On a losing streak...

[PrinceBimz]

Fairly new monarch player, been playing regent alot before. Right now I am on a 8 game losing streak! Some were really short, I am talking under 30 minutes. My setups have been standard map with all settings on random. Which I think all settings on random seems to make the game harder thats for sure.

Its the wars that are making me lose here and costing me my games. For example, just finished (and lost) a game which lasted under an hour. I was down to 3 cities so decided to retire and end it. I was dead last and losing in every catagory. I used to keep playing on when I get that small, even down to one city. Not this time though.

Problem in my last game I got greedy. I was doing really good at first, built 5 cities quickly in excellent locations. I ended up with Babylon as my civ and Zulu was my neighbor. I built up about 6 bowmen and fortified outside a neaby zulu city. Established an embassy and performed espionage on the city. Seeing it was weak, I decided to move into position and attack. Captured it within two turns. Then they managed to sneak a boat around and capture a weak city of mine.

I attacked their capitol and came very close to capturing it. I was doing pretty good and was even laughing and thinking how weak they were. Where I messed up was I had two cities building wonders, one the colossus and the other piramids. I hated to stop production and lose a TON of shields. So I continued to let my other cities (which was 3) produce the military units for my war.

Zulu started massing more and more units, eventually outnumbering me. I was forced to settle for peace by giving a size 7 city over Then as you can guess, things just went straight downhill from there. Thing is I had an upper hand and was winning this war at start. Was just doing so well to lose it all. I then just wanted to beat the zulu and get them back. This became like a new goal in the game for me. It did not work and I had to retire. Oh well, trying another one...

[PrinceBimz]

Oh another thing I would like to mention, I have been getting extremely unlucky in battles. Can't tell you how many times my attacking bowman lost to a defending archer or warrior some without inflicting any damage

[Vlado]

Sounds like a streak of bad luck to me... Are you micromanaging your workers enough? That was the key for me when I went up in difficulty, that in combination with REXing and enough workers did the trick.

[UnOrthOdOx]

I think your problem is that you need to get the timing of the higher difficulties down. Everything is MUCH faster. 6 bowmen is a good deal for taking the initial assault, but perhaps it would have been wiser to attack the capitol first. It would hurt them more, true it would be better defended, but you would be taking out their (likely) largest producer.

The other thing is going to multiple wonders that early on higher difficulties is very difficult. I typically only try for at most one (usually the Library) but have more and more often been playing leader roulette to even think of getting that ONE wonder in the Ancient age.

There is not much you can do for poor luck in battles, but I always try to keep offensive units in a poition to defend the homeland as well. You would be surprised how usefull chariots are as defenders in a well roaded, tightly packed empire while waiting for horseback to upgrade them...

From what you said, it seems you built your initial army of 6 bowmen and then switched over to wonders, figuring that initial stack would be enough for your first war. More often than not past regent you will need a second stack of 6, and it never hurts to have them anyway.

[JPGray]

A lot of times if you can't effectively manage the conflict and your cities at once, or you are too impatient to build effective slow-moving armies, the AI will gain a large lead on the harder difficulties. So if you quickly expand to about 10-12 cities on a standard map and play the AI off one another, you can get a better feel for Monarch. Also keep playing even when you are losing. It's a little demoralizing not to be the top dog, but it's difficult to fall too far behind in tech if your reputation is adequate. Comebacks can happen.

[PrinceBimz]

Uhhh...fellas... I just lost again I played all the way until my very last city was destroyed. I had 5 civs all declare war on me. It all started because I demanded persia get their units out of my territory. They declared war and I ended up losing everything. Because a few turns after perisa did the rest joined in one after another. Man I tell you, I have been getting owned.

I have been micro managing each and every worker as well. I think my next game I am just going to be a diplomacy king. I am just going to keep peace as much as I can unless I have an absolute obviously more advanced and powerful military. I lose because I keeping losing these wars. I will definitely make note of those tips, right now I need all I can get. I sure hope I won't be posting here again in another hour about yet another lose.

