Advice for Emperor attempt

[MAS]

I don't think you should get too fancy about strategic locations.

I'd rather just start fighting against Russia first and leave malinalco for later.

If you want to control the troops moving between the 2 semi-continents, you can do that without taking that city.

I was thinking about the lux actually, the strategic location is just icing on the cake.

I'm not exactly sure about the order how things should be done, but he still has to switch to republic, and when he does, he'll need that lux, and its easy to grab.

Hmm, maybe Russia should be taken down first, then switch to republic,then grab Malinalco, then Aztec?

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Oh. didn't look into it that detailed.
Just thought you were going for the strategic spot and wanted to tell that i think such strategic spots aren't important enough to start a war for them.

 

[Rurik]

The city called "Malinalco" looks tasty, you should somehow get controll of that location. And keep controll of it. When your current deals with the civ that owns it are over.... Then concentrate in taking Russia, and then the Aztecs.
Have a gang of workers ready to hook up that lux on the far side of Russia as soon as possible.

If you get a leader, you may want to use it to get the palace in the Aztec area. Then, after some thoughtfully placed courthouses and citylocations, you'll have a huge empire where most cities are at least reasonally productive.

I'm not sure when you should switch to republic, my first thought is to take on russia till about Krasnoyarsk, then switch. Assuming most of your core cities will have grown. Have them build aquaducts between horses, not all at the same time ofcourse.

I, too, have been eyeing Malinalco. It's owned by America who is currently having workers road the spices and clear the jungle there. If you look at the mini-map you'll see America's (light blue) realm is south of France (pink). America has a number of cities N-NE of France.

Culturally the Aztecs are leading with France a close #2. Germany and America have been tag-teaming the Aztecs over Tlaxcala...I think America has lost it twice due to Aztec culture (Germany lost it to an Aztec SOD of horsemen). I've now stepped aside so America can use it's swordsmen SOD to clear Aztec defenders.

As for switching to Republic: In hindsight I think I should have taken more effort to get the Republic tech sooner. Next Emperor game I'll make that a greater priority.

[Edit: following this advice MAS gave in another thread:
"To help you with tech trading: research up the techtree!
I usually go alphabet -> writing -> code of law -> philosophy -> republic ->math -> currency
The AI will research the lower level tech first before going for a higher level tech, so if you go for the higher level one, you can then trade it for multiple lower level techs with the AI."]

In this game I got a 3rd leader and went for Invention to beat the AI's to Leonardo's Workshop. Had Revolution 800AD-870AD to Republic and wasn't prepared for the happiness problem (no temples, war weariness, etc). It took about 3 turns in Republic before I got the natives under control.

 

[Rurik]

I don't think you should get too fancy about strategic locations.

I'd rather just start fighting against Russia first and leave malinalco for later.

If you want to control the troops moving between the 2 semi-continents, you can do that without taking that city.

That's the conclusion I came to, also. Strategically, Russia then Aztecs are my conquest priorities. A palace jump to the mid of Aztecs territory (after they've been taken care of) leaves a small isthmus between my two eastern continents and the large western one shared by England (far north, orange/brown), France (mid.,pink), and America (south, light blue).

Diplomatically Germany has had continuously good relations (no wars) with polite-gracious France, annoyed-furious relations (one long minor war) with England, polite-annoyed relations (one short minor war) with America.

It's really too bad France has kicked the crap out of England because now that makes France my biggest threat and we've been getting along so well.

 

[Rurik]

This is all that's left of England in 1020AD.



You can see that Russia has two off-continent cities left and I've nibbled at the Aztec empire. As a "place holder" I've given conquered Aztec cities to France and America during my temp peace with the Aztecs. I made peace with Aztecs to get Invention and Gunpowder and am now upgrading and consolidating my Russian conquests.

BTW: Somewhere on the map are the Egyptians and Romans. In 690AD Pliny...or whoever...announced the MOST ADVANCED were: Russians, French, English, Americans, Aztecs, Germans, Egyptians, and Romans.

 

[Rurik]

Coincidentally to my recent post...



I just played a couple of turns and annoyed England just offerred contact with Rome for 50g. This got me contact w/ Egypt, too.

I was worried those two were on decent piece of real estate and would be a problem later on...hardly. I'll post the map when I have something relevent to show/ask. For now, here are the POWER standings.