Peace Dividend - Winning Sufficient Power(TM)
We've seen the guns, now show us the butter.
This forum has been full of high-quality strategy and discussion posts concerning military routes to victory. It would be good to have a similar level of discussion about peaceful builder strategies that work on Monarch (the highest possible level AFAIK for builders), so here's one such Monarch strat especially for standard pangea maps playing the Egyptians.
If anyone is interested I'll bump another peace-strat of mine for island maps : Lighthouse Rex - that's reliable on Regent, less certain on Monarch (depends on neighbours). Elements of both strats could be used on continent maps. There's also another ton of words that I could write about this strategy, which has a lot more detail to it, (eg: tech trading , Forbidden Palace, Golden Age & Wonders) and would gladly do so if anyone was interested or wants to discuss anything.
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Warmongering reaps its well documented rewards of slave-workers, resources, leaders, territory, weakening & eliminating opponents, and ultimately setting up a dual-core civ which when up and running is enough to easily win the game. Since Civ 1 war always was, and still is, the surest and most popular way of wining the game. In Civ 1 you just built a few chariots and took over most of the world. These days 'a few' means 25-30, they'll be getting cash-upgraded to horsemen before being unleashed, and they'll only bag you a civ or two - but the spirit's the same. War is fun, and it wins you Civ.
So what's the alternative? Civ was always supposed to about guns v butter, and of course it is, so what hope for the butter?
Peaceful building needs its reward too to be a credible strategy, and that reward is the peace dividend. If you're building infrastucture whilst your rivals are building and destroying vast quantities of each others' units, then you're gaining relative advantage in commercial, scientific and productive strength.
Apart from the shields not spent on military which go instead to infrastructure, another aspect of the peace dividend is the virtue of not being a huge empire, where many unproductive cities all need enough defensive units to deter attack. These cities cannot support themselves so they have to usually be supported from the core with both gold and shields. I noticed this dramatically in a recent game where my economy took a dive after I broke my defensive pledge and anihilated an aggressor in the late-game. OK, so I got another luxury and some more resources that I couldn't sell anyway, but my other import costs skyrocketed, especially to the little guys, as my civ grew significantly in population and cities.
Eventually you emerge into the industrial era with a tech lead, a culture lead, and a powerful economy capable of pumping out units to deal with any threat, or even anihilate an enemy. Late-game blitzers can use this strat to build a platform for tank / MA rushes, while peacers can surge towards their space-ship (or UN if they're impatient to start a new game
). So whilst I'd love warmongers to read this, as a strategy for late conquest, some parts may come over as obnoxious peacemongery so please excuse that
If anyone's got a peace-strat for Emperor I'd love to hear about it, but this is for Monarch. After easily winning numerous games on Regent without firing a shot, it was clear that the AI was going to need some help. On Monarch the production bonuses give the AI's a clear head-start in military, growth, science, and production - a challenge which forces the player to get savy about aspects of the game (eg trading, tech, AI behaviour) and to use more strategy than is needed at earlier levels.
I don't believe there can be a generic strat for all maps, all civs. You have to play your Civ to its strengths, and those strengths can be map-dependent. This strat suits pangea on standard & larger maps (average land, weather, age) - and for those wonderous Egyptians, whose strengths have been discussed at length on this forum. It's for version 1.21f - I hope that tech & AI tweaks in 1.29f don't render all this obselete the day it was posted.
The Pangea Map
... is helpful for peace-strats because ...
1. Tech rate.
Tech is cheap and fast because everyone can make contact early. This narrows the windows of offensive advantage when they occur: so - pikeman arrive before the enemy has too many swordies/horsies. Likewise for knights/muskets, cavalry/infantry, tanks/MI.
It also means that new building techs (eg: literacy, currency, education, banking) are arriving regularly enough to keep the infrastructure-builder occupied, whilst the unit-builder is falling further behind and still needs marketplaces when factories arrive.
