratching and clawing my way to currency.

-Arrian

That's one of my favorite things about Civ4. You can have a military advantage, but you can crash your economy with it. Conquer one civ, and decide to press your advantage further - poof, no research.

[rah]

It still beats the corruption based models.

[couerdelion]

Fighting early wars generally has two purposes

a) to acquire land, resources, production, commerce to allow continued growth
b) to deny said resources, production, commerce, land to one of your rivals
c) to ensure that at least one neighbour ceases to be any military threat in the future and to sufficiently harm their ability to challenge you technologically.

If you have many neighbours, it will often make a lot of sense to strike early at the nearest/richest/strongest to eliminate one of your biggest threats.

Of course, building an army whose job it is to sit around defending an empire is terribly expensive. Much better to build a few more units and get them to do something useful.

On a separate question, why can’t axemen chop trees or archers hunt deer?

[Arrian]

Generating a GG is also a valueable thing (attack GG to unit, presto, lvl5 unit requirement for Heroic Epic met ).

-Arrian

[rah]

yes, it makes prepping for that second war easier.

[Sabre2th]

In my older games, I hardly ever started a war and I didn't always severely punish Civs for attacking me. That's largely because I went through a phase where I preferred archipelago maps, but also out of sheer laziness.

More recently, I've taken to playing continent maps and I usually push my nearest neighbor(s) back to an easy-to-defend location or destroy them completely.

[InThane]

If I notice an opportunity to nail a "free" worker or two, I'll get in, grab the worker, pillage some land, then leave. It's also good for me because once I do that, I immediately start building a couple of military units to deal with the inevitable retribution attack - something I otherwise forget to do which messes me up when the barbs start rollin' in.

Other than that, it's pretty much "when I feel like it" - which is generally when I get either macemen or cavs.

[Addled Platypus]

mainly over resources

then to whittle those trying to close in on me

[trev]

I usually prioritize iron working as early as possible and get the swords and axes out, often I will build a couple of cities only, quick conquest gets you cities quicker and cheaper than building settlers.

[cyric100]

Very much depends on what AI started wars I've had and which path through the tech tree I've taken.

In a typical game I play as a builder and AI started wars will be plenty. Until I get cavalry and I see 'oportunities' (victims) anway...

[rah]

I usually start my first real war as soon as I think I can win. Sometimes I'm wrong.

[kiky]

Originally posted by couerdelion
Fighting early wars generally has two purposes

a) to acquire land, resources, production, commerce to allow continued growth
b) to deny said resources, production, commerce, land to one of your rivals
c) to ensure that at least one neighbour ceases to be any military threat in the future and to sufficiently harm their ability to challenge you technologically.

If you have many neighbours, it will often make a lot of sense to strike early at the nearest/richest/strongest to eliminate one of your biggest threats.

My early wars would be for point a), after that wars to keep AI's in check (point c)
Whenever possible, I usually attack the most advance civ who share border with me.

[Pythagoras]

In the long term, I find the quicker and earlier the war is, the more you will reap the benefits of the captured teritory. As a builder, I'd like to blitzkreig and give myself plenty of game time to develop the newly conquered areas. Should that reach a point where growth can no longer continue, then I'll find some other sap to crush. However that would be just for fun, cause if I've played my cards right and crushed someone early and quickly, I'll have a sufficient land-base for most victories.

You know what they say about prison, make someone your ***** the first day or be someone's *****, thats my civ motto.