stfoskey12
Emperor of Foskania
I am having trouble getting extra BTS civs on BTS, I can only get the original ones. What's up with the desu thing?
A Guide To Earth 1000 a.d.
- Thread starter s.c.dude
- Start date
stfoskey12
Emperor of Foskania
I fixed my own problem, but one strategy I am thinking of for Spain is attack Cordoba and then go for France, and then Tunis and Algiers. After that, maybe go for Cairo. Any ideas on whether or not this is a good strategy?
r_rolo1
King of myself
You would get probably more for your initial buck if you go Cordoba -> Tunis -> Tripoli -> Cairo -> Jerusalem ( if the Byzantines have not got it already ). Saladin normally pushes all avaliable units to defend Jerusalem and that means that most of the African cities if his are understaffed and that the camel archers he has in the beginning there were moved elsewhere.
stfoskey12
Emperor of Foskania
However, France's borders often block Spain from access to iron.
r_rolo1
King of myself
You start with a handful of knights, remember ? Those , if you move fast, are enough to get to Cairo . And besides that, there is iron in Morrocco 
stfoskey12
Emperor of Foskania
I found that playing as the HRE and conquering Arabia is a good strategy, with their landsknechts and rathauses. Go for Danzig, Syracus, Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo, Aksum, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Mecca, Mushiqdo, in Arabia. Then I went for Cordoba, Santiago in Spain (the French captured Barcelona). I am planning on kicking out France next (it's 1905).
reljanovic
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
- Messages
- 45
I find it quite boring only playing for victory since this is quite easy for some civs, and a bit harder for others(mali, inca)
So I set up a few of my own goals per continent like; Strong europeans(Holy Romans empire, Byzantines, France, England) should go for either colonize all of America and vassalize the civs there or go for an Apostolic Palace victory(diplomacy). This is available once every civ has at least ONE city with the AP religion(Christianity in this case): This goal is a bit harder than just conquering everything and everyone since you have to "be on you'r best behavior".
Arabia; quite clear, destroy the heathens! take all of Europe and vassalize all you can. Make your religion the bigest and best. Unite the world under Islam.
Mongols; (Duuuuuuh 'poking in nose') Conquer China, Korea, Khmer and India, in that order, be friends with Japan and create an alliance if possible.(Also, war against Arabia often creates some fun since they are occupied with euro).
China/Korea/Khmer; Whit stand the invasion from the north and destroy them!(vassal) Be friends with all east asian civs and settle the Islands and Oceania.
Japan; attack the main lands, take on either Koreans or China at first, or both, but conquer the mainland and befriend with Mongols if possible. Also, settle all of the Islands and Oceania.
Inca/Aztecs; Settle all of the continent, preventing europeans from doing it. Advance in techs and try to be a technology threat to the Europeans.
Mali; Sustain an empire stretching from Morocco to South Africa and Madagaskar. Pose as a technology threat to the europeans.
Russia; Easy - settle ALL of real time russian lands(even the tundra if you want to) and box out all other civs trying to claim the area. Get western coastal cities to build up a navy. Pose as a threat in technology to the europeans, win either by democracy(AP or UN) or space race. And for the heck of it, create you'r own Cold War with the europeans, espionage, steal their techs and havoc their lands!
Vikings/(England)/Spain; colonize the Americans and eventually create a colony(bring forth Washington)
Or, as Vikings, destroy Russians and take their goody lands, you can even take Kherson and bribe Bysans since they are one of your biggest threats and not easy to "butter up".
Got any more personal goals I havent mentioned?
So I set up a few of my own goals per continent like; Strong europeans(Holy Romans empire, Byzantines, France, England) should go for either colonize all of America and vassalize the civs there or go for an Apostolic Palace victory(diplomacy). This is available once every civ has at least ONE city with the AP religion(Christianity in this case): This goal is a bit harder than just conquering everything and everyone since you have to "be on you'r best behavior".
Arabia; quite clear, destroy the heathens! take all of Europe and vassalize all you can. Make your religion the bigest and best. Unite the world under Islam.
Mongols; (Duuuuuuh 'poking in nose') Conquer China, Korea, Khmer and India, in that order, be friends with Japan and create an alliance if possible.(Also, war against Arabia often creates some fun since they are occupied with euro).
China/Korea/Khmer; Whit stand the invasion from the north and destroy them!(vassal) Be friends with all east asian civs and settle the Islands and Oceania.
Japan; attack the main lands, take on either Koreans or China at first, or both, but conquer the mainland and befriend with Mongols if possible. Also, settle all of the Islands and Oceania.
Inca/Aztecs; Settle all of the continent, preventing europeans from doing it. Advance in techs and try to be a technology threat to the Europeans.
Mali; Sustain an empire stretching from Morocco to South Africa and Madagaskar. Pose as a technology threat to the europeans.
