After a somewhat aimless start, I have decided to pursue Conquest. I started by founding a few cities and building Chariots, and was surprised at how weak the AI cities tended to be. As of 1AD I have 17 cities. Germany, Portugal, and Greece are dead, Arabia capitulated, and Egypt can be crushed at will (just one city with an Archer and Chariot to take at will). The oddities of the game played a relatively small role since I was mostly warring and not really thinking very hard about how useful pre-founded corporations might be in a long game. I noticed the exec had Medic III right away, which was much more useful then the corporation would be with no headquarters to balance costs. Of course English culture was annoying for many centuries and capturing the Great Library was nice.
Germany looked reasonably well defended in their hilltop capital, so I decided to attack Portugal first. When my stack of Chariots rolled up to Lisbon in 1840BC they still had Warriors in their capital. Lisbon was only Portuguese city and I kept it. In 1560BC I started hitting Germany with the now larger stack of Chariots. The flatland cities were easy prey, but the hilltop capital required a pause to tech to Horse Archers,
In the meantime, my Workers were building roads over the mountains to Greece and I was getting some Galleys ready. When I got visibility on Athens they had 1 Archer / 1 Warrior in the capital. Double promoted Horse Archers did not have trouble there - talk about over-preparing. Athens was their only city in 1000BC, and I kept it as well.
In 850BC, a small force crossed south into Africa and made quick work of Egypt, capturing the Great Library which threw off two GS (settled one and used one for a Golden Age). I left Hatty with one city at the very south so my troops could shift east.
I captured the high-culture city of Jerusalem from the barbs, and then started against Mehmed in 650BC. This assault ended up stalling out against Istanbul due to the difficulty of the river crossing assault on a hilltop city.
In 400BC I declared my least successful war, against England. Up to 1AD this has consisted of slowly marching stacks of Horse Archers across the land bridge only to fall 1-2 units short each time I assault London. I’ve burned some minor cities but it might take a Spy and some ferried in reinforcements to finally capture London.
In 250BC, I quickly sacked two Arab cities after bypassing Ottoman lands with Galleys and got Saladin to capitulate (discovered Feudalism two turns before the attack).
At 25BC, I captured Istanbul with an attack from two sides using the leftover units from the Arabian war and a fresh stack of Horse Archers.
The only infrastructure I have bothered with are Granaries and Barracks, with a couple Libraries in the core. The Great Lighthouse was built in my second city and has provided enough commerce to keep expanding. Most cities just grow and double-whip Horse Archers all day. I’ve mostly avoided trading other than to sell early techs to backward AIs for gold, as I don’t want anyone reaching Longbows soon. My plan in to tech up to Knights and hope that once the Horse Archers stall out I can upgrade them all and finish the game.
