Well, I started off a couple of games on Prince level, having handily defeated King on several occasions in Civ2. After getting my backside handed to me, I rethought and started this game on Warlord.
I started on what turned out to be a relatively huge continent, in a small plains area sandwiched between a huge jungle and the coast. I was on a river fortunately, so no worries about fresh water irrigation.
I sent my scout about to find some good city locations, and found one relatively nearby on the coast, but the prime square to locate the city in was jungle. So I sent my worker, who had been roading and irrigating to clear it. As soon as London completed a settler, I sent him over to my new city site. Of course I didn't realize how long it would take a single worker to clear that damn jungle, so I ended up moving the settler to build a city in a secondary site I had found to the southwest of London. By the time he got there and built the city, I had produced another settler who had settled my first site a few turns later. So here I was with 3 cities, London (not on the coast, but between it and the jungle), York (on a freshwater lake, but at the edge of a desert too) and Canteburry (on the coast, surrounded by Jungle).
My scout had found a pretty good city site surrounded by 3 silk, as well as 2 other sites, so I thought I was all set. Found 4 goody huts and picked up 3 techs and a conscript. I was quite pleased with myself, and was rushing towards pyramids and the oracle.
Then I encountered the Indians, who were in awe of my culture. Then the French, same deal. Then the Germans and Russians, all on the same continent. I was starting to get worried, especially after I started trading maps. With my by then 5 cities, I was the smallest power on the continent!
Most of my cities were around 6 - 8 by this point in time, and thanks to those 3 silk, I was having regular WLTK days. I managed to build the Pyramids, Great Library, Oracle and Colossus all by about 250 AD. Thank God for those goody huts.
I then started trading techs and maps with my four neighbours on a regular basis, keeping some of the more advanced techs away from them. Around this time the other 3 ganged up on the Indians, and started taking cities like they were going out of style. After the Indians ended up being down to about 5 cities everyone backed off, but it meant that the French had taken the Indian cities that bordered with mine. The French were located to the West NorthWest, and were starting to get on my nerves. I'd been fortunate enough to have horses and Iron within reach of my now 10 cities, so I started cranking out swordsmen. I'd switched to Monarchy somewhere just before this.
The French founded a couple of cities on sites that I'd had settlers enroute to, so I talked the Russians and Germans into going to war with the French. The Indians were already at war, so it was a simple alliance with them. This short and dirty war took away all the gains the French had made, mainly to the benefit of the Indians and myself. I took the former Indian border towns, and the French managed to capture some of the Indian cities that the Germans and Russians had taken. This helped the Indians out because they took them right back.
End result, we were more or less back where we started, with the French having lost their newly founded cities in the sites that I had been eyeing, as well as having lost a source of Incense to me.
Of course the Indians, Germans and Russians wouldn't let their war with the French go, so after 10 turns of the French getting pasted, I asked the Germans to stop sending their troops through my territory. They didn't feel that was a reasonable request, and declared war. So, I teamed with the French to fight the Germans, and the Germans convinced the Russians to join their side.
I used this war to clear out a couple of German cities that had been founded in the gaps in my national border, as well as take 3 of their cities, one of which had 4(!) spices. This resulted in another bout of WLTK days. Dortmund, which was located on a flood plain in a fairly strategic location changed hands 5 times in 4 turns, resulting in me finally holding it for 3 turns running. By this time I had Knights and Musketmen, and was still being attacked my swordsmen and spearmen.
With one final push, the Germans managed to kill most of my defenders in Dortmund, at which time I sued for peace. Cost me 100 gold, but seeing as I was fighting the Germans and Russians more or less on my own on this front (stupid French), I had no choice.
Of course, the next turn, the Russians took Dortmund, and I cried uncle to them too. The French had used that particular siege well, by picking up a bunch of the cities that they had lost in the earlier war, and were beginning to get mouthy again.
Some time earlier I'd build a Galley, and had discovered the Americans, and traded communication with the Indians for their contact with the Japanese. I traded contact with the Germans to the Japanese for contact with the Persians, and I was suddenly in contact with everyone.
I traded with the Americans for Ivory, the Japanese for wine, and the Persians for Dyes, so another round of WLTK days. I love these luxury resources.
