GOTM 27 - Spoiler II: End of middle ages, full map of nearest other continents.

[tao]

Originally posted by Tech Step
When you attack a civilization early on do you usually go for a quick kill? ie: Do you save up heaps of units and kill them in one or 2 quick wars. Or do you drag it out a bit and continually take their stuff each time you declare peace with them? (Although it does get harder to declare peace with a civ that you continually fight with)

That very much depends on what I want to achieve:

In this game I had a long fight with Spain even though they wanted to make peace, because my border city was well defended and I was fishing for a Leader.

Whereas when attacking England, I wanted their cities to become my own and productive asap and thus to avoid the flip risk, I didn't stop before getting them all.

In other circumstances (usually later in the game), I want to keep the AIs as cash cow and thus have no intention to cripple them significantly (except maybe by getting their iron, horses, saltpeter, or later rubber and uranium). Or I keep a scientific civ alive as tech provider beginning of new ages.

 

[flexo]

@Tech;

When I go to war I usually make sure I have a stack of DOOOOOOM ready to "quickly" take out my enemy. I'd say a good stack should be atleast 10-20 units. But it all depends on the situtation, there might be circumstances that make me jump earlier.

In this game there was four wars with spain. First they declared on me, I asked for peace cause I was not really ready. Then I declared war on them. I didn't get very far that time. Peace again after about 10-15 turns. The third push, when I took all their cities. Then I had to go for a fourth one cause I couldn't find their galley+settler and their main island towns where starting to flip back, I gave all other civs the same tech for war vs spain, I also got a hoard of cash, lux and such ...

 

[Txurce]

Originally posted by Tech Step
When you attack a civilization early on do you usually go for a quick kill? ie: Do you save up heaps of units and kill them in one or 2 quick wars. Or do you drag it out a bit and continually take their stuff each time you declare peace with them? (Although it does get harder to declare peace with a civ that you continually fight with)

I ask this because in my game I was at war with the spanish at least 4 or 5 different times. (taking a city here then a city there) while letting the English do most of the damage (In an attempt to weaken them)

In my case, it varies. The advantage to wiping someone out quickly, apart from eliminating culture flips, is that you have gained more territory earlier, which helps your score and speeds your research. But there is an argument for oscillating wars, in which you keep pruning the nearby civs, while allowing them to stay alive and thus help as research partners. This works better in the early game, where research is more even, and taking even one city is often enough to put a crimp in a civ's development. (A related question is whether to use overwhelming force, or "just enough.")

 

[Justus II]

I also fight different types of wars for different objectives. One factor that hasn't been mentioned is I try to look at the target civ's potential power down the road, and decide whether I need to eliminate them now, or if I can afford to use a limited war. For example, I was concerned about the Vikings and their Beserks, as long as they were in the game I would have to garrison every city with multiple units, which would be very expensive. Even with one city, they would have that threat, so I knew I wanted to eliminate them ASAP. My plan was to take them out before they got Invention, as it turns out I had Military Tradition, declared war, and the next turn the Oda gave them Invention, so I did face three or four Bezerk counterattacks, but no landings, as I sank every galley I could as soon as I saw them. (I waited to declare until I had ships, and cannons on shore, near the 4 I could see, and took 3 of them out the first turn, damaging the fourth). But had I stopped short, they would still be a threat, so it made sense to make it a total war. Sometimes a limited war can achieve the objectives, like vs. the English, I didn't mind leaving them 2 cities on the West coast, as they had no resources or anything that could threaten me. But because it was desert, I knew I would like to finish them off before they got Gunpowder, just becuase Muskets would be harder to take out. So for me sometimes it is a timing issue, and whether I think they will be a threat later.

 

[CdB]

@Tech

Like flexo, I usually try to put together a significant force so that I can manage the war the way I want, either go for the killing or leader fishing by using Elite units and having them rest in between kills.

Good number is useful to kill the backbone of an opponent and therefore play safe rather than being force in defence.
Plus, without enough forces you can not finish the job. For exemple, you redline ennemy units but you do not have the extra unit to do the kill. Usually red-lining a unit require some units on your side to die. Hence you do not get the full benefit of your attack. And you may end up a combat losing more units than your enemy...
Another fact is when you are at long war, both building military units (maintenance / not building infrastructure) and war wariness restrict development and research. Hence you have not the advantage of developping new units.