Oh I need to mention in the middle of this losing streak I had jumped back to play a regent level game. Guess what? Lost that too... I used to do pretty good on regent here and there. Maybe its just, uhhh I don't know. Like a good football team, somedays its just not their day. Anyway if I lose on more bloody game here I am going back to regent until I can do better.

I am wondering if higher levels such as monarch, effect combat? Like making it more difficult to win battles? Probably just myh bad luck I think with that issue. I will mention I had 4 catapults in one of my cities that were dishing out some damage to attacking units. When they got near I fired and damage alot of them, then they attack and I was damaging them even more. By the time some of their units attacked they would be knocked down 2 strengths from the catapults. At last, they call it the Hall of Fame? Mine should be called the Hall of Embarrasment

Well...trying another...

[UnOrthOdOx]

It doesn't effect actual combat values except against barbarians. It DOES, however, make the AI more likely to declare war on you, and gives them free units at the beginning and cheaper techs.

I hit a similar rut some time back, and occasionally have a game where things never go right, but I try to enjoy those instances and learn from them. (watching six of your recently upgraded swords die at the hands of a spearman defending a size 3 city on plains with no wall has to make you laugh...)

[vmxa1]

Try a stronger civ, such as China. I do not build Bowman, except to trigger a GA. I do not care for archer/bowman as they not going to be useful for long and do not upgrade for a very long time. When they do upgrade it is hapless unit anyway. It will be whacked by much stronger units.
I prefer warriors now that they can upgrade for a long way. Then get to horsemen, since they become Knights/Calv.
Why don't you post a series of saves. Start with 4000BC. Then we can see how it went.
Most of the problems come with too slow growth and workers not get full value.
Trying to build wonders that they are not going to get.
I do not think any of the issues are with the actual combat, more like not being in postion to avoid some of the combat and then having superior troops when you do fight.

[inca911]

I can see a couple quick places where you might find an opportunity for improvement.

1. You mentioned that you demanded the Persians leave your territory. Did the military advisor indicate they had more units than you? If you were percieved as weak by the Persians, demanding they withdraw is actually inviting attack. The AI gets a nice head start at the higher levels. It takes some time to catch up and you have to sometimes give in to their demands to keep the peace. I try not to have a large cash reserve since it is always demanded as tribute and I'm too weak early on to wage war. If I end up with some cash from trade/huts, I'll often upgrade some units for the inevitable offensive war.

2. You said you were building wonders in two out of 5/6 cities. Well, it's hard to do that and create either city infrastructure or a military. If you must build a wonder, just pick one and maintain production in other areas. Only having 3 producing cities at time of war isn't going to cut it and I think you already know that.

3. Do you rush-build in Despotism? If not, that's a great way to improve your civ. Fast temples keep population and happiness on track. Fast barracks give your military that extra little bit of experience often necessary to avoid troop losses and win wars. Even an occasionally built military unit like a Swordsman is sometimes necessary for a military push. Rushbuilding in recently captured cities also uses up those unhappy foreign nationals while building happiness in those who avoided the whip!

4. You attacked with only Bowmen? Even with the Babs, it is good to use some Horsemen to weaken defenses and not take losses when you send in the bowmen. An initial onslaught of Horsemen makes a big difference. Against the Zulu Impis, I'd also ignore the Horsemen but against other civs, it does help. I also typically wait for Monarchy with the Babs to lauch a war so my Golden Age gives the max benefit. Certainly it's situational, but I find waiting for Monarchy isn't too tough and pays off in the end.

5. Do not neglect trading with others. Definitely do not sit on resources to deny them to a far-away AI. If the Germans are far away, I will certainly trade them my Iron since they will pay a premium and use it to kill a neighbor. Of course I will not give my Chinese neighbors Gunpowder, nor my Japanese neighbors Horses. Usually, there are others who are able to take these surpluses off your hands.

