Blitz Spearman
Warlord
I just hit a dead end in my last game. I was playing as the Zulu (immortal/standard speed/standard size/fractal/no ruins) for the first time, just trying to test some new tactics. I started in a corner of the continent, with sea and a couple of CSs in one side, and Pocatello on the other side. I decided to open Tradition for the early culture boost, then go through Liberty and later come back to Tradition to get Monarchy when more trade route slots enable for a strong food concentration in the capital. The Zulu UA helps a lot to overpower a neighbour early game, and I crushed Pocatello to death before turn 70 with my army over 10 spearmen and just 2 catapults, while using internal trade routes since the beginning (I had no one else to trade with anyway), and my economy was still stable. Got his Pyramids, which was a nice addition for my plans of wide expansion through war.
Exploring after the Shoshone choke point, I found Ashurbanipal. After waiting a couple of turns for Civil Service, my army of impi had a very easy time stomping his surprisingly small army, and Physics came just in time for my catapults to become trebuchets before finishing his capital. This time I got Statue of Zeus, sweet! By then, I had 4 of my own cities and 3 puppets (I burned all cities that would not provide a new luxury), but I was still last in population and literacy. Oh well, time to stop a little bit and build that National College and those universities, and also a couple of happiness buildings so I can grow more. So I just sat there with my army for about 20~30 turns before progressing with my campaign of doom through the continent.
With the empire happy again and the army a little bit bigger and fully healed, I went ahead to see who'd be my next victim, and I found Catherine, who had just entered Renaissance, while I was still getting the Workshop tech. Oh well, better invade her before things get too ugly. I marched with my 10~12 impi and my 5 trebuchets and entered the huge borders of St. Petersburg.
And then my problems started.
St. Petersburg had a large area of forest that I had to pass through, and Catherine had the largest army in the world. She started to send dozens of knights against my impi, and even with the extra movement from the ikanda promotions, it was really hard to march forward. At one point I started to lose some units, so I had to retreat to heal. I started to produce more impi and more trebuchets in my capital, and was beelining Economics for the gold boost, since my puppets were full of trading posts. So with my army healed and slightly bigger, I marched again. But then it was 1200 AD, and Catherine entered the Industrial Era. She probably got the Arsenal asap, because her city defenses jumped to impossible levels all of a sudden. All the other AI capitals (China had just reached us by the sea and got the WC host) had about 40~45 strength. The CSs were around 45~50, with Hanoi being the strongest with 51.
St. Petersburg had 68 and was killing my trebuchets in one hit. When I looked at Moscow through my spy and saw that it had 87 strength, at 1250 AD, and was producing a gatling gun every 3 turns, I just gave up, lol.
So, what do you guys think that I did wrong? And would it still be possible to win in this situation?
tl;dr: I was going for domination win as the Zulu, but after crushing 2 AIs, stumbled upon a runaway AI with twice as much city defense as anyone else and one whole era ahead of everyone else in tech. What to do?
Exploring after the Shoshone choke point, I found Ashurbanipal. After waiting a couple of turns for Civil Service, my army of impi had a very easy time stomping his surprisingly small army, and Physics came just in time for my catapults to become trebuchets before finishing his capital. This time I got Statue of Zeus, sweet! By then, I had 4 of my own cities and 3 puppets (I burned all cities that would not provide a new luxury), but I was still last in population and literacy. Oh well, time to stop a little bit and build that National College and those universities, and also a couple of happiness buildings so I can grow more. So I just sat there with my army for about 20~30 turns before progressing with my campaign of doom through the continent.
With the empire happy again and the army a little bit bigger and fully healed, I went ahead to see who'd be my next victim, and I found Catherine, who had just entered Renaissance, while I was still getting the Workshop tech. Oh well, better invade her before things get too ugly. I marched with my 10~12 impi and my 5 trebuchets and entered the huge borders of St. Petersburg.
And then my problems started.
St. Petersburg had a large area of forest that I had to pass through, and Catherine had the largest army in the world. She started to send dozens of knights against my impi, and even with the extra movement from the ikanda promotions, it was really hard to march forward. At one point I started to lose some units, so I had to retreat to heal. I started to produce more impi and more trebuchets in my capital, and was beelining Economics for the gold boost, since my puppets were full of trading posts. So with my army healed and slightly bigger, I marched again. But then it was 1200 AD, and Catherine entered the Industrial Era. She probably got the Arsenal asap, because her city defenses jumped to impossible levels all of a sudden. All the other AI capitals (China had just reached us by the sea and got the WC host) had about 40~45 strength. The CSs were around 45~50, with Hanoi being the strongest with 51.
St. Petersburg had 68 and was killing my trebuchets in one hit. When I looked at Moscow through my spy and saw that it had 87 strength, at 1250 AD, and was producing a gatling gun every 3 turns, I just gave up, lol.
So, what do you guys think that I did wrong? And would it still be possible to win in this situation?
tl;dr: I was going for domination win as the Zulu, but after crushing 2 AIs, stumbled upon a runaway AI with twice as much city defense as anyone else and one whole era ahead of everyone else in tech. What to do?