Russia; Easy - settle ALL of real time russian lands(even the tundra if you want to) and box out all other civs trying to claim the area. Get western coastal cities to build up a navy. Pose as a threat in technology to the europeans, win either by democracy(AP or UN) or space race. And for the heck of it, create you'r own Cold War with the europeans, espionage, steal their techs and havoc their lands!
Vikings/(England)/Spain; colonize the Americans and eventually create a colony(bring forth Washington)
Or, as Vikings, destroy Russians and take their goody lands, you can even take Kherson and bribe Bysans since they are one of your biggest threats and not easy to "butter up".
Got any more personal goals I havent mentioned?
r_rolo1
King of myself
Done . Fun, but exasperating game. Was forced to war vs China that wasn't on the plans ...
Done . Taking China means basically game over
Done ( well, almost and only for the Inca ) . Harsh game, with very little diplo manouver space and very tight MM . Won via AI stupidity ( Russia had enough votes for UN win but never called the vote
)Luigiii2
Chieftain
Just a thought, but a strategy that I like for Japan is taking korea, then going after khmer, then hitting China from east and south, India is easy to take after that, and that essentially ends the game.
Britain, in my opinion, should settle Britain and ireland (after beating back vikings) then take iceland and build cultural stuff(theaters, monasteries, etc...) as well as building up a navy. After this, they should go for North America, and wait until they see a major Euro conflict. They should attack the losing side and take their land. Then the jolly old Brits can just build colonies anywhere, and they should have a lot of commerce which will give them a tech edge.
Britain, in my opinion, should settle Britain and ireland (after beating back vikings) then take iceland and build cultural stuff(theaters, monasteries, etc...) as well as building up a navy. After this, they should go for North America, and wait until they see a major Euro conflict. They should attack the losing side and take their land. Then the jolly old Brits can just build colonies anywhere, and they should have a lot of commerce which will give them a tech edge.
I have a holiday period and I want to win this scenario with all 17 civs on noble difficulty. I've been going through the more easy civs to begin. I will post more in coming days.
Difficulty:noble
Byzantines
Strongest Civ in scenario. Starts high in tech and with lots of Cataphracts which are unique unit of knight and have 12 strength. Send all of your cataphracts down to jerusalem, take it, then send 2 to Cairo, 2 to Mecca, 1 to Suhar, 2 or 3 to baghdad. After this send them all east and take Persian cities. You should be able to accomplish this with out building any units within 5-6 turns. Meanwhile build christian temple and monastery in all cities (for free hammers) and oracle in Constantinople. If you did what I said you will have won the game already. You'll get huge amounts of income from your shrines. The christian powers will not declare war on you for a couple of hundred years. China is the only real threat but won't attack for a while. You can also take India quite easily aswell after Persia though you'll need to build some trebuchet and some more Cataphracts.
France
Very easy. You have marble and stone, industrious trait and a kickass capital city and you play your turn before HRE so you can take Danzig. Run bureacracy and get a few wonders in paris: oracle, great library, taj mahal, national epic. You should be able to stay near top in tech for most of game. Go for steel when you can and use cannons to invade HRE and Spain. Don't bother going after anyone else. You should be almost always ahead in tech throughout. In the end I got a cultural victory with Paris, Danzig and Rome. Be careful of Peter in this game, he gets strong around industrial period and will go after you. But you should always be ahead of him in tech and you will be defending so you should be able to hold him off without even using significant resources.
Russia
Easy. Get oracle early by chopping forest around Novgorod. Don't settle Moscow, settle top of Sweden for copper and iron and deer and blocking in Vikings. Get exotic resources from India and China so your cities can grow larger. Send a horse archer to meet eastern civs ASAP. There are 3 barbardian cities at the beginning to the east of Kherson. Send Horse Archer to sack the one really close to Kherson, take the other 2 before 10 turns are done. If you wait too long Byzantine or Saladin will take 1, Mongols will take the other. Don't open borders with anyone apart from Elizabeth. Focus on blocking Western powers from Russian virgin land. Once you have done this you can settle it at your leisure. Watch out for occasional barbarian. Chop forests to get granaries, forges, christian temple and christian monastery (for hammers) in new cities. Settle a bit faster around the time you get Cossacks. Saladin and Genghis will also settle faster at this time. Around this time you should have a large number of cities with nearly all useful buildings built, making a lot of research and with a lot of hammers. I just spammed Cossacks at this point and invaded Saladin and then invaded India. You can do whatever you want now, no other civilization will be able to hurt you. I invaded China and then Europe with tanks. Won a diplomatic victory after Spain, France, HRE, Byzantine, China, Khymer all my vassals.
China
Quite easy. At the beginning move all your crossbowman to the northernmost city and make peace with Mongols ASAP, then develop chinese lands, get oracle and then liberalism for 2 free techs, send an archers along silk route to meet all western civs. Trade techs to become near top in score. After you have developed china begin sending settlers and mounted units up to Siberia and do it quickly, byzantine, Saladin, Russia, Mongols will all be doing the same. Try to reach ice at top so your land is all connected and its stops anyone else moving east without open borders with you. Once you get cavalry invade Mongol cities, should be easy as they only have longbowmen. With a good chunk of russia and china you'll be in the score lead at this point. If you just develop what you have noone should be able to catch you, but again beware of Peter, he is the only one who will be able to beat you at this point. Build a military to defend against him.
