War Advice Please

[Thomas P]

I'm having my first civ game and would like to have some advice on entering a war. It's 1725 and I am in a Democracy. I'm getting about 100 gold per turn and I am not sure what government type would be best when I go into war mode. Also I don't understand what drafting does and whether I should be using it. Thanks.

[notyoueither]

Stick with Democracy as long as possible.

Possible is limited by 2 things.

1st, War Weariness will set in. Your cities will require more and more pop dedicated to be entertainers to keep them out of unrest. You can also increase luxuries empire wide to keep cites in line. A combination of luxuries/entertainers is optimal because War Weariness (and Overcrowding) will not be the same in all cities (in my experience). Check causes of unhappiness in a city by double clicking on an unhappy person, that will give you a report of what is causing people to be unhappy. Eventually, you will have cities starving to keep them out of unrest. This is undesirable for most players.

2nd, Gold. The more successful you are, the more units you will likely have. The longer the war lasts the higher you will have set your luxury rate. In both events you will have less and less gold.

At a certain point it will pay to switch to Communism. War Weariness will disappear and you may have more gold due to the massive number of free units that Communism gets.

I do not advise that you draft. This gives you 2 hit Inf that are entirely too brittle. Your major cities should have Barracks and should be able to pump out Veteran offensive units (Cav/Tank) in 2 or 3 turns. Your lesser cities should also have Barracks and be able to turn out Veteran Rifle/Inf in a couple of turns. This should give you plenty of units if you use them wisely. Oh, make sure you have plenty of units before you light the fuse.

Salve

PS. Do not ignore diplomacy. Your enemy will be trying to get other civs to declare war on you. Preempt this by getting them to ally with you against your enemy.

[GePap]

Conditions

What type of government you need depends on the type of war. If its defensive (they attack you first and you are carefull to keep most your units out of their borders) then Dem. is fine. If you want to go out and conquer others, then you should really use Communism or MOnarchy, depending on your tech level. Both make it cheaper to run your army and stop rampant unhappiness from crippling your civ at the cost of lower trade. Be sure to change before you go towar cause revolutions during wartime can really be annoying, thouhg if your are playing a religious civ it won't be a problem.

Drafting takes one population point from your city and converts it into 1 of the best possible defensive unit your city can build with 2 hit points (1 less than regular soldiers). In democracy you can only do this once a turn in each city- giving you one unit. In communism you can draft more than one per turn per city, but there is a limit. Conscripting causes large amounts of unhappiness, specially in Dem.
Drafting really should only be used if you are desparete to create defensive units to hold your cities from enemy attack- conscripts have too little HP to be any good at attacking enemies.

Hope this helps.

[yin26]

Here is some advice if you don't mind bending the spirit of the game a little: Since war weariness will absolutely kill you at some point, even if you didn't start the war yourself and even if you are winning, the number one priority for you is to get that war won ASAP. Thus:

Make an alliance with intended victim(s) that allows you land access for your troops. Move a mass of quick-strike troops into said lands. Really pack 'em in. When you are ready, start war. Yes, this will 'hurt' your diplomatic stading with other AIs, so use it when it will give you a decisive advantage.

Now, here's the trick: You should have had the right mix of troops in there to take over most or even all his cities within a very few turns. In other words, you've got to somehow circumvent the transport phase of getting troops in position while in war since each turn used in anything OTHER than steam-rolling the opponent is just asking War Weariness to come knocking. Oh, and load those troops with settlers. Why?

You'll want to raze all his cities and plant your own in their place otherwise you'll find all those conquered cities litterally popping back to the enemy ad naseum. Also, you can't afford the time to post units in captured cities, especially since this whacky cultural defection system can do more to wipe out your army in a single turn than can the entire war itself!

[notyoueither]

Yin has a very good strategy for winning a quick war against a small opponent, although it is very counter-intuitive, and for many people, distasteful. Be that as it may it works, at least for the first war. After that you won't find it easy to get Right of Passage agreements with other civs.

It is also effective for gutting a larger opponent and bringing them to their knees right off the bat. How many civs can fight a war with their capital and 4 other largest cities falling to the opening shots? Puts Pearl Harbor in a whole new light.

Salve

[Willem]

Originally posted by notyoueither

PS. Do not ignore diplomacy. Your enemy will be trying to get other civs to declare war on you. Preempt this by getting them to ally with you against your enemy.

Diplomacy definitely can help. I was fighting a losing battle against the Germans until I enlisted the support of the Russians, who were also neighbours of the Germans. It wasn't to long after that there's wasn't a single German unit to be found in my territory, which gave me a chance to reinforce and fortify my positions.

[yin26]

Yes, notyoueither makes my 'only if' point clearer: Save this strategy for when/if you need it. And if you don't plan to use it, always make sure that you have the means to move your troops quickly. Don't wait for a war to start with an overseas foe before starting to make transports, for example.

[HulluKarhu]

Taking advantage of old enemies

Playing French..Germans to East, English to North, USA to West..(hows that for geography from a Finn!)
Anyway to Germans started it...no real excuse.."give me your Salty Peter or else! says Bismark" "stuff you!" says I.."Where would you like my Peter..which ear !?"
Then I instantly set up a trade to both USA and Brits..Military Alliance in exchange for what ever they want..

Yanks and the Brits lay into the Krauts like there is no tomorrow!
I keep my troops and workers hiden...untill I see that one of the German boder towns is under heavy attack and then I go in for its throat...but I just happen to have a settler lurking..as soon as the town was raised in he goes... New Town just across my eastern border..then I approach the first German I see and sign a peace deal...Yanks soon do the säme...but the Brits are still at the Germans and vice versa 100 years later...I just sit along both of their borders with settlers and move them in to replace raised border towns. At the same time they are spending all their cash on troops while I am heading for a space victory.

[Thomas P]

Thanks a lot for all your advice.. Although I'm getting many different responses. I'm going to try the advice given to me by 'notyoueither' and stay in Dem for as long as poss. I also like the sneaky advice from Yin which I will also try.

[justjake73]

Also if you have Nationalism go to your Domestic Advisor and switch from Peace to War - Adds 1 shield to a square wherever one is already produced