Fighting Out Of England

[Ferigno]

So I'm a mediocre player, but I've been playing since Civ 3, so I love the franchise. This is my first time on a mod and I absolutely love it. It's YAHEM (a huge earth map). I'm England, because I just like England. No other real reason.

So you start on England (surprise), with virtually no resources and very little land. Edinburgh is north, and Dublin is on the next Island over. Across the English Channel is the French and virtually every other civ in the game crammed together.

Here's the strategy question. When dealing with City states, is it a good idea to take them over? Crossing the channel and taking out the French is a big task because the Germans and Romans are all crowded in there too, so I thought I'd just expand into the city states in Britain. Should I raze them, and settle in their land with my own settlers?

Also, is it viable to play with only one city? The traditional social policy is geared for small civs, but I'm not sure if it's really viable.

The other possibility is just loading everyone on boats and settling Australia or Hawaii or something. I know I can get there.

Thoughts?

 

[aimlessgun]

I'd probably take over the city states if the city locations aren't terrible. Do the isles as a whole have decent resources? If so you can consolidate with your 3 cities, get embarkment and then figure out if you want to colonize or invade, depending on how the AI on the continent looks.

It definitely is fine to sail to some remote place if the resources there are good, I just wouldn't do it for your 2nd city.

Playing a one city is fine, if it's a good city.

 

[He-Who-Hunts]

Do the isles as a whole have decent resources?

They do not.

I tried that map as England yesterday but stopped after a couple of turns when i saw the lack of resources. There isnt even any fish off the coast.

 

[Ferigno]

They do not.

Ain't that the truth. So the big question is, do I want to take over those city states, or just roll with London as a one city Civ for long enough that I can then move over to the mainland and open Pandora's box. The City states don't even have much for resources.

 

[delra]

A screenshot would be nice. In general it's better to avoid destroying city states but rather befriend them to get freebies they provide.

 

[He-Who-Hunts]

So the big question is, do I want to take over those city states, or just roll with London as a one city Civ for long enough that I can then move over to the mainland and open Pandora's box.

I think it all depends on the dif level.

I was playing on immortal/marathon speed, by the time it would have taken me to get off that little island the other civs would have had too much of a lead. Its hard to go 1 city (let alone 2 or 3) because there are no resources. Dublin/Edinburgh are also largely useless because they are militaristic, and conquering them is unrealistic due to the court house maintenance or annexation unhappiness you take on that early.

I think they need to move the isles back a tile (so London isnt competing with Paris for space) and liter the coast with fish/pearls/whales. I know pearls/whales is a tad unrealistic but England need something to offset the disadvantage of not being able to settle near luxury resources, not getting ancient ruins, being able to find most of the CS first, and not being able to open diplomatic relationships with other civs as fast as the mainland civs can.

 

[Louis XXIV]

A screenshot would be nice. In general it's better to avoid destroying city states but rather befriend them to get freebies they provide.

They're both militaristic city-states, iirc. I'd wipe them out and then focus on mainland city-states (Brussels is right across the water and would have a much better ROI).

 

[Ferigno]

They're both militaristic city-states, iirc. I'd wipe them out and then focus on mainland city-states (Brussels is right across the water and would have a much better ROI).

And when you say "wipe them out", do you mean annex them, or completely remove them from the map and then resettle? I'm having difficulty deciding what to do with city states in general. The maritime ones seem like a good idea to befriend, but the military ones seem like a pretty big waste of space. Also, if I take them out, do I run the risk of having them ALL hate me? I thought I read that somewhere in the manual.

 

[aimlessgun]

He-who-hunts makes a good point about unhappiness when annexing. Raze and resettle would be the better option I suppose.

You have to go after a LOT of city states to have them all declare war on you. Has to be at least 5-6, not sure the exact number.

 

[Eddogegr3]

I am playing on that map and started as France actually. Thankfully because of the lack of Spain (due to the Chagrin of these boards) I was able to have some space. I had to move quick to wipe out Germany Rome England. they were all STUCK with NO WHERE to go. All the City States in Europe (and there are many) crowded them out.

As France, I noticed there was no iron. I could not find it anywhere I had to go to war with Russia with only archers and horseman to get me some iron.

 

[Nunya]

And when you say "wipe them out", do you mean annex them, or completely remove them from the map and then resettle? I'm having difficulty deciding what to do with city states in general. The maritime ones seem like a good idea to befriend, but the military ones seem like a pretty big waste of space. Also, if I take them out, do I run the risk of having them ALL hate me? I thought I read that somewhere in the manual.

1. You can't raze city states, so resettling isn't an option.

2. If you start taking out city states, some of them will form an alliance against you and that means permanent war with them and no way of ending it. In my Rome game I think they started forming alliances after I took out my third city state. Capturing the city states that I was in permanent war with didn't trigger any new coalitions against me, but when I conqured another neutral one a second coalition was formed.

The city states that declare war on you are chosen pretty much by random and it may permanently cut you off from an alliance with several maritime city sattes, so I'd only advise conquering them if you really need to.

In your case I might go after Edinburgh, but I'd leave Dublin alone. And if you want to colonize another continent, I'd recommen southern Africa. There should be some nice resources there and you'll only have to share the continent with Songhai and Egypt. Those two wouldn't be my first choice of neighbour, but it will take a while before their teritory expands all the way to you and if you play your cards right they may go after each other instead of after you.