Hiya all,

over the weekend I won my first 'Warlord' game as Geroge Washington, but hell, wasn't it difficult.I got like a 4.6k score at the end and was rated as on the lowest leaders on the score board. Oh, I won from Space Race, where I wanted to do it through Diplomacy.

My main problem was military, I just don't build a big enough defense. There were wars and the Ottomans were friends all the way through until the end when they wanted my territory.

I'm thinking of making a new game (dunno what leader yet) on Warlord difficulty and playing a military game. As your opinions what should I concentrate on, should I worry about culture and expansion as long with building new cities or just go all out army?

Build more cities faster... Turn on resources and claim those resources.

It really depends on the map. If you have neighbours near you, build 2-3 cities quickly, claiming a strategic resource with at least one of them, then build/chop/whip your army and rush your nearest opponent. Then turn on the next one, and so on. Rely on your enemies to found your cities for you (military units are cheaper than settlers, after all).

On the other hand, if you have a fair bit of space into which you can expand, you may wish to focus on expansion and wait until you have catapults for your first war.

The main rule is to always have some military might, even if you have no plans to actually fight. It'll deter wars or at least make them much less devastating. My very first game suffered from the same problem in that I barely had any defense and any miliary units I made were quickly spent on short poorly-fought wars.

Eventually the big powerhouse nearby got hungry and started eating away my cities and there was nothing I could do. Also losing three great ones I pretty much called it quits and started a new game with some actual military planning... and it went much better, with me wiping out four civilizations before achieving space race.

Though some day I think I'll go back to where I left off in that first game and see if I can't turn it around. That'd be interesting.

No.. Don't build military when you don't need it.. It will only slow your expansion...

There's a difference between building enough military to deter an attacking force, and building enough military to stifle your expansion.

I recently got backstabbed in a Noble game, where I'd neglected to keep replenishing my forces during a war with America. France landed an attack force on my shores, and the only reason I managed to deter the assault was thanks to a decently sized tech advantage (Rifles to his Trebuchets, Airships to bomb the crap out of his Frigates, and a couple of Ironclads who happened to be nearby sinking an unlucky Galleon or two).

If I hadn't had that tech lead, he'd have swept my western side, including my capital, and I'm not entirely sure I could've recovered in time to prevent serious damage, even with the huge production (~200 hammers/turn) my Ironworks capital had. I managed to stall for peace and now I'm building military up to make sure he won't be tempted to try it again until I can consolidate my American gains.

No.. Don't build military when you don't need it.. It will only slow your expansion...

I can assure you that having another nation surprise attack you and take at least two or three of your nice cities before you can quickly muster the force to stop him (much less retaliate) will do a pretty good job of slowing your expansion. :p

Build more cities faster... Turn on resources and claim those resources.

Dump that zero, get yourself a hero!

Hey, PvtFreddy!

Try the Romans in your next game for getting the hang of an early war. Praetorian Rushes are said to be rather easy to pull off (though as I never play as the Roman, this is hearsay)

For a peaceful game (Shooting for Culture, Space, or Diplo), you want enough military to scare off neighbors from attacking you, but not enough to kill your economy. Walls//Castles (?) add to your power levels as well as military units, helping you out with that. F9 will be your friend for checking power levels of the civilizations you have a Espionage advantage over.

If you could post a save or a screenshot, you could get specific advice on things you can improve on. I was told I need like 2 or 3 times as many workers as I was using and after I built them and cleared/settled the jungle, I shot up to first place on the scoreboard.

Did you use the slavery civic? For some reason I never thought it was worth it, I never even bothered to switch to it. I first tried it as George Washington and realized it was insane. He has cheap granaries to keep the population coming and free happiness to keep whipping away.

My favorite leader is Hannibal, who I think is pretty simple to use. Financial is considered a pretty ridiculous trait and Charismatic is great for war.

I'm no expert (I think I'm in about your situation with Monarch level), but I usually build about four of my own cities and try to take out my closest neighbor with swords and axes, then use the extra cities I got from him to quick tech up to liberalism and rifling and tear through a bunch of longbows using rifleman and trebuchets, that might work out for you too. Are you usually the tech leader?

I can assure you that having another nation surprise attack you and take at least two or three of your nice cities before you can quickly muster the force to stop him (much less retaliate) will do a pretty good job of slowing your expansion. :p

The AI would never do this if you know what to look for...

You shouldn't ever have a nation "surprise" attack you.

Always check if an AI is in WHEOOHN OR if an AI is easily bribed to war (such as Mao Zedong and Zara Yaqob).