Well, this page is really about two things. First, it's about sportsmanship and fair play. Secondly, and less importantly, it's about how to use these tactics in offense in defense.
There is a fine line between
crowding and containment. The location of this fine line is disputed frequently, but no
informed player disputes its existence. In the most simple terms possible the definition
of containment is to surround your enemy in such a way as to restrict his expansion from
an early stage. The definition of crowding is to surround your enemy so early as to force
him to go to war with you before the end of Turn 1 if he wants to accomplish anything at
all. That to my mind is the essential difference. Containment allows your opponent the
opportunity to expand in any direction he wants as long as it isn't yours, while crowding
forces your opponent into a war situation with you from the very start of the game.
As far as giving a sporting chance goes, it
should be obvious that crowding seldom gives the crowdee a sporting chance. Chances are,
even if they do manage to defeat the crowder, a crowdee will no longer be capable of
winning the entire game. Worse yet, the crowder is seldom capable of winning the
game afterwards either. The tendency is for the crowder and the crowdee to lose any
sporting chance at winning the game at all. As far as fair play goes, crowding isn't that
either. Almost every time, a crowd requires the crowding to take advantage of the turn
based system and attack the crowdee after they have placed on Turn 0 and before they can
come in on Turn 1. The crowdee little can't see it coming. It's pretty much a below the
belt kind of attack.
Containment, on the other hand is a very
different kettle of fish. To contain an opponent, you have to outexpand them in the open
field, surround them and flag/porc/fortify your border so as to prevent them getting out.
Far from being a cheap move, it is actually pretty difficult and expensive! If you succeed
in a contain, then you have played in a way that no other player can fairly describe as
being sneaky, underhanded or otherwise unfair to the other player.
Finally, a note on the difference between
crowding in allied games as compared to individual games. There are many times in allied
games where it is worthwhile to perform what would be considered a crowd in an individual
game. This includes when your opposition is performing the infamous shark tech swap (at
which point you swoop in, take their cities and get the technology for yourself). While
this is technically crowding, it is merely fighting fire with fire in many players minds.
Furthermore, it may be worthwhile for a member of one alliance to set up between 2 or 3 of
his opponents and threaten them all within a few short turns. This allows you to prevent a
block of the enemy from becoming too closely intertwined and prevents them from expanding
at a decent rate. In the meantime, the other members of the "crowders" alliance
are allowed unfettered expansion and soon overrun the other alliance. There may be other
occasions where it is sensible to perform a crowd like action in an allied game, but I'll
leave figuring it out to others. That's where the line gets really fuzzy.
The rules of crowding are as follows:
It is quite easy to make it highly undesirable, even impossible for another player to successfully crowd you. The rules of defending against crowding are as follows:
Containment comes in two flavours: peace-time containment and war-time containment. Obviously peace-time containment can only occur when you are at peace (have signed a peace treaty) with the target of your containment. War-time containment is at any other time (sure you may not have officially declared war, but to assume there is no war with no declaration is just totally British and erroneous to boot). I'll discuss each situation separately if I can.
The trick of peace-time
containment is this. To break out of your containment, your target has to break peace with
you! Unfortunately though, the more successfully you contain your opponent, the sooner
this will occur as when you are more than triple your targets size he will be able to
break the peace treaty for free and you will recieve no cash for it (it is called a
rebellion). So there are two kinds of containment in peace-time: Strong containment and
weak containment.
Strong containment is what you use when you are
trying to completely shut down an opponents expansion and overwhelm them by force of
numbers. Use this strategy when you only have one opponent who can threaten you. It is a
very offensive strategy so expect to be going to war soon. You want to block off as many
paths of expansion for your target as possible with flags in cities and resources that are
difficult to attack/reach for your target and porcupines or other strong units in vital
positions where your opponent my try to break through. Usually, you only finish half of
this strategy before you can have hurt them badly enough that you can start working on
their empire.
Weak containment is what you use when you
have more than one enemy nearby or are less interested in shutting your opponent down than
you are in expanding yourself. All you are looking to do with a weak contain is make it
impossible for an enemy to close on your base and to cut them off from resources that are
as vital to you as they are to him. Usually, in a game with peace, your opponent will be
less interested in breaking a peace treaty to get at those resources than they will be to
keep the extra cash and keep expanding. Usually, the first to break peace either gets a
kill right away or winds up being defeated by someone else who was allowed to expand
peacefully... So weak containment is an effective strategy for improving your own
expansion and position, while defeating your opponents attempts at the same.
The trick of war-time containment is different. Your target is actively trying to attack you at all times, so your first priority is to destroy all their attacking units with little or no loss to your own. Your second priority is then to take as much of the enemy empire as you can easily. Whatever is left over is containment. You are seeking to make a wall of porcupines, flags and fortifications (if desirable) around the enemy empire and most especially any part of the empire that is closer to your base than any other. If successful, your opponent is unable to escape from the tightening noose of your troops and will eventually succumb. If unsuccessful, you are probably going to die, so let's not entertain that notion. Final note: War-time containment is pointless if you can kill your opponent in one fell stroke! Apply only when absolutely necessary. Experience will tell you when that is.
Having said all this, you may still be a little bit unclear as to the exact details of how to do these things. All I can say is read the rest of the site. Containment is a big strategy with lots of little tactics hidden inside. All I can do here is give you a broad view of how it works.
There are a few ways to protect against containment (speaking generally here):