So what are your general strategies/build methods/priorities when you play? That would help others diagnose the issue.

[Catt]

Originally posted by PrinceBimz
Uhhh...fellas... I just lost again I played all the way until my very last city was destroyed. I had 5 civs all declare war on me. It all started because I demanded persia get their units out of my territory. They declared war and I ended up losing everything. Because a few turns after perisa did the rest joined in one after another. Man I tell you, I have been getting owned.

I often learn more from a loss than from a win, so hopefully it isn't all bad.

In addition to inca911's advice about not demanding an AI leave your territory unless you're ready for war, may I suggest the importance of embassies and diplomacy? I try to establish embassies with numerous civs as soon as I have discovered Writing -- although I can understand the frustration at spending the gold necessary to build embassies, their defensive power can often be the difference between a winning game and an early exit. With embassies established, you are able to negotiate military alliances, and I find alliances are some of the best defenses in the ancient age. At the higher levels when the AIs start with extra units (and you are therefore seen as "weak" for some time) an alliance can turn defeat into victory. When the Persians declared war on you, a possible counter-move would have been to buy alliances with one or more of your neighbors and one or more of Persia's neighbors -- this will add a lot of units fighting on "your side" and also tie up a lot of Persian units with Persian defensive operations -- units that would otherwise being streaming towards your cities. Although I've had an alliance partner make peace with the enemy (breaking our alliance) and then immeidately declare war on me in an alliance with the enemy, that is a rare occurance. Usually, an alliance is at best the creation of a strong and powerful ally to fight numerous battles for you and at worst a purchase of "neutrality" that prevents Persia from inspiring a dog-pile on you as happened in your game.

Finally, one of the best defensive preparations is the creation of a robust road network in your territory. The freedom of movement it offers your units (when the AI's units are plodding along at 1 or 2 tiles per turn) means that your defense is highly mobile and much more effective, and means that your counterattacks are more frequent. A robust road netowrk and alliances often turns an ugly situation into a meat grinder for the aggressor, and puts you in a position to begin bringing the war to their cities.

Catt

[Arrian]

1) Wonders harder to build on higher levels.
2) Even if you build the wonders, you are sacrificing expansion and/or military to do it.
3) The AI has more military might on the higher levels, and is thus more likely to pick a fight with a civ that is perceived as weak (see point 2 again).
4) The tech pace is faster, meaning you have less time to do... anything that you want to do.
5) Despotic Golden Ages pretty much suck (I know there are situations where they are ok, but by and large they suck) and so does the Bab Bowman. I love the Babs, but their unit is garbage. Don't use it.
6) Unit upgrades are your friend. Instead of building an army from scratch, which takes a long time, prebuilt it (warriors instead of swords, chariots instead of horsies) and then upgrade. It will cost you cash in exchange for shields. Since shields are generally harder to come by, and require that your cities spend valueable turns constructing units, it's a good trade off. Warrior -> Sword is an excellent way to quickly produce a potent fighting force.
7) If your forces are limited, put them in a position to do as much damage as possible. First, kill off the AI's initial wave of attackers. Second, consolidate nearly all of your forces and send them (via the best defensive terrain) at a major enemy city (capitol is best) and take it down. The object of warfare isn't to win battles. It's to destroy the enemy's ability to fight those battles at all.

-Arrian

[TheArsenal]

Not by any means the expert here. But a couple of things in diplomacy I've found buys me some time to get the army up and running to defend myself, which lets me work on other aspects of my civ.

After I've done the bulk of my REXing*, I find that even if I have to pay for them, I get ROP agreements with as many civs as possible. A ROP can take an annoyed civ down to polite. Which in turn, makes getting Alliances much easier. And if it is a known liar and cheat AI, in the end, what difference does it make if it attacks you with or without the ROP? But the reduced chance due to the "polite" attitude, is worth it to me. When the AI tries to end the deal 20 turns later, which is also common, I will pay again, and as many times as I need, until I am ready to say "take a hike". If the AI comes to me with a crazily lopsided trade that I can not accept, say a map for my map and an important tech/resource I don't want it to have, I renegotiate it as a straight gift of gold.

