This idea came up during the last game. I did not finish it as it was too much of a steam roller. I never thought AWE pangaea on monster map could be that easy. I think th city limit is too much for th AI on emperor.

So, let's try a very different experience, AW without the reliable killer armies.

I chose Sumer as the agri trait is unbeatable on such maps with city limits. I went for continents as well to make landings on other continents a real challenge. In this game, I need to get all the help I can get.

I chose a reasonable start with 1 food bonus (wheat), but nothing much else.
I expanded first and made my capital the settler farm while other cities could churn out cheap enkidus.

By 1500BC I expanded nicely and met the Spanish that triggered a very early Golden Age of no value for me. I have only 4 cities when thy attack my enkidus. :crazyeye:
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6205/awmnoarm1sn3.jpg

With iron nearby, I am able to get at the Spanish fast. They are too close for comfort and need to be removed as soon as possible.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3585/awmnoarm2wv3.jpg

Early strikes against an unprepared enemy are really effective.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4167/awmnoarm3bc1.jpg

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9262/awmnoarm4wg7.jpg

Below a picture of the early empire. I have met India by now as well in the northwest. Research is set for literature to get the Great Library. I won't be able to rely on it, but to gain the early techs, it will be useful. I also plan to research the lower techs until Mil Tradition in the Middle Ages and hope to gain some techs from the upper part of the tech tree.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5456/awmnoarm5tg2.jpg

I am continuing to grab land from Spain and keep their capital. A lot of their cities get autorazed, which is a pity.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/8085/awmnoarm6rp0.jpg

My first MGL comes late, very late. I can't form armies anyway, which also means no Heroic Epic. This leader turns into a library in Madrid.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3204/awmnoarm7ji7.jpg

In 370BC I eliminate the Spanish. Research set to WC in the unlikely case that I miss the GLib.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5985/awmnoarm8rn8.jpg

I meet another foe, the Byzantines. There is nothing more annoying and scary in the early game as dromon bombardment. This enemy has to go fast. Without armies as help, I need to assemble real SODs. I add quite a few catapults to the mix slowly as well. I add cheap enkidus to absorb attacks as I rather lose 10shield units than expensive swords.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4817/awmnoarm9md7.jpg

As you can see, it works.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1725/awmnoarm10kz1.jpg

After long last, I get the GLib in 230BC. I doesn't even get me into the MA. I need to research monarchy to change government and currency myself.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9793/awmnoarm11zn4.jpg

Not much later, I get the city limit message. I have around 20 cities, not too bad. The mini map show my land in the lower right corner of the map.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1922/awmnoarm12oa8.jpg

Good job against Spain, figured the early expansion would be a cakewalk after Emperor and Demigod. Enkidus have to be one of my favorite UU's even though they are defensive and very early, you can't beat the price.

I'm guessing the Byzantines and whoever is next-closest (probably India) will fall pretty easily as well. It's when you start meeting everyone and their SOD's meet your army-less borders that this'll get interesting.

If contact trading's still off, I figure the game will be pretty easy for awhile. As long as no runaway AIs come up, you should be able to fight one or two enemies at a time fairly easily.

That certainly had to have pained you to turn your first MGL into a library, going against all your normal instincts. This should be interesting! :D

yes, I did not enable contact trading. However, i will b a tough game anyway as I have to cope with a lot of units overseas once I land. This will be tough regardless.

Since the city limit is reached, I go after Byzantines. they show up with 2 dromons, but after that not any longer. I wonder what is the cause of that.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5402/awmnoarm13lo7.jpg

There are plenty of units around, but my stacks can go about their business unharmed. It helps that Byzantines do only field spears and archers for the time being.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5868/awmnoarm14mn8.jpg

I take out a few cities in with my slow moving stacks.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4766/awmnoarm15ai9.jpg

For more variety, I meet America in the north. they aren't that big however.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8223/awmnoarm16ub3.jpg

I start to attack India as well. they are to the west, while Byzantines are on a peninsula west/south
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7853/awmnoarm17sn1.jpg

And that's where I meet the Chinese, they are bigger than America. More advanced as well.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9569/awmnoarm18fa3.jpg

