Civilization – Basic attack strategy for Civilization 5

civilization-5

I'm new to the Civilization franchise and was just wondering if conquering early game is worth it. Should I upgrade my civilization and unleash my fury when I have everything unlocked or is there some merit to conquering a civ here or there when still in the medieval era. I ask this because (I'm playing right now) I personally don't see the benefit in just wasting early game units when I can just upgrade everything and unleash hell later on when I have all the fun stuff 🙂

Best Answer

There is significant advantage to conquering in the early game. Your Civ's power is almost always directly related to the size of your empire, except for the hit to happiness due to size, and potentially income drain if you don't build your economy properly.

Thus, the earlier you get big, the more of an advantage you will have. I tend to try to time my conquering with the advent of new siege units. Usually this means I will go on my first conquering spree when Catapults come along. This is pretty early in the game by any standard.

Trebuchets are a small improvement by comparison, but when Cannons and Artillery enter the game, these are both times to start picking fights.

Artillery in particular start with Indirect Fire and one additional point of range compared to previous siege units. If you get there first and have a strong lead by this point in the game, it's pretty much game over for the AI.

The siege units allow you to down cities quickly and with minimal losses to your army. If you're ahead technologically, taking these units into battle will almost always end in a decisive victory for your side.

Do note that these siege units should be trailing behind whatever front-line infantry is modern at the time you start your attack. By themselves, they're fairly weak and won't stand up to melee attacks.

Once you've conquered a single neighbor, chances are you're going to be ahead in most meaningful metrics. Thus, you'll get to the next siege unit milestone earlier, and can more easily conquer your next foe. This snowball effect means that the earlier you start, the quicker you win.

Finally, if you get to the point where you're playing for score, the earlier you finish the game, the higher your score will be. The fastest way to win is by far conquering the other Civs and taking their capitals. Thus, it's a solid strategy when playing for score to conquer early and conquer often.

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