Well...as I end off last night I captured a German city. This obviouly started a war.
But with only one warrior defending a city near the center of the German empire it didn't stand much chance.
And the city fell. And interesting note is that the AI attacked with AT LEAST 2 units. 2 warriors, or an archer, warrior, and horseman, etc... So no more picking of units one by one.
So my next action was to take a German City that was closer to mine. After taking 6 attacks with my catapult (but it only hit the target once.
) I took over the size 2 city with my elite archers and raized it. Unfortunatally this left my catapult vunerable and the Germans captured it!! And then my 2 archers and horseman were slaughtered but German archers. So I retreated my spearman and warrior back to my borders. But here come the Germans, 2 archers and 2 warriors. They surround the capital and start pounding. Luckly I had 2 spearmen in the city, (one of which was veteran) and most of the Germans attackers perished. But I got a Great Leader out of the whole thing!! Ivan the Terrible. I'm saving him for my next war so I can have and army of swordsmen.
So I made peace with the Germans and they retreated remaining units. In the mean time I built the great library, lighthouse, and great wall. The lightshouse triggered my Golden Age which I'm playing through now. I don't see a huge difference. I think my capital got more production, but that's about it so far.
The barbarians are EVERYWHERE and like sacking my colonies. I was only able to build 2 swordsmen before they destroyed my Iron colony, but I'll get it back...oh yes. And they are building settlements EVERYWHERE. Although I guess that a good thing....because I get a lot of veteran defenders for my real wars.
Anyway....back to it.