The tough diplomatic call for me is figuring when to cave in to demands and when not to. Or more accurately, to fight now while it is lacking a crucial tech or resource, or fight it later with the tools I gave it.

An aside: What amuses me is on these boards, people talk in terms of playing "Regent/Monarch" as though they are interchangeable. For someone of my skill level, especially on PtW, they are worlds apart.

*I have made the mistake of getting ROPs before close to the end of REXing (easy to do on huge maps) and have had AI civ settlers walking across my land and plopping down in very annoying places with nothing I could do about it short of treaty-breaking war. Which of course defeats the purpose.

[vmxa1]

Despotic GA is so bad that many use that trick to hurt other civ when on EMp/Deity. Let the civ with ancient UU kill one of your units and get their GA with just a few cities. Very painful for them in the long run.

[Arrian]

An aside: What amuses me is on these boards, people talk in terms of playing "Regent/Monarch" as though they are interchangeable. For someone of my skill level, especially on PtW, they are worlds apart.

They are - only from the perspective of your citizen's happiness level. 2 born content.

-Arrian

[PrinceBimz]

What a turn around! My losing streak may be coming to an end. I am doing very well in my current game which I started and have been playing since my last post. I ended up as England, I never pick my civ I always select random and play with the one it gives me. Anyway, me saying in my last post above I was planning on being a diplomacy king, well that is working very well. I am avoiding war so far and I have awesome trades, great reputation and most of the civs like me. In fact All but one are polite, one even gracious. Its those wars that were making me lose so bad.

In this game right now I have been able to put science as high as 90% and even 100% for a little while. I have never been able to do that on monarch! My science is really doing well for the first time. I had a nice setup and good area in the beginning, I was lucky to get that. So the map is helping me out here. I am doing good but I am not winning, russia is on top and I am in third. Its alot better then before. This game has a long way to go though, I think the year is only 1000 right now and I have only 3 more techs to research to get to industrial age. I am just going to continue to try and stay away from war. Earlier in the game I did have alot of problems with barbarians. They were kicking my butt for a little while.

You guys have some good helpful info here. inca911 , I like you ideas there. It helps and I take all ideas I can get. Losing like I was I needed help there. Alot of it like I said was due to just some bad luck and my map and game. Just things were going so wrong. Well, back to my game where I am doing ok for a change

[Catt]

Boy! You play quickly! A few losses and now a good game all in the space of a few days!

Originally posted by PrinceBimz
I am doing good but I am not winning, russia is on top and I am in third. Its alot better then before. This game has a long way to go though, I think the year is only 1000 right now and I have only 3 more techs to research to get to industrial age.

The longer the game goes on, the better position you're in. You need time to overcome the AI's early advantages, and assuming you get that time, human micromangement (particularly science and trading) gives you the advantage. By the Industrial Age, the AI's warfare is woefully inadequate compared to human capabilities, and if you can make it there, it is probably smooth sailing from then one (absent a calamity).

Catt

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by PrinceBimz
I had 5 civs all declare war on me.

Sorry, I'm a bit late to this thread and Catt stated it much better than me, but USE THE DIPLOMACY SCREEN EVERY TURN.

Build embassies, make contacts, make friends, trade/swap/bribe every turn. It is the Zulu which should have been at war with 5 civs, not you.
I know it's time-consuming, and not the funniest part of the game, but IM(H)O, diplomacy is at least as important as the military.

[badman]

You're right MS, but I think it's just to boring so I never do that.
For the same reason I usually quite at the end of the industrial times, moving hundreds of tanks around just isn't fun.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Playing emperor and winning it most of the time, these are a couple of my experiences.

