war before tanks?

[Badtz Maru]

I made modern helos able to bombard (about as effectively as a jet fighter) and unchecked 'Immobile' so you can actually move them around in the field. I also increased the range on most of the air units.

[Evil_Eric_4]

didnt do the helos bombard thing but I did increase air range{again only for huge maps}

[Raleigh]

War in the early ages is great, b/c bombardment possibilities are lower and fewer improvements to lose in the attacks. I always trade for enough techs anyhow.

[tonyhaug]

Real Early Wars

I have discovered that an early war can be very advantageous. In my latest game, I tried several strategies to conquer the nearest civilization early and have come upon a simple set of rules to accomplish this.

After spinning off a settler from your capital city at the start of the game, build a barracks as soon as possible. Then, as soon as you have horseman, build two or three and use these to attack the other civ's capital. You have to attack the other civ's capital BEFORE it reaches a population of 7, otherwise the defensive bonus is too high. Once the capital is taken, you can systematically capture all of the other cities at your leisure. Before moving on to the next city, I would force build a defensive unit in the city I just captured. This gives me a defense AND reduces the number of foreigners in the city.

If you have roads connecting your cities, you can see their military units approaching one of your cities and you can defend all of your cities from counterattack with just a few defensive units (must be veterens).

Using this technique, I captured 6 cities early in the game, giving me a tremendous kick start. By the end of the Ancient Times, I had twice as many cities as any other civilization. This enabled me to build EVERY wonder except The Great Library and The Pyramids (captured that in the capital of the civ I destroyed). I am now in the Modern Age with NO MORE WARS and I'm far ahead of everyone else.

One final note, after that initial war, I am waiting till I get Modern Armor to start the FINAL war to conquer the world!!

[Grumbold]

I always try to sneak at least one enemy city (preferably the capital) on first encounter if they don't have spear defenders. That gives me enough room and production to expand at the same or better rate than my neighbours (hey, I'm not playing Deity yet ) and get a good size empire with at least a couple of different luxuries to trade. Then a war will typically break out while I have my special unit which normally results in one more Civ making way for my expanding influence. Then I like to lay low until Cavalry arrives. Fighting with Cav is easy, your troops rarely die. By the time tanks appear its normally time to expand for a last time to claim victory unless I want to sit back and build spaceships.

The advantage of this approach is that you are rarely lacking in any strategic resource once you have got past the "find the iron" hurdle.

[greggbert]

I go to war the second I get knights. They are my single most favorite unit. With an attack strength of four and the ability to duck out of combat if things get too hot, I usually can just extend outward from my capital city until I hit the corruption border. If I need to I can stay at war with my cities bursting at 12 under monarchy until gunpower comes out, at which point I trade for Saltpeter, upgrade all my knights to cavalry immediately (with leo's workshop) and then just do democracy and peace (with the cavalry enforcing) until I get rifleman. I pretty much ignore saltpeter, except to get my slew of horsemen upgraded to cavalry at the very beginning.

I never build musketeers, but instead use cavalry and pikemen to defend cities until infantry comes out.

-Heh.....