2. Your enemies have other enemies.
Got the Zulus and the Aztecs both bordering you? - never mind, they'll fight each other. The more belligerant an AI civ is, the more it's gonna rack off the others, and someone like the Aztecs can find themselves the focus of a very large coalition all wanting a chunk of the carcass.
Compare this to an island map, where in a current game my hapless (hopeless?) English are sandwiched on a long-ish sliver of land between Germany and Russia. So Bismark's only neighbour and immediate enemy is me, whom he declares war on every time he's saved up 10-15 offensive units, regardless of inconsequential trivia like treaties.
Peace is impossible under such circumstances, but on a pangea, having these two as neighbours is OK - they'll kick the crop out of each other and then get into loads of other wars, creating plenty more enemies. With so many AI's all stabbing each other in the back and it seems that the last civ on their hate-list is the quiet (though well stocked for military and culture) peacenik builder who never attacked anyone. So far with this strat, war has been declared mainly as response attacks to cultural pressure, or opportunist attacks on a poorly-defended city.
Strategy Elements : [
They mainly refer to early-game strategy. More could follow if anyone's interested.
1. Expansion Policy : Rex during land grab.
2. Science Policy : Monarchy gambit.
3. Foreign Policy : Don't Declare War.
4. Trade Policy : Trade! Trade! Trade!
5. Military Policy : Upgrading Veteran Defenders.
6. Culture Policy : Blow them away
1. Expansion Policy : Rex during land grab.
First off, this is not a strat dependent on a 'Golden Settler' start - where either the dice hand out a cow & a game plus several shielded grasslands, or it's necessary to concede yet another humiliating defeat and re-roll the map. Most of my recent Egypt starts have had rivered desert to the north with mountains and jungle to the south, but enough under foot for the first city to get a bite on. This would be grim for a warmonger who wants maybe three or four instant hi-production cities with low-corruption, to churn out the units, but this strategy has other priorities.
The aim here is to carve out a chunk of land which is basically gonna be most of home for life, and once the rival borders close in on your own that's it, save for
cultural defection which can't always be relied upon,
border gaps caused by rivals razing,
or chasing an aggressor over his border and nabbing a city or the whole civ.
late game blitzing
You want as much land as possible, and apart from needing a good core of cities around the capital to outbuild the enemy, strategic resources which you can't see at first will be needed. Trading for them later is a risky possibility, so try and own some by settling the unpopular territory like desert and jungle where they later appear. This has to be secondary to settling 'good' sites for core cities and maybe a specialist settler farm if terrain permits - sending the first settler into the desert and the second into the jungle isn't going to get your civ very far
As this strat won't start wars as a matter of policy, strategic resources can't be taken by conquest later when they appear, (they can culturally - but this risks war too), so the initial landgrab is the best bet for securing these vital resources. The Lighthouse strategy to colonise off-continent islands (always good for strategic resources) obviously isn't an option on Pangea - though there is usually one little island offshore somewhere.
So, desert could contain saltpeter and oil, mountains : iron, jungle : rubber and/or coal, tundra : oil. Also, jungle is excellent long-term territory for an industrial civ like egypt, and rivered desert has food-abundant flood-plains. Some players temporary build rows of cities aoing these rivers, all churning out settlers & workers, though I've not tried that, as I want to claim key terrain early.
For uncorrupt cities with two shielded grasslands, the initial Egyptian worker quickly roads and mines for a total of 5 shields at pop 2. This makes a 30-shield temple between settler builds very viable. This tactic, enjoying both the industrial and religious benefits is unique to Cleo's boys & girls and gives a massive culture lead - there's hardly room on the graph for the other civs. So these early temples push out the borders, reduce AI infiltration, add value to your ROP deals, double up culture in no time, improve respect from AI civs and trading terms, and help get cities flipping your way not theirs in war & peace. Could be a very handy long term investment for the late-game blitzer.