I take the Byzantines capital after finding out that they fight the Chinese. No wonder, they have been a little inactive. I am researching the last AA tech myself, as I can't rely on the AI. My plan is to get up to Mil. Tradition as soon as possible.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3886/awmnoarm19rl9.jpg

I keep an Indian city and keep a stack of units inside. This town cuts the and nicely into north and south and let's me concentrate on the Byzantines and Chinese in the south.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6521/awmnoarm20mg8.jpg

Finally I reach th Middle Age and draw feudalism, this is excellent and I can send maces into the fight soon. I have to say bye bye to the cheap UU however. With unit costs mounting, that's isn't such bad news.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9066/awmnoarm21sh4.jpg

At least it's unlikely you'll have to deal with Riders. Hopefully you'll get to India before they field many War Elephants, too. And of course, hopefully no Japanese are nearby. Or Dutch - they could be a bit of a pest.

Any signs of enemy stacks yet?

this is monarch, so the stacks are really very small so far, more of a trickle. Stacks will come when I meet Civs that have not been at war with others. That will be a challenge. Yes, I want to make sure I won't see any riders.

No armies? :eek:

He's a mad man! :run:

The new era starts with a new contact, the Greek. Fairly advanced and bigger than the rest. With a painful UU this could get interesting.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5845/awmnoarm23ap0.jpg

I continue to get after India, I rather get them out of the way. Fighting elephants without armies would be a nightmare.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/6594/awmnoarm24nm1.jpg

What a pleasure to gt more MGLs, except that these guys will turn into markets and such stuff :cry:
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/3475/awmnoarm25xg5.jpg

The Byzantines had no chance in this game fighting China and Sumer a the same time. At least i did not have to face dromon bombardment.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7467/awmnoarm26on2.jpg

Soon after that, I get a new enemy in the north. Incas are small and not really scary, their UU is a joke. I don't really bother about them.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1186/awmnoarm27wo6.jpg

As you could see from screen shots, I am going after invention -> gunpowder all the way to Mil Trad. However, I would take a detour for chivalry once monotheism opens up for me via th Great Library. I have a prebuild running to net KT. Free units are always nice

My small stacks are now going after China. It isn't that difficult as China has fought Byzantines for very long and they do not really have that many scary units around.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/416/awmnoarm28sq4.jpg

Not much later I get free barracks for the whole continent, simply priceless as my unit support is a staggering 100gpt already.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2444/awmnoarm29pp8.jpg

Finally, after so many years, I face some enemy units in numbers as the fast Greek units approach from the north.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9804/awmnoarm30cz7.jpg


Then I meet another enemy, I would have liked to avoid. If I have to face cossacks later on, I will be in trouble. their blitz attacks could easily take out entire stacks without army support. :eek: To make matters worse, these guys are big with more than 20 cities.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6346/awmnoarm31nd0.jpg

To finish this session, I take out India. For the time being, I have China, Russia, Greece and Inca as enemies. Not too bad.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9519/awmnoarm32wd9.jpg

Russia has Feudalism already, too. Guess the other civs couldn't stay in the spearman age forever.

How are the city counts - at least the Sumerian one - right now?

I have currently 53 cities..not too many really as progress is much slower without armies.

Roading all the way south into the tundra, I am finally able to connect my third luxury. This way I can run my empire at 10% lux and get cities to pop 12. You can also see that I am researching chivalry as a detour for KT and knights. It would be really nice to finally have faster units.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/301/awmnoarm33xc9.jpg

In the west, I continue to go after China. They counter with some units, that include swords as well. I set up a nice killing one with plenty of catapults and trebs.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1396/awmnoarm34sp5.jpg

I get this nice wonder for cheaper upgrades, that I need,e.g. knights to cavalry and later tanks to MA, or muskets-> rifles -> infantry
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8530/awmnoarm35xj4.jpg

Below you see my slow sword stacks in Chinese territory turtling their way south.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6006/awmnoarm36us9.jpg

More free units for me ad another wonder denial at the same time
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1610/awmnoarm37pp9.jpg

I use one of the MGLs I get fighting Greece in the north to rush the FP in Madrid. The city has growth potential and higher commerce.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6498/awmnoarm38es2.jpg