Another way to wage a war is by pillaging, playing mostly in defence or slow attack. You deprieve the ennemy from ressources and capacity to produce new units before mounting your attack. You see good example of this in SG games in AW.

You'll see in my war of Spain that I failed put a decent stack and that I needed to slow the pace of the war so that I could pillage around Madrid to get population down / remove shield production / no lux connection. Then it made me slow my development badly hence a late IA...

 

[CdB]

v1.29f Open

Ancient Age
I am still in AA and … but I could not speak of Oda in previous Spolier.

Peaceful development
750 BC : I see a Reg English Warrior beating a volcano so I try with my reg warrior and see him being defeated no scratching the other volcano. I should have notice previous victory was against all odds. I will build some cats in order to red-line this volcano.
690 BC : Vikings must have bought Philosophy from Spain. I exchange Code of Laws with them. I am researching Currency fast while building a small army. I think I should go after Spain … but it might be difficult. Easy target is England but I need at least an Iron … Otherwise, it will be impossible.
590 BC : Everyone has literature. I am tempted by a Lighthouse switched to GL. I buy Literature & 49 GP from England with Poly. I think I will wait for Pyramids / GL to be constructed by Spain / England before the war. Still preparing it. Since England lack Iron. I am very tempted to go after the Spanish only Iron source.
570 BC : Oda have now Monarchy. I could try to grab it but need to give all my techs and 80 GP… no way. In retrospect, I should have done it because I could have change early of government type.
550 BC : First Slave available from Spain 26 GP
490 BC : England now has Maths and no GP. It is going to be hard to be able to do much trading.

War : Preparation & Story
I have decided to go after the strong Spanish because I do not want to grow even bigger. My idea is to pillage their iron source with 2 horse and a scout. In parallel, launch an attack on Toledo with a strong (7) sword party. Then, I will go after their Iron source and Capital to grab the Colossus. I could go to wipe England out but I would wait for them to nicely build a wonder I could make use of.

1. Oda attack me
470 BC : Oda landed a party of one warrior and one Archer near my settler factory town. Both Regular… I have just learnt currency but I can not still make an offer to Oda for Monarchy. I was hoping to get putting Currency in the Balance but obviously it can not work. Currency is after Maths on the tech tree. I should have researched construction ! I try to give them Math and see for what I would receive Monarchy …17 GPT and the rest. I tell Oda to get back to where they belong and surprisingly (?), they declare war. They lack Iron are definitively searfaring since I see their junk going here and there.
Horse beats Warrior put to Elite and Elite Warrior narrowly defeated the Warrior. I grab a slave from their settlement and bring it back to my territory. I will not declare war to the rest yet. I am one turn short to have my Iron connected.
450 BC : I have just upgraded 15 Swords

2. Attack on Spain
430 BC : I declare War to Spain. I will start by pillaging their only Iron. I give Currency to Vikings so that they take care of Oda I receive also 61 GP. I give Currency also to England so that they declare war to Oda & Spain. I think England is going to suffer badly with only Archers.
410 BC : My pillaging force lose a Horse but I still can pillage their iron source. Tempted by some sort of fast win, I have a spear heading towards a open worker. One Sword destroys the town from Oda. I have a settler ready to rebuild one. 2 Reg Sword goes in the open in the Spanish territory. I have killed the 2 Sword in the open and 2 Spear but lost also 2 sword in the process. Not to bad anyway.
390 BC : Toledo fails. Cats managed one shot out of the fortified sword who died thankfully to my first attack. But I lose another sword against a fortified warrior. I know I should not have attacked across the river. But now it is done… There are few sword and archer going in attack. I will play it safe. On defence, with the cats, while I strike at Barcelona on the way towards Madrid. I wish England would help me a little more.
350 BC : I should have been more prudent. I am going too much on the attack. We have a strong military but darn those archer with a defensive short are harder to deal with. Will see odds are 50/50…
330 BC : Well, it is going to be more difficult. I lost my Elite Horse and 1 sword. I am down to 12 Swords all scattered across.

3. Attacks stalled – Defence
290 BC: Spain is in Monarchy and I am now weak against them … darn turns. I purposely left a scout there so that I go sustain their attack. I am going on defence to rebuilt my troops. I will mostly build Horsemen as they retreat and will keep the sword for the killing. It is going to be a hard and long war.
70 BC : lucky break, I have the Vikings to join my fight vs the Spanish…
50 BC : I enter Middle Ages by finally learning construction and still in despotism. I certainly should I went for Monarchy earlier on … I am building up my forces for Babylon attack.

