havoc242 said:
Thanks a4phantom. I played on a standerd size map with 7 rivals and went to war about 1 ad. and I play as the persians
Ah, that's a different story. Persia's magnificant UU would be wasted without early wars. Maybe you're attacking before you have enough Immortals built? Also, how do you decide who to attack? With Immortals, I would go for the strongest first. You know, like in jail, where you attack the strongest guy on your first night, and even if you lose everyone else will know you're too crazy to mess with. Except you won't lose, because you have a 4 attacker when the strongest defense (aside from the Hoplite, who only the Greeks will have) is 2. So build up a huge army of Immortals before you start, and then start carving up your neighbors one by one. Don't wear down your forces by conquering every last city, especially cruddy ones hidden in jungle (although with footsoldiers like Immortals terrain matters less, but such cities are hardly worth having). Instead focus on 1: taking what's valuable to you (luxaries, Wonders of the World, large cities or strategically placed cities) and 2: crippling other civs as permanently as possible (taking their capital, all of their big cities, all of their coastal cities if they only have a few, their luxaries if you can, their resources, especially IRON, for sure) without huge expenditures on your part that leave you vulnerable to another civ. A benefit is that when you leave a few weak cities standing you can sign a peace treaty in which they should give you any tech you're missing and whatever gold and workers they have left. If you feel threatened on another border or that further warring is not worthwhile, don't hesitate to sign a peace treaty as soon as you have their iron and capital, that will put them behind for the rest of the game. Follow this pattern one neighbor at a time, and soon you should have a buffer of impotent ironless civs around you. Focus on the strongest and on very aggressive civs like the Aztecs and Zulus first.
You'll also want to wait until you have a couple of cities with barracks to keep building Immortals as you lose some in battle and as your unit limit expands with new cities, because of course you will enter your Golden Age and more than likely want to dedicate your capital or another big city to Wonder building. Your invasion force should be big enough to do the job without reinforcements (when your forces start to stretch thin would be a good time to make peace, as long as you have their iron and capital). Meanwhile, the Immortals you build during the war should be enough to defend your core cities.
Disclaimer: this is mostly conjecture, I've only played as the Persians once. I prefer their little brother, the Ottomans.
All I know is war 