Arabia
Also very easy. Take all camel archers over to jerusalem, leave 1 in baghdad for barbs you should have about 8 or 9. It's very difficult to keep Corduba and Syracuse, even if you upgrade to Longbowmen they will most likely be culture flipped so forget about those places. Make peace with France, England, HRE, Byzantines though not Spain, give them a cheap tech if you have to. Then send all of your camel archers east and take India. With India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt you should be able to comfortably stay in the tech lead at all times (with shrines) you can go for whatever victory that you want. Though watch Peter from time he gets Cossacks he has good land to expand into and he is clever and he hates you Muslim heathens !
Mongols
This game was very hard for me at the beginning. I followed the guide set in the first post of this thread however I believe it doesn't work. If you send all of your army west and attack Saladin he will fairly quickly upgrade archers to Longbowmen but more quickly he will bring Camel archers which are more than a match for your horse archers, you can just about get baghdad and eastern cities (I lost my whole army taking these places, and I moved very quickly) but you definitely cannot take jerusalem without being very lucky and probably reloading the game many times.
If you look at the units Saladin has and the units China and Korea have, Saladin is further away and better defended than China and Korea, its not worthwhile.
I took the northernmost city in China as my capital and then took Korea with my 11 HA and then settled 2 cities just north, mean while my 1 archer went along the silk route through Arabian empire to meet India and all Christian civs and Mali. I converted to buddhism, gave 1 or 2 techs to Khymer and Japanese and gave Iron to Khymer then get them to declare war on China (by giving them another tech). With all 3 of you attacking from sea and north and south the Chinese don't develop at all. Use HA you have left pillage chinese countryside, China has no Iron and no horses though eventually it will make loads of musketmen and destroy your army. Try to steal workers from china during this time. Then develop your lands and try to get to Military tradition for cuirassers either by trading techs or by research. Invade china (which will be just trying to get its economy together after all war and raiding) with purely promoted cuirassers (you can storm it in 5 turns) and then you will be in lead and I stormed India then with cavalry. Then Khmer offered to become my vassal. With China and India land and Khymer vassalised you should be able to peacefully take lead in tech. And with tech advantage and loads of resources and productive cities and income from shrines and virgin Russian land to north unsettled, the world is your oyster.
One thing to note is that once I got military tradition I traded it with 5 or 6 civs for 5 or 6 different techs. Mali and Byzantines even gave me techs that are worth more than military tradition. This allowed me to go to near the top of tech lead.
Inca
Quite hard. Don't settle immediately on that hill, head west and settle so you get the 2 corn resources. Then build workboat and a scout (for the 5 tribal villages in south america) and research sailing, improve land around capital, send workboat to make contact with Aztecs. After sailing go for feudalism for serfdom and longbowmen. As soon as you get a galley ferry your troops to Argentina and settle your 2nd city around Buenos aires so you have 2 corn's and 1 fish and 2 hills, using this city you can make workers and settlers very quickly once it is grown a bit. Watch out for barbarians you don't have iron, you'll have to build longbowmen. Using your 2nd city move as quickly as possible to settle all of east coast of South America, especially important is oil and aluminium resource in Brazil. However france and HRE still managed to make a few cities up near venezuala in my game. As soon as possible convert to christianity for diplo bonus and also for extra hammers from christian temple and monastery. I then continued settling inner South America, bottom, west. At no point will you be anywhere near the top of score. Don't annoy Isabella (she always goes looking for trouble), don't worry about Elizabeth (a pacifist who doesn't usually interfere). Try to appease Louis and Charlemagne and Justinian them but not too much that they will get something worthwhile, like a tech you just researched. You can declare war on Saladin, to appease the Christians. Try to stay at peace and get computers to build Internet. Then go for a space victory. You'll have aluminium and industrious trait to make Space elevator and make laboratories ASAP. The whole game you will never be ahead in tech or military or score, diplomacy is very important.
One final note is the starting game is critical for Inca, make sure you are alway building something or researching or doing something for your overall strategy. Pick the techs you research carefully, make all your moves carefully.
Difficulty:noble
Byzantines
Strongest Civ in scenario. Starts high in tech and with lots of Cataphracts which are unique unit of knight and have 12 strength. Send all of your cataphracts down to jerusalem, take it, then send 2 to Cairo, 2 to Mecca, 1 to Suhar, 2 or 3 to baghdad. After this send them all east and take Persian cities. You should be able to accomplish this with out building any units within 5-6 turns. Meanwhile build christian temple and monastery in all cities (for free hammers) and oracle in Constantinople. If you did what I said you will have won the game already. You'll get huge amounts of income from your shrines. The christian powers will not declare war on you for a couple of hundred years. China is the only real threat but won't attack for a while. You can also take India quite easily aswell after Persia though you'll need to build some trebuchet and some more Cataphracts.