4. Madrid War
10 BC : I badly re-negociated the deal vs Spain with England, I should have taken some cash on top of this, but I still hope England would wage a war… I manage to conquer Barcelone by the iron. It is only my second Spanish town I enter . I am now going towards Madrid building more troops. I declare peace to Oda but I do not gain much out of it… so bad.
90 AD : I still have to fight the Spanish. They attack Toledo with 5 Reg Horse. I have 1 Cat & 2 Sword and 2 Horse mostly healing and not fortified and my army is 10 Sword & 10 Horse & 5 Spear & 3 Cats … They come again and again and Toledo is badly placed on the wrong side of the river to improve defence…
130 AD : I am ready to attack Madrid with 1 Cat & 3 swords (Elite) & 5 Vet Horses. I have 3 reg horses close to me. attack on Madrid failed … I killed one Spear – Redlining 3 but there is still one more. So if I am taking Madrid, I will suffer the counter-attack from 3 reg horse at least. So I divert my attack to kill of the reg Spanish horses in the open. I am going to bring more reinforcement while pillaging. IBT, two spear and two settlers goes out of the town (?)
230 AD : England has Republic and made peace with Spain. They want Iron & Wool to continue the fight… no way.
250 AD : Big Battle of Madrid takes place. 2 Cats do nothing. I have 10 Horses, 4 Horse. 3 Horses attack, 1 retreat, the other 2 kill spears. I then lose 1 Horse to one spear that goes Vet. I pillage the last tile and go on defence.
290 AD : I deal with England : Republic vs Wool & Feudalism. And finally conquer Madrid. I think I will revolt next turn

5. Republic and finishing Spain
310 AD : I revolt and get 4 turns . I have waited to finish my first galley that sail the sea. Second galley in 8 turns (not counting the anarchy).
350 AD : Huge Error I should have carefully looked at the Republic Changes. 2 GPT per army component is draining my economy to an halt. I have to research at 10% because I am only allowed 11 free units and I have 42. Especially because I whipped some building in the meantime and the War Wariness starts to kick. It is awful. On the side note. I am unable to revolt to Monarchy since no-one is willing to trade this tech for a reasonable amount of money. I will continue to conquer Spain and then England. I have lost count of my elites battles and still no sign of leader. I badly need an FP also… I really should have gone towards Monarchy in 570 BC rather than this lousy Republic in 310 AD. I will not count the lost shells and money in this process
On the bright side of the world, Spain is definitely toasted. Casa del Bamrapido is destroyed, Valencia fells, the next turn Murcia and Spanish horse resource is mine. Seville fells on 400 AD
440 AD : IBT Seville flipped back but I conquer Santiago & Zaragoza (in the North). As Vikings have taken one city from Spain. I still have 2 cities to go after. I am also stopping an English settler (with 2 Horse and one MI) to settle where stood the Spanish city I razed while I have a settler on his way…
450 AD : Vikings after declaring peace to Spain (?) extorting Wool from me (few turns earlier), so they will fight only Oda. Seville is mine again. I am tempted to wait for the last city of Spain to grow but after waiting few turns.
480 AD : Oda deal : Wines & 27 GP vs Wool. I am now going building mode since I am strong compare to English (next target)
520 AD : I decided I better finish Spain to drop a bit WW : 57% are seeking peace. I drop research because I am late and I will try to built my treasury for the knight upgrade.

War on England
530 AD : I waited till the deal expired and that I had my forces in position.
540 AD : Warwick is captured.
600 AD : Back to max research. The extra lux made Republic working much better correctly. Also the infrastructure pays off.
630 AD : I capture Hastings. I try to go South with a suicide galley and no luck.
680 AD : Renogociate deal for Wines for 4 GPT & 6 GP ! Not cheap. But mostly needed since I have only one lux by myself (wool). A second galley discovers the infamous barb island south.
700 AD: London fell after pillaging all tiles around the capital. This is the best way to have population decreasing.
720 AD : York also.
740 AD : Oda are near my capital and not willing to backtrack. I have made a successful gambit on Theology so I can back in tech course. I exchange with Oda : Chivalry & 323 GP vs Theology. I upgrade my Horses to Knights thank also to Oda’s cash. I ask Oda to leave my territory again. They are willing to leave (2nd time but they are no doing it). And I give back to Vikings (since they have the GL) Theology & Chivalry for Engineering & Dyes. I could not get Monarchy even with Wool in the Balance.
750 AD : How surprising. The Lone Archer Attacks me and lose. Oda just broke the Wine deal and GPT… not good rep .
760 AD : Vikings have Invention. I will soon learn Education (6 turns) and will give them with pleasure ending the GL advantage.
810 AD : I have some Oda Junk dropping 2 pikes & 2 MI & 1 Sam near London, close to a decent invasion force. My galley tries to find a way around the ocean going along the sea patches without much luck
820 AD : I ally Vikings and get some techs for luxs : Alliance vs Oda & Invention vs Education & Wool & Silks & 33 GP. I am searching Banking and then Economics (to get Smith’s). Maybe I should have went to Navigation first to sail the ocean.
830 AD : Vikings extorts 22 GP. Your time will come soon…
850 AD : I waited a long time for fishing for leader but decided a farce must end so English are dead … Still no leader.

