GOTM 27 Spoiler I - End of ancient age, full map of starting continent

[CdB]

v1.29f Open
I decide to follow Sir Pleb advice and after moving my scout (S-S) and spotting nothing. I irrigate on the spot and move my settler SW.
The next turn, I spotted the Floodplains that would be a decent spot to build up population but it never occurred to me that I could move all the way south. In retrospect, I was better where I was. I decided on a RCP 5 because when you get a decent core cities can develop far better although the start can be difficult with cities so far apart.
I settled and produced another Scout, a warrior for MP and a settler to go after the floodplains.
Despite some scouting, I could not find a single hut so part of Sir Pleb (and mine now) plan’s was void. But I continue on 0% research.

Other Civs
I met England first in 3700 and Spain in 3550. Spanish were settling territory like a settler was at a worker cost (easter egg) and England was not settling much its territory.
In 2590, I spot some purple borders on the other island and I leave a scout there standing there to view someone… but it is only in 1225 that I spot a new purple town and I move my scout in Spain territory to finally meet the Vikings by 1150. I gave them Masonry (!) for 115 GP.

Research & Trades
Started on Ceremonial Burial @ 0% hoping for scouting goody huts…. None
In 3550, I have just met Spain, and I can trade : Ceremonial vs Pottery & 10 GP / England : Mysticism vs Masonry & 8 GP / Spain again: Alphabet vs Masonry.
I went then on a 40-turns gambit on writing. In 3100, I dealt Spain : Bronze working vs Mysticism.
Gambit paid off, but there was no much on offer so I hold on, checking every turn. 6 turns later I can make a trade Spain : IW & 71 GP vs Writing / England : Wheel & Warrior Code vs Writing & 2 GP. This reveals that I have only two sources of Iron. One already taken by Spain and the volcano one.
1790 I went after Map Making @ 100% because I wanted to surely get the Great LightHouse. My third city (in 1550) after building the initial warrior went after the pyramids as a pre-built for the lighthouse.
I owned MM I do not want to sell MM because I want to avoid to a maximum and wonder cascade or multiple builds.
925 BC : Spain now has MM thanks to Vikings. I sell IW to English for 109 GP because they do not have any iron anyhow…
825 BC : Gambit successful at Mathematics. I have it but no one to exchange tech for it so I hold on to it. Searching Currency at 100% in 19 turns … I will

Development
I played cats and mouse with Spain & England many times in order to block development. It first started in 1725 (with 2 towns) while I am blocking a Spanish settler-Warrior with 2 Warriors & 1 Scout as Spain was trying to settle on the coast by the sheep (what would be Boston, my third and light-house city). I played 8 turns before having my settler finally arriving. Thankfully, I had planned this spot in advance, moving warriors there .

By 1000 BC, I have 6 Towns, 8 Warriors, 2 Workers, 2 Scouts, 2 Chariots. Infrastructure, I have 2 barracks, 2 granary & 1 Temple & 673 GP.
I finally the Settler factory ready in the floodplains but no much room to expand.
I have even one seafaring civ that settled on my continent. I will need to remove this city because it is not on my RCP 5 ring. I am moving a chariot to spot what is there. It is a very poor start .
But England is also very poorly developed while Spain has 9 known towns.
I have embassies with everyone. So I can see where is the seafaring civ.
…
I will enter MA in 50 BC by leaning construction by myself. I will post the rest in the 2nd Spoiler as much activity involves one seafaring civ.

 

[Timbuka]

I haven't posted on this board before, I hope i'm in the right place.

I have been playing GOTM27, America, I am at about 400AD, in Monarcy, at war with England, have won their cities in the south of the continent, York, Hastings, have just taken London, with about 7 swordsmen garisoned in the city to quell resisters. My culture is way in excess of Englands (approx 3x on the Histograph), I'm an occupying force, still at war, HOW CAN LONDON POSSIBLY CULTURE SWAP BACK TO THE ENGLISH!!!!! How annoyed am I!!!

Moderator Action: Timbuka,

Welcome to the Game Of The Month.

Right place, wrong thread. I've merged your post to put it in the right place, but please take a few minutes to read the 'Important - Please read' thread, as suggested below. We don't like players to open their own threads that have spoiler information, because it can ruin the enjoyment for other players.

 

[Hurricane]

This should belong in the spoiler thread. But to answer your question, I suggest you check out the culture flip calculations. There you will see that what happened was no surprise.

 

[civ_steve]

Welcome to the GOTM forum, Timbuka. Yes, this is the proper board to discuss GOTM related topics ...

