Early on - axeman rush, took a city from the Khymer; repeated several times through to middle ages, taking a city and sometimes extorting other goodies from the Khymer, to great advantage. One of the cities was where Judaism was founded, and I later produce a Great Prophet and establish a very lucrative Temple of Solomon there.
Around 1200AD, I'm at war with the Khymer again, they vassalise to the Zulu, who are the preeminent power and already have the Koreans as a vassal. One of my spies exploring Zulu territory notices a stack of doom of 40 units starting to move in my direction. Uh oh, I'm in trouble - at best I'm going to lose my northwestern city by the 2 corns (well, to be precise the barbarian city recently taken by the Khymer which I then opportunistically took from them). Luckily 2 of the other powers (America and the Aztecs) are locked in a long war and the Germans are very warm towards me, so the Zulus don't persuade anyone else to declare on me. Unfortunately I can persuade any of them to declare on the Zulus.
1250AD - I'm rushing every possible unit to that city, and look likely to be able to field around 20 units against their 40, which isn't looking good, when a vote in the Apostolic Palace of Hinduism (ironically controlled largely by the Zulus) forces an end to my war against the Zulus. We're saved (for the time being)!
1420AD Shaka declares on me, and his stack of doom has grown to more than 50 units. I've been building my military and have Gunpowder which he lacks, so we'll see how well I can hold him off on the western front, while trying to hold off Khymer and Koreans (and possibly trying to prise another city off the Khymer) on the eastern front.
1490AD We survived without losing a city - managed to gather a stack of about 30, including about 6 catapults, and struck first as soon as Shaka's stack arrived outside the walls. The catapults damaged some of his best units, my knights and musketeers were able to kill some. My musketeers were being produced in several cities, especially Paris (my military production centre), and rapid march ability probably made the difference in this battle. In the initial battle and over the next few turns we managed to kill and defend at a ratio of around 2 of their units for every 1 of ours, leaving us with a small surviving garrison and his stack utterly destroyed!
1525AD We've taken another Khymer city, and held in the west, when the world shows a suprising desire for peace with every civ voting to end the war against Shaka (which is actually Shaka's offensive war). We've gained a city and reduced Shaka military in relation to ours - excellent! The Germans 'suggest' we convert to Hinduism (the religion of the Zulus, Germans and Americans) and I agree rather than risk having them attack me too.
1575AD The other powers are way ahead of me on tech (I'm struggling to run 20% science) and they have riflemen to my musketeers. I was just thinking I need to hope no-one declares on me when Shaka (plus his 2 vassals) declared. For a moment I was thinking I'm definitely doomed, but the trumpets of war kept sounding... what's this... he's also declared war on the Americans and (excellent!) the Germans (the world's number 2 power). After a bit of examination I realise this is because the Aztecs (who the Americans and Germans have been at war with for a while) have vassalised to Shaka, so he's now at war with everyone who was at war with the Aztecs. Wish I hadn't taken up the request from the Americans to join their war against the Aztecs (I joined in, sending only a single unit to 'help', to cultivate good relations with them) - then my dream scenario would be occurring of all the major powers fighting each other while I get a breather. As things stand I figure I may have a long shot at surviving against the Zulu (probably needing to sacrifice my north-western city to them), while taking another city or 2 from the Khymer.
1700AD In our northwestern city a heroic stand of about 15 musketmen defended the castle against about 50 Riflemen and some Trebuchets. They held them off long enough for a stream of Grenadiers and some Cannon to arrive, who launched devastating attacks on the attackers. With the attackers also foolishly sending small groups in each turn while waiting for their trebs to slowly wear down the defenses, the enemy stack was utterly destroyed! We then got cocky and attacked their small nearby city with a group of muskeeters and catapults. We razed it and retreated, but this inspired Shaka to send another stack of about 30 riflemen to attack my (now weakly defended) NW city. And we finally lost the city. But on the eastern flank we've taken another city or 2 from the Khymer (who are down to 1 city), and a couple of cities from the Koreans (down to 4). We give Steel (our only tech the Zulus don't already have) in exchange for peace so we can keep these newly gained cities, and turn back the western Zulu stack which is now threatening another of my cities.
1832AD The Zulus have been in a long war with the Americans (who are in decline but a useful tech trading partner) and the Germans (who are now the preeminent power). The Germans made peace with them recently, but then vassalised the Americans and so re-entered to war (excellent!). We had gained riflemen, and they didn't have infantry yet, so we opportunistically attacked them, taking back our NW city, taking another small Zulu city nearby, and taking 2 more Korean cities. While trying for another Zulu and another Korean city, both got Infantry and it became untenable. Got peace by giving back the small Zulu city I'd taken (after whipping it's population down to 1) - a very successful war against a superior opponent, leaving the 2 big powers still fighting. We're still in with a chance!
1910AD After some more world wars, we're holding our own after taking a couple more Zulu cities, and retaking 1 of ours the Zulus had taken with a megastack of infantry etc. We were helped a lot by the Germans also fighting the Zulus, also with megastacks of infantry. However the recent appearance of German panzers has rocked everyone's world - the Zulus and their (now small) vassals the Aztecs and Koreans have capitulated to Germany after losing several cities. I'm glad this brought me peace all round rather than war with the Germans, but it prevented me taking a few more Zulu and Korean cities I was approaching. And we're now in the unfortunate position of being a small power (25% or world land and population, half the German's score) with a single hyperpower as a rival. He's ahead on tech, has beaten me to the Apollo Program, has panzers to my infantry, and looks unbeatable. Ah well, we play on looking for opportunistic avenues to victory...
A turn later the Americans renounce their vassalhood and sign a defensive pact with us - there is still hope!
1942AD We've got nukes a little before the Germans, and have achieved Mech Infantry. The Germans are well ahead on tech and likely to win a space victory unless we do something unexpected... so we're considering a suprise attack plan. The plan is to do a rapid upgrade program to collect a vast stack of mech inf, plus lots on mobile artillery and mobile sams. Then use several tactical nukes on the German city on our far east border in which they've concentrated a huge force, and hope to overrun it with the mobile units the same turn. Then... hope we can maintain momentum and push against them, getting modern armour not long after the start of the war will help. We'll finish SDI soon too, hopefully before the German start lobbing nukes back at us.
We weren't able to prepare quickly enough, and by the time we were ready the Germans also had (lots of) nukes. In the 1950s we had a go anyway, declaring on Germany. Messed it up, not having realised that fallout slows movement so my assault forces couldn't finish off one of his megastacks in a nearby city after nuking it. Their counterassault was vicious, and although I held most of my cities, I'm not able to make any inroads into the German empire, so he'll win a space victory soon.