Ending of war with Oda
I am mainly searching other continent(s) and building wonders but I am still at war with Oda while dealing with Vikings…
910 AD : Gunpowder & 2 GPT & 93 GP vs Astronomy. I have 2 Salpeter and Viking have none. They are toasted.
1010 AD : GA triggered by Copernicus (hand-built). I have my marauding galleys that were attempting to settle the Barbs island in the south that goes back so that they can get upgraded.
1040 AD : Chemistry in 4 turns.
1050 AD : FP in Madrid, so It makes another RCP 5 rings around Madrid with 5 nicely placed Spanish cities
1080 AD : Physics in 4 turns, I buy my second worker out of the Vikings. And a deal to make them on par with me : WM & Navigation & Monarchy & 95 GP & 15 GPT vs Banking & Chemistry. But soon, I will need to go after them. I hope they will go after Metallurgy although they lack salpeter…
1090 AD : Vikings complete the leonardo’s Workshop. Switching my wonder pre-builts. I am left with a Palace per-built in 5 turn and a cathedral in 2 turns… I will slow production on these towns in GA …
1100 AD : I have just conquered the small island off the East of Vikings. Against 3 Pike (1 Vet & 2 Reg), I had 2 Knight retreating (Elite & Vet), 3 wins redlining knights (2 Elite & 1 Vet). This first combat against a size one town makes me re-considering my plan invasion of Oda. I will need flight no less to get there. Initial invasion will be not difficult but reinforcement will only be manageable by airlift. Otherwise reinforcement will be annoying with transports. I need to turn against the Vikings since they have now an average army. I have cancelled my alliance vs the Oda with the Vikings. Oda do not want to give me metallurgy too bad. Getting back my two free lux I was giving them. I have to wait for my second deal to end.
1170 AD : Vikings have just made the Magellan Voyage. I have lost second source of Iron. I now badly need to go on the attack with the forces I have and grab Magellan’s from Vikings, because I am now limited to Spear, Horseman & Bows. I exchange Economics with Music Theory in order to get a wonder to produce. I will not be able to upgrade my cats and now Oda are the ones with Iron…
1200 AD : I declare peace with Oda and deals Metallurgy vs Astronomy & Banking & Music Theory & 150 GP. I enter IA. I then exchange Wines & WM & Military Tradition & 190 GP & 30 GPT vs Physics & Economics & Navigation. I can upgrade my 21 knight to Cavs. Steam is due in 4 turns at – 77 GPT. I still have some knights to be upgraded on the island East. I have also kept my 3 Elite knights…

I will only meet the others civs in 1270 and will keep contact separated…. To be followed.

 

[Zwingli]

Stopwatch Civ
Ancient Age
3hr 13min
I entered the Middle Ages recovering from defeat at the hands of the Spanish army. Without iron, I built up a force of horsemen and catapults to recapture my lost cities and punish Spain. War resumed 16 turns after it had ended with a demand to remove a substantial stack of swordsmen/archers from American soil. It took 2 turns to fully destroy the swordsman/archer stack with significant horseman casualties, but fortunately most of Spain's other troops headed for my ally England. Soon 3 Spanish cities were captured while the catapults wore down pike defenders and knight counterattacks.

4hr 33min
A horseman rush captures the hilltop town of Barcelona from pikemen along with a supply of iron.

4hr 45min
Spain lands a single longbow next to undefended Washington which defeats a horseman in defense. Shifting units, I barely get an unfortified regular horseman into Washington to defend against the 1hp longbow and sucessfully retain the capital city.

