Great War-Mongering Civ?

[sportsfreaklgg]

I know there are many answers to this question, so I'll try and be more specific. What's a good civ that can be very effective in war throughout all phases of the game? What civics are generally best for fighting wars?
Usually I play a peaceful style, but my friend does the same thing so I want to surprise him with an ass kicking strategy next time we play. Me and him also play with AI and sort of use them as puppets.
Considering I am not used to fighting wars, what is a good military civ to use for a first time war fighter like me?
Also, any tips for having an effective military strategy? I'm not a beginner but I am not of an advanced skill yet. Basically I know that production cities are good for fighting wars, I would love to be able to convert AI in to my vassals, and be able to fund my war through controlling holy cities. So yeah, what Civilizations and any tips on how to use these Civilizations well for war?
Thanks!

[joncnunn]

I find that if your more interested in wars in any phase that geting a significant military tech lead that matters more than the civ or leader.

[MoonWolf]

If you choose a civ that is Charismatic, your units will need 25% less XP for each promotion. An Imperialistic Civ will double the Great General points earned. So, In my opinion, one of these traits is a "must" for warmongering...

[couerdelion]

Personally, I find the Spiritual trait as the strongest if you want to be aggressive if only because you can effectively turn on and off from a war footing very easily. Among these, I'd take SPI/CHA Brennus or either of Egyptians (War Chariots are killers in the Ancient era)

One thing to note is that if you are able to attack early, do it. This should give the boost needed to get ahead in the game which, if used well, will give you such a competitive advantage is production and probably techs that later wars will be easy.

Attack fast. A sudden attack gives your opponent little time to react. One simple tactic that I prefer is to rush the first city or two giving almost no change for your units to be attacked before they take the city. But expect a counter-attack. Either that or the civ will be stacking large numbers of units in a city which can wait until you are in the open before it strikes.

Destroy defensive bonuses. Once culture is quite high, you’ll need catapults to wear down defenses. Watch out for walls early in the game. These will hurt you if you haven’t got any catapults. Once culture is quite high, you’ll need catapults to wear down defenses. When you can start building catapults, there is one general rule to apply – it is almost impossible to have too many catapults.

Varied units are better. As the game advances, most units will have a counter units (ie Chariots munch Axes, Axes destroy swords, Crossbow hits any melee unit, etc). Bringing varied units makes your key attack units less vulnerable to attack from its nemesis. In general, you want your opponent to attack your mixed stack rather than you attack its

Lots of collateral damage hurts. The exception to this is the catapult. A lot of catapults will turn a strong varied stack into a pile of mush. If possible, that’s what you want to do to a defensive stack.

Fighting on home turf gives advantages. You can use roads on your home turf while your any uses roads on his turf. That gives a speed advantage which can allow a smaller army to surround and destroy a larger slower force

Specialist units: Here are a few useful specialist units you might want which you get through promoting the right units.

Medic: Your units will get injured. The longer they take to heal, the less time they will be effective at fighting.
Sentry: Getting at least one sentry for your advanced units gives that little extra line of site
Commando: A general term which can either apply to specialist units that can roam quickly through forests or hills and destroy key roads, act as sentries or similar provide extra defensive bonuses to a stack in woods or on hills

[Felch]

So you guys aren't a big fan of Agg? I like having that first level out of the way so that I can really start specializing. But I don't play MP, so things may be different.

[rah]

For mid game wars, I'm a big fan of the etheopians.
Organized for ease of maintaining all the land you conquer. And creative for squeezing out the land of other civs.
And the mustket replacement is fun. Rush to gunpowder and buid lots of them. Start them with the mounted promotion and they can handle almost anything it that era.
And even better, since they start with promotion instead of just abilities (like janisaries) They become wicked rifleman and even better infantry.

Or choosing a protective civ and rush to crossbowman and longbowman. The native americans are a good choice for this one.

[Krill]

Originally posted by Felch
So you guys aren't a big fan of Agg? I like having that first level out of the way so that I can really start specializing. But I don't play MP, so things may be different.

Agg is great in teamers when you have allies to back up the economy and you focus ion the units, it isn;t so great when you are playing an FFA and have to build the economy yourself.

[MoonWolf]

What's FFA?