BUT ...

Any discussion regarding the current Game must be posted in the appropriate Spoiler thread. (See Important - Please Read for this and other GOTM rules.) These are opened only by the GOTM Staff, and there are 2 such threads open right now. Your post should be in one of those Threads.

BTW, Culture Flips can be quite frustrating. I try not to leave a lot of troops in any recently captured cities for this reason; only to heal or maybe one or two to put down the resistance.

 

[Tech Step]

Timbuka.

I always find that if you have a city that has previously had plenty of resisters (and you now have control over it) that starving the population down to 1 or 2 then building it up again is the only way to stop it from flipping.

 

[Singularity]

My game was running on half throttle due to my long abscense from GOTM. After scouting WW with my scout and S with my worker I moved the settler SW and founded washington there. I then proceeded to build two settler factories NE and SW of the floodplains, and raised my fourth city next to the wool in the east. Capitol and 4 city was eventually turned over to warrior factories. I lost 2 warriors and a horseman on the slopes of the volcano, and a few rounds of pillaging the road to my iron ensured theese numbers and a newly declared war on Elisabeth in 1000BC:

16 swords. 1 Horseman. 6 Native workers, 3 slaves. 510G in treasury. 9 cities. 19 citizens. I have discovered all but a few tiles of my home continent. I have 2 Barracks and have 4 turns left researching maps on 10% science and 90% tax. My cities have 102 shields in projects under production. Infrastructure is medium, with eight citizens working on unimproved tiles - though they are mostly forests and gain max anyway. 2 Luxuries secured.

Most of my swords are close to London and their eastermost city.

Part two of my remaining AA and battles here will be edited in later. It's an effort to not go beyond the scope of the spoilers in this thread, but I will try to make a better effort than some of the posters have so far

 

[smackster]

Open, 1.27f

I made no notes for this, and it will be brief.

Settler wandered down the river intent on finding flood planes, settled near them and began expanding as quick as can be. When the time was right, launched a sword attack on Spain. They had built Collossus for me which was really nice, then as I attacked their capital they finished the Great Library, which was even nicer, I love the Spanish now. Just to confirm our affair on the way to their new capital they also build the Great Lighthouse. Having no time I haven't read the other reports, but this strikes me as my luckiest set of wonder building from a neighbour ever.

I was trade broker with the Vikings for while as a scout sat in the space near their land and the others did not discover them for ages.

I soon wiped out the entire continent.

Sorry this is a useless report as I don't have dates. Only the end date when I finished.

Smackster

 

[gozpel]

Rename that thread to GOTM-Important-Please read.

And smackster, that wasn't true! It was all a dream and all will be clear after you start up the game again. Ah well, if you are the lucky winner of the draw this month, then please tell us about your strategies at least after those opening sequence?

If something like that happened to me, I would brag on and tell EVERYONE what suckers they are...and bask in the glory. For hours!

"deleted insult"

Moderator Action: And your reply is? Please, nix the spam. Thanks.


My apologies to smackster for a stupid remark that didn't come out as it should.

 

[zagnut]

OPEN PTW

It is very interesting to play this game without trading maps or contacts during the Ancient Age. The strategies change completely.

I built Washington one square south of the start position. I then built 3 Scouts in order to discover as much of the home continent as possible. I met Spain in 3750 and the English in 3500. By 3300 BC I had concluded that I was on a small continent with only Spain and England. I decided not to go to war with either of them because I wanted them to discover some techs for which I could then trade. It wouldn’t do me much good to destroy both of them and then have to research every tech myself.

At 2750 BC one of my Scouts sees a lavender border on the adjoining continent and camps there to see if any inhabitants wander by. However, it is not until 1225 BC that I make contact with the Vikings.

After trading for as many techs as possible I began researching Mathematics on the theory that the other civs would probably be researching the Writing/Map Making path and I could trade for those techs.

Only had trouble with one barbarian settlement around the “Great Lake”. Destroyed it without any losses.

As 1000 BC approached I was destroying the Volcanos and discovered the wonderful Iron deposit to the south of the Great Lake. That was welcome news.

At 1000 BC I have 8 cities and am in last place.

Trade the Vikings for Map Making and start sending out suicide Galleys. I wasted a lot of these and never found a thing. The sea squares that were sprinkled around the ocean were intriguing and lead me to believe that they were near other continents. However, since I was losing Galleys too frequently I gave up on that strategy and decided to wait to explore the rest of the world until I got Navigation and could safely traverse the oceans.

