r/civ • u/Fieldmen • 19h ago
VII - Strategy How to avoid war
I often find that I have a close neighbor and extra production and military units that war is always too enticing. Yet I find that the happiness hit and the cost of not being good enough the territorial expansion is not worth it.
What do you guys recommend to do with that extra production? The research projects? I often find that my secondary cities aren’t competing for wonders and I need to apply that somewhere else.
I need to refine my gameplay more before being so militaristic. Tips for a defensive only approach?
9
u/HoneyMustardAndOnion 18h ago
Influence and merchants. If you can find a diplo cs, befriend and take the unique improvement. Focus as many influence buildings as you can. once those are up and influence is accruing start making merchants and send them out to any and every available target, use influence to increase cap when you can.
1
u/Fieldmen 18h ago
Do you like the unique building or the benefits like + gold on gold buildings more?
1
u/HoneyMustardAndOnion 17h ago
depends on the leader/civ im playing as. If its machiavelli i usually go for influence since his passive is a machine that turns influence into gold. Or if its chola ill go influence because they generate a ton of gold and get 2x trade routes per request. But if im playing someone like Catherine or a culture/sci heavy civ id go for +gold on buildings.
Also it depends on the era the game is currently at since CS bonuses can vary and you might have better choices available.
7
u/Swimming_File_8387 19h ago
Commenting mainly to follow this post since i am new as well. Just won my first game on prince. I found that expanding early as close as you can without triggering any greivances, then expanding and placing barracks and building walls was the play for me. I garrisoned a strong ranged unit in the baracks and i have found it is usually enough to fight off any invasion long enough for them to ask for peace.
Probably a better way to do it, but its the only way i have managed to survive without throwing recourses into loads of military units and such.
2
u/solarsbrrah 17h ago
Ranged + walls is quite strong in antiquity! Sending merchants to start trade routes will increase your relationship as well as starting diplomatic endeavors. You can also click on a leader to see what they like/dislike (eg liking the civ with the most revealed tiles, or disliking the civ with the most commander promotions) - you might just end up with a neighbor that is gonna just fundamentally hate you based on their inherent preferences and your own playstyle.
2
u/LoboSpaceDolphin 16h ago edited 15h ago
Is your question how to avoid war?
Don't poke the bear. Settle in places that make sense for you geographically, and don't encroach on your neighbors. Set up a natural boundary as you are able via coasts and mountains.
Make friends not allies. Allies will drag you into war. Trade routes/Merchants are your friend here.
Be mindful of the aggressive civs, either befriend them or avoid them and pressure other AI to work with you/ against them.
Influence/diplomacy to cancel negative Endeavors/sanctions from the AI, and use 'positive' Endeavors to keep the AI's opinion of you high.
Or how to survive/win?
- You already solved it. Ranged units and navy all the way down. Build a few Infantry/Cavalry to act as tanks/cleanup.
I play Deity but I'm not as sweaty as many on here so take that as general advice not specific
3
u/TardyB183 18h ago
If you have bunch of trade routes with them, thery are less likely to be mad at you and go to war.
1
2
u/solarsbrrah 17h ago
Get the map tacks mod and learn how to city plan. Those sweet, sweet adjacency bonuses will persuade you to sim city a bit more and war monger a bit less.
Try playing a leader and civ that are not military oriented and force yourself to play to their strengths.
For a settlement to be captured, the enemy has to occupy all fortified districts, so having even 2 districts with walls plus 2 slingers/archers can hold off the enemy for a long time, especially if the enemy isn't using siege units.
If you like to gobble up territory, try using the expansionist point starting momento to get cheaper settlers so you can crank them out quickly. Prioritize food early so you can get to 5 population to build them.
3
u/Poida87 18h ago
What difficulty are you playing on? Early wars are very difficult at higher levels due to how much of a headstart the AI gets.
The beautiful thing about Civ is that you can play as you please, so if you don't want to expand via taking cities than use that production to pump out more settlers. Especially with Magnus trait that does not consume a population count for training one.
Via war or not, you want to steadily keep expanding your empire. You want to snowball heavily in the end game and that is only possible with lots of cities.
I always choose war if I know for sure I can pinch a city or steal or a settler in the early game. You can recover from the happiness loss eventually, you may never recover the golden opportunity for a free city or two or three.
6
1
u/hbarSquared 18h ago
Very broadly, your priorities in peacetime should be:
- Optimizing the current age
- Preparing for the next age
- Building towards victory
So current age means buildings, pretty much everything but happiness buildings are going to provide value this age, and still give base yields next age. Happiness buildings are a vibe check - you never want to be in negative happiness but often it's not worth chasing the happy bonuses if you aren't already close. Also don't neglect unique improvements, they're 100% upside if you have surplus production. The city state ones can give you a huge boost that lasts the whole game.
Next age - do you have enough commanders for your current army? Do you have an aggressive neighbor who is going to pick the Normans at age transition and murder you with horses? You maintain peace by preparing for war, so build some armies, build walls, and in general make sure you are in a good position.
Building towards victory - make sure to do the innovation projects, work research/culture projects to get a few future techs, get your great works slotted, and any other things you can do to push towards victory.
1
u/Fieldmen 17h ago
What if I have a secondary city or capital tapped out on building and I already have a standing army, too enticing to build up the forces and attack a neighbor, but that dosent end well, most likely a skill issue on my part.
1
1
u/gogorath 16h ago
I end up making a ton of merchants.
Not only do they put you ahead on the economic path, create other yields with their benefits, but having trade routes with other leaders makes them like you more. You can do peace through trade quite a bit.
In the Exploration Age, the treasure and empire resources can give insane bonuses -- I am usually getting +700-1000 gold and like +300-500 on other yields per turn by 70% of the age just on having empire resources. Tea gives you +1 prod and (i think) science per city, for example. I'll colonize and trade and get like 15 of them.
And in Modern, coffee in factories is insane -- +5% production to buildings and wonders empire wide. Or if you are going to war, there's ones for units, etc.
At the end of an age, pre-build merchants for the next age. That way you can immediately get moving AND basically be in a good position peace-wise.
1
u/Manannin 16h ago
Buildings with high specialist adjacency, particularly science and culture early on and settlers. You also can get wonders in your second cities if you buy up a barracks for extra production and you aren't going for something super competitive.
-2
u/GlitteringSeason6725 18h ago
Scout - scout - settler is usually my first three builds although it depends. This is usually enough to get me a golden age early.
Early production depends on civ and the map but usually I try to get commercial hubs early and get a lot of domestic trades running to a Magnus city to build big cities.
I would say have a play around with different things though and make the game fun for yourself!
3
u/Breatnach Bavaria 18h ago
Unless you're Xerxes / Qajar, I doubt your settlement is big enough (5 Pop) for a settler after just two scouts.
2
20
u/eXistenZ2 18h ago
up the difficulty if the AI is too much of a rollover.