"Do you get other nations to attack each other? Then you are a warmonger."
I must be a "true" warmonger then because everything is always peaceful... until some idiot declares war on me (usually by demanding tribute that I will NEVER pay)... and the entire world gets caught in the middle of it.
For example in my latest game I'm playing as England on a World Map (Marla Singer's). I'm just sitting there minding my own business... building wonders, etc on the British Isles, Ireland, and Iceland. I went out of my way to go up to Iceland instead of trying to butt in on an already crowded Europe, but then Germany makes the fatal mistake of demanding tribute of me. I tell them to buzz off and then a message comes up saying that "the Germans have declared war on us!" All I can do is laugh as I've got a formidable navy and three islands that I completely control from coast to coast so there's not much of a chance of them doing any damage to me. Meanwhile, they are in the middle of Europe, surrounded by tons of potential enemies....
So after I sink the first wave of gallies that are trying to send archers or warriors to "invade" me, I talk with France and Rome and get them to go to war with the Germans. I talked to Russia as well... I can't remember if I got them to go into the war with me or not, but I remember they eventually declared war on me. Anyways, I held off the few and far between "invasion fleets" which consisted of 2 gallies from either the Germans or the Russians and war continued to spread. France got Babylon to join our side. Germany enlisted Greece, Persia, and Egypt to their side while Rome managed to talk the Indians into joining our side. A few years later China and Zulu pledged their alliegence to Germany and I enlisted Japan (against China) to help us.
So there it was, the entire world was divided nice and evenly... England, France, Rome, Babylon, India, and Japan vs Germany, Russia, Greece, Persia, Egypt, Zululand, and India. And then all h*ll broke loose as France turned on me, Egypt invaded Greece, India-Japan-China turned into a free-for-all for control of Asia, Germany betrayed Russia...
I let them duke it out while I built up my forces in London and then launched the first invasion. I captured Copenhagen and marched down to Berlin... which I managed to capture but failed to hold as I was pushed back by the Germans. However, I surprised them enough to allow Egypt (who was sweeping through Greece) to march up and capture Berlin the next turn after the German took it back from me. So I sat in Copenhagen for a while, sending troops over to reinforce whenever I could. I built up more troops in London and by now the French had turned on me, so I launched a swift invasion in which I was able to capture the entire Iberian Peninsula in 2 turns and then, as the French sent troops to get their lost cities back, I came pouring in from across the English Channel to capture Paris. I build up troops in Paris and Copenhagen and then right when I was about to launch an attack on Berlin I get a message saying that my former allies, Rome, have decalred war on me. "Goob job dumba$ses." I think, so instead of taking Berlin, I sweep through the Italian peninsula in three turns and completely banish the Romans from Europe.
By now the Germans and Russians are going at it and Russia is getting their behinds handed to them. Moscow is overrun and almost the entire German army is in the East... so, since I now control all of Western Europe (and a few French cities on the coast of Africa) I concentrate on them. A few shiploads of troops from London land in Scandinavia (German controlled) and troops from Paris and Rome march into Berlin, Munich, and Moscow with relative ease. India and Egypt are still at war with Germany as well, so they are keeping most of the German troops on the complete other end of their empire while I am mopping up the few troops they left behind to defend their western cities. Eventually I conquer all of the German, Russian, and French cities that were in Eastern Europe and present day Russia. The Russians are banished to the far east where they are immidiately destroyed by "rampaging" Japanese forces while France is now nothing more than a few colonial cities in the Sahara Desert and Germany a couple of small cities on the icy islands to the north of Russia.
Now that I have complete control of Europe so I decide that I now want to control the entire Mediterranean. I am still at war with the Zulu, despite the fact that we have never met on the battle field, so I enlist the Egyptians to join my side and they agree to 'help' fight the Zulus. Meanwhile, the only "foreign" city left in Europe is Athens, and since the Greeks declared war on me long ago I figure it's a nice little payback as I march into their capital and conquer it. Apparently they still had a small city left in the far east, but my good ole friends, the "rampaging" Japanese quickly take care of them... 2 down. A couple turns later I learn that Babylon has been completely destroyed by the Persians, so that's another "empire" down the tube.
So Egypt and Zulu go at it for a couple years while I build up my European empire. Eventually I get to the point where I can't wait any longer and begin my campaign against the Egyptians. By now the Zulu have nearly destroyed the entire Egyptian army, which is good for now, but bad for later (when it's just me vs Zulu for control of Africa). Either way, I'm now at war with both of them, and they are still fighting each other, so I am able to conquer the Middle East (egyptian controlled) and nearly all of North Africa (mostly zulu controlled after they were conquering egyptian towns). During this mess the few French and Roman cities that were left in the Sahara managed to get overrun by either my forces or by the Zulu, so those two were completely destroyed (5 down now). My Scandinavian cities were now starting to produce well, so I got a few boats and invaded the little German cities sitting on their little chunks of ice and destroyed them (6 down). The Indians were also emerging as the frontrunners in Asia, eliminating the Chinese (7 down) and bannishing Japan to their own little island by destroying every single Japanese city on mainland Asia.
While in the middle of my North African campaign, the Iroqouis thought it would be a good idea to attempt to invade Greenland (where I had set up several cities). I managed to fight off the attack with minimal damage and then got the Americans and Aztecs to decalre war on the Iroqouis... thus getting the entire world involved in the war. Since then America has declared war on the Zulu, Japan has declared war on the Aztecs, and the Iroqouis were also formally at war with India and Persia, though I doubt they have fought each other yet.
So right now it's 1908 AD. The World has been constantly at war since 1000 BC... nearly 3000 years now. Seven civilizations cease to exist while 2 (Japan and Egypt) can barely claim to be alive at all. And all of this happened just because Germany wanted me to give them Map Making for free and I wouldn't. lol
