How early to kill civs?

[Free_Mumia]

In my current game (monarch) I am the aztecs. We are all on a big continent shaped like a T. I am on the top part of the T and the top half of the tall part. When I started I found the babylonians and killed them in about 20 turns, I knew they would respawn. They respawned at the bottom part of the T. Then I saw the egyptians and killed them down to 1 city, also I killed the babylonians down to 1 city again. On the top part of T there is plenty of unsettled land and the cities I have there are not heavily defended, I was wondering I kill the Egyptians and Babylonians now, will they respawn? It's 30 BC right now. When does the AI consider itself dead enough not to respawn?

[AlecTrevylan00]

they've never respawned on me, and i killed 3/6 civs by 2000 BC, and there were whole continents unsettled until 1000 AD, when i settle them

[Herr David]

There is no spawn/not spawn decision. At least I have never experienced a correlation between AI backwardness and the likelihood to respawn somewhere far, far away. Once I killed the Chinese, who had lingered along with one city between 2000BC and 500BC and they respawned. Another time I wiped out the Egyptians, who had been a world power until ten turns before (on a small map) and they didn't respawn, although there were two unsettled continents.

So far, about a third of the civs I wipe out get respawned. Makes for really annoying campaigns, especially if you were hoping for an end to war unhappiness under Democracy on a huge map.

[Kizami]

I think ahe a.i.'s decision to re-spawn or not depends on how much unclaimed land is left in the world at the time of the civ's demise.

[ixnay]

I think so, too. Playing on a smallish map with all 16 civs, I can wipe out a civ with the 1st warrior i build and they won't respawn.

[Metaliturtle]

The patch let's you pick now

[ledj]

Sometimes if you sent military units to the unclaimed land will prevent AI's respawn in that area.

[Vetinari]

I usually wait a while before starting my first war. Not because of fear of respawning, but because I will likely only get 2-3 cities from an early war. I find it a little irritating when my early-aincent army of 20 war chariots marches through Ghandi's 10 cities, I only take control of 3 of those, the rest are burned to the ground. And since I was busy producing war chariots in all my cities, I lose the settler race of the newly available territory, and some minor a##shole like Xerxes settles all over the place that MY troops cleard

[Theseus]

Vetinari,

Taking / razing 30% or more of an enemy civ in the early game is a major accomplishment.

Xerxes is doing you a favor... consider it a gift of future expansion opportunities.

[Heartsurgeon]

1. I try to take out any civ that's too close as fast as possible.

2. Early in the game there's no reason to raze cities, except maybe the enemy's capitol. If you capture a pop 1 or 2 city, take it over and start growing your own population there. Also, if you want to get rid of enemy citizens to prevent a size 3-4 city from jumping back, then jsut rush-build a temple and kill a couple off.

3. Early conquest is the only way you have a prayer of keeping up with the AI on emperor/diety levels.

[Cookie Monster]

I'm pretty sure that with the new patch you do have the option to "don't restart eliminated players". Eliminated civs never restart in any of my games. Probably if you fail to kill that last settler who makes it to some unoccupied land and settles then you have the illusion that they respawn? Just a thought........


I try to kill civs early in the game if my military advisor tells me we have a bigger army then them. The early land grab is very important and affects your final score. The more land you control the higher your average score per turn.

[Coracle]

"Free_Mumia" is one of the most offensive screen names yet.

I have a better one - FRY Mumia, the cop killer.


As for your question, it depends on the civ. Knock them off while you have a military advantage, especially with a superior UU. If you've developed Mounted Wariors do not wait until the Persians develop Immortals, for instance.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Coracle

As for your question, it depends on the civ. Knock them off while you have a military advantage, especially with a superior UU. If you've developed Mounted Wariors do not wait until the Persians develop Immortals, for instance.

I agree with Coracle. Always try to wipeout somebody with an ancient UU if they are close.

Oh, Coracle, no mention of civ 2?!

[Pelman]

A lone settler didn't preserve a civ

Originally posted by Haupt. Dietrich
Probably if you fail to kill that last settler who makes it to some unoccupied land and settles then you have the illusion that they respawn? Just a thought........

I have taken out a civ's last city right after after a settler took off in a galley.
As soon as the city was taken I got the You-just-wiped-a-civ-off-the-face-of-the-earth message.

[Metaliturtle]

The respawn is based mainly on land area, if the computer thinks it can put a civ somewhere where it has the land area to grow, then it will respawn, obviously, if the whole world's colonized, then respawning is out of the question.

I've also noticed how sometimes a random city will appear when destruction is imminent for the civilization, for example, I torched Berlin in Europe in 3500 BC, yet I didn't get the killed a civ thing, I checked the retire map, and Liepzig was built in 3400 BC, in AUSTRALIA