France
Very easy. You have marble and stone, industrious trait and a kickass capital city and you play your turn before HRE so you can take Danzig. Run bureacracy and get a few wonders in paris: oracle, great library, taj mahal, national epic. You should be able to stay near top in tech for most of game. Go for steel when you can and use cannons to invade HRE and Spain. Don't bother going after anyone else. You should be almost always ahead in tech throughout. In the end I got a cultural victory with Paris, Danzig and Rome. Be careful of Peter in this game, he gets strong around industrial period and will go after you. But you should always be ahead of him in tech and you will be defending so you should be able to hold him off without even using significant resources.
Russia
Easy. Get oracle early by chopping forest around Novgorod. Don't settle Moscow, settle top of Sweden for copper and iron and deer and blocking in Vikings. Get exotic resources from India and China so your cities can grow larger. Send a horse archer to meet eastern civs ASAP. There are 3 barbardian cities at the beginning to the east of Kherson. Send Horse Archer to sack the one really close to Kherson, take the other 2 before 10 turns are done. If you wait too long Byzantine or Saladin will take 1, Mongols will take the other. Don't open borders with anyone apart from Elizabeth. Focus on blocking Western powers from Russian virgin land. Once you have done this you can settle it at your leisure. Watch out for occasional barbarian. Chop forests to get granaries, forges, christian temple and christian monastery (for hammers) in new cities. Settle a bit faster around the time you get Cossacks. Saladin and Genghis will also settle faster at this time. Around this time you should have a large number of cities with nearly all useful buildings built, making a lot of research and with a lot of hammers. I just spammed Cossacks at this point and invaded Saladin and then invaded India. You can do whatever you want now, no other civilization will be able to hurt you. I invaded China and then Europe with tanks. Won a diplomatic victory after Spain, France, HRE, Byzantine, China, Khymer all my vassals.
China
Quite easy. At the beginning move all your crossbowman to the northernmost city and make peace with Mongols ASAP, then develop chinese lands, get oracle and then liberalism for 2 free techs, send an archers along silk route to meet all western civs. Trade techs to become near top in score. After you have developed china begin sending settlers and mounted units up to Siberia and do it quickly, byzantine, Saladin, Russia, Mongols will all be doing the same. Try to reach ice at top so your land is all connected and its stops anyone else moving east without open borders with you. Once you get cavalry invade Mongol cities, should be easy as they only have longbowmen. With a good chunk of russia and china you'll be in the score lead at this point. If you just develop what you have noone should be able to catch you, but again beware of Peter, he is the only one who will be able to beat you at this point. Build a military to defend against him.
Arabia
Also very easy. Take all camel archers over to jerusalem, leave 1 in baghdad for barbs you should have about 8 or 9. It's very difficult to keep Corduba and Syracuse, even if you upgrade to Longbowmen they will most likely be culture flipped so forget about those places. Make peace with France, England, HRE, Byzantines though not Spain, give them a cheap tech if you have to. Then send all of your camel archers east and take India. With India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt you should be able to comfortably stay in the tech lead at all times (with shrines) you can go for whatever victory that you want. Though watch Peter from time he gets Cossacks he has good land to expand into and he is clever and he hates you Muslim heathens !
Mongols
This game was very hard for me at the beginning. I followed the guide set in the first post of this thread however I believe it doesn't work. If you send all of your army west and attack Saladin he will fairly quickly upgrade archers to Longbowmen but more quickly he will bring Camel archers which are more than a match for your horse archers, you can just about get baghdad and eastern cities (I lost my whole army taking these places, and I moved very quickly) but you definitely cannot take jerusalem without being very lucky and probably reloading the game many times.
If you look at the units Saladin has and the units China and Korea have, Saladin is further away and better defended than China and Korea, its not worthwhile.
I took the northernmost city in China as my capital and then took Korea with my 11 HA and then settled 2 cities just north, mean while my 1 archer went along the silk route through Arabian empire to meet India and all Christian civs and Mali. I converted to buddhism, gave 1 or 2 techs to Khymer and Japanese and gave Iron to Khymer then get them to declare war on China (by giving them another tech). With all 3 of you attacking from sea and north and south the Chinese don't develop at all. Use HA you have left pillage chinese countryside, China has no Iron and no horses though eventually it will make loads of musketmen and destroy your army. Try to steal workers from china during this time. Then develop your lands and try to get to Military tradition for cuirassers either by trading techs or by research. Invade china (which will be just trying to get its economy together after all war and raiding) with purely promoted cuirassers (you can storm it in 5 turns) and then you will be in lead and I stormed India then with cavalry. Then Khmer offered to become my vassal. With China and India land and Khymer vassalised you should be able to peacefully take lead in tech. And with tech advantage and loads of resources and productive cities and income from shrines and virgin Russian land to north unsettled, the world is your oyster.