4hr 57min
After a close 2 turn battle which destroys nearly all of my remaining horsemen, Madrid is captured with the Great Lighthouse. The peace treaty brings America up to date on technology.

5hr 55min
Great lighthouse enhanced galleys discover "someone".

6hr 40min
Newton's University triggers a Golden Age, and I buy into the Industrial Age.

At this time I still don't have enough cities for the Forbidden Palace, but corruption seems to be low enough without it. Perhaps the OCN for this map was equal to that of a huge map.

 

[denyd]

PTW Open 1.27

First, a big for Cracker for a most enjoyable game.

My middle ages started quietly with a smallish empire. The early Spanish assault is now ready to be revenged, but first the small matter of the English. Elizabeth put up an early fight in the hills south of the iron, but once the initial archer attacks were repelled, her cities fell like dominoes. She moved to #1 consort in 530BC. With England but a memory, I turned my attention to Spain. Using the brick by brick built FP in Philadelphia as a springboard, I attacked Spain with 30 swords, 20 horse and 20 cats. Toledo (with Leo’s) & Barcelona (with iron & Colossus) fell on the second turn of the war. Using the unhook the iron, build warriors, reconnect it, upgrade to swords ploy, the rest of Spain fell in slow but steady succession. A couple of flips (Barcelona in particular) caused the war to drag out until Spanish Muskets were defending against American knights. The first GL appeared killing a Spanish archer and formed a pike army. The second GL rushed the Heroic Epic two turns later. No more GL’s were born until the war of Viking Absorption began in 1200 AD. Spain was relegated to history in 1100AD. After a few turns of R & R for the troops, a Viking berserk killing a musket and taking Baltimore broke peace. The following turn, with the discovery of Military Tradition led to a mass upgrade of 25 knights. Caravels quickly moved them to the Vikings homeland and in 1405 AD Ragnar, was brought to my castle (now in Madrid) in chains. During the war, I completed Smith’s kicking off and American Golden Age (Pyramids, Leo’s & Colossus were acquired from Spain). A third GL was returned from Vikingland to rush Newton’s and a fourth is waiting for something to do. And with the discovery of Magnetism, America entered the Industrial Age in the late 1300’s.

Even though I control the largest amount of land, I only have 3 iron, 1 coal, 3 horses and 2 sources of saltpeter. I’m concerned about the availability of future resources rubber, oil, aluminum and uranium. A lack of any of these will require more work for the troops. I do have 5 native luxuries in quantity (also importing wine & furs from the Oda). So far the Oda have all the known resources and those 2 luxuries.

I was about to prepare a task force to acquire the Oda lands, but even with 40+ cavalry, 15 medieval infantry, 25 cannon and at least one musket for each city, my military advisor cautioned that I was weak against the Oda. That does explain, why the Oda, who were once the tech leaders are now at least 4 techs back. They went to Republic and have been spending most of the their income on troop maintenance. I am down Navigation and Democracy to them, but they lack Physics (and what follows), Economics and Military Tradition. They are the wonder builder though, I’ve got Copernicus, Pyramids, Colossus, Leo’s, Newton’s, Magellan, Great Library & Great Lighthouse, they have the rest except for JS Bach’s (Babylon). My only revolution so far was around 500ad to monarchy. So instead of invading the Oda, I think I’ll build 5-6 ironclads to patrol the Oda coast and send my galleons in search of the other tribes. I acquired knowledge of the barbarian island in a map exchange the Oda, but really see no reason to visit their little paradise.

I’m still not sure of my victory condition choice. Only 20K is out so far. I probably won’t select Diplomacy or Histograph, so that leaves war (conquest / domination), space or 100K. All are doable. I might try a multi-win condition finish (never did that before) for the fun of it.

 

[CdB]

About RCP ...
I hand-built my FP in Madrid (Original Spanish Capital) and that makes a nice RCP 5 with 5 Spanish cities. Is the AI also reading the forum ?

As my original build around Washington is also a RCP 5... It is going to be very producive...

 

[zamint3]

1.21

Regarding Easter Eggs: Among my Great Leaders was this guy.
I think it was no. 7, I did not notice the others before him!!

 

[Bolka]

It was indeed no7, and the others before him were regular generals names. I had a good laugh when I saw it, I used it to complete the Internet.
Then I tried to explain to my wife that Tom Cruise invented the Internet...

