To kill or not to kill...

[Rancid Sushi]

Well, this is it. I've finally moved up to Prince and I'm doing well so far, but currently I'm faced with a tough decision. It's about 310 BC and I wiped out Hannibal a few turns ago, and now I'm poised to strike at Alexander in the south. However, I also just founded Christianity and converted (popped with a GP). It spread quickly to Athens and now Alex has also converted. Half of his territory is jungle and I don't have Iron Working yet. Asoka is further to the south, perhaps to far to wage war on for now. Alex also does not appear to have copper yet as Athens is only guarded by archers. I can either focus on building libraries and temples and such things or I can build some more units and invade Alex while he is still weak. Should I invade now or make Alex into an ally and team up against Asoka later? My ultimate goal is domination, so I can skip over Alex and use him as a war ally/trading partner while I conquer everyone else. If I do this, I'll probably start beelining Liberalism now and pop it for Astronomy since the map is continents. The Settler I just made is heading south to claim the two elephants. I'll trade for Hunting or research myself after Alphabet which I'm researching now. Here's the save:


http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/106091/Josheses_Game_1.CivWarlordsSave

 

[cabert]

If you want to use Alex as an ally you need to be stronger than he is or to bribe him vs someone else soon.
If you can't do any of those 2 things, you're better off killing him now. He spread you state religion to his cities, so you have a line of sight, and that makes war easier, doesn't it .

 

[Uncle E]

I agree w/ cabert - now might be the only time he's weak and you need to take advantage of opportunities when you can. I play prince alot now and realize that timing is more important as you move up in levels. I'm sure denying him strategic resources w/ quick chariot razing strikes along w/ a stack of axes should do the trick. I saw your stack ... I'd cut his roads between cities before starting a war if time permits.

Be careful that your maintenance costs dont swamp your economy as even razing that small city near you but keeping Athens may tank your economy / research for many years as you're quit far from CoL / courthouses. I like that ivory spot south of your capital as it'll help you build war elephants to attack asoka on round two of your warmongering.

 

[Rancid Sushi]

Thanks, I was wanting to do that. Although I hate to part with the 3 cities Alex appears to have, it looks like I'll have to raze them all. I'll resettle the area after I have Iron Working and CoL, or just grab cities from Asoka if he beats me to it. I think I'll wait until I have that plus Construction so I can attack Asoka with a mix of ellies, catapults, and axemen. After that I'll focus on booming and filling out my continent. I probably won't play again until later in the week so there's plenty of time for more suggestions. I don't plan on turning this into a long thread full of updates. It seems rather redundant as far as the rest of the board is concerned, since Sisiutil and aelf are doing monarch and immortal respectively. Those levels are much harder and there's a lot more to be learned from their games.