Need some strategic advice

[xane]

I am playing a very strange Warlord level 8-civ game, as the Germans I found myself on a reasonably sized island alone and spent almost to 1000AD undiscovered by the other civs, however, it was at that point I realised I still hadn't unravelled the science engine yet and I was woefully behind most other civs.

Consequently I have lost out on most of the Great Wonders, I managed to get the Colossus but thats it.

I perservered and I rushed towards Sanitation to get my cities going again, in doing so I also accumulated a largish amount of gold taking advantage of the 4 turn cap on discoveries, and managed to buy a few technologies when I hit the Industrial Age to give myself a boost.

I have my own Saltpetre, Coal and Iron sources, plus literally stacks of Ivory which I've traded for all the other luxuries. But now as I rush towards getting my Panzers a little early in 1900, I find I have no Oil or Rubber, the only available source seems to be with the Japanese.

My biggest threat is the French, they have a huge advanced empire complimented earlier by the Great Library, the others I can soon surpass with science, but if I want to win a space race then I will need to put the French out of commission.

I was thinking of using MPPs to get the rest of the world onto them, but I have a sneaky feeling this may backfire on me. The game has been very peaceful although the Indians were eliminated about 200 years ago, and no-one has disturbed my island, and there only a few incursions into my culture borders at sea.

Any suggestions where I can go from here? It's an interesting game I want to carry through, even though I completely screwed up my science advancement earlier.

[Arrian]

Xane -

First off, great job catching up after ~5000yrs. of isolation.

Second, beware world wars! If you're a democracy, which I suspect you are, war weariness can really hurt you. Further, it sounds like you're importing much of your luxuries, using ivory to get them. If you stir up trouble on other people's continents, you may find they all end up at war with each other, and MPP's will drag you in to all sorts of wars and you may lose access to some of your luxuries - compounding war weariness.

If you're going to fight, you may want to give serious consideration to taking oil and rubber from the Japanese. Build up a LARGE strike force and grab the resources, build some Panzers and you can grab a Golden Age, which may well put you over the top in tech and the space race.

-Arrian

[mr.buddylee]

A couple things to thing about:

If you get into a war, and decide to get MPP with everyone, make sure you ARE NOT the aggressor. That makes MPP kinda worthless, especially if they are all mixed up. Plop some troops down, and let them attack you.

Also, if you're going to get into a war, the chances of them actually coming to your island are pretty slim IF they are busy attacking people on their own continent.

Make sure you have clear goals too. Go after Japan and I don't even know if you should think about keeping up an assult on France until you can get a nice big Panzer army.

Another thing to remember, if you gain ground, chances are that France will gain ground too, and if you end up not gaining anything, you're going to fall even farther behind...

If you can, ally with the same people Japan and France are allied with and then let France and Japan attack you so they lose their support and you gain it.

Good luck!

[Romulus]

Arrain and Mr.Buddylee have excellent suggestions. I particularly agree with Arrian when he suggests attacking Japan for their Rubber and Oil. However, if you want to "pass" on a being a major player in a massive WorldWar, then I suggest the following. Look closely at what other Civs are on the same (or very near) continent as the French. Then construct a few Naval Units and move them close to the French continent. Create MPP's with the as many of the Civs near France as possible. (This can be quite expensive). Start demanding Tech and and Lux/resources form the French, try to plant spies in their capital, and see if you can create a trade embargoes against the French. Your goal is to provoke the French into attacking YOU. This will prevent severe war weariness and get your MPP brothers to "protect" you. The reason for creating a couple naval units is to give the French something to attack. Additionally, your goal is to prevent ANY landings on your continent. (Or at least give you a little warning).

Hope this helps.