One thing to note is that once I got military tradition I traded it with 5 or 6 civs for 5 or 6 different techs. Mali and Byzantines even gave me techs that are worth more than military tradition. This allowed me to go to near the top of tech lead.
Inca
Quite hard. Don't settle immediately on that hill, head west and settle so you get the 2 corn resources. Then build workboat and a scout (for the 5 tribal villages in south america) and research sailing, improve land around capital, send workboat to make contact with Aztecs. After sailing go for feudalism for serfdom and longbowmen. As soon as you get a galley ferry your troops to Argentina and settle your 2nd city around Buenos aires so you have 2 corn's and 1 fish and 2 hills, using this city you can make workers and settlers very quickly once it is grown a bit. Watch out for barbarians you don't have iron, you'll have to build longbowmen. Using your 2nd city move as quickly as possible to settle all of east coast of South America, especially important is oil and aluminium resource in Brazil. However france and HRE still managed to make a few cities up near venezuala in my game. As soon as possible convert to christianity for diplo bonus and also for extra hammers from christian temple and monastery. I then continued settling inner South America, bottom, west. At no point will you be anywhere near the top of score. Don't annoy Isabella (she always goes looking for trouble), don't worry about Elizabeth (a pacifist who doesn't usually interfere). Try to appease Louis and Charlemagne and Justinian them but not too much that they will get something worthwhile, like a tech you just researched. You can declare war on Saladin, to appease the Christians. Try to stay at peace and get computers to build Internet. Then go for a space victory. You'll have aluminium and industrious trait to make Space elevator and make laboratories ASAP. The whole game you will never be ahead in tech or military or score, diplomacy is very important.
One final note is the starting game is critical for Inca, make sure you are alway building something or researching or doing something for your overall strategy. Pick the techs you research carefully, make all your moves carefully.
Japan
Easy if you have the right strategy but difficult if you adopt the wrong one. I played as Japanese 4-5 times before I won. The successful strategy I found is to immediately invade Korea and then just expand peacefully into Russia while carefully managing Eastern diplomacy to contain China.
Send a scout to meet European civs ASAP. Build Oracle also ASAP and take Liberalism and then Nationalism. With these 2 techs you should be able to trade for all European ones and be well ahead in tech race. Best guy to trade with is Justinian and Elizabeth and Mansa Musa. Stay buddies with Mongols, Khymer and India. Give them techs in return for declaring war on China. You can stay permanently at war with China aswell, blockade them constantly so they're port cities starve. China offered to be my vassal in 1600-1700 even though we barely fought.
DON'T INVADE CHINA. The cities are all close together and there are 7 of them, even if you take half of them China will culture bomb you and flip them back. And China starts with the ability to build Musketman and protective trait and you don't even start with engineering so you will incur huge casualties to take each city. It's not worthwhile.
Spain
Very Easy.
Take Corduba and on the same turn load up your galley with knights. You start with 6 knights and I used those knights to take Tunis, Tripoli and Cairo. It's worth taking jerusalem but you'll need to build more knights and maybe trebuchets. I had troops wait near jerusalem and someone attacked the defenders but didn't succeed and I 'stole his kill.'
Once you have jerusalem be kind to Mali and they will offer to become your vassal. Then just peacefully expand into Africa. The game is very very easy from this point. None of the Christian powers will attack you, you have loads of land, you have best 2 holy shrines in game, you are among best in tech at beginning and will be at all points. Before 1900 I vassalised Saladin, Byzantines and Russia and then France with a tank rush and won a diplomatic victory, I didn't even need bombers they were so behind in tech.
England
Very Easy.
Send your knight in the middle east through Russia to meet with the Eastern civs ASAP. Keep on good relations with China and India and Khymer so you can get their resources. You can declare war on Mongolia to please them and on Saladin to please Christians. Neither of them will ever hurt you. Be very aggressive with Viking land invasions, throw your longbows at him and your knights, don't worry if you lose nearly all of them. You don't need them once Ragnar gives up, your are on an island surrounded by friendly christian civs. Settle at the top of Britain with one of your settlers. Build Oracle ASAP. Adopt pacifism and build the national epic in London and you should have a steady stream of great people and Golden ages. Build a caravel and send it round Argentina to circumnavigate world. Build 2 knights and take Dublin. Get Great Engineer to rush build Mausoleum for longer Golden ages if you can. Perhaps you will be able to rush Taj Mahal aswell. Go for Economics aswell to get Great Merchant and for free market civic. After Economics get Astronomy and settle East coast of North America quickly and attack Aztecs with knights and then Cuirassers. Don't give open borders with France, Spain, Byzantine and HRE or they will try to set up cities in North America. Games over at this stage. You are ahead in tech and its very hard to be invaded due to the Atlantic Ocean protecting you. Christian civs all like you anyway if you managed diplomacy well.
Easy if you have the right strategy but difficult if you adopt the wrong one. I played as Japanese 4-5 times before I won. The successful strategy I found is to immediately invade Korea and then just expand peacefully into Russia while carefully managing Eastern diplomacy to contain China.
