Conquering the World?

[Helmling]

Given the crippling limitations on rapid expansion, especially in the early game, is it even possible to conquer the world anymore?

I guess I should clarify. I've always played on the largest available map with the highest number of opponents. Now, it was a serious chore in terms of patience to conquer a Huge map on Emperor in Civ3. But it wasn't really very hard.

I haven't tried in Civ 4, but considering that even getting up to 8 cities fast enough to beat the AI to the plots of land puts a serious crimp on my budget (this is on Prince, btw) I don't see how one could really ever hope to conquer the whole huge map without using some exploit like the Legion/Choprush/Anarchy strategy...and even then.

Thoughts, anyone?

 

[Mrdie]

It is possible. You just need to manage your money and do some pretty big planning.

One tip I can offer you is to have a Religion, spread it around as much as you can, and the get the Religious building from a Great Prophet. That should give you quite a lot of income right there.

 

[Helmling]

Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. So you'd want to pick a Civ that starts with mysticism, build stonehenge to get the great prophet and found either Buddhism or Hinduism to get the rush on the other religions. Then I suppose you'd bee-line to organized religion or theocracy, whichever gives you the ability to build missionaries.

I guess I hadn't been thinking in that direction because I usually play Greeks and usually only pick up a later religion and then don't exploit it much.

Yes...hmmm.

 

[SlipperyJim]

Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. So you'd want to pick a Civ that starts with mysticism, build stonehenge to get the great prophet and found either Buddhism or Hinduism to get the rush on the other religions. Then I suppose you'd bee-line to organized religion or theocracy, whichever gives you the ability to build missionaries.

I guess I hadn't been thinking in that direction because I usually play Greeks and usually only pick up a later religion and then don't exploit it much.

You don't need Mysticism to found a religion, just to nab the early religions. Confucianism comes with Code of Laws, which any would-be conqueror will want anyway for Courthouses. Taoism, Christianity, & Islam are all late enough in the game that your overall tech-discovery rate will matter much more than who starts with Mysticism. You can usually found a religion if you really want one....

Also, consider that you don't need to found a religion to get the Holy City. Let someone else found the religion, then build a stack of Axemen/Swordsmen/whatever and take the Holy City.... One game when I was playing the English (Lizzy), I took two Holy Cities from the Spanish, and all of the English people became HinduJews.....

 

[Brighteye]

Shouldn't that be Hindjews?

 

[Samson]

Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. So you'd want to pick a Civ that starts with mysticism, build stonehenge to get the great prophet and found either Buddhism or Hinduism to get the rush on the other religions. Then I suppose you'd bee-line to organized religion or theocracy, whichever gives you the ability to build missionaries.

I guess I hadn't been thinking in that direction because I usually play Greeks and usually only pick up a later religion and then don't exploit it much.

Yes...hmmm.

I think you will find that being organised is the most important trait. Mostly for the cheap courthouses (just 2 chops required), but also for the reduced civic cost.