Poll: Civ 4-My Darkest Hour, please advise?

[irjerry3]

What type of map are you on? If it has oceans I'd try and set up some last stand colonies in a far off land.

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

So I'm playing a game of CIV 4 Beyond the Sword expansion. My country, the good old USA, is doing quite well. About the industrial age, the Mongol people(who been my long term allies)demand tribute from ME. I reject the threat, and Genghis Khan begins the invasion of Philadelphia.

(I have machine guns and planes) he has horses and muskets. But CIV 4 is stupid in that tech advantage means nothing in combat.My cities have been overrun by Mongols. Through some anarchy, I transform America into a nationalist country with a draft and state property and begin my counterattack. As soon as I am about to liberate Philadelphia, the bastard bring the Japanese into the war! This is insane! My army of cavalry and modern infantry cannot hold out against hordes of these sizes!

So I ask you comrades, can you help a rookie leader to survive this apocalypse? Do I abandon my people and submit to the horde? Or make a last stand? Other options? I need help! (I practically crapped my pants when I saw the size of Tokugawa's horde of elephants o.o)

Any other allies. Bring them in. Otherwise, there is always the mystical WorldBuilder bar....

 

[vbggreg]

Spiner909:

Air power and airports can turn the tide in a defensive battle against an enemy who is behind you in tech. Airlifting a few units into threatened cities, and bombing enemy armies as they approach, can drastically ramp up enemy casualties. Be sure to rebase air units from cities you believe are lost causes. Good luck!

 

[Karlaxx]

I would say you should pick a couple cities to leave for dead- ones that aren't major production centers, mind you- and then let the Mongols have fun demolishing them while you fall back to your biggest cities, and amass a force that can utilize your tech advantages to their fullest ability. Bomb the buggers constantly from deep within your own lines, and get allies to open up multiple fronts. Stockpile forces until ready to strike back.

That would have been my response to the whole fiasco, anyway.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

EDIT: oh wait, canada actually doing something militaristic? wow that is the best joke i heard all day. XD

To be fair, while I never personally saw a forward deployed Canadian soldier when in was in the US Army, I was told they existed somewhere.

Also, Canada has pulled it's weight relative to population in Every major war involving the UK. They didn't throw a few army groups into WWII but there were many thousands of canadians present for that little skirmish.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Try and bribe any other countries to go to war with your enemies. If you've got a technology advantage you should be able to make some juicy offers. That'll help take the heat off you while you recover.

 

[SimuLord]

Oh yeah, I just remembered that War Elephants move at a pitiful speed. Unless they are already marching into your borders, you should be able to build up a sufficient defense before they arrive.

One time I had a bomber lose to a barbarian tribe. No seriously it was online and the game lagged and I ended up minus one bomber.

Civilization. The only game in which an attack helicopter can lose to men armed with bows and arrows.

The worst thing about that is that they had it right in Civ 2, completely licked the "phalanx beats battleship" problem (one of the very archetypes of bad design), held it over through Alpha Centauri (#2 on my list of best games ever made)...and then went to a system in Civ 3 and Civ 4 where the problem was back with a vengeance. The hell?

I think what happened is that when Brian Reynolds left to found Big Huge Games, the Civ team lost their best designer and they haven't been able to adequately replace him. Sid Meier himself hasn't been active and strong in the lead designer role since the early 1990s.

 

[The Austin]

Scorch the earth!!! Burn it all!!!

 

[Moosebomber]

Take your civilization TO SPACE!

 

[ComradeJim270]

If you can get that Manhattan project finished, it should be possible to cripple their infrastructure, which would of course cripple their ability to keep fighting. There will be reprecussions, of course, but it's not like Civ II where you had to clean up pollution, at least.

Think in the long-term too, though. Once you've build up a big nuclear arsenal, big enough to kill everything, build the UN and see about getting a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty passed. You won't be able to build any more nukes, but if you do it right, it will leave you enough ICBMs to destroy all your enemies, and they won't have a single one. Just be sure when you build the UN that your enemies are weak enough and your allies strong enough to ensure you get elected Secretary-General and get enough votes for the NPT.

If only nuclear blackmail was possible in this game!

 

[Chester41585]

I haven't played the BtS expansion yet, but I usually stick to the strategy of building up as much infantry as possible with support units (tanks and whatnot) secondary. If nukes are available, you may need to use them. They've saved me from being overrun many times.

Afterward, you can use all your unspent nukes blasting the shit out of the enemy's allies, since the AI doesn't get the idea that the initial nuking was supposed to set an example.

Also, don't completely wipe your enemy's cities off the map. Take him down to his starting city and maybe two more. When he begs for peace, decline and continue marching over the irradiated ashes of his former empire. Then, clean up the mess and build your cities over the ruins of the old ones, adding the "New" prefix and slightly misspelling the name of the old city.

