robvollman
Warlord
I'm near the end of my first German game. I choose civilizations randomly, but based on your inspirational stories, I was quite pleased that Germany came up.
Seeing their unique abilities and units, I knew that a Domination Victory was in order.
I was playing continents with scarce resources, so the cheap pikemen are awesome, since they don't require Iron. Especially since you can upgrade spearmen for 5$ if you get that one social policy under Honor.
I didn't build any units at all. My original warrior eventually recruited 5 Barbarian units, which I used to rush the first neighbour who built a 2nd city. It was surprisingly easily - once you destroy their field army, six units can take a city in one or two turns max, losing one guy at most. This is especially true once you get a few upgrades and your first great general.
I took out two more civs before the entire continent went to war with me for being such a war monger. Didn't matter - by that point I had a dozen units with lots of upgrades. I took out the other four civs, and by the time I got to the last one I already had my first few Landsknecht and even some swords.
The big problem was happiness and money. Fortunately I had only one city, so I was getting lots of social policies, which I used to help, especially the ones that give you happiness and reduced maintenance costs for garrisons.
I bee-lined Astronomy so I could cross the oceans and take the other capitals. I crossed the sea about 400 AD or so, and had the other continent mapped out by 650 AD. I garrisoned my cities with my weakest units, and sent over what was left: 5 archers, 2 great generals, and my 12 best units (landsknecht and longswords).
It's been pretty easy taking the capitals, I only have a few more left to go. I want to hurry before I lost my advantage, but it's hard to manage happiness. The money situation is under control now, but I'm having a real problem with happiness despite keeping my cities as small as possible.
Anyway, the Germans are fun to play if you're a warmonger like me, but not as much fun as the Aztecs.
Seeing their unique abilities and units, I knew that a Domination Victory was in order.
I was playing continents with scarce resources, so the cheap pikemen are awesome, since they don't require Iron. Especially since you can upgrade spearmen for 5$ if you get that one social policy under Honor.
I didn't build any units at all. My original warrior eventually recruited 5 Barbarian units, which I used to rush the first neighbour who built a 2nd city. It was surprisingly easily - once you destroy their field army, six units can take a city in one or two turns max, losing one guy at most. This is especially true once you get a few upgrades and your first great general.
I took out two more civs before the entire continent went to war with me for being such a war monger. Didn't matter - by that point I had a dozen units with lots of upgrades. I took out the other four civs, and by the time I got to the last one I already had my first few Landsknecht and even some swords.
The big problem was happiness and money. Fortunately I had only one city, so I was getting lots of social policies, which I used to help, especially the ones that give you happiness and reduced maintenance costs for garrisons.
I bee-lined Astronomy so I could cross the oceans and take the other capitals. I crossed the sea about 400 AD or so, and had the other continent mapped out by 650 AD. I garrisoned my cities with my weakest units, and sent over what was left: 5 archers, 2 great generals, and my 12 best units (landsknecht and longswords).
It's been pretty easy taking the capitals, I only have a few more left to go. I want to hurry before I lost my advantage, but it's hard to manage happiness. The money situation is under control now, but I'm having a real problem with happiness despite keeping my cities as small as possible.
Anyway, the Germans are fun to play if you're a warmonger like me, but not as much fun as the Aztecs.