 

[Justus II]

I wonder if Tom was supposed to be timed to come up during the Oda campaign, ala "The Last Samauri"?
I must have just missed him, maybe he was no. 8, because I had 7 and didn't see him.

 

[Tone]

I wasn't lucky enough to get 7 GL but I did notice that the first odean (is that correct?) junk I encountered was called 'Mr Rourke's junk'. Could that be a reference to Mickey Rourke and have we got an actor theme in this game? I did spot that one of Oda's other junks was also named but I didn't record it and I can't remember it now. Can anyone help out here?

 

[Justus II]

One was Nobunaga's Junk, that I saw, so if you saw a second, he must have started with at least two. I also noticed that the Junk had a move of 7, and was safe in seas, even before Map-Making.

 

[Tone]

Thanks Justus. That was the other one I saw. This one has a historical link though so I'll have to forget about actors/films!

 

[cracker]

To establish the nexus of the "Mr. Rourke" label you could realize that you started on "de plains, de plains".

 

[Justus II]

Ooh, THAT Mr. Rourke, of "Fantasy Island" fame!! Well, he didn't exactly grant my wishes, but I'll leave that for the next thread!

 

[Yndy]

This one was quick. I continued to play my OCC last night but i could not get contacts with the others so there was not much to trade. I became a backward civ that was discovering a new tech every 40 turns and buying 2 - 3 techs every 40 turns also.

In 700AD, I had Education, and Invention when the Spanish who had conquered England in 600AD killed my peacefull civilisation. They were building Newton's at that time and they really stroke me with their Conquistadors (6 in one turn). My Spears fought valiantlly and were all elites when they died.

I'll watch the next spoiler now to see how the map looked like. Total time 2h 56minutes. Got you Zwingli

 

[zagnut]

PTW 1.21 OPEN

I entered the Middle Ages in 250 BC after recently starting a war with England. I did not want to destroy England or Spain too early because I wanted them to discover some techs for me.

At that time I also had contact with the Vikings and Oda, but had not yet discovered Oda’s homeland. In the war with England I took all of their cities but one and then made peace.

Never got a Great Leader in that war. Also, had bad luck with Wonders, lost both the Great Library and Lighthouse by a couple of turns. But I did get Leonardo’s which was a big help.

Throughout the Middle Ages I used the Vikings as a trading partner. Oda, on the other hand, declared war on me, but could never get it together to invade my continent.

As I said in my previous post, I gave up on Galleys as I was losing too many. I finally discovered Astronomy in 850 and Navigation in 910. I had a beautiful prebuild going for Magellan’s Voyage and timed it so that I discovered Navigation in the same turn as the prebuild was complete. Unfortunately, I forgot that you can only build Magellan’s in a seaport and my prebuild was in the middle of the continent! I had to waste 98 shields and build a University and then start Magellan’s in a seaport and wait another 19 turns for its completion. Attention to detail.

My Caravels finally made contact with the other continent in 990. There were only 4 civs, one having been destroyed. They were woefully behind in the tech race, but I traded 3 of them my World Map for various luxuries. Shortly thereafter I eliminated England.

Since I no longer needed Spain as a trading partner I decided to declare war as soon as I had Cavalry. I invaded Spain in 1060 and took 2 cities immediately. However, they launched a massive counterattack consisting mainly of Pikemen, Musketmen and Medieval Warriors. They had an awful lot of them, but that just prolonged the agony for them. Their culture was higher than mine and Seville, which contained Sun Tzu, flip back to them twice. Each time I took it right back with my nearby Cavalry.

In 1260 I got my first Great Leader of the game. Used it to build Newton’s University and that triggered my Golden Age. In 1265 I made peace with Spain, leaving them with 3 cities. I decided to use my naval ability to invade the new continent before they discovered Cavalry. This took some planning because of the distance involved. However, before that could get under way a strange thing happened. I had an ROP with Oda and he had 2 units roaming around my continent. Atlanta, which contained Newton’s and Copernicus’ was an interior city with no military units defending it. Suddenly Oda attacked Atlanta and captured it. I immediately took it back and only lost one population point, but I was surprised the AI would do that. I had not experienced it before. I allied with the Vikings against Oda and let the Vikings occupy his attention.

I entered the Industrial Age in 1285, safely in the lead and plotting a massive invasion.

In 1325 my invasion fleet of 7 Galleons set sail to cause some chaos in the new world.

 

[jeffd210]

Playing civIII v1.29f

Ancient Age

Entered Middle Age in 610, researching Republic at full blast (24 turns). I have no idea of which victory condition I'm going for, but I do want to own my whole continent.

