Panzerking
Defender of the Realm
I began this game as the English on a normal-size random map on Prince Level with 5x other Civs (Sioux, Babylonians, Vikings, Egyptians and the Chinese) and with Raging Hordes of Barbarians.The English began well founding London in an excellent spot on the coast and by the side of a river. The science rate was good here and further boosted by the creation of Collosus and Copernicus Observatory and so began the SSC. Expansion was the key from here as my settler units spread across the land founding cities across what turned out to be a huge continent. The first civilisation I came across was the Sioux who were six or seven squares south of Newcastle (my southernmost city) and we traded techs and signed a peace-treaty. We did this to stall for time while we mustered armies as in truth the English were not ready for war. Production had been mainly based towards expansion and wonders a heavy focus had been put on creating caravans to help us beat our rivals to various key Wonders and as such this had left us without an army with just one or two units protecting each city.
The English expansion went well and soon we had a large mass of cities spanning the north of the large continent. It was now that we turned our attentions to trade. An unidentified Tireme ship had foolishly attacked London and been destroyed but it made it clear that somewhere across the water was another civilisation. As such Caravels were built and a caravan was sent across the sea where we discovered Viking lands and bordering on them to the south were the Babylonians (where this Tireme had come from). I decided to send the caravan to the Babylonians and did so, they were very enthusiastic and signed a peace treaty and traded technology and maps with me. Shortly after I completed Marco Polos Embassy and was able to see all 5x civilisations, all seemed very enthusiastic with the exception of the Vikings who I did not visit as a result. In between Wonders I began sorting out the trade routes for my cities (using the newly acquired maps) and dozens upon dozens of caravans set sail west and travelled south by road. Soon money began rolling in.
I continued to trade technology with the other civilisations and maps and got a full picture of the large continent which actually joined the all the lands together. It was then that an outpost city (Oxford) was visited by a Chinese diplomat. The city itself was previously the village of an advanced tribe who agreed to join the English Empire after meeting one of our explorers and this led to a city on its own in the wilderness. The Chinese diplomat sneaked into Oxford and stole the English secret of engineering. Immediately we declared war on the Chinese and a visit to Babylon secured their help as they too declared war on them.
Though at war very little happened for the next few centuries as we did not have much of any army but that was about to change. The creation of gunpowder was celebrated in England and the large cities began churning out musketeers. Leadership followed quickly and this seemed to be when things began to change for the English Empire. Firstly a squadron of dragoons were despatched south of Oxford in search of Chinese insurgents and there they discovered a city named Xinjian. The dragoons saw their chance and attacked the city overwhelming the phalanx armies inside and claiming the city as our own. Peace soon followed with the Chinese having severely learned their lesson.
Meanwhile the Sioux began to change the way they felt about the English Empire to the north. Previously everything was friendly and we traded techs and we were around the same tech level until the discovery of Leadership. Basically they wanted it and I didnt want them to have it. They were the most powerful civ and I did not want to give my strongest rival such a weapon so I refused to trade this tech and I think it pissed them off. As the techs came I began to take over the Sioux in intelligence and as I did they became less and less friendly. Steam Engine, Explosives, Railroad and the list went on and I seemed to be first to them and would have at least 3x techs before the Sioux (maybe it was the science rate of my SSCs!!)
I discovered Industrialisation and built factories in my largest shield-producing cities. The Sioux became jealous, they had dropped from Enthusiastic down to Uncooperative and I new a sneak attack would not be too far away so I began using these cities to churn out a large army to guard my frontier.
Eventually I had a fair sized army at all points that English land and Sioux land met to protect any possible incursions into my territory. Then it happened . The English became the most powerful nation on the planet, all of a sudden all the focus of the other Civs pointed at us as jealousy reared its ugly head. All of the views of the other civilisations dropped and for the Sioux this meant they were icy. When they began amassing troops near my borders I knew it was time to act, time to shift the power on this continent, time for invasion. An emissary was despatched to the Sioux to demand tribute and that was all it took for a declaration of war. My armies broke through the Sioux line followed by a large number of Veteran Spies. City after city fell to my forces, spies were used to incite revolts in the smaller cities and destroy city walls for my advancing armies in the larger cities. The Sioux empire began to crumble.
