There Should Be A Way To Win This!

[Arnesson]

Warlords, Prince, no mods. All of the necessary resources are there, bronze, horses, iron, marble, stone, corn, wheat, cattle, etc. But I haven't been able to find it I have tried CE, SE and warmongering, all have failed dismally. The initial problem is caused by hordes of barbarians coming from the east. Trying to deal with that issue results in an economy that goes right down the tubes, no matter how many cities I build, take or raze. Eventually I end up with the slider at 10%, no money, and at least a full age behond in tech - easy pickings for Stalin with his knights and maces. If I go after old Joe early, Hattie or Ragnar do the job on me.

I finally managed to get the GW built, altthough it only protects my capital. Settled 2 cities (1 for stone, the other for Horses, Bronze and eventually Iron). Cottaged up like mad. Got the Great Library and Univ of Sankore in 1 city. Made nice to the neighbours. Took 3 Barb cities around 1200 AD to expand my borders a bit (which did terrible things to my economy, but my empire was so small I was hurting anyways. Then JC delares war and it all goes down the tubes. There has GOT to be a way!

 

[Kaost]

The initial problem is caused by hordes of barbarians coming from the east.

What about trying to built the Great Wall ?

 

[slobberinbear]

I'm just going from your post, not the saved game file.

Step one: build 3 or 4 total cities. Put them in the best locations possible. Make sure every city has a good food source. You can afford to have marginal resource-grabbing cities later.

Step two: If you have a lot of geographic separation from other civs and you can't build the great wall, you will have to deal with barbarians. I suggest using archers with the guerrilla promotion and parking them on hills (forested/jungled hills are best) outside of your cultural borders, to the east where the barbs are. Not only do these picket archers remove the fog of war, but they give you an early warning for barb incursions. Back up the archers with a chariot or two and you're good against all barbs in Warlords.

Step three: slowly build more cities and expand your picket archer defenses while building up your economy with markets, courthouses, commerce-producing tiles, trade routes, and/or a holy shrine. A 50-70% research amount is usually sufficient. Research alphabet and trade techs with other civs. Build up your military so that you are not a sitting duck.

Step four: when the land-grabbing is complete, assess your situation and decide what victory condition you will pursue.

 

[Arnesson]

I'm just going from your post, not the saved game file.

Step one: build 3 or 4 total cities. Put them in the best locations possible. Make sure every city has a good food source. You can afford to have marginal resource-grabbing cities later.

Step two: If you have a lot of geographic separation from other civs and you can't build the great wall, you will have to deal with barbarians. I suggest using archers with the guerrilla promotion and parking them on hills (forested/jungled hills are best) outside of your cultural borders, to the east where the barbs are. Not only do these picket archers remove the fog of war, but they give you an early warning for barb incursions. Back up the archers with a chariot or two and you're good against all barbs in Warlords.

Step three: slowly build more cities and expand your picket archer defenses while building up your economy with markets, courthouses, commerce-producing tiles, trade routes, and/or a holy shrine. A 50-70% research amount is usually sufficient. Research alphabet and trade techs with other civs. Build up your military so that you are not a sitting duck.

Step four: when the land-grabbing is complete, assess your situation and decide what victory condition you will pursue.

Yep. Sounds like my strategy ok. Except that I was having to back up those Archers with Chariots and Axemen as quickly as I could produce them, since the Barbs started coming in groups of 2 or 3! No luck on the Great Wall, Carthage always beats me to it. I build a total of 3 cities (other than my capital) to lock in Bronze, multiple Horses, Marble and Stone (and when they expand, that gets me Iron). I take several Barb cities, once I can manage to produce Kashiks. In 1 attempt, I actually received an early Great Merchant, which netted me 900 cash, and kept me reasonably solvent, but by 1800 I was running well behind the leaders in both tech and land. The major issue I guess is that, with the barbarian hordes rampaging, there is no opportunity to try for an early war against any of the eventual leaders (Cyrus, Hattie, Ragnar and Stalin) since all of my troops are committed to defence of my cities. By the time I have them under some degree of control, I require Cats to have any chance at all (Construction). By the time that is researched, and I have built a half-dozen, they have Maces and Knights against my Swords and Keshiks. No way that battle is going to work out in my favour.