Back on the home front, I'd made peace with everyone, and we had roughly 20 turns of relative calm, which I used to build up my army of knights, and now cannons in preparation for a siege on Dortmund (which was becoming my Stalingrad). I'd build most of the Wonders that had come up by this point in time, but only due to the fact that I was managing to stay 1 or 2 techs ahead of the rest of them. By this time, nearly all my core cities were sitting at 12 with no hope of growing until I got sanitation, which looked a fair ways off.
I upgraded my two galleys to caravels, and sent some settlers and workers to a subcontinent located to the south of the one the Americans had all to themselves, and south west of the one that the Japanese and Persians shared. I managed to throw down one city, but discovered the Americans already had 2 down there, and the Persians and Japanese each had one. Oh well, I was really just trying to see if I could do the colonial thing.
About then I got the upgrade for Cavalry, and started upgrading my Knights like crazy. Keep in mind that I hadn't seen any of my neighbours field Knights yet, so I was fairly confident of my techological superiority, if not the fact that the Russians outnumbered me probably 2 to 1. The French began to get uppity again, so I asked the Indians to go to war with the, which they agreed to. So I started taking French cities like mad, at which point they started fielding Knights. Not in great numbers, but enough to be irritating.
This time I was careful, and took all the French cities within striking distance of the Germans or Russians first. I felt confident I could beat the French into submission on my own, but I wanted to give the Indians a fair shot at getting the French city in their territory back. I didn't want the Russians or Germans to be able to expand, as the Germans were going to be my next target, and the Russians had been expanding south like madmen.
Right now, I'm just mopping up the last of the French, upgrading my Musketmen to Riflemen, and building hospitals. Experiencing my first bunches of pollution, and my colony has grown to 4 cities, one of which was formerly Japanese.
I'm using my Man-o-Wars to keep the Japanese off my colony island, and am using Privateers pretty inneffectively to harrass the Americans whenever they try to ship workers to our shared island. The Persians, Americans, Russians and Japanese all appear to have more cities than I do, but I think I'm much more advanced. I've abosorbed a couple of Indian cities through culture, and I'm hoping that Dortmund will fall that way too (now that it's surrounded).
I'm working on consolodating my holdings, and will probably go for 20 - 40 turns of peace. My biggest concern right now is that Russians appear to have discovered Gunpowder, as they have a saltpeter colony. I may have to take that away at some point, but I'm not sure if I want to tempt fate.
Another update to come....
I started on what turned out to be a relatively huge continent, in a small plains area sandwiched between a huge jungle and the coast. I was on a river fortunately, so no worries about fresh water irrigation.
I sent my scout about to find some good city locations, and found one relatively nearby on the coast, but the prime square to locate the city in was jungle. So I sent my worker, who had been roading and irrigating to clear it. As soon as London completed a settler, I sent him over to my new city site. Of course I didn't realize how long it would take a single worker to clear that damn jungle, so I ended up moving the settler to build a city in a secondary site I had found to the southwest of London. By the time he got there and built the city, I had produced another settler who had settled my first site a few turns later. So here I was with 3 cities, London (not on the coast, but between it and the jungle), York (on a freshwater lake, but at the edge of a desert too) and Canteburry (on the coast, surrounded by Jungle).
My scout had found a pretty good city site surrounded by 3 silk, as well as 2 other sites, so I thought I was all set. Found 4 goody huts and picked up 3 techs and a conscript. I was quite pleased with myself, and was rushing towards pyramids and the oracle.
Then I encountered the Indians, who were in awe of my culture. Then the French, same deal. Then the Germans and Russians, all on the same continent. I was starting to get worried, especially after I started trading maps. With my by then 5 cities, I was the smallest power on the continent!
Most of my cities were around 6 - 8 by this point in time, and thanks to those 3 silk, I was having regular WLTK days. I managed to build the Pyramids, Great Library, Oracle and Colossus all by about 250 AD. Thank God for those goody huts.
I then started trading techs and maps with my four neighbours on a regular basis, keeping some of the more advanced techs away from them. Around this time the other 3 ganged up on the Indians, and started taking cities like they were going out of style. After the Indians ended up being down to about 5 cities everyone backed off, but it meant that the French had taken the Indian cities that bordered with mine. The French were located to the West NorthWest, and were starting to get on my nerves. I'd been fortunate enough to have horses and Iron within reach of my now 10 cities, so I started cranking out swordsmen. I'd switched to Monarchy somewhere just before this.
