Playing as the Dark Lord - Not a strategy but rather a state of mind

[zorbop]

By then i am ahead in tech. i go for steam, it takes 6 turns. ai is slow to upgrade. you can destroy at least 2 civs before you see riflemen in any numbers (at least controlled by the ai). the reason to wait for rail is the ability to take a civ in 1 turn, allowing no counterattack, thus, minimal cassualties and no risk of cultural conversion. 2 turns to heal, then the next civ will fall in 1 turn.
destroying a civ in 1 turn, with vet sipahi, leaves almost no casualties

[vmxa1]

Sounds good, but I do not see it in my games. By rails, I have long ago gotten rid of the near civs and left only large civs or civs far away.
These civs will have rifles at a minimum and probably more if I wait until I have my RR up. I would not expect to see the #2 and #3 civs that far behind, unless I was playing below Emperor or even below Monarch.
Like I said I am not expecting to be using any horse type units for hitting metros, regardless of what is defending them. You would be hard pressed to beat Pikeman with all the bonus it would have. I am quite sure they will have some very large cities that late in the game. They will have many scores of units, if not over a hundred. Well I should preface this by mentioning I am talking about std maps, not smaller ones. I don't have a clue how those go.

[Solomwi]

the reason to wait for rail is the ability to take a civ in 1 turn, allowing no counterattack

Well I should preface this by mentioning I am talking about std maps, not smaller ones.

One ancillary point that came to mind upon seeing these two comments: This is normally impossible on huge maps, regardless of how many units you can throw into it. The AI uses an EXTREMELY loose city spacing on huge and will nearly always have at least one "breakpoint" at which you need all three moves just to approach the next city. I just throw this out so nobody gets a surprise while shooting for the single turn war on a huge map. I know I tend to not think about map size when reading some of the advice here unless I force myself to.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you have problems with losing cities (your or recently captured ones) to the AI, you are a wuss.

You have obviously have no grasp of military strategy because good military strategy supports cultural holding of cities the way they set up the formula.

My new game experiment is defensive conquest. I invade with nothing but defensive troops and conquer by defending tiles, NEVER attacking. Its hilarious.

[MysteryMan]

???Taoist cenquest???

You must tell me more of this 'capturing cities without attacking' strategy. I find waiting for culture flips to be useful maybe 3 times in a game and then only under close to ideal circumstances. And what does having a defensive unit take a tile do to conquer a city besides starve out the populace?
It seems odd to be called a wuss by someone who takes cities without ever attacking
But seriously, if you have a srategy about this, you should let me know...
-N

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

One of the biggest factors in holding an enemy city you have just captured is how many tile in its radius you control. Every tile in the city's radius is calculated towards the potential culture flip based on who controls it. If it is under a civs cultural control that civ get a point for it unless another civ has a unit on it. If a civ has a unit on a tile THEY get the point for it, not the cultural controller. I have built huge numbers of Spearmen and fortify them on all the tiles of the enemy city and just wait for it to culture flip. It is a very slow game, but I am just playing it to see if it is possible to win through not attacking.

[zorbop]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Sounds good, but I do not see it in my games. By rails, I have long ago gotten rid of the near civs and left only large civs or civs far away....
...Well I should preface this by mentioning I am talking about std maps, not smaller ones. I don't have a clue how those go.

I play on huge maps. also, i follow a builder's strategy at the beginning of the game, there are always still enemies left in the industrial age.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by zorbop

I play on huge maps. also, i follow a builder's strategy at the beginning of the game, there are always still enemies left in the industrial age.

Thats fine, but being ahead in tech by several techs is mostly a function of the difficulty and start location.
I just do not see the AI not having huge numbers of troops by industrial age on a huge map.
It is common to get the tech lead by then at Emperor, but not a given. I rarely have 4 or tech lead on the AI at that level, so soon. It would require a very good start.
If I do get to the point that I have rails up and they do not even have rifles, I would abandon that game, what would be the point? Shooting fish in a barrel is a laugh once, maybe.
So if you are seeing this often, you should move up a level. If at deity already, then all hail.

[bongo]

GhengisFarb wrote

If a civ has a unit on a tile THEY get the point for it, not the cultural controller

Well, well, well. I always thought you had to control it culturally.

Great info, gotta try it.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Arrian
But I have razed an entire continent before, because they pissed me off (they = England). Every city, every tile improvement. Gone. You never were, Liz!

I once went even a step farther. It was in one of the earlier CFC GOTMs, IIRC. I razed the whole Egypt, including all tile improvements (that's what you did too), and I planted forest everywhere with the loads of free workers the razed cities gave. Made me a hell of a "Eastern National park". If there weren't those white-clothed park-robbers, who spawned again everywhere and killed my brave slave-workers . And when we hit the industrial age, I had a massive uprising there.

[Arrian]

True, I didn't take it that far. But I actually WAS planting forest. Unfortunately, I triggered domination unintentionally.

My 3xTank+1MechInf armies did pretty well against the men in white.

-Arrian

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


I once went even a step farther. It was in one of the earlier CFC GOTMs, IIRC. I razed the whole Egypt, including all tile improvements (that's what you did too), and I planted forest everywhere with the loads of free workers the razed cities gave. Made me a hell of a "Eastern National park".

I did that before, too. I forested everything but the actually ruined city sites. Called the Anglo Park of Posterity and Britainic History. (I built two cities in it to type the title of the park and referred to them as gift shops)

[TheArsenal]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you have problems with losing cities (your or recently captured ones) to the AI, you are a wuss.

… or you just simply overextended yourself in a campaign due to ambition exceeding unit numbers.

[Catt]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb
Every tile in the city's radius is calculated towards the potential culture flip based on who controls it. If it is under a civs cultural control that civ get a point for it unless another civ has a unit on it. If a civ has a unit on a tile THEY get the point for it, not the cultural controller.

What makes you say this? I had always thought that it was solely cultural control of the tile in question for purposes of flipping.

Catt

[aoav160]

When playing the Lord Vader method I like to get a right of passage and garrison troops near each city before launching a mass attack.