The Greek come into the territory from the north with their hoplites. Initially I have a hard time taking them out and it costs me quite a few units. No armies really make a negative difference here.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1084/awmnoarm39bl7.jpg

China is slowly but surely crumbling with me taking their capital.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2328/awmnoarm40fn9.jpg

Now, we get at a different stage of the game with us having cavalry. I switch off research for a few turns hoping the I would research education as Greece has that already. It doesn't work out, bu all the money is used to upgrade my knights to cavalry
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8485/awmnoarm41ds7.jpg

Soon after that China is gone, cavalry are far superior in speed and strength at the moment, I got to make use of that.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1927/awmnoarm42yt1.jpg

Moving north searching for Greek or Russian territory, I stumble across this red border. Should be Rome and maybe I will face bigger stacks this time?
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1180/awmnoarm43iq5.jpg

At this moment, I have 80 cities, China has around 20. America a few left only, they are a no issue anyway. Russia is gaining cities, while Inca are losing them. This must be the reason I have not seen any Russian offense yet. They are busy swallowing up Inca land.

Do you mean Russia or Greece has twenty? You just killed the Chinese ;)

This has to be tough without the extra strength, movement and blitz of armies. It sort of makes you see the game from the AI's point of view, since they never build armies.

In a way, I have to resort to quantity instead of quality as well. Though, tactics make a huge difference as well of course.

Indeed, I face Rome, but as it turns out, I do not have to fight legions.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5741/awmnoarm44om3.jpg

In the east, I take out America, that had been very weak any way.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7113/awmnoarm45td4.jpg

In the southwestern corner, there is actually a Carthage city, that I take. It turns out that they are offshore, but nearby. When I send out some cavalries, they first get stranded on a small strip of land :crazyeye:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/839/awmnoarm46mc9.jpg

Not much later, I spot the 'real' Island. Interestingly, they refuse to attack the elite cavalry, but reg cavalries aren't safe. I thus use the elite cav as a cover.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3655/awmnoarm49yx1.jpg

As you can see, I am heading for economics now as I want to net Smiths for the huge savings..

Now, fighting Rome is tricky and the game is getting really interesting. LBs wouldn't hesitate to attack cavalries and I need to be really careful. You can see a Roman stack. The one big advantage I have is speed. Their stacks will not be able to follow me in neutral territory. I must make use of mountains as way points.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/918/awmnoarm47yw7.jpg

Speed lets me evade the stacks and attack their cities.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3637/awmnoarm48ur5.jpg

I keep cities before abandoning to attract their units and divert them
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6128/awmnoarm50vt2.jpg

Soon, a sea of red fills the screen and I lose quite some cavalry to their LBs every time I step in the wrong direction.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6123/awmnoarm51kv0.jpg

I need to stay focused and largely ignore their units and attack cities. That's the only way to deal with this situation. The enemy will end up running about instead of attacking properly.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1120/awmnoarm52vi0.jpg

This way I make my way to the Roman capital and weaken them properly
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8790/awmnoarm53ag7.jpg

I also send stacks of cavalry north to try and take out Rome as soon as possible. By the way, in the northeast on this screenshot is Greece.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5647/awmnoarm54in5.jpg

At this stage I have close to 90 cities

The Hide and seek attacks continue and I successfully evade the Roman stacks. I also choose to take out horses with my cavalry if convenient.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/268/awmnoarm55qw9.jpg

I take out a Carthage city as well, this one is easy as it is not on their mainland. I am in no particular hurry with them as they pose no danger at all.
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8676/awmnoarm56oq8.jpg

I rather use all th cavalry for th Roman campaign. Though I lose quite a few cavalry on those hill attacks, their cities have no chance. I am using the same method the AI always uses, called mass attack.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6647/awmnoarm57no4.jpg

My detour to economics finally pays off. Smiths improves my economy by more than 60gpt for now. It will allow me to build more banks and stock markets later on for the Wall Street.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1108/awmnoarm58bm3.jpg

Finally a look at the current world map. In the north there are Greece and Rome. In the southwest, you can spot Carthage land.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4103/awmnoarm59wk9.jpg