[The Priest]

On the civs/civics front, its a complicated picture, which of course is why CIV is so good. Something like organised doesn't seem like a military trait, but you are only being warlike to conquer territory, and that means increased maintenance costs which can soon bring the whole war/expansion to a halt. Organised allows you to keep going much longer, without falling behind in tech.

Its easy to overlook spiritual for wars. But the ability to flick between beurocacy (I can never spell that word) and organised religion to vassalism (is that what it is called - the +2 XP) and theocracy is powerful. Otherwise I find i can't use the military civics because I need the other onces most of the time to keep the tech and infranstructure but it isn't worth the anarchy to swap - but those extra 4XP are very powerful - that means 7XP with baracks and 9 with stables. Spiritual also allows you to swap to slavery or caste at the war progresses so you can expand the boundaries of the territory you capture (either by slaving theatres or by appointing artists - I prefer the latter but others seem to like the slaving).

On that note, creative can be very helpful. The automatic exansion of boundaries is a real help.

I guess what come out from this is that some traits focus on helping you actually win the combat e.g. aggressive, protective, imperialistic etc. while others help you to keep the territory you capture (creative), afford it all (organised and even financial) and swap well between peace and war (spiritual).

[Krill]

FFA + free for all, each civ aims to win alone, but anything goes during the course of the game, diplomacy, war etc.

[Supr49er]

I've had success in 'Always War' games playing as Boudica of the Celts.

Good UB (Dun) for early conquest, and the UU (Gallic Warrior) is really underrated.

[The Priest]

Regarding tactics - much could be said. But two tips i would pass on:

1. Medic great generals are very powerful. Stick your first great general onto a scout/explorer. This will give the level unit for HE, but also gives a far more powerful benefit to your army than just a single uber-attack unit. It will heal almost anything, in enemy territory, in adjacent stacks, in 2 turns. You can laugh at collateral damage (e.g. you arrive outside a city, while you reduce its defensive bonus, they attack you with catapults/artillery - normaly that is a real pain, just one or two attacks and the edge is taken off your city raiders. Now, but the time your catapults have reduced teh defensive bonus, the CR are back to full strength (because they are stationary for the turn while the catapults do their work). More generally a stack can keep rolling after taking one city to the next, greatly reducing their ability to build up defenders.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by The Priest
1. Medic great generals are very powerful. Stick your first great general onto a scout/explorer.

A warrior is arguably better because it can then get Woodsman III which is cumulative with the Medic promotions. It will heal almost anything, even in enemy territory, in only 1 turn.

[The Priest]

2. Understand the way the AI plays. It splits its forces into two - defensive troops for each city, and a field army. Units will bascially not move from one to the other, and one cities defensive troops will not move to another city.

What this means is (a) the field army will come for you. If it doesn't in the first turn or two, it must be at the other side of their civ, but come it will. (Unless the civ has just been in a major war elsewhere and it has been destroyed and not yet rebuilt.) Think about where you want to engage this. The best of course it to lure it into attacking you either in a city or even better in a high-defensive location (hills woods). You probably don't want to engage it when it is fortified in a city on a hill. (Although sometimes taking it on in a city can work well - if it means it is concentrated in one space and your trebs and macemen get great bonuses). Once this is destroyed, you are pretty safe. Sometimes you think your own army is almost destroyed too and go for peace, but if only you knew, you would carry on.

(b) The rest of the cities will not help each other. Each will have a set number of defenders depending on its size and the period. You can have far fewer units and hence less on teh power graph and still win. Five cities in a region may have two archers and a spear each. Leaving an archer in each would give 6 archers and four spear in the city under attack, which might defeat my arms of say four swords, an axe, a spear, and a couple of cats, but they won't join together, so you can knock off a city at a time.

[The Priest]

A warrior is arguably better because it can then get Woodsman III which is cumulative with the Medic promotions. It will heal almost anything, even in enemy territory, in only 1 turn.

This is one of those gaps in my education - I have never had a woodsman III. Who is it open to? Can't explorers have it?

And how do we get a weak unit to have the necessary number of XP. A GG onto an out of the tin until (even with baracks etc) only just gets Medic 3. To get woodsman 3 would need 3 more promotions (or 2 more for explorers, and some UU I think). That is a lot of battles for a weak unit.