conception
Warlord
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2008
- Messages
- 193
I'm playing a game on LOR where, owing to the Smartmap script I picked, I ended up starting near an incredible strategic isthmus bridging each side of the single continent of the map together. To the west was the isthmus, and east was a series of great plains, small lakes, and river valleys, which despite the map being fairly populated with civs has ended up being mostly unsettled until the renaissance. I took out Monty to my north, who foolishly declared war on me even though some lucky goody hut pops and a good starting position had left me the most clearly most powerful civ in the world.
I easily defeated Monty, although he held out from Capitulating for much longer than I expected. The buildup and victory left me unmatchable in terms of power, but although I was planning on a conquest I did not want to start until I had finished settling the empty lands I wanted. By this point, my border on the western isthmus ended in an easily defensible position next to my arab neighbors, but the great plains to my east still maintained room for 4-6 cities. I decided this land would be mine, and after I cleared out some barb cities from the area I left my knights in a sentry in order to keep tabs. Not more than a couple turns later I saw a Vietnamese settling party, coming into the territory from the southeast. I decided that the territory would be mind and declared war, killing the settling party. I then noticed that a recently settled town of his directly to the southeast was lightly defended, and sacked the 1 pop town. When the Vietnamese snuck in and recolonized this position, I made war again and sacked the town. This time I did not make peace until I had settled the position myself.
My biggest worry this whole time was the Germans, who were fairly powerful and no matter how the settling shaped up would share a 5-6 city border with me. Sure enough, a sentry detected a settling party going into "my" area so I sacked it. I then rushed my army to some lightly defended border towns and sacked 3 of them while avoiding a stack of death.
With my new prizes, and having settled 4-5 cities in the contested area, I am now in perfect position to mass my forces for total victory against all my eastern neighbors. My strategy of fighting limited wars to gain control of an unsettled area worked beautifully. While its not necessarily expansion by takeover, I think of it as "aggressive expansion". FTR, I'm playing with revolutionsDCM, so the more territory I can ethnically control (hence the great plains) the better, as I don't plan on controlling AI lands as my own but just want to get them to capitulate. Liberating their cities avoids unrest and revolutions that could occur.
I easily defeated Monty, although he held out from Capitulating for much longer than I expected. The buildup and victory left me unmatchable in terms of power, but although I was planning on a conquest I did not want to start until I had finished settling the empty lands I wanted. By this point, my border on the western isthmus ended in an easily defensible position next to my arab neighbors, but the great plains to my east still maintained room for 4-6 cities. I decided this land would be mine, and after I cleared out some barb cities from the area I left my knights in a sentry in order to keep tabs. Not more than a couple turns later I saw a Vietnamese settling party, coming into the territory from the southeast. I decided that the territory would be mind and declared war, killing the settling party. I then noticed that a recently settled town of his directly to the southeast was lightly defended, and sacked the 1 pop town. When the Vietnamese snuck in and recolonized this position, I made war again and sacked the town. This time I did not make peace until I had settled the position myself.
My biggest worry this whole time was the Germans, who were fairly powerful and no matter how the settling shaped up would share a 5-6 city border with me. Sure enough, a sentry detected a settling party going into "my" area so I sacked it. I then rushed my army to some lightly defended border towns and sacked 3 of them while avoiding a stack of death.
With my new prizes, and having settled 4-5 cities in the contested area, I am now in perfect position to mass my forces for total victory against all my eastern neighbors. My strategy of fighting limited wars to gain control of an unsettled area worked beautifully. While its not necessarily expansion by takeover, I think of it as "aggressive expansion". FTR, I'm playing with revolutionsDCM, so the more territory I can ethnically control (hence the great plains) the better, as I don't plan on controlling AI lands as my own but just want to get them to capitulate. Liberating their cities avoids unrest and revolutions that could occur.
