I'm not sure what to do next in my warlord game

[ArmPilot]

Right now i'm playing as russians currently in democracy. I just lost my sole source of saltpeper when a volcano burned the town to cinders and the land fell to germany's cultuure. All the surronding land is either high mountians or under control of the frence or germans. Right now now i'm also in a golden age when i biult magellen's voyage, making 500 or so gold with 4 turns left on megnetism with 40% research(overall it will take 5-6 turns for most techs at this piont plus nomatter how much i riase the bar the tech doesn't get done any qiucker). I traded with china for saltpeper for now. What i was planning was declaring war on my nieghbor to grab saltpeper near the border but a city or 2 in thier land. That nieghbor is carthatge who is furoius for reasons i can't remember. Most of my forces are over in former sumeria which is off the coast of my land or have been disbanded becuase i was having serious money issues before the golden age while i was still in monarchy.

So what i was planning that while i still had the saltpeper deal with china and while i'm still golden age i would biult up more cossacks and muskets and maybe switch back to monarchy. But if i stay demo what i would do would be to tell them to move out of my land, they are certian to declare. They also have more land up north in tundra that i woulde take and they also have one town on the coast deep in my land that i tryed to culture flip but never did. If anyone is interested i could also upload a few picks of the game.

 

[The_Unforgiven]

Adding some pics is always a good idea.
Indeed, you should let the Catheginians declare war on you and get the saltpeter. It's an important resource and I'd hate to be depending on another civ for it, when I'm in a war. Remember that changing government will cause a few anarchy turns, since the Russians don't have the religious trait. Is your war going to be long and do you have lots of luxuries? A short war with some luxs is doable in democracy, but the WW is going to catch up in a longer one. Then you might consider a change. I thiunk some pics or a save is a good idea.

 

[ArmPilot]

This is a pick from where my old saltpeper used to be. As you can see the stupid idiot volcano destroyed the town. I do have a worker heading over to get a colony

This is the saltpeper i plan to take from carthage. I don't have an ROP so i can just tell that stack to go away. The stack with the knight has 5 knights and a crusader, the other stack has a few numidian mercinaries and ..... 2 warriors.

This is the lone city deep in my land. I investigated it and it had 2 defensive units(can't remember what kind) and a knight, the only improvement is a temple. my towns near by have a decent amount of culture and my overall culture is better then thiers. Why hans't it flip, it been thier for most of the game.

For a war in demo i have 4 of my own lux with a crap load of extras to 3 of them, and i have all the extras traded, and a one has a few extras that are just out of my borders in uncliamed land

 

[The_Unforgiven]

You could take Toulouse, 'cuz if it's cultural borders expand, it'll cover the saltpeter. Or you could try to get the french into the war with the Cartheginians. They'll face two fronts then. I think you can get rid of the Cartheginians on your own too though. The lone city is a taker, it won't flip, since it has quite a lot of culture, see the borders. Your cities should be closer to make a flip more likely.
A quick war could be possible, but make it QUICK, because WW is a strangler...

 

[DarkTimes]

I would take Toulouse too, if I was in your position. Then rush build a temple and other culture buildings (use all that lovely cash from your GA) to get its border to expand. If you strike hard and then sue for peace as soon as possible, it could be over very quick.

 

[ArmPilot]

Proc and cons to war with france:
Pros:
A.They were my ally when fighting spian. I had just moved a stack of knights to take madrid when i saw atleast 3 stacks of longbowman and archer surronding madrid which had i think 2 wonders. In one more turn i would have taken madrid. I got really mad and almost delcared war at that moment.
B. When Spain declared war on france i signed a MA with france aiganst Spian becuase spian was right next to me. Part way through France signed a peace treaty without cancelling the MA(i think it had been 20 turns by then). At that piont i already got Germany into the war too( they were weak becuase they tryed to biult pyramids so they didn't expand very well). At one piont soon after Sumeria delcared war on france. France send tons of to a small sumerian city in the north(on the pick with the volcano it is the viking city) and went through my land. I canceled my ROP earlier when they singed the treaty with spian. I told them to go away and they delcared. They took one city on the mianland and another later in Sumeria(this was before i finished sumeria but after i had fought a brief war with them). After a long struggle i recovered the citys. Beucase of this i had to sign peace with spain and it still fought with germany to what appeared to be a stalemate after germany lost one minor woan and another was taken and retaken repeatedly. So i would like to take revenge on france for all the trouble.(for the record after i retook my towns i signed peace at once and resigned the MA with germany aiganst spian and later with france after spian put up a strong defence)

Cons:
A. France is polite with me after the aliance i had with them aiganst sumeria and spain(both of spian and sumeria declared on france first). Carthager is very hastile to me.
B. I am trading both horses AND iron to france. In the first war with france they attacked me with horsemen they got from me(i didn't trade iron to them back then becuase i didn't have extra iron until the defeat of sumeria). I don't want to be attacked by my own resources agian .
C. Cathage is closer and has those city's in my land. Less coruption from thier cities then with france.


War With cathage:
I can think of alot of pros but no major cons ATM.

 

[ArmPilot]

One more thing: Just before my city with saltpeper burnt to the ground i saw a rather large stack of spearman and such sitting on the saltpeper. I guess after the viking took the sumerian city they just stoped dead in thier tracks, I never saw any of the toehr franch forces that headed that way come back through my land either so i gues they're disbanded or still in/near Toulose.