In 730 BC one of my Galleys made contact with another civ. However, never discovered his homeland during the Ancient Age.

In 430 BC I finally decided to declare war on England. Captured most of their cities and ended the war just after entering the Middle Ages. Made peace and took their final city of Nottingham, leaving them only with London. Unfortunately, I got no Great Leaders during the war.

I entered the Middle Ages at 250 BC.

 

[Yndy]

PTW, Predator

Well, yesterday evening I was a little sad and I decided to cheer up by playing civ. Since I had no save from my PBEM friends, I thought of GOTM and how will my ranking plummet if I don’t play anymore. So I thought of starting an OCC GOTM27 to be finished as soon as possible so that I minimize time investment.

I now see that Zwingli had a similar idea, just that I don’t have a time limit set in stone. The Ancient age has passed in less than two hours. Unfortunately I seem to lose touch with the game as I positioned Washington NOT on the river. Consequently, it got stuck to size 6 until I got Construction.

There were not that many civs on my continent and the expansionist trait did not pay off. I also lost all three scouts to barbs but after revealing 98% of the continent. England got Mysticism very early (a goodie hut I suspect) and I started a Polytheism gambit, which I lost. Then bought some techs and started a Construction gambit (guess why) which worked in part. Some civs had it, some did not. I could only build the Colossus and also forgot to build and early Temple so probably Culture 20K will not be possible.

I don’t really care about resources, I sure don’t have any in my 20 tiles. No luxuries either.

 

[SirPleb]

1.27

Initial Development

As planned I moved the scout south, then south again (decided not to follow the river.) Then moved the settler SW and then had the worker irrigate the start tile. On the second turn I began by moving the scout west and west again. I didn't see any reason to move the settler further so I founded Washington on the tile SW of the start position.

Washington's build sequence was scout, warrior, then settler. By the time the settler was ready I'd explored a fair bit of the area around Washington. I sent the settler to the wool west of Washington to found New York. With the help of some forestry New York quickly built a granary and could then grow every four turns, providing a slow eight turn settler factory.

Research

I started with research on Ceremonial Burial at zero, hoping for huts. I didn't find any of course. When I met Spain in 3750BC I traded for Alphabet and began forty turn research of Writing. I traded for Writing in 2390BC 11 turns before learning it, then researched full speed toward Republic. Learned Philosophy, traded for Code of Laws before my research of it was finished, and finally learned Republic in 730BC.

Along the way I traded techs aggressively for whatever I could get. I wanted my neighbors to advance quickly so that they'd be likely to build wonders before more distant Civs.

After learning Republic I slowed my research efforts. I didn't plan to go for a Space or Diplomatic victory so it became more important to invest in war efforts. Eventually I learned Construction, before my neighbors, in 270BC. I entered the Middle Ages at that date.

Expansion

Like a number of other players I used fairly wide city spacing. I didn't follow strict RCP placement - my inner ring had some towns at distance 4 and some at 5. I also had a few towns starting a second ring at distance 7.

I was hemmed in fairly quickly of course I built just 11 towns before finding myself blocked by Spain to the west and England to the south. When I founded the 11th town in 1150BC my territory looked like this:

One of my 11 towns, Atlanta, was poorly positioned. I expected I'd abandon it later on. I settled there before Houston, just to claim that region before a Spanish settler walking along the coast at the same time could take it.

Like many others I didn't manage to claim iron. I did have a funny moment in this regard. Around 1870BC I had two warriors cleverly blocking England from sending a settler north to the volcano iron. I figured they'd gain me enough time for my next settler to claim the iron. But in 1750BC my vigilant warriors were embarassed to discover someone approaching them from behind

Darn English settler had somehow already walked around the inland sea. There'd be no iron for me without a fight.

QSC Status (1000BC)

11 towns
4 barracks
1 granary
1 temple
5 warriors
2 scouts
4 native workers, 1 foreign worker
2 galleys
contact with 3 rivals and an embassy with each
horses and two luxuries but no iron

War

This continent wasn't big enough for three of us! War was inevitable. I wanted England's iron, silks, and gems, so she was my first target.

In 650BC I had 10 horsemen. Not a very strong force but my military advisor said it was average compared with England, so I knew England was weak and I began my attack. I immediately took her iron town, leaving her unable to build any strong units. I devoted almost all of my income to short rushing horsemen during my war on England. In 370BC I took England's last town, eliminating her from the game. At that point I was up to 28 horsemen

After quickly regrouping I started an assault on Spain in 290BC, just before entering the Middle Ages and thus the cutoff for this spoiler in 270BC.