The effect on the other civs was such that several pacts were formed. From hating the Sioux the other civs now seemed to want to join their plight. None declared war on me outright but both the Chinese and the Vikings signed pacts with the Sioux to contain English aggression. Only the Egyptians joined my fight against the Sioux (at the cost of Engineering and 150 gold). But this was just a token gesture to make things more difficult for the Sioux.
The war raged on for years and I went from conquest to conquest as we travelled further south. Then the Sioux discovered United Nations (before I could complete it damn!!) and a cease-fire was forced on me.
This cease-fire was short lived as the Sioux began using the forces they had left to move into my territory. I could take it no longer and attacked the infidels; the Vikings and Chinese activated their pact with the Sioux and joined the war. Within a turn the city which held the United Nations was under English control and the Sioux now only had their cities close to the Chinese border (numbering 5x). I decided now was the time to smite my other enemies and began building a large army in Xinjian near the Chinese border and prepared a small army of 6x Fanatics and 2x spies for an assault by sea on the Viking city of Kaupang. A couple of turns later and my forces sacked the cities of Chengdu and Tsingtao in the Chinese territories and my landing force had made it to Kaupang. There my spies incited a revolt and the fanatics took out the legions and phalanx warriors around the city.
By now I had conquered so many cities (mostly Sioux ones) that I was building units very very quickly (especially since the discovery of refining which had allowed me to build power-plants in my larger cities). Soon I had large armies fighting the Chinese-Sioux war and the Viking war. The Vikings were the first to fall as Hladir and Upsala fell and the following turn Trondheim was mine and the Viking civilisation was destroyed.
The Sioux and Chinese were taken out by a large army which went on to conquer all the cities they came across leaving both civs with just one city each. I surrounded these with troops and spies and signed cease-fires with both.
From this point I now had lands bordering on Babylonian territory (formerly of the Vikings) and lands close to Egyptian territory (courtesy of the Sioux and Chinese). I began amassing troops on the border with Babylon, very recently the Babylonians had discovered Steel and refused to share the knowledge with me. I eventually researched and discovered it myself. Now they had discovered Automobile (while I was busy researching Amphibious Warfare) and again they would not exchange knowledge. This was a worrying trend and all the while I had been busy crushing the other civs this one was steadily becoming more and more advanced and powerful. They were without doubt my next target.
The English discovered Amphibious Warfare and the colossal cities of England began churning out Marines while large amounts of Cavalry, Alpine Troops, Fanatics and Veteran Spies were constantly dropped by sea to the border with the Babylonians. My navy had grown quickly as well and I had a nice fleet of Frigates, Submarines, Destroyers and Cruisers off the Babylon shores and they were pretty much unchallenged just one or two Babylonian Ironclads hanging around. So I decided the time was right for an attack on the Babylonians. Firstly I loaded a ship with 6x Marines and used my Engineers to begin extending the railroad into Babylonian territory. The Babylonians cried that I was breaching the peace-treaty but I had stacked enough engineers to complete the railroad in one turn. Then the time came, firstly a veteran spy moved in to the large city of Ur and bought off the citizens, the city revolted and we moved in. In the same turn a veteran spy destroyed the city walls in Babylon (the capital) and it was bombarded by cruisers and destroyers before the Marines were called in. The marines launched an amphibious assault and destroyed any remaining resistance. Babylon was mine. Before they knew they were at war they had lost their capital on of their largest cities. Also the secret of Automobile was now mine.
While this was going on, both the Sioux and Chinese from their singular cities had foolishly broken the ceasefire. So I used my surrounding armies to destroy all threatening troops and then my veteran spies to poison the water in both cities until they were down to a size 1 they soon wanted another ceasefire.
This is where I am up to at the moment, with the discovery of Automobile I have built 4x Battleships and managed to sabotage the Babylonian attempts at building them. I have discovered Advanced Flight and currently my cities are producing a large fleet of Bombers and I am researching Mobile Warfare ready for the next phase of conquest!!
More to follow