In contrast to what others say, I don't really care about diplomacy, especially not during ancient age. Civs that get annuyed with me? Pffff, let them ...
'Being feared is better than being loved' , right?

So this most of the times does the trick:
1) REX
2) only research in 40 turns (later on during ancient perhaps no research at all) --> prepare for getting the techs through conquest
3) build warriors for scouting, bab fighting and city happiness
4) build temples
5) build preferrably veterans (a couple of barracks will do, although I usually build barracks in all my core cities)

After having a decent force of warriors available (on standard say 20), start building

6) at least 1 spearman each city (for defense whan warriors attack), preferrably 2
7) prepare for getting iron working and perhaps build your last warriors (you can also let one/two cities unconnected for fast warrior builds to upgrade later on)
8) go to war with weak neighbour, aim for luxuries and/or crippling the enemy
9) when they're hopeless, make peace get all techs
10) build phase, preparing for 2nd war to get other techs

Diplomacy? Later on, or when I'm in real trouble.

AJ

[PrinceBimz]

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR
Playing emperor and winning it most of the time, these are a couple of my experiences.

In contrast to what others say, I don't really care about diplomacy, especially not during ancient age. Civs that get annuyed with me? Pffff, let them ...
'Being feared is better than being loved' , right?

So this most of the times does the trick:
1) REX
2) only research in 40 turns (later on during ancient perhaps no research at all) --> prepare for getting the techs through conquest
3) build warriors for scouting, bab fighting and city happiness
4) build temples
5) build preferrably veterans (a couple of barracks will do, although I usually build barracks in all my core cities)

After having a decent force of warriors available (on standard say 20), start building

6) at least 1 spearman each city (for defense whan warriors attack), preferrably 2
7) prepare for getting iron working and perhaps build your last warriors (you can also let one/two cities unconnected for fast warrior builds to upgrade later on)
8) go to war with weak neighbour, aim for luxuries and/or crippling the enemy
9) when they're hopeless, make peace get all techs
10) build phase, preparing for 2nd war to get other techs

Diplomacy? Later on, or when I'm in real trouble.

AJ

Good ideas here, but the problem I have is that I just can't beat them. When I start a war they beat the heck out of me. They always manage to get an edge on me and seem to eventually overpower my forces. I very rarely have a weak neighbor. I often make a mistake and think they are weak and find out otherwise. To top it off sometimes I don't even have an iron resource near me and within my area. So far diplomacy has been working for me in my current game. I think alot of that has to do with my position at start which was really good. I had alot of important bonuses and things near me so I did not have to fight for much at all.

Catt- Yes I played quickly alright... That was because I was losing so bad I really had to resign. In fact some of them I kept playing and actually lost everything even my last city.

Mountain Sage- Thats a good idea. Sometimes I get caught up in my game and don't use it often as I need to. To use it every turn is a good habit to get into.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Originally posted by PrinceBimz


Good ideas here, but the problem I have is that I just can't beat them. When I start a war they beat the heck out of me. They always manage to get an edge on me and seem to eventually overpower my forces. I very rarely have a weak neighbor. I often make a mistake and think they are weak and find out otherwise. To top it off sometimes I don't even have an iron resource near me and within my area. So far diplomacy has been working for me in my current game. I think alot of that has to do with my position at start which was really good. I had alot of important bonuses and things near me so I did not have to fight for much at all.

Do you REX fast enough?
REX toward luxuries and toward the border of the AI civs, reducing their area to REX/expand. It's not so difficult to keep up with AI's. Eventually, you're military advisor will tell you you have 'average strenght'. Don't forget, once you upgrade your warriors, you'll be strong very often. Don't forget to have at least 500 gold in cash. At the early stages of the game almost every city will fall if you attack it with, let's say, 6 swordsmen.

If you have normal settings, there will almost always be iron in your neighbourhoud. Also REX toward mountains/hills, the only locations where iron might pop up once discovered.