All these settlers and temples don't leave much in the military department, so be prepared to pay out to other civs until the military can be consolidated (see military policy). Use warriors to escort if barbs are playing walkabout and get a regular spearman in the new city asap. Or better, take out the settler with the city's spearman and garrison a warrior in the city if the enemy are not about..
Very soon a wonder city might need to start the Pyramids if using the Monarchy tech beeline tactic. On monarch level they get a row of shields head start, so you need to start early. Too early, and you may not have made enough settlers to get a decent land-grab. In the end, this is for me a pre-build for the Hanging Gardens, as Pyramids is the most popular, but nailing the Pyramids for a GA just after getting monarchy would be dream start. I'd try it but for the sacrifice in early settlers, and a fondness for a golden age triggered by the Sistine Chapel. Maybe someone has done this and could comment.
2. Science Policy : Monarchy gambit.
I used to ignore all research and buy tech with hoarded gold, but have recently deployed the Monarchy gambit for the Egyptians - and it worked. Research full speed to Mysticism, which you stand a chance of getting first if there aren't many other religious civs. This second level tech can help to get into the tech loop early on.
See if you can get a decent return on Polytheism with the research slider set high. If not drop it to 10% and hoard cash. Buy cheap tech with the cash if you want, but wait if you can as they get cheaper - and you might be able to buy everything with your expensive tech if you get it first. So far the AI's don't rush at the lower branch, so if you can get Polytheism, trade it for most of whatever else is out there, topping up with cash. Try the science slider again as your civ grows - assuming there are roads to generate commerce & science - after 15-25 turns at 10% you might be able to accelerate the research.
After Polytheism it's Monarchy - definitely a 40-turner to start with, but if you get there first it's very valuable and tradeable for other late ancient techs. Also, you can switch your wonder city (if a prebuild is on the go) to the Hanging Gardens to get halfway to an Egyptian Golden Age (other half : Sistine / Bach).
Round off the era researching Currency to reach the middle ages, where Feudalism is usually first choice, since a scientific civ will get Monotheism.
Establishing contact with everyone is vital to get your tech costs down - so try to get contact with other civs before buying tech. Shop around and try various deal proposals out with your advisor to get a feel for the value of techs. A lot could and shoud be written about the art of trading, but suffice to say that cunning plans and swinging merchant tricks can go a long way.
Quick example - you alone have Polytheism and want to trade it for lots of the tech that all the others have shared out among themselves. You could trade it to Rome for Writing, Mathematics and Iron working, but it's worth more, they don't have cash to make up the difference, but they have tech beyond Writing on the tree that can't be negotiated in the same deal. So buy Writing first for 70G and that opens up Code of Laws, Literature and Map Making where you can get your full Polytheisms worth.
3. Foreign Policy : Don't Declare War.
This alone is not enough to prevent attacks but it helps minimise the frequency. If all goes well I'll only be attacked once, maybe twice in a game (usually by a suicidally weak civ under culture pressure from my borders). It also sets up the diplo victory, though I gather this is also too easy to buy at the last minute, regardless of behaviour-record. I want all the AI's to be 'polite' or better at all times.
4. Trade Policy : Trade! Trade! Trade!
Trading Resources helps for good relations and for keeping the peace. Also, trade ROPs early on for peace & profit. If the land-grab has gone well, you can sell ROPs to civs with smaller landmasses. (I think size of military affects ROP deals too.) There's a small risk of sneak attack (esp from Cathy) against poorly defended cities, but mostly they're worth having. Larger civs might charge a lot for one, though - and you might need it to keep them friendly.
Gifts can help gain favour and allies : strategic resources to poor, weak civs can help bolster them against a growing rival in addition to eventually buying their UN vote. Gifts to some stronger rivals might dissuade war (nothing dissuades Bismark IMO) and again help in the UN if that it used.
Make money from maps - most of the continent is uncovered early, but you can squeeze precious gold in tight spots by selling your WM for WM + gold, then repeat for each civ, and finally return to the first again as your map is more valuable since the previous trade.