Miscellaneous

My initial development looks very similar to Abegwait's

Barbarians were a bit tricky for me in the early game. My first settler had to delay his journey by one turn to avoid one. After some early dancing they quickly became a non-issue as the entire home continent was settled and/or patrolled.

I didn't attack any volcano. I figured either the AIs would take care of them or I'd do it later on with stronger units (stronger than warriors.) The AIs ended up taking care of them.

I watched for chances to buy workers but only saw two. I bought the first but couldn't afford the second.

Corruption sure is low. The huge world size helps, as does Monarch level. Still it seems low even considering that, I'm not sure. I didn't set up for a Palace jump, and don't see a great advantage in building a Forbidden Palace on the home continent. I think the majority of cities on the continent can become useful without it.

I haven't built any wonders so far. I kept the local tech pace moving at the start and hoped that my neighbors would build most of the ancient wonders as a result. Overall this has worked well but there's been one exception - someone not on the home continent finished The Pyramids in 1100BC. Oh well. So far my only wonder is The Great Library, taken from England.

I got four turns of anarchy when I flipped to Republic. I've stayed in Republic since 670BC, using the luxury slider to maintain happiness.

Other Civs have made demands of me twice so far. I gave in both times, preferring to choose the time and place for war myself.

I have been capturing towns instead of razing. Early in the game I built one temple, in a town where a culture clash with Spain was a possibility. That early temple added enough culture to keep me nearly at par with my neighbors so far.

I've been investing in galley expeditions since 1450BC. And that's all I'll say on that subject in this post

 

[Salte]

PTW 1.27 Open

I settled washington one tile south out the starting position and buildt scout, scout, warrior, settler, granary. My first city was a mistake, i build it 4 tiles south of washington, where the food was just as scarce. So in 1000 bc i only had 8 cities and two settlers (but managed to get the iron before england, they were backwards and even slower to expand than me). Spain and the Vikings had 3-4 cities more than me most of the time.

Science

I switched from max to minimum science, depending on the tech pace (wich was pretty slow). Managed to keep up well enough. The other civs (some of them) built the wonders a lot quicker than usual on monarch. I usually manage to handbuild at least two or three in the AA, but this time i only got one (the great wall, swithced from GL to make sure i didnt waste a few hundred shields and because GW would help me trigger a golden age).

Wars

In the AA i only had one war. It lasted around 40 turns, and was against Spain. I decided to have a go at them before they got to the middle age, due to their size and strength. It wasnt a very succesful one, but i managed to get their iron and their two wool. Snatching the iron just after they entered the MA. In all i took three cities. Made peace for feudalism.

I had a lot of suicide galleys in this game. One got lucky. But i suppose i'm not allowed to share more about that here.

 

[Singularity]

After my old post I soon saw that this GOTM would be hard to finish with my intense workload at my new worplace. I have a few days before the month ends however, so I put in an effort the last night to continue.

I quckly dispatched of the few english towns, capturing 3 and destroying the rest since they where at size one. I then decided to fill out the rest of the island and push hard for a quick medevial entry and my future med.inf/knight push into the northwest.

I entered a short war with the not so very secret civilization of Scandinavia. He killed a warrior, I got a happier population and an elite horseman.

With some hard techracing and various tech trades I finished the Ancient Age in 190BC. My citycount is at 21, and I'm finishing up my economic/scientific infrastructiure in my core cities. I managed to squize a town deep in spanish territory, where I will aim for a future FP. This is my growing empire at 190BC:

My worker count is quite low, but once I get granaries/temples in the fringe cities I will bolster it at once. Not too much happened so far in this game, and I'm still a bit rusty to optimize citizen control and overall gameplay.

 

[Old_Lion]

I just finished GOTM 27, my first GOTM ever.
Difficulty : Open .

I lost around 700 AD.
I'll submit my game asap.

Here is a summary :

First, I quickly build a nice set of about 12 cities,
made contact with all four neighbouring civs,
and discovered most of the continent.

then, I started a war against England in order to take
the Iron source.

After building an appropriate force,
I started a war against England, that was obviously weaker.
Spain came along, and Elisabeth was toasted in a few turns.

But, as soon as England was terminated,
Spain declared war. (the turn after)

Wth my forces streched thin /,
I was unable to resist for long.
(I gained a few turns of respite,
but I think it only damaged my score)

I don't think my rep was damaged, so I wonder.

