ridiculousfish
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2006
- Messages
- 7
Let's face it - a great leader needs a great empire. You can build your little statues and prance around in your musicals all you want and pretend that your "culture" gives you some sort of feel-good victory, but nothing beats the feeling of waves lapping at every side of your vast territory. You're with me? Great! But we'll need a battle plan.
Cat this, 'Lizbeth that - bah! I scoff at these leaders! Mere musketeers beneath the infantry boots of the greatest leader the world has ever seen: George W. No, not that one! Washington! Washington! Where's George! Why George?
Because George can expand like a freshman's waistline, that's why. The key here is a big empire, cities captured or built, and so civic upkeep will be your biggest expense. Frugal George only pays half the upkeep, and his special financing is as good as minting money. You need George to afford that vast empire.
How do you start? The usual opening moves - make a beeline for Bronze Working and then chop rush two or three settlers. George doesn't quite "get" mining at first, so you have time to train a warrior before you have to build that worker. Use it to explore so that you have a better chance of finding bronze.
If you don't find it, try for iron, or horses. But hopefully you found it. And you know what to do - mine it, connect your cities (which are building barracks at this point), then throw open the doors to Axeman Academy and graduate as many as you can, perhaps with a chop rush or two.
Once you have about seven axemen, it's time to pick a fight with a neighbor. Go after the one with that weird religon that nobody else on the continent seems to have (I'm looking at you, Judiasm!), or the civ that will open up the most territory. Keep your cities on axemen and your stacks full of doom, and only raze the absolutely pathetic cities. Build an archer or two in each of the captured cities, then turn them on axemen.
You should be able to take out one of your neighbors without any trouble; start on the next quickly, because you could very well be running a deficit at this point and you need that pillaging cash. Towards the end of the second conquering, you may find your axemen up against horse archers or longbowmen, but your double-stuffed empire should be able to turn out enough axemen and swordsmen (or spearmen in the case of horses) to overwhelm them. Buh-bye civ number 2.
Did you get some wonders on your rampage? Great - they're all nice, but especially the pyramids. Did you capture a holy city? Building the shrine will bring in some desperately needed income.
If there's a third civ on that continent of yours, it probably expanded into the holes left by your swath of destruction and has a strong technical lead. Your axemen don't seem too eager to rush those musketeers, huh? And that deficit from all that city upkeep! Start by moving that palace to somewhere closer to the center of your empire. Those captured cities came pre-improved, so it won't take long for them to ramp up production. Play nice with the third civ, take its religon when asked and switch to Organized Religon to help rebuild your captured cities. Build courthouses and place the Forbidden Palace. The red ink will turn to black.
Ahh, now that financial trait is starting to kick in. With that big empire powering you, you can out-research your rivals. Monasteries and theaters provide a way to fill in the cultural gaps between all your captured cities.
Now it gets easier. Improve your cities (preferring cottages) and go for great scientists. With that financial trait, you can afford to fund even the stupidest university grants, so head for Education and then build universities everywhere. (At least one George W is going to be the education president.) If your science is less than you'd like, the Mercantilism/Representation combo is great for big empires with lots of cities but not much cash. Switch to Free Religion when possible, since the bulk of your buildings will be finished. State property sounds promising in this scenario, but it hasn't been that useful in my experience.
Not much to say at this point - you should be able to get a commanding technical lead with all those cities and then coast through the spaceship.
I've had some fairly easy victories on Prince with this strategy. I like it because it doesn't rely on particular wonders and because there's a bit of warmongering and a bit of building. Its biggest weakness is its reliance on several nearby neighbors - it won't work well on a small continent with only one neighbor, because you are depending on your neighbors to construct your empire for you. Early access to bronze is also a sticking point.
Any thoughts on this? Will it scale to Monarch?
Cat this, 'Lizbeth that - bah! I scoff at these leaders! Mere musketeers beneath the infantry boots of the greatest leader the world has ever seen: George W. No, not that one! Washington! Washington! Where's George! Why George?
Because George can expand like a freshman's waistline, that's why. The key here is a big empire, cities captured or built, and so civic upkeep will be your biggest expense. Frugal George only pays half the upkeep, and his special financing is as good as minting money. You need George to afford that vast empire.
How do you start? The usual opening moves - make a beeline for Bronze Working and then chop rush two or three settlers. George doesn't quite "get" mining at first, so you have time to train a warrior before you have to build that worker. Use it to explore so that you have a better chance of finding bronze.
If you don't find it, try for iron, or horses. But hopefully you found it. And you know what to do - mine it, connect your cities (which are building barracks at this point), then throw open the doors to Axeman Academy and graduate as many as you can, perhaps with a chop rush or two.
Once you have about seven axemen, it's time to pick a fight with a neighbor. Go after the one with that weird religon that nobody else on the continent seems to have (I'm looking at you, Judiasm!), or the civ that will open up the most territory. Keep your cities on axemen and your stacks full of doom, and only raze the absolutely pathetic cities. Build an archer or two in each of the captured cities, then turn them on axemen.
You should be able to take out one of your neighbors without any trouble; start on the next quickly, because you could very well be running a deficit at this point and you need that pillaging cash. Towards the end of the second conquering, you may find your axemen up against horse archers or longbowmen, but your double-stuffed empire should be able to turn out enough axemen and swordsmen (or spearmen in the case of horses) to overwhelm them. Buh-bye civ number 2.
Did you get some wonders on your rampage? Great - they're all nice, but especially the pyramids. Did you capture a holy city? Building the shrine will bring in some desperately needed income.
If there's a third civ on that continent of yours, it probably expanded into the holes left by your swath of destruction and has a strong technical lead. Your axemen don't seem too eager to rush those musketeers, huh? And that deficit from all that city upkeep! Start by moving that palace to somewhere closer to the center of your empire. Those captured cities came pre-improved, so it won't take long for them to ramp up production. Play nice with the third civ, take its religon when asked and switch to Organized Religon to help rebuild your captured cities. Build courthouses and place the Forbidden Palace. The red ink will turn to black.
Ahh, now that financial trait is starting to kick in. With that big empire powering you, you can out-research your rivals. Monasteries and theaters provide a way to fill in the cultural gaps between all your captured cities.
Now it gets easier. Improve your cities (preferring cottages) and go for great scientists. With that financial trait, you can afford to fund even the stupidest university grants, so head for Education and then build universities everywhere. (At least one George W is going to be the education president.) If your science is less than you'd like, the Mercantilism/Representation combo is great for big empires with lots of cities but not much cash. Switch to Free Religion when possible, since the bulk of your buildings will be finished. State property sounds promising in this scenario, but it hasn't been that useful in my experience.
Not much to say at this point - you should be able to get a commanding technical lead with all those cities and then coast through the spaceship.
I've had some fairly easy victories on Prince with this strategy. I like it because it doesn't rely on particular wonders and because there's a bit of warmongering and a bit of building. Its biggest weakness is its reliance on several nearby neighbors - it won't work well on a small continent with only one neighbor, because you are depending on your neighbors to construct your empire for you. Early access to bronze is also a sticking point.
Any thoughts on this? Will it scale to Monarch?