You can avoid the 'mistake in judging weakness' by using the mil advisor (F3) or comparing civs overall strenghts (F8).

Get them, in their area, at a moment you choose! If you're not prepared yet to face them, whilst settling and building warriors and they enter your area to seek 'Lebensraum', let them, don't tell them to leave. Instead you can try blocking/surrounding them. Once war starts you'll have a couple of free workers extra

AJ

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by badman
You're right MS, but I think it's just to boring so I never do that.
For the same reason I usually quite at the end of the industrial times, moving hundreds of tanks around just isn't fun.

I understand that, but look it this way. The diplomatic screen gives you:

1. The number of luxuries available on the market, for you to sell and/or to by.
2. The number of resources, ditto.
3. The tech race (you can deduct who's going to research what).
4. The financial status of each civ.
5. The peaceful and military agreements.
6. The civs unknown to you (in the early game).
7. Other opportunities (workers to buy etc.).
8. Civs attitudes toward your.
9. The expansion of the different civs (maps).
10. Civs willingness, and capabilities, to buy, swap, threat etc. (their strenghts and weaknesses).

In other words, its like CNN. In 30 seconds you know where you stand and where the others stand. And you call this ?

If you never look at the diplomatic screen, it's like playing on archipelago, with maximum water, on a huge map, with only 2 civs (and miss the GLighthouse, of course). Would that be funny?

As for the hundreds of tanks, just let me ask you a question: why did you built them in the first place if you find it 'boring' to move them afterwards?

[tibbits]

How do you do that?
Thanks

[inca911]

If you don't want to let the AI settlers into your territory, use any 3 units and you can play a zone defense against them at your border or inside your civ to prevent them from moving forward. A Settler stack cannot end-run around 3 units occupying the 3 squares in front of it. I often use this tactic to hem in the AI, and since I never ask them to leave they don't get angry and attack me without warning. They do demand tribute still, but that's ok since all they typically want is 80% of my tiny pile of gold. I have no tech lead at this point and even if I have to give maps to them, they're so small that it doesn't matter.

In the early game, once I have rush-built my temples and made a few workers for terrain improvement and city connections, I typically build settlers to keep the cities in order and then move to a worker here and there without their getting angry at me. I can typically spare the 3 units without much difficulty since population is low and rush-built temples + one unit martial law is enough to keep everyone content. You don't need quality units for your Zone, even Workers suffice.

[tibbits]

How do you do that?
Thanks

[JPGray]

tibbits:

I think what Mountain Sage means is that a civ which is currently researching a tech will pay less and less for it as the research nears completion. So if Japan offers 140 gpt and India offers 12 gold, you know that India is close to finishing the research. Using this information, anticipating the tech trade can be very profitable. Since I don't like examining every tech trade with every civ, I'll usually only sell world maps every turn, and check tech every four-five turns.

Personally, I am surprised there isn't a feature in the intelligence agency or the embassy that allows information on what the enemy civ is researching. Does it show up on an investigated city screen?

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by inca911
"In the early game, once I have rush-built my temples and made a few workers for terrain improvement and city connections, ..."

This is one of the (many) aspects of my game I am trying to get a balance on. I have not determined what I consider the appropriate number of workers to be in the early game. Obviously it varies greatly by map situation, barbarian level, civ traits, etc. - but are you guys producing a lot of workers early, or just a few? I set up roadways fairly quickly, and have at least one or two workers exclusively working the land in each of the top two cities, but I still have the feeling I am under-utilizing workers.

[inca911]

Certainly the optimal number of workers is dependent on multiple factors. I use workers in a several different ways:

1. Improvements: Of course you want your citizens to always be working land improved by your workers. But it is extremely important to ***use workers to improve land only in a manner that is appropriate for your government***. Remember that under Despotism there are limitations to what you are able to obtain from an improved square. Do not waste time improving terrain until you are planning for the non-Despotic government that benefits from the improvement. Consider it JIT (Just-In-Time) planning and use your workers to make sure that every citizen is gaining the maximum benefit at the present time. Invest time planning for the future only when you are able to.

