Can I win a war with everyone? Advice?

[Ironhawk]

Make peace with the strongest?? Thats madness! If I was the strongest nation attacking you, I would be the least likely to sue for peace because I had the least to lose. I would drive to your capital and capture it for the gold and gems. No question in my mind.

Your best bet is to convince the weakest player to back off via threats and/or bribes. Then use that as a diplomatic lever to break up the alliance against you.

[Dedas]

Well, sometimes it can be very rewarding to take a more subtle approach to things. Aggressive diplomacy or force are not the only options for a would be God to choose from when trying to get out of a tight corner.

[Taqwus]

Selling intelligence seems to be one possibility. Even temporary allies dismembering the same victim may be interested in the disposition of each others' forces and tactics, since sooner or later, they're going to fight each other. And if one can use anonymous attacks that 'suggest' other players (particularly from paths your nation is not considered strong in), it may be possible to disrupt things.

There's also scorched-earth -- making your lands not worth conquering, by going nuts with pillaging, uber taxation, and bane venom charms, but that's not to be done lightly.


Heh. Playing naive doesn't always work. Back in graduate school when playing odd games like 'Cults Across America' and 2-player 'Settlers of Catan', one of my most frequent opponents would reflexively treat me as the major threat, reject all offers at trade and treaties, and attempt to wipe me out ASAP. Might have had something to do with my predilection for rapidly commencing warfare (attempting to wipe out all enemy leaders on the very first turn... once almost managed a _Cults_ victory in setup phase, but after that he started paying more attention) and for nasty combos (ex -- in Catan, you have 2 VP and opponent already has 3 VP due to one extra province including ore and brick... buying additional province, playing Sir Lackland to get knight token, and playing Border Dispute to swap Sheep for opponent's extra Ore region. Heh. Best done with a Scout card so you can get Brick/Sheep, so you have a Sheep region to trade. )

It got to the point where in the 2-player card version of Catan, it was customary to be loaded with nasty action cards early on and to be very cautious about being the first player to the 3rd victory point, because the opponent might then get HIS 3rd victory point (cheapest = Sir Lackland, heh) and then open fire.

[Dedas]

He he, yeah. Know your enemy is step one of course.

[HoneyBadger]

I'm kind of in the same situation as you are, except I'm using a cyclops with 10 earth, 10 water, 10 nature. It's not easy, is it?

My advice is to consolidate your strength. If you need to let a few outlying provinces go, then bite the bullet now before it's too late. A good strategy for alliances is not only to bribe your opponent, but threaten them.

Find the weakest and not only promise them lots of goodies if they join with you, promise them that if they don't, then you'll use all your remaining strength to take them down with you.

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.

[Gandalf Parker]

I thought that the giants were one of the best for taking a defensive stance. Their PD was excellent. Id do the guilt-trip thing that was recomended earlier but also shift to a "dam bursting" strategy. Build up and whoever reaches you first, do a dam burst taking out as many of their provinces as possible for as long as the army can keep going.

You might also crank the taxes on provinces to the max. You are likely to lose them anyway so drive the unrest to over 100 so the other guy cant build anything there. Grab the gold and take it home for the buildup project.

[Meglobob]

Gandalf Parker said:
I thought that the giants were one of the best for taking a defensive stance. Their PD was excellent.

Nielfelheim PD is absolute rubbish in Dom3.

Also Dr Praetorious and his foes are probably at the stage when no amount of PD can stop the invading armies, even with support.

In MP, if you face an alliance or multi front wars then your probably doomed. Players seem alot less inclined to talk/sign peace treaties, do deals from mid to late game. It comes down to a series of wars of annihilation. The real trick is becoming really powerful in secret and in a way or ways that are not obvious from the graphs.

Graphs off by the way, really, really help the best players to achieve victory, as no one knows your running away with the game until too late.

[HoneyBadger]

Sorry, Gandalf, but Niefelheim's PD sucks.

I've consistently been beaten in my home province with 25 PD by barbarian hordes. The best way to defend Niefelheim is by combining a decent PD with a small standing army of Niefel giants and boulder-throwers. 1 Niefel Jarl, 4 Niefel troops guarding him, 15 boulder throwers, and a 30 PD is a very tight defense, but PD alone is terrible.

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.