When do you start conquering?

[Hippi]

I'm just curious.

[Kassiopeia]

When My Pesky Foe decides to attack me; In the Modern Times, usually. And usually the Foe has a nuclear missile or two. And usually I have enough nuclear power to whomp every one of his cities - twice.
But generally I do not declare war unless declared upon. Or if I'm directly neighboured to a small civ that's only cultural advancement is a pile of dirt.

[Arrian]

Option #2 pretty much says it all - when I'm ready. This usually ends up being the Middle Ages, but I have waited until the Industrial Age before. I tend to try and avoid ancient combat, but I have had successful early wars. Typically, though, I don't start those. I tend to pick fights later on.

-Arrian

[lawren8]

It depends on the civ. On the higher levels I try conquest as
soon as I can

With Iroquois conquest starts with horses.
With others I usually waith for knights maybe cavalry

[MrWhereItsAt]

Gotta have industrial, just as cavalry are coming together.

Factories means heaps more production, and for all the units about this time (Infantry, Artillery, Tanks etc.), the A/D is so much higher than ever before. Forget about Immortals having a 2 Attack advantage over Spearmen, try attacking riflemen with a 10 attack (I think) Tank! Artillery is FINALLY useful (Cannons and Catapults do nothing), and you can finally build decent warships (Destroyers, Battleships...).

Yep, Industrial is when advantages are really actually finally advantages, and not just by one or two attack or defense. This is when the war units of the game come out to shine, and it's best if you use them before your victims build up to that level by the Modern Age. You have the chance (if not always certain) to attack primitive guns and horse units with Steel, so KILL, KILL, KILL!

[cutlerd]

I tend to mix my stated victory conditions from game to game....so it depends on what I am going for, but aside from that....

I always play on a huge map with 16 civs. Random continent types.

Usually I will try to take out 1 civ during ancient times. The bext way is to discover iron working first and grab the nearest iron. Hopefully, having discovered it first, you have a period of superiority over your opponent before he discovers it, gets to an ore, build a road to the ore and churns out swordsmen of his own.

I try to take out the weakest adjacent civ in ancient times to give me more room to expand into than my neighbours. This will allow me an instant advantage over any neighbours that do not also decide to conquer early.

Once my neighbours have iron working it is usually time to rest. The only time this is not so is when I am the Persians. Their Immortals are so mean and nasty that I generally go on a killing rampage with them until I see the first enemy knights pop out.

Barring the Persians though, I then stop until I have knights. Knights are the next big attacker advantage phase of the game. Usually with knights I will go after all of my neighbouring civs, cutting back their borders and usually picking a weak but tech advanced one if possible to smash hard enough that they grant me all of their techs.

Once my opponents have knights, I then usually make peace and head straight for Cavalry. Cavalry can essentially dominate the battlefield until Infantry come around, which is rather a long time if you have really concentrated only on the Cavalry civ advance requirements.

Once I have cavalry, it is usually another round of wars until my opponents have INF entrenched enough and CAV enough to make it difficult to advance or hold ground.

Then it is another time of peace until tanks. Once tanks come in there is generally war to the end unless I have chosen a peaceful victory condition.

Devin

[Jonny]

I attack when attacked, or when I desperately need to expand and my neighbor is very weak.

[GeneralTacticus]

I basically attack when
A: I'm ready for it (I picked option 2)
and
B: The enemy has something I want (techs, a good city, resources, or just some more land). If a civ has declared war on me, then unless it would take to much work, I ALWAYS follow them back to their own territory and punish them badly. Once I was playing the Romans on Earth and I ended up ruling most of Europe because the other civs kept on fighting me.

[zorbop]

if i play as the babylonians(and i usually do), the second i get warrior code.
if i play as iroquois, when i get mounted warriors

[cassembler]

A good, clean, fast early conquest of at least two or three close cities helps with not only the rapid AI expantion but scoring a couple free techs in peace talks, too.

As soon as I get archers, if I get them before they get past warriors.
Otherwise I'll wait for longbowmen and knights. Playing the Greeks, I use hoplites to pillage like mad cows before I strike...

[cutlerd]

If you like early warfare...nothing beats the Persians IMO. Get Iron Working ASAP and build Immortals. You will find yourself with 4 strength attackers with defenses to match the best defenders of the time (Spearmen) going up against defenders with half their strength (unless you are fighting the Greeks or Romans...and even then you out do their special units by 1).

Devin

[Nakar Gabab]

As soon as I find someone. I'll use warriors (or preferably jags, as I tend to favor the Aztecs, or the Egyptians if I get to the Wheel fast enough) to pillage improvements, seize their meager workers, annihilate settlers, and just generally contain them at one or two cities while I expand. As the continent begins to fill up, I kill off any civs contained in this manner and settle into building hordes of swordsmen, then horses. When knights arrive, I'm usually the first to them, and I'll press against whoever I can get my hands on with them. Shoot straight for cavalry, and do it all over again. I go into remission in the early industrial age but I've begun to attack now as SOON as infantry and artillery are available. Into the modern age, stop for Rocketry then take a straight shot to modern armor and stealth planes to finish off whoever remains.

Violent? Maybe. I prefer to call it "proactive defense."

[Taarkin]

Wiping out other civs is MUCH earlier in the beginning of the game, before they have much of a chance to spread like the viruses that they are . Immortals, War Chariots, ect are good for this. Nothing like buying iron working from the Germans for a hefty sum and then wiping them out in 4 turns of pure Immortal-induced beatdown.

[Darth Sidious]

what difficulty do you guys play?

seeing al this talk you prolly play pretty easy dif levels. killing someone fast really isn't possible on deity.

I'd like to see more people post usefull stuff on how to beat a chalenging game instead of bashing some dumb****s

[noom]

When I need some.

I only attack when I feel like I'm getting trapped and am losing the land that I had plans for.Then once I am Then I can focus on just building more cites and other things.

I also attack when I see the other civ has something that I want, like Iron. I will try to get it through trade but if the cost is very harsh and wants to much for it, then I tell them I want it or they will feel the power of .........bla lba bla .... then I attack.

I also attack when a powerful nation attacks a smaller civ, I don't know why but I only help defend the weak nation maybe take afew cites and give them to the weaker nation as a gift.