2. Population Control: In a city with fast population growth, an occasional worker is sometimes necessary to keep the population manageable. One can also use Settlers for this population control and the game usually dictates which is best. This is typically only an issue early on when there isn’t anything to rush-build to knock down the population. I find that using workers/settlers for population control often gives me a decent number to do the other things I need from them.

3. Resource and City Linking: I break this out from improvements for a couple reasons. Sometimes workers must waste time building roads to link cities or to gain access to Luxuries. These roads often go on squares that aren’t worked by citizens and are therefore partially wasted but necessary. I also make sure I have enough workers on hand to exploit when a resource-revealing tech is coming. Usually, I plan in advance the most for Iron Working. If it is unlikely that my land will have Iron (few hills and mountains), I have one Settler ready JIT to head for the hills not currently occupied by anyone to stake a claim. I also have workers ready to either build roads to Iron inside my boundries or to link my Iron outpost back to my civ.

4. Defense: That’s right, workers are excellent defenders! A warrior and a couple workers can hold off a Settler incursion to land you are planning to develop and that the psychic AI knows is there. If you put roads on your boundry, you can even get away with using the one (or rarely both) worker to improve terrain while the warrior moves up and down the roads, blocking the AI settler stack as it moves up and down in response!

So I still haven’t given you a number of workers, but there isn’t a magic number. You need enough to first accomplish the 4 goals above, and to then proactiely make improvements in preparation for the switch to non-Despotic government or for future resource linking. Rarely, I have to add a worker to a small city to get the population up to where I can make a Settler. Or I have to make a quick Settler to drop next to an AI city that culture grew and stole a resource from me (or to proactively and legally steal a resource from them!). It just depends on the specific game.

[Arrian]

Better yet, regarding settler incursions, just learn to look at those as donations of 2 slaves per to your empire

Nailing the AI's settler teams is a great way to get free (half speed) workers, hurt the AI, and train up your units. If your goal is not conquest (but rather capturing workers & killing the units sent your way), you really don't need very many units to fight off the AI. A few archers & a spearman will do it*. You will probably get concessions out of them, too. Sure, they might hate you, but they will be weakened and you strengthened. Then build a real fighting force and go kill them.

Just the musings of a bloodthirsty warmonger.

-Arrian

* - Monarch level. On Emperor, the AI will have more units and it's a tad harder to fight them off with a handful of your own.

[PrinceBimz]

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR


Do you REX fast enough?
REX toward luxuries and toward the border of the AI civs, reducing their area to REX/expand. It's not so difficult to keep up with AI's. Eventually, you're military advisor will tell you you have 'average strenght'. Don't forget, once you upgrade your warriors, you'll be strong very often. Don't forget to have at least 500 gold in cash. At the early stages of the game almost every city will fall if you attack it with, let's say, 6 swordsmen.

If you have normal settings, there will almost always be iron in your neighbourhoud. Also REX toward mountains/hills, the only locations where iron might pop up once discovered.

You can avoid the 'mistake in judging weakness' by using the mil advisor (F3) or comparing civs overall strenghts (F8).

Get them, in their area, at a moment you choose! If you're not prepared yet to face them, whilst settling and building warriors and they enter your area to seek 'Lebensraum', let them, don't tell them to leave. Instead you can try blocking/surrounding them. Once war starts you'll have a couple of free workers extra

AJ

AJ- Not sure if I know what you mean about REX? If you are referring to expanding quickly, I can't hardly ever seem to get my settlers out faster then the AI does.

Inca911- yep I do that alot. Get military units and guard my borders and locations to keep the AI from moving through them. If there is an AI warrior and settler moving in my territory I can almost always guess where they are headed.