I just played my first game with both the new Warlords AI and on Monarch and barely pulled off a space race win about 15 turns ahead in 1930. While I'll take the win, I was behind for so much of the game, I must say it could have gone far better. I also relied upon only my original 6 cities and Rome to carry my entire win, the rest of my conquered empire sucked bad. (I also got incredibly lucky when the only source of aluminum on the continent spawned under one of my mines shortly after I built the Apollo Program 
Likely would have lost without that.)
I decided to give the early axemen war a try, but it didn't go so well.
I didn't have metal to get my axemen early enough to rush, so this is my position just after getting Construction and building a couple catapults and war elphants to go with my axemen I had sitting around from my aborted attempt earlier (edit: I also had a couple macemen, but no cash to upgrade most of those axemen->macemn until midconquest). The AI had some longbow men, but also archers and axemen. I needed to attack someone cause I need 2+ more cities for Oxford and to strengthen my empire as a whole.
I decided to attack Augustus, but sorta regretted it later once I saw his empire in more detail. I got my Oxford and a good city in Rome, but the rest was useless.
Here's the pros and cons of attacking each:
Augustus:
Pros: Didn't have iron for Praetorians, I was blocking him so war was likely, had high pop (for the period), Rome was a very nice city, and 3 luxury goods.
Cons: 1 of 2 religious allies, other than Rome his cities had almost nothing but food - It was sea and snow.
Ghandi:
Pros: Nice land to the west, smaller military than Augustus or Frederick.
Cons: 1 of 2 religious allies, unlikely to declare war on me in the future, wide front, the 3 cities closest to me were poor, it was only west into his empire that was nice, more longbowmen than Frederick or Augustus.
Frederick:
Pros: Most likely to declare war on me in the future, decent land, good position for pursuing a full continental domination strat.
Cons: Civs like the Aztecs to the North would almost ensure a war-filled game, if Ghandi did declare war on me, I'd be stuck with 2 wide fronts.
So I ask who you would you have attacked in my position?
And as a continuation, if you did destroy Augustus like I did, would you have stopped there or would you have moved on to Frederick and/or Ghandi? Their borders didn't change for the entirety of the game, so the same map still holds.
Since I accidently saved over the map, I made a super duper image in paint.
Likely would have lost without that.)I decided to give the early axemen war a try, but it didn't go so well.
I didn't have metal to get my axemen early enough to rush, so this is my position just after getting Construction and building a couple catapults and war elphants to go with my axemen I had sitting around from my aborted attempt earlier (edit: I also had a couple macemen, but no cash to upgrade most of those axemen->macemn until midconquest). The AI had some longbow men, but also archers and axemen. I needed to attack someone cause I need 2+ more cities for Oxford and to strengthen my empire as a whole.
I decided to attack Augustus, but sorta regretted it later once I saw his empire in more detail. I got my Oxford and a good city in Rome, but the rest was useless.
Here's the pros and cons of attacking each:
Augustus:
Pros: Didn't have iron for Praetorians, I was blocking him so war was likely, had high pop (for the period), Rome was a very nice city, and 3 luxury goods.
Cons: 1 of 2 religious allies, other than Rome his cities had almost nothing but food - It was sea and snow.
Ghandi:
Pros: Nice land to the west, smaller military than Augustus or Frederick.
Cons: 1 of 2 religious allies, unlikely to declare war on me in the future, wide front, the 3 cities closest to me were poor, it was only west into his empire that was nice, more longbowmen than Frederick or Augustus.
Frederick:
Pros: Most likely to declare war on me in the future, decent land, good position for pursuing a full continental domination strat.
Cons: Civs like the Aztecs to the North would almost ensure a war-filled game, if Ghandi did declare war on me, I'd be stuck with 2 wide fronts.
So I ask who you would you have attacked in my position?
And as a continuation, if you did destroy Augustus like I did, would you have stopped there or would you have moved on to Frederick and/or Ghandi? Their borders didn't change for the entirety of the game, so the same map still holds.
Since I accidently saved over the map, I made a super duper image in paint.
