Semi-Isolation

[Gooblah]

I have a problem, plain and simple. During my current game, i found myself with what appeared to be a tiny plot of land with barely enough room for 4 cities shared with Roosevelt. The game settings are as follows:
Difficulty: Noble
Player's Civ: Julius Caesar of Rome
Game Version: 1.74
Map Size: Standard
Map Type: Fractal
Temperate
High Sea Level

Anyways, I researched BW, then Agriculture, The Wheel, then Iron Working. Lo and Behold, there was Iron in Rome's fat cross! At the same time, i settled Antium, whose position enabled it to hook up Pigs and Copper ASAP while Rice and Gold would be nabbed on the expansion into the fat cross. Roosevelt founded Buddhism and founded Boston and New York, the latter 3 tiles away from Antium. I was already planning on the death of Roosevelt when he finished Stonehenge in Boston. I fired off an axe-rush with 7 axes with City Raider promotions then conquered New York. Razed it, then attacked Boston, which managed to destroy my stack with the help of Archers from Washington, which was 3 tiles away, on a hill. I sued for peace, and after the treaty was cancelled by me, I declared. I used Praetorians who captured Boston. In my haste, i overlooked Washington as a holy city and razed it. I settled Cumae near Boston, and found a mountain range 3 plots wide and 2 plots deep. I sent a Work Boat to explore and found myself on an isolated peninsula of a large continent with Gandhi, Isabella, and Saladin under Judaism, which was founded in Madrid. I've founded Confucianism, bur havent switched. Im the tech leader, but Gandhi, who's pleased, won't trade Currency, Construction, or Theology. What should i do?

 

[Palomino]

Build some galleys, ferry your Praetorians around the mountains, and continue conquering. If you get metal casting and some triremes out you can terrorize the entire continent while being safe from retribution behind your mountains.

 

[Handel]

Can the vanilla initial savegames be loaded and played with Warlords?

Your advantege being safe in the beginning will become your curse in the middle game and later. You can "terrorize" but you cannot win by just "terrorizing". And you will not be able to support the cities behind the mountains. The only solution is to move your production center beyond the mountains and to establish a self-supporting and self-defensive comunity here. But this will mean starting from the beginning. Even if you capture well established cities many of their citizens will refuse to work unless you wipe out the whole civ. Not to mention you will be hard pressed by the foreign culture.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Can the vanilla initial savegames be loaded and played with Warlords?

Your advantege being safe in the beginning will become your curse in the middle game and later. You can "terrorize" but you cannot win by just "terrorizing". And you will not be able to support the cities behind the mountains. The only solution is to move your production center beyond the mountains and to establish a self-supporting and self-defensive comunity here. But this will mean starting from the beginning. Even if you capture well established cities many of their citizens will refuse to work unless you wipe out the whole civ. Not to mention you will be hard pressed by the foreign culture.

Why so? Only the cities on the borders will worry about culture pressure. Just keep taking cities as long as your economy can support them. Once you have a few, the inner cities should be culturally fine. Citizens who refuse to work will just be whipped into helping you build your courthouses faster.

Getting a couple of good production cities established (captured) beyond the mountains will really help. One for Heroic Epic and to takeover troop production and another for Forbidden Palace.

I would station a couple of galleys by the mountains for ferry duty. Then proceed with war as before except for the additional ferry ride to the battlefield.

 

[Gooblah]

Hmmm...The problem here is I can't declare on anyone without the other two grabbing me. For whatever reason, i don't have the autosaves for the rest of the game, so heres the 4000 BC one.

 

[Gooblah]

Next, i would probably replay this game until 250 AD and see how it goes. Im thinking a quick Axe rush followed by Sailing, then settling past the mountain range.

 

[Felidae]

I'd say don't waste time building Axemen when you're playing as the Romans. 10-15 more turns gets you to Iron Working, then build your Praetorians, and sweep all before you!