Send a scout to meet European civs ASAP. Build Oracle also ASAP and take Liberalism and then Nationalism. With these 2 techs you should be able to trade for all European ones and be well ahead in tech race. Best guy to trade with is Justinian and Elizabeth and Mansa Musa. Stay buddies with Mongols, Khymer and India. Give them techs in return for declaring war on China. You can stay permanently at war with China aswell, blockade them constantly so they're port cities starve. China offered to be my vassal in 1600-1700 even though we barely fought.
DON'T INVADE CHINA. The cities are all close together and there are 7 of them, even if you take half of them China will culture bomb you and flip them back. And China starts with the ability to build Musketman and protective trait and you don't even start with engineering so you will incur huge casualties to take each city. It's not worthwhile.
Spain
Very Easy.
Take Corduba and on the same turn load up your galley with knights. You start with 6 knights and I used those knights to take Tunis, Tripoli and Cairo. It's worth taking jerusalem but you'll need to build more knights and maybe trebuchets. I had troops wait near jerusalem and someone attacked the defenders but didn't succeed and I 'stole his kill.'
Once you have jerusalem be kind to Mali and they will offer to become your vassal. Then just peacefully expand into Africa. The game is very very easy from this point. None of the Christian powers will attack you, you have loads of land, you have best 2 holy shrines in game, you are among best in tech at beginning and will be at all points. Before 1900 I vassalised Saladin, Byzantines and Russia and then France with a tank rush and won a diplomatic victory, I didn't even need bombers they were so behind in tech.
England
Very Easy.
Send your knight in the middle east through Russia to meet with the Eastern civs ASAP. Keep on good relations with China and India and Khymer so you can get their resources. You can declare war on Mongolia to please them and on Saladin to please Christians. Neither of them will ever hurt you. Be very aggressive with Viking land invasions, throw your longbows at him and your knights, don't worry if you lose nearly all of them. You don't need them once Ragnar gives up, your are on an island surrounded by friendly christian civs. Settle at the top of Britain with one of your settlers. Build Oracle ASAP. Adopt pacifism and build the national epic in London and you should have a steady stream of great people and Golden ages. Build a caravel and send it round Argentina to circumnavigate world. Build 2 knights and take Dublin. Get Great Engineer to rush build Mausoleum for longer Golden ages if you can. Perhaps you will be able to rush Taj Mahal aswell. Go for Economics aswell to get Great Merchant and for free market civic. After Economics get Astronomy and settle East coast of North America quickly and attack Aztecs with knights and then Cuirassers. Don't give open borders with France, Spain, Byzantine and HRE or they will try to set up cities in North America. Games over at this stage. You are ahead in tech and its very hard to be invaded due to the Atlantic Ocean protecting you. Christian civs all like you anyway if you managed diplomacy well.
Holy Roman Empire
Very Easy. On first turn move knights to near Danzig. Louis always attacks next turn and kills 1 swordsman and then attacks again the subsequent turn and captures. Let him kill 1 swordsman then kill the 2nd one taking the city. Take barb one near constantinople aswell but sack it because its bombarded with byzantine culture and it flips over easily to byzantines. Now build workers and run serfdom and pacifism and build the oracle to get a free tech. Develop your land and get a few golden ages. Don't build wonders other than national ones. Meanwhile send the knight near jerusalem east to meet China and the eastern civs. The moment you meet them you should be able to trade 5-6 techs and go from average position to top of the tech league. About research, after you trade with eastern civs head for liberalism for your free tech and then head for economics and corporation for extra trade routes which will boost your economy alot. Build Christian monasteries, temples, granaries, lighthouses, forges in all cities, if you need build markets and harbors and aqueducts if you have BIG health and happiness problems but try not to. Try to get resources from India or China to solve health and happiness problems. After you have done all this its time to expand. After corporation head straight for Steel so you can get cannons. While your waiting to get it build as many pikeman (HRE unique unit is landsknecht) as possible. Run theocracy to get 2 promotions on creation. These guys are really cheap and can defend well which is all you'll need. The cannons will weaken your enemies so much only anything can finish them. When you have enough cannons and pikeman (maybe 8 cannons and 15-16 pikeman split them in half and declare war on france. Push 1 half on the hill beside Marseille and the other half beside paris. The next turn with 4 cannon in each army you should easily take both cities with almost no losses (should have some cannons promoted for city raider and some for collateral (suicide guys)). Louis will be ready to capitulate at this point but take Bordeaux first then vassalise. Shouldn't be too well defended. Continue spamming those landscheckts (build heroic epic at this point if not already done). Then declare war on spain. You should have 30 pikeman by this point and at least 4 cannons in decent condition for each city assault (Spain has 3 cities which you assault one after the other. You can use ship of line to bombard. After Spain head for Justinian. Russia is busy settling Russia and England usually stays out of European affairs. At this point you have all of western Europe and you have a tech lead and a massive army. It's easy to finish yourself.