The French founded a couple of cities on sites that I'd had settlers enroute to, so I talked the Russians and Germans into going to war with the French. The Indians were already at war, so it was a simple alliance with them. This short and dirty war took away all the gains the French had made, mainly to the benefit of the Indians and myself. I took the former Indian border towns, and the French managed to capture some of the Indian cities that the Germans and Russians had taken. This helped the Indians out because they took them right back.
End result, we were more or less back where we started, with the French having lost their newly founded cities in the sites that I had been eyeing, as well as having lost a source of Incense to me.
Of course the Indians, Germans and Russians wouldn't let their war with the French go, so after 10 turns of the French getting pasted, I asked the Germans to stop sending their troops through my territory. They didn't feel that was a reasonable request, and declared war. So, I teamed with the French to fight the Germans, and the Germans convinced the Russians to join their side.
I used this war to clear out a couple of German cities that had been founded in the gaps in my national border, as well as take 3 of their cities, one of which had 4(!) spices. This resulted in another bout of WLTK days. Dortmund, which was located on a flood plain in a fairly strategic location changed hands 5 times in 4 turns, resulting in me finally holding it for 3 turns running. By this time I had Knights and Musketmen, and was still being attacked my swordsmen and spearmen.
With one final push, the Germans managed to kill most of my defenders in Dortmund, at which time I sued for peace. Cost me 100 gold, but seeing as I was fighting the Germans and Russians more or less on my own on this front (stupid French), I had no choice.
Of course, the next turn, the Russians took Dortmund, and I cried uncle to them too. The French had used that particular siege well, by picking up a bunch of the cities that they had lost in the earlier war, and were beginning to get mouthy again.
Some time earlier I'd build a Galley, and had discovered the Americans, and traded communication with the Indians for their contact with the Japanese. I traded contact with the Germans to the Japanese for contact with the Persians, and I was suddenly in contact with everyone.
I traded with the Americans for Ivory, the Japanese for wine, and the Persians for Dyes, so another round of WLTK days. I love these luxury resources.
Back on the home front, I'd made peace with everyone, and we had roughly 20 turns of relative calm, which I used to build up my army of knights, and now cannons in preparation for a siege on Dortmund (which was becoming my Stalingrad). I'd build most of the Wonders that had come up by this point in time, but only due to the fact that I was managing to stay 1 or 2 techs ahead of the rest of them. By this time, nearly all my core cities were sitting at 12 with no hope of growing until I got sanitation, which looked a fair ways off.
I upgraded my two galleys to caravels, and sent some settlers and workers to a subcontinent located to the south of the one the Americans had all to themselves, and south west of the one that the Japanese and Persians shared. I managed to throw down one city, but discovered the Americans already had 2 down there, and the Persians and Japanese each had one. Oh well, I was really just trying to see if I could do the colonial thing.
About then I got the upgrade for Cavalry, and started upgrading my Knights like crazy. Keep in mind that I hadn't seen any of my neighbours field Knights yet, so I was fairly confident of my techological superiority, if not the fact that the Russians outnumbered me probably 2 to 1. The French began to get uppity again, so I asked the Indians to go to war with the, which they agreed to. So I started taking French cities like mad, at which point they started fielding Knights. Not in great numbers, but enough to be irritating.
This time I was careful, and took all the French cities within striking distance of the Germans or Russians first. I felt confident I could beat the French into submission on my own, but I wanted to give the Indians a fair shot at getting the French city in their territory back. I didn't want the Russians or Germans to be able to expand, as the Germans were going to be my next target, and the Russians had been expanding south like madmen.
Right now, I'm just mopping up the last of the French, upgrading my Musketmen to Riflemen, and building hospitals. Experiencing my first bunches of pollution, and my colony has grown to 4 cities, one of which was formerly Japanese.
I'm using my Man-o-Wars to keep the Japanese off my colony island, and am using Privateers pretty inneffectively to harrass the Americans whenever they try to ship workers to our shared island. The Persians, Americans, Russians and Japanese all appear to have more cities than I do, but I think I'm much more advanced. I've abosorbed a couple of Indian cities through culture, and I'm hoping that Dortmund will fall that way too (now that it's surrounded).
I'm working on consolodating my holdings, and will probably go for 20 - 40 turns of peace. My biggest concern right now is that Russians appear to have discovered Gunpowder, as they have a saltpeter colony. I may have to take that away at some point, but I'm not sure if I want to tempt fate.
Another update to come....
