I just Wondered how the players on this forum would play a game where there are no military resource nearby your starting position in the game, meaning no horses, no copper, no iron, no ivory.

How would you play the game if you were unable to control any military resources because the AI got them before you did?

Intresting question. I would hopefully be able to befreind one of the AI to give me some, then build up a force then go take the resources by force!

I would try to incite war between bordering nations and maintain good relations with threats, then beeline to Gunpowder. A rex-based strategy and a beeline to Feudalism would probably also fit into the plan.

Avoid war with diplomacy, maybe play for culture. If you have to war, Trebs are your best bet early on; but I'd try to stick it out for gunpowder, grenadiers and rifles.

Beeline construction.

I'd wonder if this Strategy would work under those circumstances.

How about a Feudalism Beeline, (After AH, BW & IW of course to find out you don't have military resources) and Longbow rush the nearest AI City controlling a Military resource, You'd probably promote your longbows with Drill 1 & 2, It'd probably work best with a Protective leader, as you'd Promote all the way to Drill 3.

Hopefully your AI opponent doesn't tech quickly to Feudalism before you do.

I've never tried just Longbows, but I have been forced to use nothing but Archers + Cats. I'd much, much rather have the Cats than the Longbows. It's quicker to get to Cats as well.

Construction also turns ivory into a military resource and you can't go wrong with elephants and cats.

beeline construction and rely on catapults for attack, and archer units for defense

i played a game last week specifically to get a time victory, it was on settler difficulty so obviously was easy. it was OCC so what i didn't have, i knew i would never get (duel size map, one opponent who i was never going to be friends with). i played as shaka to have a spiffy UU and did have to reroll quite a few times to make sure i got copper or iron (i got copper).

my pre-game strat was to cripple him early and keep him crippled and pinned in forever or until 2050, whichever came first. i never got horses, oil, uranium, or aluminum. i did have ivory. i got iron very very late, i was well into gunpowder.

my impis rocked at hurting him badly early on (altho of course they do need copper). i hated not having horses and did get to construction early to use jumbos, i made a lot of them. more than i'd ever need. which turned out to be very good since i hadn't realized that when ivory goes obsolete, it not only means you lose the happy face, you also lose the ability to make jumbos (silly me). i also hadn't realized that without oil you can't make gunships.

archer, cats, and ellies were key, and rushing to gunpowder. it would have been quite a bit more painful without the jumbos even on settler.

an iron finally came into my city radius after i'd researched steel, but luckily before i'd researched artillery. i connected it right away, and then ended up pillaging it, so that i could make catapults again. i wanted a level 6 unit for west point, but didn't want to waste a GG to get one. a jumbo was my highest exp unit. i needed to get collateral damage so that he and only he would kill the troops in the city to get the exp reach level 6. i was afraid that cannons might actually kill the defenders and i'd have to wait longer for mehmed to make more troops (i didn't want to actually take that city, time victory remember so i was dragging it out), so cats were the thing.

i mention pillaging my own iron to make cats available again to point out that if you want to see how such a situation would work, it's easy to fake. just make sure you don't road any strategic resources you want improvements on, and don't improve any that are on rivers since they count as roads whether you want them to or not.

it sure looked funny at the end. cute elephants running around with mech infantry, no tanks/modern armor/gunships anywhere, marines on my galleons, the first useful ironclads i've ever had, etc. it was a learning experience even at settler.

Actually, I have had this happen in the game I am currently playing. What I did was was beeline monarchy while building Oracle (Monarch difficulty) and used the oracle to get fuedalism. I had fuedalism by 1500bc and had longbows pushing Hayun Cayupec (or however it's spelled) back. I controlled his capital and most of his empire by 1ad, at which point I was getting construction online for making cats.

Yeah, go for cats. In MP you would be in trouble until cats. Big trouble. However, cats kill everything with collateral damage.

in early game I would pack my cities with archers and push for huge culture, while maintaining good relations with my neighbors.
Seems to me the best way to do this would be to found a religion and spread it rapidly. Hopefully I could maintain peace and culture flip a city or two.

Well, 2 posible ways in order to go militaristic.
1). Feodalism slingshot with Oracle. Longbow with Vassalage and barack can get cover promotion, making them disent to attack cities protected by archers.
2). Beeline to Construction. Cats work.
Example of first way.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178323&highlight=guns+bowses

As everyone else says: Build lots of archers, stay on the defensive while beelining for construction, then build lots of catapults and take what you need.

Beeline construction.Ditto. Catapults are pretty much THE single most useful unit until the medieval era comes to a close (and often even past that stage). Of course, grab a few Archers or Longbows to back them up and protect them. Once you reach gunpowder units like Muskets and Rifles, you'll be set (if not before then). :)

Ditto. Catapults are pretty much THE single most useful unit until the medieval era comes to a close (and often even past that stage).

Yeah. They're relatively cheap, bombard cities' defense, and do collateral damage on attacks even if they die. And they have a retreat chance. Unless you're playing a civ with a UU that's particularily suited to attack cities they're the way to go for conquest.

Go to the stories and tales section/succession games. In there you can find a variant that is only allowed to use collateral damage units (cats, canons, artillery). It is very fun and entertaining. You can find it here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=156433

Another variant is the "no metal challenge" which recently ended with a convincing win for the home team. We did use horses, but only quite late in the game when we pushed for domination.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=206431

beeline construction and rely on catapults for attack, and archer units for defense

exactly : it's the best early way to get those metals :). catapults are the bulk of my force anyway.
You need a few archers though.

Found a religion, spread it to everyone, pray for peace till feudalism

Found a religion, spread it to everyone, pray for peace till feudalism

that's what I did for my latest cultural win (emperor level, standard sized fractal map, epic speed :mischief: , playing Spain)

I founded buddhism, spread it like plague to my neighbours.
Guess who those neighbours were?
- alexander : the most famous backstabber around
- tokugawa : the closed borders guy
- frederick : the Rexing guy.

At the time when I discovered copper, It was already under AI control.
At the time whe I traded for IW, it was already under AI control.
I managed to get horses (and stone) with a remotely good city. But freddie's culture took my pigs, making this city totally :smoke:.

In the meantime I had built stonehenge and oracle and earned a very early prophet that I used to build the shrine. Buddhism wasn't widespread at this time, but the shrine (and monastery and temple ;)) helped a lot in the automatic spread = buddhism became the official religion of everyone around, except Mansa Musa (who was a bit further away and had founded hinduism).
My few cities (4) were defended by warriors mostly and 1 chariot in the :smoke: stone/horse city (barb city next door).

In this situation, I didn't face a single attack for the first 5800 years.
I built up culture and got myself 2 other cities, then flipped a 7th one (with forbidden palace in it ). This city was offered to me with 2 LB, who were my best defenders :lol:.
Then, just after Alexander signs a defensive pact with me, Saladin (the other continent was Mao + saladin) lands cavalries and cannons next to the ex-german city, defended by 2 LB. I quickly moved the chariots, catapults, warriors and trebuchets into the city to defend it (while culture was piling up, I didn't have astronomy to strike back anyway, so purely defensive war).
I $rushed muskets (the best I could do!) and catapults (colateral damage!!!), killed the invaders (at a high price but who cares?), then lived with galleons and frigates cruising along my coasts and destroying my food and commerce (I had the colossus, that's why I didn't care for astronomy in the first place :lol:).
This stinky war made me finish in the late 19th century but alexander never backstabbed me :), in fact he helped me out :lol:.
Then Mao and Toku dogpiled on... saladin. Too late to matter, but still :cool: !
Nice to have toku on my side :)