I obviously should have attacked Spain rather than England.
I thought attacking an Ironless England was a better start to reinforce before confronting Spain.

Was I plainly wrong ?
How do you strong players choose in such a case ?
What does influence your strategy ?

thanks in advance.

 

[akots]

Originally posted by Old_Lion
... I started a war against England, that was obviously weaker. Spain came along, and Elisabeth was toasted in a few turns. But, as soon as England was terminated, Spain declared war. (the turn after) ...

Did you have Right of Passage with Spain? This could make you an easy target for their assault. Did you have many undefended cities on the border and inside your territory? Undefended cities is a big temptation for AI. Did you have alliance with Spain against England? After England was eliminated their attitude might have dropped enough for them to declare war.

Spain was very strong in this game. If England fell rapidly, Spain could have many offensive units and superior military. It could have been better to weaken Spain by a small war in alliance with England (for distraction) to get their iron in Barcelona first with offensive units mostly trying to take out Spanish offensive units. Then, crush England allied with Spain to make Spain stretch the forces and after this, go for real war with Spain. It worked in my case. Without iron they could not counterattack efficiently against swordsmen/medeival infantry/knights.

 

[civ_steve]

v1.21f

I've been qualified for this thread for over a week, but I've had so little game-time this month that I'm not sure at all that I'll be able to finish

So, a quick note. I followed SirPleb's advice, and moved my Settler on the first turn. My scout's 2nd turn going along the river revealed Lambs and Floodplains, so my Settler and Worker hurried over and founded Washington in 3800 BC. I built a 2nd scout, then a Warrior (to guard my growing treasury from Barbarians!), then a Granary, and got a 5 turn Settler factory going. (This is nice, but it does give up any tempo to claiming territory from the other civs.)

The incense space was 3 tiles SE from the capital, so I chose to use a 3.x ring for my inner cities; much more compact than I typically do. I was surprised at the lack of corruption or waste, but I realized later that was more due to the map size and number of civs than the ring placement.

Met the Spanish first around 3300 BC, and traded Pottery and 6 Gold for Ceremonial Burial. Switched my minimal Alphabet research to minimal Mysticism (now that I knew a commercial civ was nearby.) Met the English around 3100 BC (they already knew Mysticism!), and traded Masonry for Alphabet (2 civ discount), and for BronzeWorking from the Spanish. Since Mysticism was known, I started a minimal research on Mathematics. This did eventually work, and I traded for Iron-Working from the English (unique Tech to them), and Math and IronWork to Spanish for Writing, WarCode and Wheel (2 civs each). I got all of their money at this time, too. I could see the iron spaces, and Spain had one locked up already, and the English got to the 2nd. This put a big Target on the English.

Started Research on Map-making at high research rate. Spanish got there first, of course, but each turn of research reduced the cost to buy it more than the commerce I spent on the research, so I kept researching. Then the English had it, and this wasn't true anymore, so I bought Map-Making from Spain (didn't want to enrich my first enemy) for about 200 gold. Switched Temple pre-builds to Galleys at 3 of my coastal cities. Funny thing, just before my first galley was complete, 4 Squids and a Barb Galley camp just outside the city! Once complete, I'd fight outside than retreat to heal (should have built some catapults!) Eventually I saw an opening and made a break for it. Made contact with our Scandinavian neighbors (who are visible from our continent; I parked my scout at the same location as Hurricane, but nobody came by before the Spanish kicked me out.)

Vikings had Poly!, but no Masonry. I'd nearly finished CodeofLaws, saw that Spain had CoL already, so bought it from Spain, traded CoL, Map-Making and Masonry to Vikings for Poly and all their gold, then sold Poly to Spain for all of Isabella's gold! Started a fast research on Philosophy, then onto Republic.

This is roughly 1000 BC. I have 11 cities, around 30 citizens, 20 Warriors or so, 8 workers or so (sorry if I'm not too specific, but I don't have my stats with me), 2 luxuries connected (I got one of the Wool spaces for a city), about 1100 Gold, and am 1 turn away from Philosophy. I'd just declared war on England, and have an 11 high stack of warriors adjacent to Coventry, Elizabeth's Iron town.

I proceed to destroy Coventry, get my own city founded there and connect the Iron. With Swordsmen, I defend the Iron space, and send an expedition around the Great Lake, to destroy all things English. In the meantime, I do learn Republic, and very nicely, the Spanish get Currency and the English Construction. A suicide Galley makes contact with somebody else, who has Monarchy, which I trade for, than trade Monarchy for Currency from the Spanish (and all their gold). After destroying London, I grant peace to the English, and we exchange Poly for Construction. This puts me into the Middle Ages, in 410 BC.