If, by some accident, you do end up razing his starting city, rebuild it and name it "New Mt. Ownership".

Then, it is the AI, so I don't think it'll grasp the idea of irony and digital sodomy.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

retreat and build up for your counter attack, last stands sound great but history doesn't remember the losers.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

What you do, is nuke the nearest large city of theirs and then begin negotiations. You might get screwed over, but it works for me most of the time. Oh, and whatever you do, don't ask for anything in return for peace. It IS NOT worth it.

 

[Moosebomber]

Chester had a fantastic idea. Space is still my vote, though.

 

[Seasons of Bailey]

USA industrial age

Genghis Khan begins the invasion of Philadelphia.

Wat?

Maybe it's because I've never played a civ game, but that's seriously fucked up.


Anyway, perhaps you should try consolodating your army by bunkering up in the northwestern states, the country's so big your forces are probably spread thin. the mongols might not be able to to easily hold a hostile land that's twice again the size of their own country. It'll be a pain in their economy as long as they hold it. What's the situation with canada? If you could hedge your bets and move up to alaska you might be able to bottleneck the hoards. Would their low tech give them problems in the cold? If you have planes you could try bombing the living shit out of occupied america.

But then, you're fighting Genghis Kahn, so stratagy might have fuck-all to do with this.

canada isn't in civ4, neither is mexico. mexico is too unstable to be considered a country in civilization's eyes and canada is technically a colony, property of britain.

EDIT: oh wait, canada actually doing something militaristic? wow that is the best joke i heard all day. XD

In the words of Niko Bellic when he went flying out a windsheild, "Not fucking funny."

 

[MeatsOfEvil]

Coming from someone who plays on Prince, I have to say that the key to winning combat in Civ 4 is artillery and bombers. It's all about the collateral damage. It barely even matters how big the enemy stacks are. You attack their stacks with units that cause collateral damage (catapults, trebuchets, cannons, artillery, bombers etc) and they will most likely lose the fight and die, but every unit you sacrifice weakens around 5 members of the enemy stack, and every time you do that it makes each successive fight a bit easier. Since this war seems to be going on in your borders I'd recommend some units that are good at defending (eligible for city defense promotion = win) and some bombers, since they can move between your cities and harass anyone in your borders. Most of the time the enemy be moving at 1 tile per turn, so you can bomb them several times before they even think about attacking you. Hope that helps.

 

[ComradeJim270]

Coming from someone who plays on Prince, I have to say that the key to winning combat in Civ 4 is artillery and bombers. It's all about the collateral damage. It barely even matters how big the enemy stacks are. You attack their stacks with units that cause collateral damage (catapults, trebuchets, cannons, artillery, bombers etc) and they will most likely lose the fight and die, but every unit you sacrifice weakens around 5 members of the enemy stack, and every time you do that it makes each successive fight a bit easier. Since this war seems to be going on in your borders I'd recommend some units that are good at defending (eligible for city defense promotion = win) and some bombers, since they can move between your cities and harass anyone in your borders. Most of the time the enemy be moving at 1 tile per turn, so you can bomb them several times before they even think about attacking you. Hope that helps.

I didn't think of that. Probably because the last time I was in a similar predicament (fighting a numerically superior but technologically inferior foe), the enemy managed to counter that strategy through sheer numbers and what started as an unstoppable blitzkrieg turned into a war of attrition.

 

[Spiner909]

Tanks for the great advice everyone! There was a rather interesting turn of events in the war...after liberating Philadelphia, Mali forces landed on the north shore of Mongol lands. They basically obliderated them, and made them their vassal state. Glory stealing punks.

Tokugawa refused to submit, so I'm currently using my air force on him. And tanks.

As for the 'phalanx pwns battleship' situation...
In this case it was 'longbow beats tank' or 'musketeer beats bomber'. >.<

New question= should I annihilate the Japanese cities or capture them?

And yes, you were right. Collateral damage is king.

 

[Robert0288]

edit: forgot to read second page.

I would always capture cities, the only time I wouldn't is when I'm an a raid into enemy territory and I know I can't hold the city, or its just a terrible city that would destroy my economy. Rule of thumb is to capture over kill.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Tanks for the great advice everyone! There was a rather interesting turn of events in the war...after liberating Philadelphia, Mali forces landed on the north shore of Mongol lands. They basically obliderated them, and made them their vassal state. Glory stealing punks.

Tokugawa refused to submit, so I'm currently using my air force on him. And tanks.

As for the 'phalanx pwns battleship' situation...
In this case it was 'longbow beats tank' or 'musketeer beats bomber'. >.<

New question= should I annihilate the Japanese cities or capture them?

And yes, you were right. Collateral damage is king.

I always capture cities, unless I know the enemy has a high chance of stealing it again. Seems a lot more useful than blowing them up.