Hi All,

It's come to this! After playing till 1:00 in the morning last night, all I can do at work is think about how I will conquer the world when I get home LOL.

I've just moved up to noble level on BTS. Been playing Civ for years now but have to admit I am awful at it, but I'm determined to move up now!

I'm currently playing a small map (big + small) with myself Augustus, and seem to be doing pretty well (2nd place in tech lead, 300 points above second best player Joao). I had knocked out my neighbours HRE during an early rush, and have capitulated Bismark in the north.

The only other two players are Joao and Ragnar. I have been to war with Ragnar for a short time but we are now at peace - he has converted to confu.. (as has everyone now) and is actually pleased with me. We do not have open borders and he's kind of stuck to the far west of the map, building up units but not really able to go anywhere. Despite being in third place, his control and amount of units are not to be underestimated.

I've been best friends with Joao since the beginning of the game just so I could get stuck into the rest, but now I'm worried he will turn or that I need to take him down a peg or two. He has sat out most of the wars in the game and been able to build on islands to the east, I know his culture is very high.

I'm in early Industrial eara and after years of peace to get my Economy going, i've started building up a new force of calvery/artillary/cannons/riflemen.

But who do I attack? I don't trust Ragnar nor Joao anymore, they are pleased but we all know that there is nowhere left to settle on the map! If I attack Ragnar I may get a point lead to ensure I win over Joao, but if I don't attack Joao I'm worried he'll walk away with the title (cultural victory or domination).

Hope this discription of events is ok.

Thanks,

Since Joao is your main threat, hit him first, especially if you share borders. He's also known as a backstabber, he'll probably attack you when least expected (may even bribe Ragnar to tag along). Carefully pick which cities to attack first, because of his strong culture his cities will be hard to keep, unless you attack swiftly and capture several cities at once. If his capital is close to you, try to take it first.

First thing, put all your spying effort into Joao, so you can see if he's really trying a Cultural Win. If he is, you just have to raze - or, in case he is military weak, take - one of his 3 wonder cities.

If Joao is just playing regularly, for a probable Space Race, you may plan a conquest victory by preparing for war with both of your remaining opponents. First see how Joao and Ragnar get along. If they hate each other, maybe you can bribe one of them to attack the other - and by doing so, slow down their research and thin their own army a little bit to make things easier for you later. If they love each other, attack Ragnar first as this probably is not enough for Joao start hating you.

Bribe Ragnar to attack Jao, if at all possible. Teck to Assembaly line ASAP, and Fashism\Flight or Industrialism for str 24 units. But, you must have infantry if you have artilery, so I guess I dont undertand.

Thanks guys, great advice, and pretty much what I did.

Joao wasn't going for cultural, in fact he probably would have stayed friendly for some time - Ragnar definatly was to be the backstabber.

I bribed Ragnar to war with Joao which he did then a few turns later I attacked - knocked him right off the continent and took all his best cities. Then I went to peace - two turns later Ragnar attacks me and takes one of my crappy western cities (my war had been in the east so I was a bit slow on this).

As I had taken the Apostolic palace from Joao I was able to stop the war straight after he took my city, I then built up a huge tank force on the Viking border with Art and Inf. Within a couple of turns I got my city back using the apostolic palace again - then invaded - it was all over - domination victory and ranking of Augustus Ceasar. My first noble game.

I usually play the game so that I'm honest with everyone, choose my sides and stick to them, and think everything will work out, but the truth seems to be I have to backstab as soon as I get a chance or someone else will.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll remember this for my next game - Justinian Price Normal Map.

Sounds like a good game, but its hard to keep loyal to allies, at least untill you know which AI are loyal back. Ragnar and Joao are on the bottom of the loyalty list.