How do I conquer a large pangea map?

[Thalur]

Hi all,
I'm having difficulty deciding what to do next on my current game. I'm playing as Genghis Khan on a large/tectonics/pangea/marathon map, it's 1045AD and I've just about recovered my economy after a rather large crash just before I started researching Code of Laws . I'm at the point where I'm looking for the next civilisation to kill, but all of the nearby ones are friendly (or useless in the case of monty), and all the ones I might try and take on are half a map away, and I'm very wary of another economic crisis.

My power rating is currently very poor:


But my GNP is leagues ahead of the competition:


I'm ahead in technology:


And here's the map:


The Hindus all like me (apart from Monty, who met the pointy end of my Keshiks early on in the game). Augustus seems to like me, but Isabella declared war on me earlier. I think Hammurabi has to be my first target as he's the closest one who hates me.

So to boil it down to a few specific questions:

1) How can I sustain a war at such long ranges? Can I keep cities or should I just raze and pillage everything to ruin their economy? Do I even have to attack the cities? Having to bring along catapults and CR infantry would slow me down enormously.

2) Tech-wise, when is the best time to attack? Should I build an army of knights, or wait for Cuirassiers/Cavalry?

3) What is the most effective way to sort out my economy to cope with the potentially massive costs of a long distance war with a large army?

4) What can/should I do diplomatically? I've been flogging old techs for gold for quite a while now, but I'm wary of letting the more powerful civs catch up with me. I don't seem to be able to bribe any of my friends to attack Hammurabi either (Boudica say "We have enough on our hands right now" - what does that mean?)

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.

 

[Firewind]

1) Don't. There's targets nearer to you, just because they're friendly doesn't mean you need to afford them any special treatment. If they're in your way, they're problems.

2) Cavalry will pretty much own absolutely anything until Infantry come along. However, knights are more than sufficient, especially for a hit-and-run strike which you seem keen on using.

3) You're at 100% science, that's far from necessary. I personally only run 100% science if I can do so and still be making a profit, and then I'll do my utmost to expand/war faster until the slider drops. In addition to dropping the science slider, you can have less important cities build Wealth, or if you haven't got that ability yet, build Research and drop the science slider even lower to compensate. Courthouses everywhere also helps, obviously, and if you pillage as much as you can in a hit-and-run strike, you can sustain a fair economy on warfare alone.

4) Boudica's planning a war with someone. Likely either Capac or Caesar, since they're bordering her and below her power rating. If you can afford to ostracise either of them, I'd suggest you declare war on them with her - even if you don't send troops in, you'll get diplo points with Boudica, while making yourself an enemy to target.

And now for my own question: Your score table has plusses and minuses next to certain numbers, and you can apparently modify your demographics screen, is this all something in the BUG mod I haven't found yet or is it another mod you're running?

 

[Skallagrimson]

Over 70%: urgent to expand (typical boxed in range)
30 to 70%: expand as desired, when opportunity knocks (typical war range)
10 to 30%: consider a halt to expansion (typical REX range)
STRIKE: urgent to stop expansion

 

[CynicalMagician]

Monty is right there and he's tiny. Gobble him up. Also chop those last few riverside forests around your cap and get some more cottages up. Deal with happy issues with monarchy or however you can.

 

[scothed]

I would advise only to fight countries that you share a border with. Fighting across another country is very expensive and takes a long time to send reinforcements to the front line. Also, if you get an open border agreement cancelled then you are screwed!

I agree that just because a nation is friendly towards you it doesn't mean you should give them any special treatment. I will happily trade with another nation to my benefit while also planning their conquest when the peace treay expires.

My advice is to fight short but brutal wars. Build a big stack of seige and defensive units with a few attacking units mixed in. Hit the other civ hard and aim to take 3-4 cities within 15 turns. Then ask them what the price for peace is. Take the offer and repeat this process a couple of times until that nation surrenders or is wiped off the map.

 

[Thalur]

Thanks for the replies. All that time spent recovering the economy seems to have turned Genghis into something of a pacifist. Its now time to start breaking some skulls! Monty isn't going to be among the living for much longer, just as soon as I get some sort of coherent army together.

@Firewind: I'm just using the BUG mod (I downloaded it about a week ago). The +- numbers in the second column of the score table are (AFAIK) the change in score during the last turn; I can't say I pay much attention to them however.

 

[futurehermit]

Drafting rifles helps a lot. Draft 3/turn. In 15 turns that's 45 rifles. You can do a lot with 45 rifles. Theocracy with state religion in all cities and having globe theatre set up in a high-food city helps a lot.