590 Settled 9th city Houston to hold off Spain to west.
York builds great wall. Barcelona (right next door, hmmm) builds Great Library.
450 St Louis founded to cut off England's north-west encroachment.

English Wars

230 Two turns to Republic, and AI already know it! What to do, should I take Great Library after getting Knights? I have a culture problem against Spain -- they are way ahead of me. Maybe wipe out England, we are on par culturally, and they have no iron nor horses. I build barracks and horsemen everywhere.

30 BC Start war on England. The Military Advisor says I am 'strong' compared to them. I want to take York ASAP to get rid of walls on all English cities.
10 BC Green generals lose some horses in the river and due to exhaustion. But in general my two armies (west and east) are like knives cutting into soft butter.
30 AD All Englishmen now fly the American Flag! The war went very well, losing only a few horsemen and not having any cities flip. The Englishmen are now all quite happy to have the new ruler.

Chivalry in 6 turns. With Knights I will take on Spain. Hmm, Spanish iron has disappeared, was next to Barcelona.

260 AD Galley with 2 scouts eager to explore the mythical New World sink in treacherous waters to the NE.

Spanish Wars
300 Chivalry arrives. I need money now, and Great Libary will be my research vessel for the next few hundred years, so reasearch is cut to 0. Upgrading all my horseman to knights in next few turns.
370 AD The war is waged. I am gallant, declaring war 1 turn before the onslaught begins.
420 AD The war goes well, as my northern knights have pushed to Madrid, and the Southern Knights likewise control the Olive Desert.
430 AD In the midst of the Northern battle, the great leader Washington asserts his brilliance. After successul campaigning, he decided to help rush the incredible Sistine Chapel in nearby Madrid to help prevent a cultural flip. The completion of which starts a Golden Age!
Meanwhile explorers find an island teeming with barbarians to the south. Is this the mythic New World?
460 AD Santiago flips, only slowing the inevitable conquest of Spain.
490 Spain has been incorporated into the American Republic, and the spanairds are thrilled. Oda lands on my continent the same turn, what are they here for?

Exploration and the end of the Vikings
500 all exploring galleys follow the sleep deprived orders of the mad admiral and are never heard from again, with nothing but sea and ocean to be remembered by.
610 Vikings join Oda against me. Well, this is good news, my knights were becoming bored picking olives in the sunshine.
620 Peace with Oda, trading Gunpowder and PP for Education, 200 gold, 40 gpt.
630 Golden Age is over, my economy seems sluggish. No matter, my rested knights only need to polish their swords.
710. Oslo, Vaeleris (with barracks!) under my control. The foothold in Vikingland is established.
Cavalry upgrade somewhere around here.
800 Treacherous Oda declares war again! Viking Nidaros flips. Viking battles bring out the great leader Lee who rushes Magellan for better exploration abilities.
830 Vikings are incorporated.

The New World
860 At long last, the promised land is discovered, covered with many strange and backwards peoples. One is so strange that just trying to talk to them will crash the game! Fortunately, their neighbors incorporate them in 890 (they were Arabs).
910 My knights are exhausted, protecting 2 continents and a small island with Odaans. 2 of my galleys set to conquer Oda filled with Cavalry are sunk by a junk! I have 2 more galleys, but they have only 1 cavalry and 5 cannons. Hmmm, time to rethink the Oda Campaign. Oda military matches my own, and they're mostly concentrated on that tiny island. They have all the resources -- I think it will be a tough battle. Plus, there culture dwarfs my own. I could use more great leaders, perhaps I should train troops on Barbarian Island.
930 Barbarian Island landing with 4 galleon-fulls of cavalry and musketmen. I lose 1 cavalry in like 100 defensive battles, and all the rest become red-lined elites. I move them back to the mainland to recuperate.

Enter the Industrial Age.

Closing Remarks

I am happy with my progress. All of my wars went quickly, with the exception of the Oda. (What to do with them?)

I have Sun Tzu on my home continent, for free barracks military training ground. I also have Leonardo, for cheap upgrades. In fact, I have have every single Middle Age wonder that has been built.

There is no question that I will win the game, but now I need to decide how to win. Oda culture dwarfs my own, but I have a tech lead and strong armies. Compared to the New World, I am 2 centuries ahead, hmmm. Maybe I should borrow a page from history, and now go settle the New World...