What do you do if you are on an island?

[Sam_Catchem]

I was trying out my hte Iroquios(regent) last night and expansion seemed really simple. Then I found out that I had a decent size island to myself. I was kinda ticked because I really wanted to try those Mounted Warriors out. I figure..oh well..what the heck. The island was capable of handling 12 good citiies (of those 5 really good.) I had access to Iron and horses. I had to get the Lighthouse..which I did. Then, to my horror, I ran into the Pangea continent. When I talked to them..they were way ahead in tech. Ugh..I put as much into science as I could..since I had no rival. Their little trading network swamped me. I put science down to zero...and went out buying whatever I could. It was going OK..but it seemed impossible to expand beyond my tiny little island. The AI filed the Pangea and China and Japan had at least 16 to 20 cities.

Does anybody have suggestions? Is there anything that can be done? I like this little island nation..but I am fighting an uphill battle. In Civ2 there was an easy solution..save the money up and go buy a bunch of cities..there has to be a way.

 

[dozenlong]

I have had this situation a couple of times--I ended up mounting invasions against the weakest opponent, while paying or relationships with everyone, selling my world map to get communications and techs, and becoming a Technology Whore/Science Broker. I created a foothold on the continent, captured a couple of wonders and garnered a resource (Coal, in this case), and sued for peace quickly. After that, since I did not have to focus on defense as much, I put my cities into a production mode and actually beat the AI to a couple of wonders.

 

[LKendter]

In a case like this - build up your cash! It sounds strange, but I was on a 1 civ continent (well, was 2, other one died). When I finally found the other civs, I went from 4 to 5 techs behind, to ahead! I shopped around, and bought the cheapest source of tech. I had my homeland culture locked (no cheap AI cities), so it was amazing what I got for my World Map. Soon enough, I bought a tech one of them didn't have. Sold it, got more money, ... In a handfull of turns, France was #1 in science. At that point, I became the science trader.

Never knock selling everything you can. In my Babylon game, I am making obscene money, have the largest army, and I am just waiting for the right moment

 

[Sam_Catchem]

Thanks!..What I have been doing is set science to zero and trade science. No point in invading until I can get better boats. It is hard to launch an invasion with crappy little galleys. It just is a big pain in the buttocks. Hopefully..I can stay at peace long enough..it isn't easy being secluded...the AI gets nasty with the tech trading..and you have been out of it for a looong while.

The bummer thing is that my wonderful Mounted Warriors do not get used..and having the scout just made me realize I was alone all the sooner.

 

[Dragon2]

As the Aztecs (Monarch level, Archipelago Map), I found myself alone on a small island (enough for 8 cities) with no iron and no horses. The best I could do was to set science to 32 turns, get Seafaring and then, after making contact, buy tech with the cash I had accumulated. This left me permanently 1 or 2 techs behind the two civs that had started on larger land masses. In spite of wiping out the nearest civilization by means of careful use of conscript riflemen, I was never able to move out of third place.

The AI is so bad at invading by sea that even an allianc with #2 against #1 seems unpromising.