First post
I've taken 3 attempts at this g-major to victory, and submitted two. Considering that the second submission should knock the first submission out of the number two spot, I thought I'd share.
I hadn't played a Warlords game on Prince difficulty before this; I'm used to more difficult settings. I also tend to be more Gandhi-like in my approach, preferring to crush my enemies with waves of calvary, infantry, or tanks.
First attempt was on a Pangaea map, with normal settings (barbarians, tribal villages, vassals), except high sealevels.
Discoveries: Archery (tribal village), Animal Husbandry, Horseback Riding, Mining, Agriculture, Bronze Working, Masonry, Iron Working, Fishing, Writing, Alphabet ...
Built two cities initially, because horses were not near my starting city. Built barracks and stables, then began pumping out Keshiks.
First war was with Julius, since he'd built two cities in the suburbs of Karakorum. Plus, I fear Praetorians. Since he had no copper, and hadn't hooked up his iron, he collapsed quickly (745-640 BC).
Next up was the man who stole my face, Qin Shi Huang. Showed him no mercy (520-445 BC).
Then I lost focus, played with the barbarians, and scattered my armies. In the meantime, Stalin attacks Asoka. Since I don't trust Stalin either, I finally reassembled my hordes and invaded. His cities were scattered and intermingled with the English, so it took some time to eliminate him (130 BC-230 AD).
Thus far, I'd eliminated my neighbors to the north, south, and west. To the east was Gandhi and Bismarck. To the west were the English, and the remaining civilizations further west. It was clear that I would need to invade westward to achieve domination, but I didn't want Bismarck sitting on my rear flank. So, I eliminated him (320-410 AD) and Gandhi (455-650 AD). However, during the war on Gandhi, he and Victoria discovered Feudalism. Predictably (and suicidally) Victoria took Gandhi as a vassal, declaring war on me.
The rest of the game followed that pattern:
785 AD: Wang Kon declares war
965 AD: Victoria becomes vassal, Genghis declares war
980 AD: I bring Roosevelt and Asoka in against Genghis
1070 AD: Wang Kon becomes Catherine's vassal (Catherine declares war)
1130 AD: Wang Kon is destroyed
1160 AD: While invading Catherine and Genghis, I hit the domination limit.
Obviously, the focus of my building was military units. Because I am used to needing to maintain financial solvency, I razed a lot of earlier cities - in retrospect, this was pointless. Similarly, I ended up building a lot of courthouses, libraries, and marketplaces.
Reading through the thread, I decided to try Moonsinger's approach with the fractal map. This was surprisingly frustrating. The first attempt resulted in an island that was 8 squares short of 51%. A second attempt turned out slightly better. In an opportunistic gamble, I built the Oracle to discover Construction, and dominated the game with an army of Elephants and Catapults. I'd thought I was doing better, but the end result was an improvement of one turn (1154 AD).
I thought the Fractal map was more troublesome for domination - it didn't have enough interior landmass, and its harder to reach the domination limit with coastal cities. So, I returned to Pangaea. This time, I disabled tribal villages, vassals, and barbarians, and regenerated until I got an interior start.
In contrast to the first attempt, I started off by peacefully acquiring as much land as possible. Initially, I built no military units at all, focusing on settlers and workers (building barracks to grow). This approach would be impossible on a higher difficulty, but on prince, my power stayed close enough to avoid enemy aggression.
After establishing 6 cities (and acquiring 12.5% of the land), I switched over to military production (~600 BC).
Research: Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Mining, Bronze Working, Masonry, Horseback Riding, Archery
Having a broad productive base sped up the rate of conquest substantially - it takes a while for captured cities to become productive. I chose my targets based on two factors - proximity, and the number of cities on hills.
Asoka: 220-160 BC
Victoria: 130-25 BC
Stalin: 20-125 AD
Qin Shi Huang: 185-365 AD (1 city left), 605-620 AD (destroyed)
Wang Kon: 215-305 AD (1 city left), 500 AD (destroyed)
Gandhi: 380-470 AD (1 city left), 620 AD (destroyed)
Cyrus: 515-590 AD
(I put off destroying Qin Shi Huang and Wang Kon because their last cities were inconveniently placed on the opposite side of Cyrus and Gandhi respectively. I made peace with Gandhi for two techs, and destroyed him exactly 10 turns later.)
Late research: Iron Working, Writing, Alphabet, Construction, Metal Casting, Machinery
After 620, I have enough territory for domination, once some of the revolts end. I had switched to caste system and facism earlier, so artists were available to expand my borders. In 665, I hit the domination limit exactly. In 680, 3 cities left revolt, expanding to radius 2 (thanks to the aforementioned artists), and I control 53.47% of the land, ever so slightly in excess of the required 51%.
Financially, the only thing supporting my empire was conquest - I was losing 160/turn at the end, and only switching all cities over to pure commerce prevents financial collapse (down to -40/turn) before domination.
Build orders for conquered cities were one of two options:
1. Barracks, then axemen (my defensive unit)
2. Barracks, stable, then keshiks
My conquests, limited technology trading, and the lack of native villages meant that I never faced any elephants, catapults, or longbowmen, and very few horse archers. The only real opposition for the Mongol Horde was cities on hills.
Upon victory, I discovered that there was a surprisingly large, unoccupied island in the middle of nowhere, which pushed up the domination limit (566). The prior games had the domination limit around 500, which is 3-4 cities less.
Undoubtedly, a better result would have been possible, but I'm not much of a micromanager. (Time played: 5:51)
Azylic
I need help, hints, tips. I can manage to get up to liberalism first, and even managed to go onto a prolonged conquest. Though I suppose my conquering comes to late. But if I start earlier, the maintenance is eating me alive. Any hints about the timing?
