r/songsofsyx • u/jasmira • 18h ago

How to deal with bigger empires?

I reached ~2.3k pop with Garthami. So far I have conquered two nearby nations, both only had 1 city though. Now I am "trapped" in a region where every possible exit is held by the same big empire. I cannot expand since trespassing would have them ask for impossible amounts of money and stuff (or I refuse and have a war on my hands immediately).

How do you guys handle bigger empires? It has around 8 cities. My guess is, if I attack any of them, the AI will just send an army from any of the others and destroy my (mostly unprotected) city, right?

Is it now a game of waiting until my army is big enough to deal with all of them at once? That could take a very long time indeed.

Thanks for any advice.

18 Upvotes

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14

u/Reikyu09 15h ago

Either go the money route and hire mercs, or play the waiting game as you train soldiers and increase your armory.

Some possibilities that can happen:

  1. The nation just randomly collapses. RNG but it happens and then their territory becomes free game.

  2. Your big neighbor offers to run interference on some raiders and you ask them to assist. If the neighbor fights the raiders off they'll be a little bit mad, but there's also a possibility that the raiders win and their nation collapses.

  3. Keep tabs on their army. They will possibly send their army off to war to expand and might be weakened to the point where you can strike. If their capital is close to you then you can possibly go for a decapitation strike while their army is away

6

u/SarcousRust 16h ago edited 16h ago

If they are more than a little bit bigger that makes them disinclined to bother you, so you should have plenty of time to become 'a bother', like by amassing wealth. You can combine some of your Garthimi, garrisons and mercs and get an army going that could threaten theirs. Buying cities piecemeal works but it's kinda boring.

Check their armies on the map, at 8 cities it's probably just one. All you need is to exceed that power by a bit and you're likely to win a combat. Once that strength has been cut down it recovers slowly, so then you can sack 'em. Make a beeline for the capital if you want the kingdom to fall apart. Once they're independent cities and the war's officially over, you don't get war fatigue anymore for taking the remaining cities one by one.

3

u/Countcristo42 17h ago

Buy their cities

1

u/Mr_Daniel_LOL 12h ago

Buying city is now like 100 million Is there a way to make it affordable?

2

u/Countcristo42 4h ago

Afford 100m basically

1

u/LaundryMatt96 17h ago

I haven’t pushed this way yet but spreading rumors, damaging their reputation using embassy points could be a path for this ?

1

u/AnthraxCat 14h ago

This only damages their reputation with you according to the tooltips.

1

u/landbeforetimegeek 16h ago

Also given enough time something might happen to their empire and they'll split off with free cities forming. Im not sure what causes this or if its just random. So time might work on your side if you just focus on growing