Wow, been a long time since I've had a good game. 
This one is shaping up well, at least, better than most of my games.
My only competition is Isabella. Somehow in the early game, she skyrocketed in points. Her military and score took off like a rocket. I've been playing catch up ever since.
But through some expensive upgrading, I've just became her equal in military power... except for the fact that she has 3 vassals on my continent, against my 1. I'm not really worried about her vassals though. They're not powerhouses by any means. If it comes to war, a few cavalry in each border city will be enough to stop whatever her vassals throw at me.
A little history on the game. I'm Elizabeth (my favorite civ... though I haven't played many others. I think I'm actually taking advantage of her traits this time though. I am doing well financially, and I've actually built a great person city, something I don't usually do). My continent includes Myself, Isabella, Qin Shi Huang, Asoka, Frederick, Huayna Capac, and Tokugawa.
I expanded quickly (but not TOO quickly, this time.
) and grabbed a nice chunk of land. My interior was a little spotty, but I was counting on my culture to fill it out, which for the most part it did.
I didn't think I was going to have a religion this time, but quite by accident I founded Confucianism. A pleasant surprise. I thought it had already been discovered. Dispite discovering Confucianism, I was Budhist to stay in good terms with Isabella, the strongest civ on our continent.
Things were quiet until 1424. No wars at all until that point. We were all expanding peacefully. I had war on my mind, however. Isabella was skyrocketing in score. She had a slightly larger empire than me, and like I mentioned before, my military was nothing compared to hers. So assaulting her head on was not an option. I decided to go after some of the smaller civs. I set my eyes on Japan. Tokugawa had 2 size 12 cities on my southern border. I built up a modest assault force, and 1 turn before I was ready, Isabella declared war on Tokugawa.
Great minds think alike, I guess. I declared war the next turn, gaining some popularity with Isabella in the process through our "mutual military struggle". I only managed to capture 1 of the 2 cities, and was on the doorstep of the second before Tokugawa capitulated to Isabella. Rats. So that didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped. Instead of gaining ground on Isabella, I only took 1 city, and she took 2-3. Not all was lost though. It looks like in the capitulation deal, Tokugawa gave Isabella the second city I was targeting. In 1598 it culture flipped to me, so I got what I wanted out of the war, even if it took 174 years to get it.
I needed a new target. Asoka was on my eastern border. His military was equal to mine, but declaring war on him wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. He didn't have stellar relations with anyone. He shared Confucianism with me, and that didn't sit too well with Isabella. The rest of the civs were either cautious or annoyed with him. But I decided to focus on a smaller civ, Germany.
Frederick and I were on good terms, but I desperately needed the land. I moved my army up from the south, to the north, on Germany's border. Little did I know, I was about to start the first world war.
In 1682 I declared war on Frederick. The main prize was Berlin. It was situated on a peninsula in the far northern reaches of the continent. Major cash cow. 4 crabs, 1 fish, 18 water tiles, 2 land. Some major lighthouse and harbour potential there.
A few turns later, the tables turned on me. Where I was the overpowering aggressor, I was now the underdog. Frederick agreed to be a vassal of Asoka for protection, and Asoka unleashed his minions on my lighly defended eastern border!
I had no choice. I didn't want Isabella to get any farther ahead than she already was, but I wasn't in a position to fight a war on two fronts. I gave Isabella a ring, and for just a couple thousand, Isabella and her vassal Tokugawa declared war on Asoka and Frederick.
In an effort to keep Isabella from getting all of Asoka's territory, a turn or two later I paid Qin Shi a tech or two to declare war as well, hoping to divide the spoils between the two of them. The entire continent was in flames. The only one I couldn't convince to fight was HC... don't worry, I got him back for not helping me. More on that later.
Berlin, Essen, Hamburgh, Munich. I had taken from Frederick what I wanted. Other than Berlin, none of these cities were very good. But I kept them anyway, lest some other civ plunk a city down in their ruins. The rest of Frederick's cities were useless. Not even worth the time to go and raze them. With some time, they'll culture flip.
So I set my sights on Asoka. Having ripped through the northern side of the continent, I was now poised to assault Asoka's northern flank. Madras, Calcutta, and Delhi were my targets. Unfortunately, things did not work out as I planned.
Isabella stopped the war as quickly as it started. I had just completed the first of my 3 Indian objectives, Madras, when peace prevailed on our continent once again. Asoka and Frederick became Isabella's vassals. That means in the blink of an eye, it was over. Isabella bested me again. My conquest was cut short, once more. Thus ends the Great War, 1682-1742.