Pretty soon, Rome is a waste land, as I have not gotten steam yet, advancement is slow though. In know that the Russians are somewhat north, but they are still happily eating up Inca.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/354/awmnoarm60pp0.jpg

Not much later, Rome is history. You can see that I research steam now, since I got nationalism as my free tech.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/355/awmnoarm61pi3.jpg

And another Civ is gone, bringing Russia up to scary 33 cities. I need to avoid to face cossacks. Currently, they still lack metallurgy. Greece has that already.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/82/awmnoarm62ob5.jpg

One more wonder for me, although this won't make a big difference once I have hundreds of scientists. It's good to deny this the AI anyway :D
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8545/awmnoarm63bv1.jpg

While I am going after Greece properly and wait for the Russians to appear, the Greek come out of the fog and enter my territory with big stacks. I gather all th catapults I can get. That is not enough, but I can cheaply upgrade my muskets to rifles. Let's see how I can wear these stacks down.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/922/awmnoarm64qa2.jpg

Every picture after you captured Cadiz isn't showing up.

Every picture after you captured Cadiz isn't showing up.

I can see all of them, and his last edit was before your post. You might try refreshing your screen. :)

Nice job taking out Rome. Made their horsies pretty harmless.

The Greeks pose a bit of a problem right now though. If you can get enough troops in Sugar you might be able to get them to fall for the ol' walk around in the direction of the weakest city until they're destroyed trick, but otherwise they might just swallow up a city or two. They're got an inconvenient number of Hoplites and Warriors guarding their Longbows, too.

Not good that this will distract from the offensive, either - still the Russians are far enough from Cossacks that they might not get there.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/922/awmnoarm64qa2.jpg
This...is...SPARTA!!! :aargh: ;)

Nice update and good job on taking out Rome! :goodjob:

One thing you can often count on is AI stupidity. They will head for empty cities and just ignore the front lines. Their stacks could easily make mince meat of my front towns, if they throw in all they have. However, they will avoid to attack rifle defended cities, just as they avoid attacking elite cavalry with attack 2 units.
The AI is dumb. If only C3C had the source code available so we could make it 'act smarter'

There's got to be a happy medium between "head for least-guarded town on other side of pangea" and "throw every unit you have against heavily-garrisoned deathtrap town nearest you".

The issue here is that the AI knows exactly where your troops are (which is nonsense). They would know that with 20+ LB's they could easily take out the city, keep it, garrison it with their hoplites and move in the other bigs stacks around.
Well, still C3C strikes the right balance to provide great fun fighting. CIV AI is much smarter, but the fun is gone as fighting becomes a real nightmare and is tedious without end.

As predicted the Greece stack did not really attack, but bypass the rifle front
I had heavy losses taking out their units, but no choice here. I have plenty of units anyway.
At the front, I simply keep on taking Greek cities. That will wear them down eventually.
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5678/awmnoarm65ue1.jpg

Surprisingly, they have a lot of stacks coming out of the fog :eek: Costing me more cavalry losses than I had wanted :mad:
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4537/awmnoarm66wc7.jpg

Overseas, my exploring ships bump into the first few contacts, more are added later on. They are lagging in techs behind me, which is good. Any sea invasion will take ages though and only go on full scale with flight, I reckon.
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4002/awmnoarm67yl9.jpg

Soon, the Greek land resembles the Roman wasteland...deja vu
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7080/awmnoarm68df3.jpg

An overview with city counts.
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4006/awmnoarm69nx2.jpg

what follows is a series of wonder captures, which I don't mind. I net the pyramids here
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1230/awmnoarm70sn5.jpg

another not so useful wonder here...
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4628/awmnoarm72kk0.jpg

How about Cops? Well, the distance corruption will kill this wonder for me, at least the AI doesn't have it any longer.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5911/awmnoarm73oo5.jpg

Russia is next on my menu of Civs to defeat...their towns that were previously Inca have no border expansions and can be captured fast.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/792/awmnoarm71ix7.jpg

Not much later, Greece in all the glory are gone, Russia seems to be the only Civ left on this continent.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6097/awmnoarm74rv6.jpg

Did you keep any/all of the Wonders? Nice job taking out Greece, now for getting to Russia before Cossacks. Hopefully they don't have too many Knights heading for your borders.

