Thanks for the comments!
Yes, in fact, I find that it's a good way to get something out from an AI who is far away and untouchable, and also from an AI that is strong (he can even be runaway). I would say that this is the main strenght of this strat, the ability to get something where normally there would be nothing to be gained. Keeping crippled civs around as "vassals" in order to get something out of them is always something I'd do. Sometimes I take them out just to nullify their voting rights to the World Congress, the less civs there are, the easier it is for you to pass your own stuff.
A more aggressive approach could lead to even better results, but I noticed that I tend to become tech leader much faster when I try to go along with smaller army. The point from which I usually start a serious army is after rushing Radio for Freedom (voluntary army). For this it can be worthwhile to save a Writer for bulbing into the policy after the first 2 policies are taken, to ensure I can get the army as soon as possible, but a better way is to try to "time" the Policy just to be taken at least 1 turn later after Radio.
Of course many things depend on the particular conditions in that game. But in any conditions, I find that offfensively, pre-Modern Era units tend to be too vulnerable to City Attacks, particularly from the Tradition (Oligarchy) ones. For this reason, if there are 2 neighbours and only one has Tradition, I try to attack the one without it. Later units don't suffer as much from this problem because by then they have enough bonuses (promotions, great general, and better ratio of strenght with the cities). Defensively however, pre-Modern Era units tend to be highly effective, with even Scouts with Survivalism 2 easily defending from pikemen and being able to take 1 shot from muskets while in forts. All this means that Defense is super cheap while offense requires investment (upgrades costs gold, army costs hammers). Not to be misunderstood, I am sure and aware that one could just pump crossbowmen and clear the whole map, especially with China or England on a non-huge size pangaea map, but it's not really my style, because I play mostly Huge size games and on Huge, an AI from far away will get Bombers in time to nullify the crossbowmen. And upgrading to gatling guns costs too much gold, and loses 1 range...
Hopefully I will be able to make a video with a full game, by this summer.
Yes, in fact, I find that it's a good way to get something out from an AI who is far away and untouchable, and also from an AI that is strong (he can even be runaway). I would say that this is the main strenght of this strat, the ability to get something where normally there would be nothing to be gained. Keeping crippled civs around as "vassals" in order to get something out of them is always something I'd do. Sometimes I take them out just to nullify their voting rights to the World Congress, the less civs there are, the easier it is for you to pass your own stuff.
A more aggressive approach could lead to even better results, but I noticed that I tend to become tech leader much faster when I try to go along with smaller army. The point from which I usually start a serious army is after rushing Radio for Freedom (voluntary army). For this it can be worthwhile to save a Writer for bulbing into the policy after the first 2 policies are taken, to ensure I can get the army as soon as possible, but a better way is to try to "time" the Policy just to be taken at least 1 turn later after Radio.
Of course many things depend on the particular conditions in that game. But in any conditions, I find that offfensively, pre-Modern Era units tend to be too vulnerable to City Attacks, particularly from the Tradition (Oligarchy) ones. For this reason, if there are 2 neighbours and only one has Tradition, I try to attack the one without it. Later units don't suffer as much from this problem because by then they have enough bonuses (promotions, great general, and better ratio of strenght with the cities). Defensively however, pre-Modern Era units tend to be highly effective, with even Scouts with Survivalism 2 easily defending from pikemen and being able to take 1 shot from muskets while in forts. All this means that Defense is super cheap while offense requires investment (upgrades costs gold, army costs hammers). Not to be misunderstood, I am sure and aware that one could just pump crossbowmen and clear the whole map, especially with China or England on a non-huge size pangaea map, but it's not really my style, because I play mostly Huge size games and on Huge, an AI from far away will get Bombers in time to nullify the crossbowmen. And upgrading to gatling guns costs too much gold, and loses 1 range...
Hopefully I will be able to make a video with a full game, by this summer.
. I decided to declare war on everybody in fact, because I was producing internally enough gold from Tithe+Monarchy to have good enough GNP to kickstart the gold rush.
. I am 4-5 techs away from Sejong but being Assyria I will catch up just by conquering, and my spies are already stealing well, and with only 3 cities it's seems worth to buy Police Stations for National Spy agency. My army is 4th but I didn't even start buying or producing army. My plan is to get Brandenburg gate in Nimrud, build the Military epic there, and then dump all my gold into 3-range frigates. I might as well wait a bit more until Flight and get bombers. The victory is inevitable now as I can simply become army leader and take 100% income instead of 50% from everybody. What I like the most about my empire is the feeling that I don't need anybody, nobody can have any chance for ideology pressure and even if all CSs were to attack me I'd not even care.
