Civilization VI, War (3/3)
The story so far (part 1, part 2), recapitulated: My powerful neighbor Brazil declared war upon me, and at a point when I wouldn’t have been able to stave him off. Mysteriously and anticlimactically he never got around to actually execute the attack.
Luckily, as that gave me time to build my own long overdue army. Used to have the second worst military in the world (out of eight competing powers), and now I have the strongest. And more importantly, now I’m going after him.
In order to build that army I had to neglect everything else, but if my invasion succeeds, I will get a valuable prize — everything he’s got, including his big cities and many wonders (building wonders were an obsession of his.)
So I built the army and started marching toward his nearest city, one of his big three. Got nearly all the way before any sign of resistance, but then he made a long range attack from a unit stationed in that city. Fair enough. My unit got wounded, but survived, I ordered it to retreat to get some medical attention and heal.
Then began a dance of mutual sequential attacks with long range units, a cadence of stepping forward to fire a shot, then getting shot at and getting wounded, then pulling back to heal while simultaneously stepping forward and attacking with another unit. Rinse and repeat, more or less (though I threw in some additional experimental action on the side, pillaging and the like.)
It’s my first real war, but that seemed like the way to go given these circumstances.
It’s a slow process, a war of attrition and a siege of sorts, but it was not an impasse — there was progress. Eventually his defense wore down (while I kept my units alive through the maneuver described above), and I moved in and conquered the city.
Next in line was his capitol, his biggest city. Same tactic, same victory. Took a while, but no surprises. Resistance is futile.
By now he had offered peace several times over, with really good treatises too, but to his dismay I declined every one of them. We both knew I would benefit even more from continuing the campaign.
Eventually I realized that declining treatises probably came with a certain cost I hadn’t previously considered — that of increasing warmongering status among the other powers of the world, which is a pretty bad side effect since it probably increases the risk of getting subjected to a joint attack. No single power is a challenge to me at this point, but combined they do pose a threat. But I’ll take my chances.
As I was putting my units into position to assail his third and last big city, he offered peace once again. This time I decided to look into it. We negotiated, and it turned out that he was willing to part with his two small cities as part of the treaty, as long as he got to keep that big city, his very last city.
I thought it over and decided to agree, seemed like the fastest way to bring him down, since I wouldn’t need to bother to acquire those distant small cities militarily.
The only drawback is that it would eventually require me to declare war in order to acquire the one remaining city, which is bad for that warmongering reputation, but at least the would be over quickly once started, if I make good preparations. (Plus, continuing the current war and keep declining the proposed treatises might raise warmongering status even more for all I know. I don’t know these mechanics yet.)
But, taking my chances and all that, what’s life but a series a calculated risks.
So we signed the peace-treaty, I consolidated my gains, made preparations, and declared war, took the city right and ended Brazil, though not before I had sent the ruler a sardonic mess about his mom.
Saw warmongering reputation get worse, but not to the point of getting the remaining powers to attack me (yet, anyway, who knows what they’re planning behind my back.)
That was indeed the end of Brazil. I now have what he had — save for what might have been destroyed during the war — and my score is through the roof.
So the plan right now is to step back a bit, consolidate, let tension and unfortunate perceptions cool down a bit, and build an even bigger machinery of war using my new resources and power — and then take on the rest of the world, either all at once or stepwise. I’m clearly on the right track here.
(All of this actually happened some time ago, but I’m behind on my blogging, and behind on actually executing the plan as well — currently playing the remastered Bioshock trilogy.)
Civilization VI, War (part 2)
Continuation to this. Long story short: Was peacefully building my empire, had little to no defense, was unexpectedly declared war upon by my until-then buddy and neighbor Brazil, the most powerful nation on the planet.
Had to put on my thinking cap and consider every decision carefully, to make sure my resources would be employed as effectively as possible to build an adequate defense as fast as realistically possible. No more peaceful civilian construction until this matter was settled, assuming I survived at all.
And then I waited. And prepared some more. And waited. Prepared.
Nothing happened.
Turns out the declaration was a false alarm, at least so far. No foreign army at my gates (such as they are).
Who is dumb enough to declare war and then don’t follow through? What is the plan here? True, it disrupted my flow and forced me to redirect my efforts before I was ready, and that may have been to my detriment, but I’m pretty sure my detriment is not his benefit in this case, especially not when considering what comes next.
I was utterly unprepared and vulnerable at the time of the declaration. But that was then, I have now undergone a transformation. In every single area of control — units, research, buildings, technology, etc. — I’ve now prepared myself for an invasion. I have aligned all my resources and all my forces to achieve this one purpose.
Now I’m in a pretty good shape, military wise. Not better than him, but it might be easier and less resource intensive to defend than to attack. I believe I have a fighting chance even if he would throw all he got on me, and from the looks of it he’s not coming at all.
Ranking wise, I’ve gone from 7/8 in military to 3/8 in a relatively short time period, no small feat, and this is just the beginning.
I was going to build my war machine soon enough anyway. His declaration of war acted as a catalyst, and that’s fine. In the uncertain and fluctuating world of competing political entities, plans need to be flexible and subject to revision as the circumstances changes.
I will build up my army some more, and unless he belatedly initiates his invasion I will then turn the tables and take the war to him.
To be continued.
Civilization VI, War
I’m midway through my first real game of Civilization VI, and things have just taken a turn for the worse. A storm is gathering.
But let’s back up a bit. I was doing reasonably well, inhabiting a good location on the map, being among the most advanced in research, having good relations with everyone I had met, even being official friends with most. I was peacefully minding my own business, painstakingly building my empire through creative endeavors rather than bloody conquests. As far as they knew I was peace incarnate — at least so far. My medium term plan, though, was to inconspicuously build a mighty war machine and invade my neighbor Brazil, which would be no easy task because he’s the most powerful nation in the world, including in terms of military. He also has several very big cities and nearly all wonders, making him an attractive target.
Had some short term objectives I wanted to complete first, including to research and implement monarchy, which would had let me have three war-related policies in effect at once — a useful feature and a good advantage when waging war.
The required military force would have had to be built almost from zero, as I had put my efforts and investments elsewhere. So I had no military to speak of, neither defense nor offense, and no defensive structures such as the city walls. Figured my good standing with all surrounding political entities, including Brazil, would keep me safe for the time being, and that I would build my army on a just-in-time basis when needed for the invasion. Or maybe earlier if the international scene would have started to destabilize. But not before, as building and maintaining an army incurs a cost, which is needless if it’s unused, not to mention that the units become obsolete with the passage of time.
As the tenses above reveal I’m speaking about a hypothetical scenario, the path ahead as I had envisioned it. Naturally, it all went down differently, as is often the case in life. Especially when dealing with other beings with their own agendas and inclinations, and to whom you might just be another obstacle or possessor of desired resources [1].
Apparently those good international relations I thought I had didn’t run all that deep, and apparently some rulers can be two-faced, because out of the blue my oh so friendly neighbor Brazil declared a surprise war on me.
You remember Brazil, right, only the by far most powerful nation in the world, who’s right next to me, attacking at a moment when I was still in a state of calculated martial neglect. But that’s fair enough, I suppose, I *was* planning on eventually invading *him* after all, but even so.
That’s where I’m at right now. A discontinuous unforeseen event like this will require some rather substantial changes. New objective acquired: navigate masterfully, weather the storm.
From having played at a fairly rushed pace I will now have to slow way down and play each turn with great care and deep thoughtful decisions. If I survive this it will be by narrowly, as nearly every path surely will lead to ruin.
To be continued.
[1]. Yeah yeah, this is a game and the AI is basically there to entertain me, but this is how I’m entertained.