Vikings
Difficult if don't use right strategy. Your cities all have terrible production and you are at war with all of Europe and you are behind in technology. Your army is low quality than other powers aswell. Berserkers aren't as good as knights in strength and mobility. However you do have a large army and a large navy. First step move all your troops bar 1 from their boats near Norway back to Norway (without moving ships). Now move your 2 ships with 1 berserker to the horse resource in england and drop your berserker. You should capture 3 workers. You also have a galley northwest of ireland. Move it towards norway and drop the troops off again there. Meanwhile move all troops including longbowmen (apart from 2 longbowmen in capital city Ribe) near to Upsala and move all your boats around and make peace with anyone you can if you can. Also convert to christianity in this time and change to bureacracy and organised religion and research meditation for monasteries, then paper which is good for tech trading. Once your army is assembled at Upsala (eastern Sweden). Load berserkers and axemen into boats and declare war on Russia. Russia has 3 horse archers and 2 archers in Novgorod and 2 archers in Kiev. Your army should be enough to capture Kiev and Novgorod the 2 most important cities (vassalise Russia then). At this point Apocalyptic palace usually demands you end the war, and some times demands you return cities. Just refuse all demands. Your cities will be totally paralyzed with angry faces however it doesn't matter you should be able to chop important buildings at beginning. Get peace ASAP with all Christian civs, give them techs if you absolutely have to. Build a scout also quickly and meet with Eastern civs for tech trading. Don't sign open borders with any mainland European civ. They will settle Russian land that belongs to you. The game becomes very like playing as Russia at this point apart from your a little bit less developed and your relationships with other Europeans is less good and you have a few squaters in Russia (barb cities in south usually taken by the time you set yourself up). You have to be little bit more cautious. But the game is a walkthrough at this point. Keep what you have in west and south and expand east with little competition.
Very Easy. On first turn move knights to near Danzig. Louis always attacks next turn and kills 1 swordsman and then attacks again the subsequent turn and captures. Let him kill 1 swordsman then kill the 2nd one taking the city. Take barb one near constantinople aswell but sack it because its bombarded with byzantine culture and it flips over easily to byzantines. Now build workers and run serfdom and pacifism and build the oracle to get a free tech. Develop your land and get a few golden ages. Don't build wonders other than national ones. Meanwhile send the knight near jerusalem east to meet China and the eastern civs. The moment you meet them you should be able to trade 5-6 techs and go from average position to top of the tech league. About research, after you trade with eastern civs head for liberalism for your free tech and then head for economics and corporation for extra trade routes which will boost your economy alot. Build Christian monasteries, temples, granaries, lighthouses, forges in all cities, if you need build markets and harbors and aqueducts if you have BIG health and happiness problems but try not to. Try to get resources from India or China to solve health and happiness problems. After you have done all this its time to expand. After corporation head straight for Steel so you can get cannons. While your waiting to get it build as many pikeman (HRE unique unit is landsknecht) as possible. Run theocracy to get 2 promotions on creation. These guys are really cheap and can defend well which is all you'll need. The cannons will weaken your enemies so much only anything can finish them. When you have enough cannons and pikeman (maybe 8 cannons and 15-16 pikeman split them in half and declare war on france. Push 1 half on the hill beside Marseille and the other half beside paris. The next turn with 4 cannon in each army you should easily take both cities with almost no losses (should have some cannons promoted for city raider and some for collateral (suicide guys)). Louis will be ready to capitulate at this point but take Bordeaux first then vassalise. Shouldn't be too well defended. Continue spamming those landscheckts (build heroic epic at this point if not already done). Then declare war on spain. You should have 30 pikeman by this point and at least 4 cannons in decent condition for each city assault (Spain has 3 cities which you assault one after the other. You can use ship of line to bombard. After Spain head for Justinian. Russia is busy settling Russia and England usually stays out of European affairs. At this point you have all of western Europe and you have a tech lead and a massive army. It's easy to finish yourself.
Vikings
Difficult if don't use right strategy. Your cities all have terrible production and you are at war with all of Europe and you are behind in technology. Your army is low quality than other powers aswell. Berserkers aren't as good as knights in strength and mobility. However you do have a large army and a large navy. First step move all your troops bar 1 from their boats near Norway back to Norway (without moving ships). Now move your 2 ships with 1 berserker to the horse resource in england and drop your berserker. You should capture 3 workers. You also have a galley northwest of ireland. Move it towards norway and drop the troops off again there. Meanwhile move all troops including longbowmen (apart from 2 longbowmen in capital city Ribe) near to Upsala and move all your boats around and make peace with anyone you can if you can. Also convert to christianity in this time and change to bureacracy and organised religion and research meditation for monasteries, then paper which is good for tech trading. Once your army is assembled at Upsala (eastern Sweden). Load berserkers and axemen into boats and declare war on Russia. Russia has 3 horse archers and 2 archers in Novgorod and 2 archers in Kiev. Your army should be enough to capture Kiev and Novgorod the 2 most important cities (vassalise Russia then). At this point Apocalyptic palace usually demands you end the war, and some times demands you return cities. Just refuse all demands. Your cities will be totally paralyzed with angry faces however it doesn't matter you should be able to chop important buildings at beginning. Get peace ASAP with all Christian civs, give them techs if you absolutely have to. Build a scout also quickly and meet with Eastern civs for tech trading. Don't sign open borders with any mainland European civ. They will settle Russian land that belongs to you. The game becomes very like playing as Russia at this point apart from your a little bit less developed and your relationships with other Europeans is less good and you have a few squaters in Russia (barb cities in south usually taken by the time you set yourself up). You have to be little bit more cautious. But the game is a walkthrough at this point. Keep what you have in west and south and expand east with little competition.