 

[Tatran]

I think you're in the wrong government looking at the
position at your continent.It was a bad choice.You
should be in a Monarchy or Republic to avoid WW,
because of the wars with your neighbours.
Since you are in a Democracy + Golden Age you
should reap the benefits of it.Avoid wars right
now and build the necessary improvements for
the future wars on your continent.I guess Magnetism
is the only tech you need to go to the Industrial Era.
When you're lucky you get Nationalism for free and
than research FASCISM.Otherwise research Nationalism
first and than Fascism.After your Golden Age switch to
Fascism government and clean your continent.After
that's done focus on winning the game.You simply can't
trust the neighbours on your continent,so get rid of
them is the only solution.

 

[ArmPilot]

I was planning to wait till the golden age ended before i started another war. If i stay demo it would be a qiuck war to limit ww. I'm not sure if i want to fight everyone off my continent beucase i was thinking of a diplomatic win for this game anyway.

 

[Tatran]

I think you're underestimate WW in a Democracy.
Going for a diplomatic win is still possible with all
those civs remaining,but these are simply the facts
Carthage is furious with you -> no vote probably vote
against you.France probably the same thing.You
can leave those viking and zulu towns alone.They
are no threat on your continent.
Your (end) game will be a lot easier if the big civs on
your continent are gone.Keep an eye on the light pink
colour civ (China?).

 

[ArmPilot]

Originally posted by Tatran
I think you're underestimate WW in a Democracy.
Going for a diplomatic win is still possible with all
those civs remaining,but these are simply the facts
Carthage is furious with you -> no vote probably vote
against you.France probably the same thing.You
can leave those viking and zulu towns alone.They
are no threat on your continent.
Your (end) game will be a lot easier if the big civs on
your continent are gone.Keep an eye on the light pink
colour civ (China?).

Well.... the light pink civ is actually 2 different AIs lmao..... The one by itself is china and the other is arabia. But china was isolated buy itself(as well as the 2 on the tiny island) but i gave it most of the techs it didn't have. But now i'm afriad about it's size and power. I have been in a war in demo before, had trouble but i lived through it, barely. But if i feel that a short war isn't pssible then i will switch to fascism. What order should i use to get rid of my nieghbors? I don't like either france or carthage and germany has been my ally since the very start (they were also the first i ran into) so i might just let the be unless they backstab me. If i plan to destory france should i cancel the iron and horse deals at first chance or get all i can out of them?

 

[Tatran]

I think Carthage looks to me to be first eliminated.
They got saltpeter + horses -> cavalry.This is a threat.
They have units in your territory.Let them declare war
on you.Now!Use Germany in a MA against Carthage.
Cancel the horse deal with France.Conquer them as
second target.Again use Germany to ally against them.
Since you have a source of saltpeter (China) it depends
on how fast you'll get that resource from Carthage.Otherwise
sign an alliance with them against Carthage.You could drag
France into the war with Carthage to weaken their forces
and activate their Golden Age in this war and not in the war
against you later.
With all the luxuries on your continent a diplomatic victory
should be no problem.Give them away at the end of the
game,when you are building the U.N.
Remember you have no friends in civ3,an allied victory,
like in Alpha Centauri, is not possible so use them for your
own benefits.

 

[ArmPilot]

I played till the end of my golden age. I discovered nationalism in 4 turns and was working on facism when the GA ended. I have been steadily been biuling up forces on my borders. But alittle before my GA ened Zulu delcared on France. I had cancelled my horse trade with then acoyple turns earlier. I geuss france is an attractive target beucase of thier lack of resources. But the really suprising thing was that on that very turn zulu captured a fench city on the coast. I guess zulus had already land troops then france asked them to leave. I also had a worker next to the uncliamed saltpeper when i remember the french had a large stack of units sitting on top of it. A turn later the Zulu-French war started and atleast 4 stacks headed from toulose to the near by zulu city and i was able to cliam the saltpeper thier, but i had to rebiult a few roads becuase another volcanic eruption musta destroyed them. Now i'm thinking i should attack france instead of carthage once all my trades with them are over.

BTW: my free tech was steam power but the nearest coal was in my sumeria territory so i have to biult road and colony beuce its deep in high mountians. Thier is also no chance of loses the source so thier's no worries about coal

 

[ArmPilot]

Incase anyone interested the diplomatic victory doesn't look very promising. Scandinavia attacked me for no reason while i was in anarchy, switching to fascism. They took a coastal town then i retook it a turn later. I also took thier city up north then sued for peace.

Later Zulus signed an MA with Mongols agianst france. Then shortly after switching to fascism i got carthage to declare war me and signed MA with france and germany agianst them. Carthage was taken easily. 2 turns before on of thier tundra cities fliped to me to. I took most of carthage's town. Garmany took 2 and france took one. I was switching back to Demo when china attacked me(second time being attacked while in anarchy). They took one of the former sumerian tooks then it fliped back the next turn before i could counter attack, plus they took one worker and disbaned it. I decided to strike back this time so i started loading troops into galleons at a slow pace. Then vikings and china signed an MA agiasnt me. Mongols also singed an MPP with america witch brought them into the war with france a few turns later. I got germany to sign an MA aiganst vikings and china. At one piont mongols declared war and about 6 declarations of war took place of various other civs. I'm not sure whos at war with who but i'm at war with 3 AIs and have trade embargos agianst 2 others. Most wars right now are rather consuming as thiers no real reason s to whom they picked to declare war on. The rest are polite with me. Thiers also only one AI whos not at war with anybody which would be Arabia. I got a spie with evryone except mongolia(i'm in communism so i have vet spies). China has a weak military but have 40 some spearman and little mush else. They have made scattered attacks with one unit at a time, they did take another former sumeria city that was defended by one cassack. I delayed attacking it beucase i hoped it would flip and i would get the extra cavarly they attacked with. Next turn i should have my naval in china and unoad my troops(this includes 3 cossack armys).