[Powder Keg] Whom to take out?

[Iranon]

Since I'm far better at the peaceful aspects of the game, I recently got into the habit of cramming a few more AIs into medium-sized maps to brush up my warmongering skills.

In my current game gas Gandhi's Evil Twin, I'm stuck on a fairly small continent with Monty, Tokugawa and Gilgamesh.

I'd lament my unjust fate, but I have only myself to blame since I wiped out the good guys (Roosevelt and Ramesses) because they were easy and juicy targets.
Gil and Toku are protective, so I threw the rest of my faltering military against Monty before he got going, pushing him back into an unproductive wasteland before making peace.
With 3 conquered capitals and twice the score of my nearest competitor, I like my power base in the long run, but I'm everyone's worst enemy. Monty is understandably furious, I don't trust Gilgamesh one bit and Tokugawa has a -2 for close borders so further war is inevitable.

If I don't suffer a humiliating military defeat soon, the game should be essentially won but the real question to me is: was it the correct choice to take out the easy prey while also playing builder, or should I have made sure I'm the only predator on the continent?
This is a dilemma I often face - the civilizations I want crippled are rarely the ones that are easy to take down while tempting victims could also be valuable allies in the future.

 

[CivCorpse]

With gil,toko and monty as neighbors a peaceful builders game was not in the stars. I think you did the correct thing by taking out the nice guys first. It gave you a larger power base to produce units for the bullies on the block. If you had gotten into tough wars vs either of the protective civs ot against aggressive monty on equal footing you would have fallen behind in tech to the ones you did not go to war with. Even if you had slugged it out with all three by the time you were done. Ramsesses and Roosevelt would be way way ahead of you in tech. They would either decide you needed to be eaten with your outdated troops or would be worthless trading partners because your mean ole self didn't have a ny thing worth trading.
I would take out Toko as soon as possible. Hopefully before samurii are available and definately before gunpowder units. Toko with a barracks and a single exp civic makes mean mean gunpowder units. they are combat1/drill1/CG1 plus two promotions of his choice. bad bad juju.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Futurehermits sig is the truth: Land is power. Gaining land early is a massive advantage. I'd say you did the right thing. If it were me playing, I'd probably try to have a (brief) period of peace, to get the economy afloat and ready for another war of expansion. The bigger you are, the easier it becomes to recover, oddly. In my last game, I was a lot like pre-Soviet Russia; Massive and backwards. After I finally conquered my continent I set my empire to reasearch mode and I went from being horribly backwards (I'm talking no Liberalism in the 1850s, hell I didn't even have Philosophy when I started my teching) to the tech leader rather quickly.

 

[Iranon]

Thanks for the feedback, and everything is well in hand. Toku is gone (yes, I had no inclination to wait until Samurai raise their over-decorated heads) and I put Monty out of his misery.

Gil will be a tough nut to crack, having just ordered a Chicken Pizza... but I'll try wiping him out anyway to rule the continent unchallenged. Getting the early land advantage did pay out, after all.

 

[CivCorpse]

Thanks for the feedback, and everything is well in hand. Toku is gone (yes, I had no inclination to wait until Samurai raise their over-decorated heads) and I put Monty out of his misery.

Gil will be a tough nut to crack, having just ordered a Chicken Pizza... but I'll try wiping him out anyway to rule the continent unchallenged. Getting the early land advantage did pay out, after all.

Nah, two extra catapults will bombard that away in no time.

 

[Iranon]

Yes, he was a bit of a push-over in the end (huge difference in being able to bring one SoD to bear on a lone opponent than being smack dab in the middle between 1 nutcase, 1 grouch and 1 backstabber).

Amusingly enough, I won a totally unexpected domination win as soon as the conquered cities popped their culture limit... having made no contact with the last 3 civs.

 

[dankok8]

Amusingly enough, I won a totally unexpected domination win as soon as the conquered cities popped their culture limit... having made no contact with the last 3 civs.

Wow, I never won any game before meeting all civs.. Interesting indeed.