He does keep some. Note the captured cities among the wasteland.

He also said he netted the Pyramids, which I assume means a capture.

Of course I kept some cities, the pyramids and Cops, but I foolishly abandoned Sisitine. Once my cities grow beyond size 12, that wonder might be useful :(

With Greece gone, I want to take out Russia as fas as possible. I have stacks of units moving north, slowly at first without rails, but that changes fast also.
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2081/awmnoarm75br2.jpg

The Inco-Russian cities are easy to take, but not very attractive in the midst of the desert.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8696/awmnoarm76gw3.jpg

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/8499/awmnoarm77bt8.jpg

After a while I have consolidated my situation in the north, making steady progress and starting to hit the Russian core. They are still 2 techs away from Mil Tradition, I wonder why they are so slow
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9108/awmnoarm78hu8.jpg

I fight my way up through Russian territory and then get a real shock. There is another Civ north of Russia on my continent, the Dutch. Not too advanced, having a big stack of spears in a Russian city. If you look closely at the screen shot, you can see pinkish borders as well and i turns out that there is yet another Civ, the Vikings. :eek: Funny map

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6290/awmnoarm79ub4.jpg

In the once big Russian empire is taken out. Faster than I thought I can accomplish this without armies. Cavalry are still very powerful tools.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/6759/awmnoarm80td7.jpg

I defeat 10+ spears and take the first Dutch city. I don't care about the losses of cavalry as I have a lot of them.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/2278/awmnoarm81oi4.jpg

I start to roll north with rails and want to take out Vikings and Dutch as fast as possible.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1108/awmnoarm82jq6.jpg

I have been sailing around, making new enemies and discovered what looks like a big second landmass. It is time to set sails with a first fleet. It will take until flight to make a full scale attack though.
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1742/awmnoarm84oo2.jpg

Tech wise, I have gone for RP, then scientific methods and a slow 6 turn industrialization to match ToE, which gives me AT and electronics. I will head for sanitation as I surely need the battlefield medicine wonder. Then espionage to get a proper map of the world.
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/7756/awmnoarm85qw3.jpg

The Vikings have no chance and while they are running around with their stacks, I simply take out the cities and destroy them.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4066/awmnoarm86hf9.jpg

Not much later, the Dutch are removed as well.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4060/awmnoarm87nk0.jpg

I have now almost 200 cities, but will need to take more than 300 cities overseas without the army coverage. I am in for a long hard fight.

You finished the continent!? :eek:

World map?

Wow, that was a really fast conquest of the Russian core, or at least it seemed to be. I'm sure the Dutch helped, but...wow. I thought before this post that the Russians might get at least a small number of cossacks, but it doesn't appear they did.

I guess I'd go for enormous numbers of Infantry on a mountain for the invasion. In the America GOTM (September I think) I did a Monarch invasion against the Celts who controlled pretty much the entire other continent and it took about 12 minutes for the animated AI attacks, but about 50 Infantry with Artillery support held the hill I was on. But progress will probably be slow - I certainly didn't finish that GOTM on time.

I was surprised too, how little Russia had to offer. I think fighting Inca and maybe getting attacked by Dutch was too much for them? I also have a big number of cavalry already.
It will all be very different going overseas until flight at least. Parking infantry on mountains might not work as the AI might simply play sitting duck...

I land the first small parties overseas and a really big stack approaches. I have to play hide and seek or drop on mountains to play the Japanese out.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1894/awmnoarm88hx5.jpg

That works to a certain extent.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9677/awmnoarm89xq2.jpg

I finally get the Intelligence Agency and manage to steal a world map.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3959/awmnoarm90ge9.jpg

I still have around 200 cities. You can see a big second continent. I have met almost all the other Civs there. There seems to be a small third continent was you can see one city up in the northern fog.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/365/awmnoarm91oj6.jpg

Shipping over more units, I have quite a size able stack there now and start to take out Japan. Infantry gets hardly attacked and unless there is no other target, they will be left alone.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1161/awmnoarm92ae1.jpg

Another city falls.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9942/awmnoarm93dg7.jpg

I have also sent a small stack to the other (western) side of the continent and irritate the French. This should also cause confusion for the AI as to where to send troops.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6734/awmnoarm94zn5.jpg

I finally take care of the Carthaginians after so many centuries.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2405/awmnoarm95me5.jpg

Hoover will surely boost my production a lot.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4598/awmnoarm96ty0.jpg

Perhaps I overestimated the new world AI's. I thought they'd already have rails and you'd be hit with dozens of Cavalry upon landing - but the Japanese have Spears and Archers and the French are only up to Musketeers. Smart to land on the non-railed areas if there are railed ones though, at least that way there's no insta-enemies.