5. Military Policy : Upgrading Veteran Defenders.
The plan is not to attack, for peace-players, and for late-game blitzers the plan is not to attack before Sufficient Power(TM) is attained in the Industrial era
After building one initial regular spearman per city during the landgrab, a barracks city per four/five cities should churn out veteran spears - 1 per city, until all have 1 vet & 1 regular. This is supplemented by a small mobile team of 4-6 war chariots - which can be useful for triggering a golden age if someone attacks at a 'good time'. They might not be all be vets, as the barracks city will have its hands full on the defenders, and other cities might contribute regular WC. I might have 4-6 warriors from early on which can get upgraded to swordsmen, especially if veteran-ed against barbs. This can form a stack or two of robust defense supplements & counterattackers to be deployed in threat-zones. This military is, I find, usually enough to deter attacks and once it's in place the bully threats from nasty neighbours start drying up.
On getting feudalism, I only upgrade the veterans, and then build vet pikes in barracks cities - one for each city, leaving each city with 2 veteran pikes and 1 regular spearman. By this time you should have a feel for what's on the 'threat-board' vis-a-vis your neighbours, and hopefully they should all have a stack of enemies to keep their attentions.
From now until much later, these 2 vets-per city will be upgraded all the way, with extra defenders added later until by Mech Inf I have 4 defenders-per city plus some extras.
As the industrial era matures, virtually everything has been built in the core cities, so they can churn out as many infantry and arty as you want every 2-3 turns, waiting for Mobile Warfare. Then it's tanks & bombers until computing is discovered for research labs, or fission for the UN. For some reason the Romans always attack me during this phase and I often can't restrain myself to a defensive war, and try to see how quickly I can wipe them out. This is NOT in the game-plan, and although it was satisfying to wipe the little twerps off the map it actually compromised the peace dividend, as extra defenders had to be built to keep all conquered cities defended against opportunist attack.
6. Culture Policy : Blow them away
Not surprisingly a builder strat is going to score a lot of culture, but there's surely no-one , not even the Babs (except double game-tile religious starters) that can pull that early temple trick quite like Cleo - without significantly holding up expansion. The following para from the Expansion Policy is worth repeating for this section :
"For uncorrupt cities with two shielded grasslands, the starting Egyptian worker quickly roads and shields for a total of 5 shields at pop 2. This makes a 30-shield temple between settler builds very viable. This tactic, enjoying both the industrial and religious benefits is unique to Cleo's boys & girls and gives a massive culture lead - there's hardly room on the graph for the other civs. So these early temples push out the borders, reduce AI infiltration, add value to your ROP deals, double up culture in no time, improve respect from AI civs and trading terms, and help get cities flipping your way not theirs in war & peace. Could be a very handy long term investment for the late-game blitzer."
Remote cities and strategic resource sites won't be able to throw in a temple quite so easily, but they only need 10 shields and a pop 2, and weren't going to be quick settler-producers anyway, so there's no better thing to poprush.
Later on, there will be library vs cathedral decisions (same price). Go for libraries at the core, and cathedrals for overcrowded cities or for those with little gold revenue for a library to work on. Marketplaces are Highly Desirable Objects too, but carry no culture, so libs get priority at the core, followed by markets then cathedral. If there are masses of luxuries, this makes the marketplace stonger, and Sistine boosts the cathedral.
Although there are many benefits from high culture, culture-bombing does seem to be a causus belli for the AI, and this can be taken in two ways. For the sheer challenge of beating Monarch level without a war, it might be better to avoid it, by having a high culture based at the core, protecting the border cities which are themselves minimalist, or non-aggressive in cultural development, with just an early temple and a cathedral later.
Another view is that if an AI attacks for this reason (and it seems to be this, rather than a rational assesment of relative strength) and it is late in the game, then the player can retaliate against the weak, stoopid civ, and make gains from the war without taking a reputation hit for starting it, which could be seen as a good thing, if the gains didn't adversely affect the peace dividend.
