Between turns 220 and 250 I made war with the Ottomans. My gambit that five riflemen three artillery and two cavalry would do the job turned out to be a precious near run thing. I took four cities from Sully, the first two were like taking candy from a baby. But as I approached the coastal city of Gaziantep, near the capital Istanbul (formerly Constantinoble
) things got rough. For one thing Sully had a navy of four caravels and two frigates that were peppering my riflemen on the approach to the city. Secondly, his UU Sipahi would appear on my flank without warning and indeed some of my brave riflemen (a highly decorated unit) fell victim to the cavalry charge. After taking the coastal city I picked off the navy with my artillery pieces and let my remaining rifles tend to the wounded.
The siege of Istanbul was one of the bloodiest of the game. Not since the war against the Romans in their ancestors time had the Egyptian soldiers witnessed such carnage and horrors. The Ottoman navy continued to arrive and take pot shots at the helpless riflemen while Sully miraculously managed to produce an additional two units per turn. First they were muskets and cannon, then they were rifles, and finally on the last turn of the siege the Egyptian rifles trembled at the first sight of Ottoman artillery. Tech advantage gone
The mighty Egyptian empire lost every single rifleman unit taking Istanbul, save one. The last rifleman unit was down to its last two men, but at last the Ottoman capital was ours.
Needless to say I sued for a neutral peace, and fortunately I got it.
At turn 260 the world was in turmoil and the Egyptian empire was smack in the center of it. To my West lay my allies; my long thin empire surrounded my best friend forever Ghandi in the Northwest, and shared a lot of border with my close friend Darius to the Southwest. My empire looked like a boomerang separating my two friends. Our alliance had lasted practically the whole game. Ghandi and Darius continued to wage war with the Ottomans, now relegated to the far western fringe of the continent, while I garrisoned my remaining units in my cities. My entire eastern front was filled with seemingly hundreds of Mongol cities. To the east of the Mongols lay the Greeks who had long since destroyed the Arabs.
Originally I had planned to take out my loyal friends India and Persia while I had my troops in the neighborhood. However, almost all of my best rifle units died taking Istanbul and both India and Persia got to rifles and then infantry. So I wish I could say I did what I did for honor, but honestly it was just my pathetic desire for self-preservation to not start a war that I surely could not win against a friend that I had betrayed. So I played the good guy role
The Greeks were leading the tech race and had Infantry by turn 250. Within 15 turns every player had them and I was one of the last. Tech wise I was in fifth place at 61%, 8% behind Greece the leaders. At turn 260 Greece led on points with about 1400. Mongolia was close at 1350, India Persia and myself were all really close to each other at around 1100-1200. Rome and the Ottomans were down to a city or two.
My strategy for survival in this industrial warfare era against technologically superior opponents depended entirely on cementing the right coalition. To me this meant bringing the Mongols more closely in with my other two friends, and continuing to use them as a buffer against the mighty Greeks. My relations with Mongolia were always friendly, yet always tense. Relations consisted of me selling Khan practically every lux and spare strategic resource as well as RAs all the way thru. Khan never asked for friendship and neither did I, but to his credit Khan never attacked me even tho he could have annihilated me at pretty much any point. I realized instintively at this moment that I had to get Mongolia to commit more fully to my alliance b/c the competitive Greek/Roman/Ottoman alliance could have tempted Khan to attack me and I would have been surrounded and destroyed as an afterthought.
My big move was to denounce Greece around turn 270. Altho Greece was at odds with my bff Ghandi and Darius over city states, I had used him all the way up to now for lux trading and RAs. Denouncing him almost certainly meant he would go from friendly to hostile in a short amount of time, hence no more RAs, and likely war. Prior to denouncing him I waited for the last RA to mature, then in the same turn I denounced him I took every CS he had that bordered my empire (two military, two maritime). Greece was at war with Mongolia so I figured denouncing him would really help cement friendship with Khan. Ghandi and Cyrus had denounced Greece in the past so I was pretty sure they would do so again and we would all be one big happy coalition unified by hatred against Greece/Rome/Ottomans. Within two turns of my denouncement both India and Persia had followed suit and Mongolia was ready to declare friendship. This made Darius temporarily uneasy but eventually Mongolia was able to make RAs with everyone in my coalition.