Having been diplomatically outsmarted by Isabella once again, and still not in a position to fight her head on, I needed another target. Call me a turncoat, but I set my sights on Huayna Capac. We'd been close friends and trading parners throughout history, but he was not a friend of Spain. In fact, Isabella approached me, and asked me to break off all diplomatic deals with him. My first instict was to tell her where to shove it... but the little devil on my shoulder convinced me to go through with the plan. HC has to die.
After upgrading my army somewhat, I moved to the far north east of the continent. Machu Pichu, Cuzco, and Tiwanaku all fell with little resistance. Of special note is Cuzco. I had just finished taking down the defenses, and the next turn, just before I overran his defenders, HC built the Temple of Solomon in Cuzco. That was good for 15 gold per turn. Cool beans. Not only that, but it is also the birthplace of Hinduism. While only at 3%, as opposed to Confucianism (15%) and Budhism (30%) it's still where my next great prophet is going.
HC capitulated, and is now a proud vassal of the English empire.
That brings us to the present, 1806. Overall, I'm in good position. Isabella still has a score lead, but through some agressive upgrading (many of my interior cities were still using Archers for pity's sake) I've just caught up to Spain in military power.
My newly captured cities are in a bit of disarray, I haven't gotten my workers up there to sort through the mess the AI made yet. None of them are especially great cities anyway. They're all going to be hybrid cities. Just there to make sure no one else puts any down, basically.
Oh yeah, Saladin and Caesar are on the other continent. They've both staked out half of it for themselves. Haven't had much dealings with them yet.
Oh, and another note, as in most of my games my navy is horrible. As in, I don't even have one. That could be a problem. hehe...
Give me your input on how you think I should go about winning this thing. I think if I focus on getting more military techs, and build my military up some more, I think I can take on Isabella. Maybe even try to get Caesar and Saladin in on it. Start WW2.
I don't think I'm in a position to make a cultural win. Then again, I've never won a cultural game, so I'm not sure. I wouldn't even know where to start.
Personally I think my best bet is to take on Isabella, then try for either a domination, space race, or UN win. At this rate, I won't win a space race or a UN decision with Isabella in the picture. She's a production powerhouse, and she's well connected. I think my only option, no matter how I want to win, is to take her out.
Anyway, here's the save game. Gimmie your thoughts.
This one is shaping up well, at least, better than most of my games. My only competition is Isabella. Somehow in the early game, she skyrocketed in points. Her military and score took off like a rocket. I've been playing catch up ever since.
But through some expensive upgrading, I've just became her equal in military power... except for the fact that she has 3 vassals on my continent, against my 1. I'm not really worried about her vassals though. They're not powerhouses by any means. If it comes to war, a few cavalry in each border city will be enough to stop whatever her vassals throw at me.
A little history on the game. I'm Elizabeth (my favorite civ... though I haven't played many others. I think I'm actually taking advantage of her traits this time though. I am doing well financially, and I've actually built a great person city, something I don't usually do). My continent includes Myself, Isabella, Qin Shi Huang, Asoka, Frederick, Huayna Capac, and Tokugawa.
I expanded quickly (but not TOO quickly, this time.
) and grabbed a nice chunk of land. My interior was a little spotty, but I was counting on my culture to fill it out, which for the most part it did. I didn't think I was going to have a religion this time, but quite by accident I founded Confucianism. A pleasant surprise. I thought it had already been discovered. Dispite discovering Confucianism, I was Budhist to stay in good terms with Isabella, the strongest civ on our continent.
Things were quiet until 1424. No wars at all until that point. We were all expanding peacefully. I had war on my mind, however. Isabella was skyrocketing in score. She had a slightly larger empire than me, and like I mentioned before, my military was nothing compared to hers. So assaulting her head on was not an option. I decided to go after some of the smaller civs. I set my eyes on Japan. Tokugawa had 2 size 12 cities on my southern border. I built up a modest assault force, and 1 turn before I was ready, Isabella declared war on Tokugawa.
Great minds think alike, I guess. I declared war the next turn, gaining some popularity with Isabella in the process through our "mutual military struggle". I only managed to capture 1 of the 2 cities, and was on the doorstep of the second before Tokugawa capitulated to Isabella. Rats. So that didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped. Instead of gaining ground on Isabella, I only took 1 city, and she took 2-3. Not all was lost though. It looks like in the capitulation deal, Tokugawa gave Isabella the second city I was targeting. In 1598 it culture flipped to me, so I got what I wanted out of the war, even if it took 174 years to get it.
