Clean warfare: city builder

[bugmuncher]

Stop me if you've heard this one.

I have developed a technique that is much less expensive than standard warfare in Civ III (Vanilla). I don't read many online forums, so this may be a very old trick, but I didn't see anything about this in the knowledge base.

I call my theory "Clean War." Essentially, it's for builders who want to spend as little time or resources in war as possible.

Clean war is best used after the development of navigation.

The basic rules of clean war are:
1. Wait for valid pretense to attack. Don't declare war on anyone (except for when your mpp is activated)
2. Only sieze land that you want or need, such as land with a resource or luxury you couldn't trade for. Don't try to destroy a civ unless you have to.
3. Don't capture cities if you don't have to. Instead, build cities in enemy territory and wage a defensive war from inside their territory.
4. End the war when you have achieved the goal.

Clean war is preferable because defenders get terrain bonuses, while attackers do not. You will never fail when you try to build a city (unless it is next to another city, I think...) You will probably not fail at defending a city if you have enough defenders. But waging a defensive war in enemy territory is a lot easier than hoping you have enough attackers to begin a siege.

Have you ever tried to create a city in another civ's territory? Apparently, that's an act of war. If you are at peace, it is a declaration of war. But if you're at war, anything goes, right? That's the cheap way to sieze undefended resources.

Basically, if you are a builder, you will probably have good culture, which might prevent city-flipping. So all you really have to do once the war begins is plop a new city down on their luxury resource (or on hills nearby), rush-build a harbor or airport (for shipment to the country), and defend the city with good defensive units, optionally supported by cannons/artillery. You will also want to rush-build a barracks, so your defenders can recuperate quickly.

If you really want to be crazy, take along extra settlers and workers so that you can increase the size of the city, for additional defensive bonuses. You won't need to use the workers to develop the tiles, because chances are the AI has already built its own infrastructure, and you're just stealing it.

[realpolitic]

Life is cheap in the beginning. War is more efficent than peace sometimes.

[vorlon_mi]

I've tried this a time or two, and it has worked OK
for me. Most all of my wars are resource-based;
I want that incense, and I don't want to pay a lot for it!

One thing to beware of: this gets a lot harder to do
if the AI have already developed railroads. They can
bring in a pretty heavy-duty counter attack over the rails.
You have to bring lots of defenders, and cash-rushing
a barracks or walls right after the city is founded is expensive.

This is also risky against AIs with fast-mover UUs,
like the Chinese rider. The AI will build lots of its UU,
and they can also race along their own roads to attack
your new city.

IIRC, some have described a tactic like this as
"combat settlers".

[realpolitic]

vorlon, if you base your wars on opportunity, you'll have the later resources. Once you get Cavalry, use it so that your enemy's future rails are less damaging.

[vorlon_mi]

realpolitic,
I think I understand what you're saying. Let me see...

Pillaging: If I'm invading from the sea, I can use
my cavalry to pillage some of the AI's roads,
to slow down the counter attack. If the AI already
has some RR up, then pillaging is even more important,
since getting an extra turn before the counterattack
could mean being able to rush both walls *and* barracks.

An ounce of prevention: It would be even better to
deny the AI access to coal, so that it cannot build RR
for a fast counterattack. So timing is important,
so that this "clean war" is focused on a strategic
resource, instead of a luxury resource.

Late Resources: This is where I'm less clear.
In my games, I usually have 4 luxuries hooked up
by the end of the Middle Ages, when Calv's become
available. I've built a bunch of marketplaces, for
the happiness multipliers, and I would *really*
like to have 5 or 6 luxuries. That lets me keep the
luxury slider at 10%.
So, is this considered "late" to have hooked up
this many luxuries? "Late resources" could mean
coal or aluminum, which are not visible until later
techs are discovered. Since I always try to conquer
my continent, and try to ensure a variety of terrains,
I have not found myself lacking strategic resources.
Perhaps they get scarcer as the difficulty increases.

[vmxa1]

Levels have no effect on resources. Map size is the main ingredient. You can test this with the editor. Just gen a map and see what you get.

Change the size and regen, change the number of civs and levels and count.

[realpolitic]

Hmmn. Vorlon, interesting idea about the Roads and Railroads. They're a two edged sword, they also help my armies blitz through to my next conquest. I race to Military Strategy, so no one has rails by then, but I don't do enough to cut off supply lines, maybe ROPs through civs that border my enemy would help, like when the VietCong would withdraw to neighboring countries.

I probably haven't done enough to cut off supply lines. Certainly around capitals, to disrupt trade. Explorers can be used as suicide troops (and a diversion). Maybe it's those years of playing civ2, with no supplies that caused bad habits.