Some other notes: with the change in army costs and support under Republic, I delayed my revolution until later; I waited until my additional army costs roughly equaled the number of citizens in my empire. That occurs in the next thread. Consequently a small empire with a small army can change to Republic faster. A lot of players have reported early aggression by the Spanish. I may have stalled that early on by gifting them 1 gpt fairly early; we also did a lot of trading, which usually makes the AI more friendly. The Spanish must have started with 3 Settlers, based on the cities I came across. The other civ I met by suicide galley had a vessel called 'Mr Rouke's "ship" ', which implies to me a free vessel to start the game (seafaring, maybe?) And I haven't played maps this large often at all; I got the Forbidden Palace Available message at 16 cities; this definitely puts a damper on the Palace Jump strategy/exploit, due to how long it is before you can build the FP.

Anyway, quite fun as always. I hope to be able to post later.

 

[civ_steve]

Originally posted by Old_Lion
...

then, I started a war against England in order to take
the Iron source.

After building an appropriate force,
I started a war against England, that was obviously weaker.
Spain came along, and Elisabeth was toasted in a few turns.

But, as soon as England was terminated,
Spain declared war. (the turn after)

...

I obviously should have attacked Spain rather than England.
I thought attacking an Ironless England was a better start to reinforce before confronting Spain.

...

Well ... this is exactly what I did up to a point. You didn't mention if Spain was allied with you; I didn't start an alliance. If an enemy is destroyed while you're in an alliance, I believe this counts as breaking an agreement. This could have soured Spain against you. (Also, I didn't completely destroy England; just weakened her substantially, and made sure I had the Iron source.)

Also, prior trading generally makes points for you with the other civ. I gifted 1 gpt early on to the Spanish; then, when I made a big Math/Writing trade, I made as part of the agreement a 2 gpt payment on my part to Isabella. Making gpt deals, and fulfilling them, tends to take you off the Target list initially (after all, declaring war would cost Isabella the 2 gpt payment) and make the other civ more friendly to you in general. In my game, Spain was polite with me when I declared war against England, and eventually changed to Cautious, but that was some time later.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Old Lion & Civ Steve

I too went to war early with England. However, I took the point-stick research approach. I always set a goal for my war. War number one with England, grab iron. Hurt her enough to get two techs. Then I did the same thing with Spain. Capture three cities, inflict pain to get two techs.

I then went to war to wipe out England and they folded like a house of cards.

Spain had the Colossus and lighthouse in Madrid, and my second war with them was intended to capture up to Madrid. However, when they build the Library in Zaragosa, and they stopped counter attacking, I just kept going and killed Spain.

I try to keep some defensive units along the non-combat fronts, and keep a decent amount of units in border cities to supress flips and deter aggression.

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by Old_Lion
I thought attacking an Ironless England was a better start to reinforce before confronting Spain.

Was I plainly wrong ?
How do you strong players choose in such a case ?
What does influence your strategy ?

My stragegy has always been: attack the strongest first before he can get even stronger. I did that in my first submitted game in gotm20 (vs. Zulus). I'm not sure if that was the best strategy. but atleast that stopped my strongest enemy (the AI cannot survive against a concentrated attack even on Deity). In this game, I chose to attack Spain first, as they got the strongest start of my neighbours, and their critical Iron resource was near. I decided my goals first before attacking. My goal was to take their most important resource and it was Iron in this case. After that I thought, that they would be easy. In my case, I had so strong attack force that I was able to corner them and request cities in a peace deal. After that I went for England, who were weak and would be weak because they had no resources.

 

[Justus II]

I would agree with Drazek in most cases, unless you are the one lacking the key resource, then you may have to settle for attacking an easier source to get Iron or whatever yourself. In this game, my strategy actually took a slightly different path, for two reasons. First, I had already fought an early war vs. Spain, which they provoked. I didn't conquer them, but did raze a couple cities and halted their expansion, so I knew I could take them later. Second, England had 2 luxuries and was putting cultural pressure on my iron source, so I thought it was the best way to secure my logistics before going after Spain again. But in general, if you have enough power to make the choice, I would postpone the weaker civ and deal with the stronger first. They will still be weak later. The exception would be if they are weak now, but will become strong later, because of a powerful UU or likely access to new resources.