bring settlers along with you. Part of the reason the enemy throws 100 defenders at you is because you are attacking/holding one his cities. Eliminate that part of the problem by razing the city and building your own settlement, that way you will no longer have to worry about a culture flip.
Also, one invasion force is not enough, unless you plan to use it to simply wreak havic, which can be a darn good strategy. Here's what I do if I plan to simply ransack and pillage:
First off, get an alliance with your rival's fiercest neighbor, ie: talk with the Babylonians if you are going after the Zulu. Then get as many cats on the continent in cahoots with you. Trust me, this is where good diplomatic relations come in to play. If you have a solid trading history with the other scientific/religious folks on the board, you are in luck because they will devote a ton of resources to eliminating a problematic expansionist like the Aztecs.
And by the way, you do not need to be in "control' of your continent to do the deed, you need to be in control of the diplomatic situation my friend.
For example (unfortunately I do not have screen saves so you'll have to take me at my word) I once had a solid chunk of my continent locked up. I was in a Monarch level with 16 civs on a huge random continental map. By the advent of the Industrial Revolution there had been quite a bit of jockeying for position amongst my rivals to the north and south. I was positioned in between the Zulu to the south and the Persians to the north on a continental divide roughly the equivalent of Mexico and Central America with the Zulu representing SA and Persia NA.
Anywho, across the ocean the world was a mess. There was a major collision of European and Asian cultures on the other continent who were constantly at war with each other. With all of them looking for some sort of a balancing influence I introduced myself as their primary merchant nation. For a good 900 years my shopkeepers and small manufacturers were very happy because though we had few luxuries (but got lucky on the resources) we were able to trade technological advancements for large amounts of cash to finance public works projects and scientific research. Even though my borders were quite tight and compact, I was able to build an extremely effective military based primarily on naval power. It was a classic English Empire model.
Now I did not plan it that way, but the way things broke down, I had no choice. Considering my teritory position and the relative strength of my neighbors, I was not able to go toe to toe with either the Persians or the Zulu. All i could do was create an economic advantage for myself and play politics with two powers that had a eyes on my saltpeter, and later oil and rubber. So I simply kept them close to me technologically while I quietly financed an enormous naval fleet.
As time went on I was able to not only gain contacts throughout the Eurpoean and Asian realms, I was able to gain incredible standing with all of them by simply staying out of their military affairs. At least until the time was right at least -- more on that later. For almost seven centuries the Japanese and Chinese alternated between fighting with each other and the Russians who in turn were constantly at war the Germans, French and English.
Meanwhile I eventually sent two scouts to roam the countryside and give me valuable insight to the border fluctuations and power transfers. What I found was that along the continents west coast a power vacuum was about to be created.
The Greeks, who had held the western coastal portion of the continent for some 2000 years still held all their cities, but were losing military power at an alarming rate. I had built small settlements along the Grecian northern coast (before the Greeks had been able to completely exapnd their cultural influence) along what could be compared to a small Meditterranean Sea and had planted a good chunk of military units there with some naval support.
I sent envoys to speak with Alexander and found that he was desperate for a military alliance against the Russians who had begun battering him 50 years before and had decimated his military to an inneffective band of swordsman and archers in this day of riflemen and cavalry. I respectfully declined but traded him iron and saltpeter so he could continue building military units while I loaded my fortified settlers from the homeland(built some 40 years earlier in case such an event might happen somewhere on the continent) on to transports and headed for the western seaboard of the Eurpoean continent.
Upon my arrival I found that the Russians had been joined in the Greek orgy by the Chinese, English, Japanese, French, Germans and Romans. Mine was the only nation not taking part in the bachanal, but that was fine, my boys were about to do something far more sinister: steal the land out from under all their noses then beat them all back through devious alliances. Well, that was the plan at least.
When I arrived the I sent five settlers scurrying across the map opening up settlements near what were once Greek city-states. The Russians were burning everything to the the ground, but the Chinese were absorbing Greek settlements in to its empire. The English, Germans and french were always a step behind the Russian coassacks and Chinese Riders, so I was able to gobble up some very rich lands quite easily.
With my settlements in place I began to build cultural edifications like crazy and began to focus my military might towards the one place no one seemed to want to go, a small continent roughly the equivalent of Australia inhabited by the Aztecs.
for the whole of history the Aztecs had been able to wander the northeast part of the map and rule without competition. Centuries before they had routed the Americans and Iroquois in very bloody wars. Near the end Abe Lincoln and Hiawatha were so desperate it seemed that they would have traded their capitals to anyone willing to help defend them. Instead, the Aztecs overrun them and turned the northeast corner of the map in to their own domain complete with a formidable navy, but a very weak economy. Isolated from the rest of the world and diplomatically aggressive with the rest of the populace, the Aztecs were the bastard child of the globe, so i decided to be the one to kick them in the ass.
First I followed my own advice and set up healthy diplomatic relations with my European, African, Asian and Persian colleagues -- none of whom had any love for the Aztecs -- set off bound for the western coast of the Aztecs. I sent one force, but I knew it would be enough to cause havoc in Mexico City.
I sent over three transports of troops (I'm talking Industrial Age) and left the armor at home. I established a defended beachhead off one of the weaker/smaller coastal cities and simply attacked the nearest city and began pillaging improvements. The point was not to take the Aztecs in one swift stroke, but to bleed them dry and cause them to suffer and bend to my military.
This may not be mathematically true, but I have found that there seems to be times when the AI is low on morale, especially after three cities have been taken and deprived of one or more resource. That's the feeling at least.
Anywho, after I landed my initial military force, I loaded up another three transports and sent them over and repeated the process until i had a steady supply line travelling along the northern seas over the Eurpoean continent towards the Aztecs.
Basically, my method was to simply batter the Aztecs in to submission rather than take the cities. I burned and pillaged everything in my path and then repopulated with my own settlers. And because I had a very powerful navy, I was able to ward off any potential challenges from my rivals. Because the cirtcumstances dictated my course of action I was able to open up for business on three chunks of land. Corruption was a *****, but the land holdings more than paid for themselves by depriving my rivals form simply getting to the resources. But then again, I was lucky, if the Persians had gone to war with me before I had finished my business with the Aztecs, i would have been screwed. Fortunately I did not fight with either the Persians or the Zulu until another 100 years later after I had produced enough cavalry to knock both sides back a good 10 squares in either direction. That was a pain in the ass, let me tell you.
Any stories from you guys? This stiff is so much fun.