I needed a new target. Asoka was on my eastern border. His military was equal to mine, but declaring war on him wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. He didn't have stellar relations with anyone. He shared Confucianism with me, and that didn't sit too well with Isabella. The rest of the civs were either cautious or annoyed with him. But I decided to focus on a smaller civ, Germany.
Frederick and I were on good terms, but I desperately needed the land. I moved my army up from the south, to the north, on Germany's border. Little did I know, I was about to start the first world war.
In 1682 I declared war on Frederick. The main prize was Berlin. It was situated on a peninsula in the far northern reaches of the continent. Major cash cow. 4 crabs, 1 fish, 18 water tiles, 2 land. Some major lighthouse and harbour potential there.
A few turns later, the tables turned on me. Where I was the overpowering aggressor, I was now the underdog. Frederick agreed to be a vassal of Asoka for protection, and Asoka unleashed his minions on my lighly defended eastern border!
I had no choice. I didn't want Isabella to get any farther ahead than she already was, but I wasn't in a position to fight a war on two fronts. I gave Isabella a ring, and for just a couple thousand, Isabella and her vassal Tokugawa declared war on Asoka and Frederick.
In an effort to keep Isabella from getting all of Asoka's territory, a turn or two later I paid Qin Shi a tech or two to declare war as well, hoping to divide the spoils between the two of them. The entire continent was in flames. The only one I couldn't convince to fight was HC... don't worry, I got him back for not helping me. More on that later.
Berlin, Essen, Hamburgh, Munich. I had taken from Frederick what I wanted. Other than Berlin, none of these cities were very good. But I kept them anyway, lest some other civ plunk a city down in their ruins. The rest of Frederick's cities were useless. Not even worth the time to go and raze them. With some time, they'll culture flip.
So I set my sights on Asoka. Having ripped through the northern side of the continent, I was now poised to assault Asoka's northern flank. Madras, Calcutta, and Delhi were my targets. Unfortunately, things did not work out as I planned.
Isabella stopped the war as quickly as it started. I had just completed the first of my 3 Indian objectives, Madras, when peace prevailed on our continent once again. Asoka and Frederick became Isabella's vassals. That means in the blink of an eye, it was over. Isabella bested me again. My conquest was cut short, once more. Thus ends the Great War, 1682-1742.
Having been diplomatically outsmarted by Isabella once again, and still not in a position to fight her head on, I needed another target. Call me a turncoat, but I set my sights on Huayna Capac. We'd been close friends and trading parners throughout history, but he was not a friend of Spain. In fact, Isabella approached me, and asked me to break off all diplomatic deals with him. My first instict was to tell her where to shove it... but the little devil on my shoulder convinced me to go through with the plan. HC has to die.
After upgrading my army somewhat, I moved to the far north east of the continent. Machu Pichu, Cuzco, and Tiwanaku all fell with little resistance. Of special note is Cuzco. I had just finished taking down the defenses, and the next turn, just before I overran his defenders, HC built the Temple of Solomon in Cuzco. That was good for 15 gold per turn. Cool beans. Not only that, but it is also the birthplace of Hinduism. While only at 3%, as opposed to Confucianism (15%) and Budhism (30%) it's still where my next great prophet is going.
HC capitulated, and is now a proud vassal of the English empire.
That brings us to the present, 1806. Overall, I'm in good position. Isabella still has a score lead, but through some agressive upgrading (many of my interior cities were still using Archers for pity's sake) I've just caught up to Spain in military power.
My newly captured cities are in a bit of disarray, I haven't gotten my workers up there to sort through the mess the AI made yet. None of them are especially great cities anyway. They're all going to be hybrid cities. Just there to make sure no one else puts any down, basically.
Oh yeah, Saladin and Caesar are on the other continent. They've both staked out half of it for themselves. Haven't had much dealings with them yet.
Oh, and another note, as in most of my games my navy is horrible. As in, I don't even have one. That could be a problem. hehe...
Give me your input on how you think I should go about winning this thing. I think if I focus on getting more military techs, and build my military up some more, I think I can take on Isabella. Maybe even try to get Caesar and Saladin in on it. Start WW2.
I don't think I'm in a position to make a cultural win. Then again, I've never won a cultural game, so I'm not sure. I wouldn't even know where to start.
Personally I think my best bet is to take on Isabella, then try for either a domination, space race, or UN win. At this rate, I won't win a space race or a UN decision with Isabella in the picture. She's a production powerhouse, and she's well connected. I think my only option, no matter how I want to win, is to take her out.
Anyway, here's the save game. Gimmie your thoughts.