Nice progress! If having no armies is slowing you down, it isn't noticeable to me. :cool:

I might be true that the conquest on my own continent went quite well, but now the progress is pretty slow

I clear the Japanese cities around Edo. I intend to keep the city as it has incense and with an airport, things should be good for me. It will also serve as an enemy magnet to draw their troops from the core.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1976/awmnoarm97se9.jpg

There are some Mongol and German troops. I use MGL's to rush rifles or even civil defense (never done that before)
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3850/awmnoarm98jy3.jpg

Japan continues to suffer, albeit at a slow pace and nobody else really.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4651/awmnoarm99ph5.jpg

I get this wonder, without armies, healing in enemy land can be essential to conquest
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7048/awmnoarm100uf9.jpg

And another city goes, this could serve as a harbor connection
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8097/awmnoarm101hy7.jpg

Well, maybe not as I don't think I have enough troops to counter this stack from Germany. :eek: I abandon the city and hide underneath infantry. I need more infantries for sure. http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/651/awmnoarm102cv6.jpg

Finally I manage to take out Japan. It was weak and medium size, I wonder how long Germany will take with their rifles as defenders.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7497/awmnoarm103vx1.jpg

The world map. I have 3 sea routes to enemy shores. Once I have flight, reinforcement will be much easier. Tanks will help as well later on. I am still at around 210 cities.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8821/awmnoarm104aq2.jpg

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/651/awmnoarm102cv6.jpg

:eek: That could be a major damper on progress. Hope there aren't too many more of those coming out of the fog.

How's progress on the French front coming? The French themselves didn't seem terribly fearsome in the earlier screenshots (besides the annoyance of Musketeers and a likely GA), but then again they were obviously more dangerous than Japan. And has the Babylonian front started yet, or are you waiting until the other continent is a bit more subdued before that?

Are any of the other civs in the IA yet?

How's progress on the French front coming?Slow, very slow as I can't send many troops over with the few galleons I have. My focus was Japan and I will continue to use this as a forward base.

I guess once I have flight, progress should be faster and I could send in more razing parties at various spots.

Progress in Babylon land has been abysmal as well. I checked the border city and it is stacked with their defensive troops. No way I can take that city. :(

Are any of the other civs in the IA yet?AI progress is slow, however, the most important enemies such as Germany/Babylon/Arabia etc have rifles and that will cost me a lot of troops. This game will make massive use of nukes, I am certain about that.

Progress is really slow overseas. I will insert the dates in some images just so that you can get an idea, how fast it is. I am not conquering 3-5 towns a turn...more like 1 per 3-5 turns or so.

I get flight, which should speed up progress a lot. I am also using MGL's to rush airports overseas to get incense as the fourth lux connected. This is important to keep my citizens happy.
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/4814/awmnoarm105om4.jpg

Every now and then I manage to take out a French city.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9620/awmnoarm106cp3.jpg

I finally manage to take out Babylon city as well. This does provide some space for an airfield. this airfield get attacked heavily in subsequent turns, but easily holds. However, my spies tell me that the nearby Babylon cities are stacked with units, no point attacking. :(
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3136/awmnoarm107cd1.jpg

This is what helps keep up the support overseas
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3634/awmnoarm108vg8.jpg

And the airfields provide added units to take the weakest enemy, hat has been battered by Zulus, France.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7126/awmnoarm109pw2.jpg

I start to ship more units over to Ex-Japan to move on to rich and advanced Germany. They do have rifles, bu I have superior unit strength.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9237/awmnoarm110dr8.jpg

I start to rail upwards through Mongol territory into th German heartland. Of course, that takes a lot of time and patience
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8100/awmnoarm111kl8.jpg