sylvanllewelyn
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Deity difficulty, normal speed.
Draft in progress, please comment. I tested these until the game was clearly won, not to completion.
Group 1: Kill Mongolia. Expand into Northern Asia.
Members: China, Japan, Khmer, Korea.
Group 2: Kill Russia. Expand into Northern Asia.
Members: Arabia, England, France, HRE, Spain.
Group 3: Cripple Arabia. Leave the weak cities. Don't take Arabia as a vassal or everyone will hate you.
Members: Byzantines, India
Group 4: Astronomy, settle Argentina.
Members: Aztec, Mali, Incas.
Additional notes: There are 5 tribal villages around South America. Try to research and espionage all techs that can be gained by tribal villages except for astronomy, before you pop the tribal villages with culture borders. This takes some planning because some city improvements inadvertently produce culture. Each tribal village has around 20% chance of getting astronomy on deity difficulty.
Additional notes: Mali can send 5-6 skirmishers East to take Muqdisho in the beginning, which has horses. Trade away the horses for much-needed health resources. Happiness can come from hereditary rule.
Group 5: Trade with the East, conquer Europe. There are a lack of food resources in Scandinavia and Russia so let someone else develop it for you first.
Members: Russia, Vikings
Additional notes: For Vikings, my preferred initial order is: England, Russia, HRE. For Russia, my preferred initial order is: barbarians, HRE. I want to take Rome early and control the Apostolic Palace earlier so the resolutions do not mess with your gameplan too much.
Additional notes: In the beginning, there is no need to leave one unit to defend cities that are not threatened. You can and will need to attack with everything.
Group 6: Mongolia
- Capture Yanjing. Raze Dongjing. Capture Qingzhou. Sue for peace with the Chinese. Kill Korea. Expand into Northern Asia.
- Depending on luck, you may take more or fewer Chinese cities. Ensure you have enough strength left to finish off Korea after making peace with China.
- You should get a Great General quickly. Give your injured Keshiks combat promotions with the GG to maintain momentum.
Additional notes: In the beginning, there is no need to leave one unit to defend cities that are not threatened. You can and will need to attack with everything.
Draft in progress, please comment. I tested these until the game was clearly won, not to completion.
Group 1: Kill Mongolia. Expand into Northern Asia.
Members: China, Japan, Khmer, Korea.
Group 2: Kill Russia. Expand into Northern Asia.
Members: Arabia, England, France, HRE, Spain.
Group 3: Cripple Arabia. Leave the weak cities. Don't take Arabia as a vassal or everyone will hate you.
Members: Byzantines, India
Group 4: Astronomy, settle Argentina.
Members: Aztec, Mali, Incas.
Additional notes: There are 5 tribal villages around South America. Try to research and espionage all techs that can be gained by tribal villages except for astronomy, before you pop the tribal villages with culture borders. This takes some planning because some city improvements inadvertently produce culture. Each tribal village has around 20% chance of getting astronomy on deity difficulty.
Additional notes: Mali can send 5-6 skirmishers East to take Muqdisho in the beginning, which has horses. Trade away the horses for much-needed health resources. Happiness can come from hereditary rule.
Group 5: Trade with the East, conquer Europe. There are a lack of food resources in Scandinavia and Russia so let someone else develop it for you first.
Members: Russia, Vikings
Additional notes: For Vikings, my preferred initial order is: England, Russia, HRE. For Russia, my preferred initial order is: barbarians, HRE. I want to take Rome early and control the Apostolic Palace earlier so the resolutions do not mess with your gameplan too much.
Additional notes: In the beginning, there is no need to leave one unit to defend cities that are not threatened. You can and will need to attack with everything.
Group 6: Mongolia
- Capture Yanjing. Raze Dongjing. Capture Qingzhou. Sue for peace with the Chinese. Kill Korea. Expand into Northern Asia.
- Depending on luck, you may take more or fewer Chinese cities. Ensure you have enough strength left to finish off Korea after making peace with China.
- You should get a Great General quickly. Give your injured Keshiks combat promotions with the GG to maintain momentum.
Additional notes: In the beginning, there is no need to leave one unit to defend cities that are not threatened. You can and will need to attack with everything.
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