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Excess Land Strategy
This strategy is all about controlling land outside your cultural borders.
I have only implemented this strategy in one game – my current game, where there was just me and Russia on the one continent – so it might not work all the time, in fact it might have just been a fluke that I pulled it off. However, these forums are about new ideas, and that is all this is.
To start, build up your civilization as you normally would except for perhaps one change. With this strategy it is important to find out where rival civs are located, so if you don’t normally thoroughly explore, this is the one change you will have to make. Of course faster units are best to explore so if you don’t have scouts (as I didn’t) – the faster you can research horse riding, the better.
When selecting and maintaining the land which you seek to control, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Defense – This military controlled area must be defensible. This means mountains. Well, not necessarily, but mountains are best. Especially combined with a fortification, but more about that later. Also the more units you can spare for this military controlled area the better, but don’t leave your cities under-defended.
Road Network – The more advanced the road network, the more overall control you have of the area.
Neighbors – It is best not to have neighbors close at hand so to give you time to prepare your defense and road network. If you have no choice but to try to claim territory near a neighbor, you can still attempt to control their expansion (see “The ‘L’ Maneuver” thread).
Natural Borders – This means the sea. If you can find an area that is guarded by the sea on at least one side, you have a natural border. Of course the more natural borders on your new-claimed land, the better.
You should plan the defense of your new territory as you see fit, but I’ll suggest some ideas for those who may like to try them.
Fortification – I plan my defense with mountains in mind. They have the advantage of longer line of sight and stronger defense. Building a fort on one just makes it better (and more valuable to the defense of the land). However, you do not need many forts. Forts take a long time to build and mountains by themselves suffice. Forts are a must for areas in your military controlled area that cannot be re-supplied with troops quickly (ie. they are a long distance from your cities) or areas that are close to enemy borders. In this way you can keep a strong contingent of your forces in vital areas of your control in case they are ever needed.
Line of Sight – I like to spread cheap and/or obsolete units over my military controlled area so I can constantly see every area of my new-found land. This decreases the risk of barbarians and rival civs infiltrating your land.
Offense is the Best Defense – If rival civ settlers penetrate your military borders and build a city or two, don’t be afraid to attack them (after all, this is YOUR land), but don’t keep the city unless it is in a strategic location or you are unsatisfied with the size of your own civilization. Raze it instead and you will receive some workers to help you complete the defense of your rightful land. If they haven’t yet settled, use the ‘L’ Maneuver.
A Band of Workers – I like to team three or four workers together to build roads. This way your roads are completed faster. Of course you should build the most essential roads first (eg – a road from one end of your empire to the other) and then go on to the less essential roads. This teaming together is also good for completing fortifications.
The Logic Behind My Thinking...
I know that a lot of you may understand the logic of controlling this excess land, but for those who do not here is the basic reason I first tried it.
Resources...
The more land you are in control of, the more resources you control (the total amount of resources you own will become more evident as you discover more technology). The more resources you control the more you can trade. Also owning more territory give you a higher chance of having a resource monopoly or two.
Corruption...
The more cities you have (or more specifically the further they are away from your capital), the higher the amount of corruption you have. With excess territory, you can manage your corruption and have more land in your control than you usually would.
Sime.
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