Playing the out, I decide to flank them, sending units over by transports and taking the lightly defended cities in th back.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7057/awmnoarm112sc5.jpg

I can make some 'quick' progress
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1257/awmnoarm113vr1.jpg

This is almost a blitz taking into account the slow progress before
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5391/awmnoarm114qs8.jpg

In addition my snake of troops reaches Mongol cities and starts the progress there
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/9476/awmnoarm115go1.jpg

This is the situation at Mongol/German land...the snake trail
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/2189/awmnoarm116ra7.jpg

I have now 232 cities and am heading towards modern armor after drawing rocketry for free and researching fission. My research is pretty fast at 4-5 turns per tech. I will need nuclear missiles to be able to advance faster, else I will reach future techs while still taking out the enemy.

The AI sure aren't very advanced compared to you. Not even Infantry yet, and you can already build Tanks. There's even bunches of Aztec Spearmen running around in those screenshots...

I think you've got this one all but won if only for the tech advantage. Unless there's someone considerably more advanced than Germany, Modern Armor will run over the other civilizations.

'Course if you met a whole bunch of civilizations at once (there's still a good number you haven't met, right?) your defences would be fairly well tested...even to the AI are losing cities at what's likely too high a rate for them to win.

But even if his defence is tested, he shouldn't have much of a problem, as the AI sucks at overseas invasions. It might cost him time to re-solidify his bases, but I doubt they could really hurt much.

The most advanced civ have cavalry and rifles...and I made sure I meet all Civs to increase the challenge. In this game PP contact trading wouldn't have made a difference as the AI is really backwards.
It is not easy to attack however as tanks are slow and the AI will take on wounded units etc. It's more of a slow crawl that is challenging rather than the enemy.
I am sure emperor will be a very different beast.

Progress is slow, but turns are now getting very slow as well because of the many units I need to command. there seems to be a significant difference to an army game as many units are inside armies, thus faster movements etc.

Anyway, I keep the pressure on Germany/Mongols while leaving the Babylon Island in a stalemate

Germans have money, all the more it is wise to focus on them.
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7489/awmnoarm118cq4.jpg

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9417/awmnoarm119sr8.jpg

Th Mongols also suffer with their town they have left.
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/672/awmnoarm120jx3.jpg

While not focusing on French, I still manage to take their capital. As I have no harbor or airport there, no RR can be done and progress up north is really slow
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/7379/awmnoarm121zw4.jpg

having RR to the front, progress speeds up a little. Bombers help to take out rifles to reduce my losses.

In Babylon land, I finally progress to a city that is not defended by gazillions of rifles. (still, the city was defended by 10+ rifles)
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/6964/awmnoarm122qt5.jpg

The front on the main continent now has quite a few ruins and Germany is down to 13 cities, while I have 247 of them. I hope I can keep the momentum and get into a steamroller to take out more enemies faster.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5364/awmnoarm123os6.jpg

The world with the 3 fighting zones. I guess I will roll over the enemy from the east.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/9739/awmnoarm124zl4.jpg

Slow and steady wins the race. The AI is amazingly slow on techs this game, still lacking Infantry. All the better for you. And you're almost to Modern Armor...it probably will become a steamroller then.

Having been busy at work and other stuff, I didn't play that much. Progress is faster though, due to the arrival of modern armor.

First things first, I get Manhattan but it will take a while until I have nukes as I want to research other stuff first.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5654/awmnoarm125wi7.jpg

I start to make real progress in Germany and take their capital
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4011/awmnoarm126cr1.jpg

Another nice addition
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8779/awmnoarm127ea9.jpg

Finally. modern armor has arrived. I hope this unit can be a good substitute for armies
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7568/awmnoarm128oi4.jpg


It proves to be quite true as progress is now only limited by may railing towards the front and of course some cities with big spacing and culture. Germany is part of history all too soon.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/12/awmnoarm129ht7.jpg

The Mongols follow soon and the land is open to move forward to take on the other Civs. Iro's are now most advanced with infantry.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9558/awmnoarm130av2.jpg

I have now 272 cities and hope I can make real fast progress. I need more workers for railing though.