eric_
Emperor
OK, unfortunately I don't have a save to post from here at work.
But here's my situation:
I'm Tokugawa (first time I've ever gotten him - I play random leader) and I started with Saladin to the east, Peter to the north, and Alex to the south. I'm playing continents and this is my first serious game on Prince. It's somewhere around 1150 AD.
I made an early bid for Saladin's westernmost city (Damascus) as it was encroaching on my territory. I won it easily with a stack of Axemen and Swords, and then after wreaking havoc on his capital's tile improvements, I made peace. After a few turns I had an army sufficient for taking out the rest of his cities, moved them to the border, and declared war again. I took over the Christian Holy City (I founded the Confucian Holy City), and ended up keeping the other three simply because of their strategic locations (gives me full control of land from the west coast to the east) and surprisingly good placement.
At this point Peter has mostly secured all the territory between the coasts to my north, and Alex to my south. The shape of my empire is something like an hour glass turned on its side, with my original cluster of cites on the west, Damascus at the heart of the narrow part, and Saladin's old cities in a cluster on the east. Further peaceful expansion is no longer possible.
My problem is that both Peter and Alex HATE me, probably because they love each other and I keep them apart
. Peter is significantly weaker than me, but Alex is slightly stronger, though not for long. I'm currently building a massive force of cats and elephants to supplement my axes and swords. I'm also only about 8 turns from Machinery, so Samurai will make the scene soon.
Unfortunately Alex's starting location (on a 5-tile wide strip of land, so blocked by the fat cross) precluded any chance I had of meeting his southern neighbors. Of course, random sharp declines in his power graph indicate that he's fighting SOMEONE. That's good, if I'm right.
So anyway, my first question is, how do I handle this "split" without getting crushed? I'm thinking I'll take my few chariots, stack each with an axe and an archer, and send them into one civ's land to pillage while I start wiping out the other one. The key would be to spread the pillagers out enough so the enemy's troops are occupied on all fronts and can't make a strong invasion from any one point without leaving its tile improvments vulnerable. I have like 4 archers per city (and crossbows coming with the Samurai), so that should be good to defend cities and even some improvements.
The next question is, who do I attack first, and who do I pillage first? I'm thinking pillage Alex and let him waste some troops on me while I make hopefully quick work of Peter. Then regroup and attack Alex. If I'm right that Alex has an enemy to the south, that reinforces this decision, especially since I know Peter has nothing but tundra to the north of his civ.
Thoughts?
But here's my situation:
I'm Tokugawa (first time I've ever gotten him - I play random leader) and I started with Saladin to the east, Peter to the north, and Alex to the south. I'm playing continents and this is my first serious game on Prince. It's somewhere around 1150 AD.
I made an early bid for Saladin's westernmost city (Damascus) as it was encroaching on my territory. I won it easily with a stack of Axemen and Swords, and then after wreaking havoc on his capital's tile improvements, I made peace. After a few turns I had an army sufficient for taking out the rest of his cities, moved them to the border, and declared war again. I took over the Christian Holy City (I founded the Confucian Holy City), and ended up keeping the other three simply because of their strategic locations (gives me full control of land from the west coast to the east) and surprisingly good placement.
At this point Peter has mostly secured all the territory between the coasts to my north, and Alex to my south. The shape of my empire is something like an hour glass turned on its side, with my original cluster of cites on the west, Damascus at the heart of the narrow part, and Saladin's old cities in a cluster on the east. Further peaceful expansion is no longer possible.
My problem is that both Peter and Alex HATE me, probably because they love each other and I keep them apart

Unfortunately Alex's starting location (on a 5-tile wide strip of land, so blocked by the fat cross) precluded any chance I had of meeting his southern neighbors. Of course, random sharp declines in his power graph indicate that he's fighting SOMEONE. That's good, if I'm right.
So anyway, my first question is, how do I handle this "split" without getting crushed? I'm thinking I'll take my few chariots, stack each with an axe and an archer, and send them into one civ's land to pillage while I start wiping out the other one. The key would be to spread the pillagers out enough so the enemy's troops are occupied on all fronts and can't make a strong invasion from any one point without leaving its tile improvments vulnerable. I have like 4 archers per city (and crossbows coming with the Samurai), so that should be good to defend cities and even some improvements.
The next question is, who do I attack first, and who do I pillage first? I'm thinking pillage Alex and let him waste some troops on me while I make hopefully quick work of Peter. Then regroup and attack Alex. If I'm right that Alex has an enemy to the south, that reinforces this decision, especially since I know Peter has nothing but tundra to the north of his civ.
Thoughts?