Everything was going just fine until the Greek tanks began upsetting the balance of power. By turn 275 Greece had taken two northern Mongol cities and was now bordering my capital city
. I was surprised by the speed and success of the Greek offensive. Greece and Mongolia began flying fighters at each other in the 270s
, and shortly thereafter Greek artillery upgraded to rocket
! I promptly ordered a new pair of pants, two more artillery pieces and two anti-aircraft guns
.
Lo and behold, on turn 276 the Romans and Greeks declared war on me. Suleiman was dead, like Harun so many centuries before. Im pretty sure Darius got both of Sullys last two cities. One turn later I finally upgraded my Cavs to Tanks. I knew where Alexanders attack had to come from, the captured Mongol city that bordered my capital. Consequently I had two AA guns, six artillery, and four infantry ready to defend, with five tanks ready to join the fight. On my horizon I could see the Greek rocket artillery and tanks lurking across the border.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the first 15 turns of war. Basically Khan and Alex were just throwing units at each other
. B/c Khans units tended to be less promoted / more isolated and therefore weaker than mine, Alex tended to target Khans units for destruction, while my General advanced my army in a very organized and conservative manner
. With my six artillery in place (three highly promoted) I could soften a city of 40-50 in a single turn. My infantry shielded the artillery and my tanks skulked behind the artillery. My infantry and artillery would sometimes take a hit from the Greek rocket artillery or the city, but it was rarely fatal thanks to Khan drawing so much of the fire
. My uninjured tanks with their five moves would cruise in and take the softened city in a single turn and then easily destroy the rocket artillery in the adjacent tiles
. It was a very efficient system, and to my amazement I was able to take three cities in 15 turns. I lost a total of four units (three tanks and one infantry) but was able to replace them with interest out of my nearby capital with full rail connections. My empire was now 11 cities: It stretched from the East coast to the West coast, was connected only thru two allied CS, and at no point was it even two cities thick. It looked like a snake and was easily the most indefensible empire in the history of Civilization, so I was gambling 100% on my friends remaining loyal to me. You know what they say about playing as if there is nothing to lose
It is turn 295 now. I am happy to still be alive and kicking. I dont know how this is going to end. The next two cities are going to be much tougher to take (Mecca 68 defense and Bagdad 64). Alex is bringing helicopters to the front now, and in combination with his rocket artillery, air force, and these bigger more heavily defended cities, I dont know if I can advance without very heavy casualties. My loyal and decent citizens have had to tolerate so much bloodshed already. Can I really ask them to willingly step into another slaughterhouse siege?
Im five turns from rocket artillery, four more after that before a RA gives me modern armor. My other problem is I rely entirely on allies for Aluminum. Oh well, I am 100% vulnerable to their loyalty already, so this will just add to the spectacular nature of my failure if I am betrayed. The scariest part is that these next two cities are the old Arab capital Mecca, and Bagdad. If these cities are this tough, how hard is it going to be to crack Athens? And how far away will Athens even be? I dont even have a map of the whole continent, and have never even built so much as a canoe
. Can I possibly pull this off? Long odds, very long odds
. I built Great Library and NCollege before settling. I went with four military units to try to keep others from picking on me. I signed RAs with everyone possible and didn't ally any city states. I only settled one additional city to try to stay under the radar as well. I took Hagia Sophia Porcelain Tower and Chichen Itza in my second city (south by the iron and sugar). I declared friends with India and Persia who were both as weak as me, and traded like mad to stay friendly with my neighboring power, the Mongols.
). The war with Rome lasted about 150 turns. I got the Mongols to go to war on Rome which really distracted him late. I just kept picking off his units as they entered my territory and ignored his demands for money and my 2nd city (what a joke 
). I held tight until I got to rifles, upgraded all four of my LS and went to attack him. I also started cranking out more rifles and cannons at this time. Ottomans sued for peace but Rome was not so lucky. I took his nearest city with good resources and then sacked Rome. Only downside was I lost my four most experienced units in the process, but I felt that time was everything while I had the tech advantage. I probably killed 25 of his units. It was just waves of crossbows and legions.
, and from that point on everyone will hate me 
accumulated, i will be the real bully this time. I delayed Metal Casting a bit to make enough warrior, then i upgraded everyone close to Rome and Mongols territories. i know they are close even if i didn't scout much.
