Just curious about a technique that was noted, and partially dismissed a while ago. The basic concept of said strategy was getting right of passage with a rival civ, positioning yourself to strike cities within his borders, and violating the ROP agreement by assaulting his empire from the inside. It was noted, however, that this would RUIN you diplomatically. So, in a recent game (8 civs, warlord - never been terribly good, and I'm curious about how trusting the AI is in later difficulty levels, standard pangea with a few islands in the ocean, quite small) as the Aztecs, I decided to try out the ROP-violation strategy in a manner which would make certain that I had no diplomatic consequences.
In short, I betrayed the entire world in one turn.
I'd just reached the modern era in about the 1600s. Other civs were on par but not emphasizing Computers, so mech infantry had NOT shown up in their cities. Several turns before I got Modern Armor, I switched my entire empire (comprised of my empire, and the remnants of the defeated English and Iroquois) into mech. infantry production on war mobilization. My core empire was pumping out a dozen or so mech. infantry every two turns. Once I got Synth. Fibers, I switched production to MA and did the following:
1) Contact all rival civs remaining in the game. Note that, in my case, I was *not* the most trustworthy person. I'd crushed the E&I mercilessly and betrayed the Romans time and again, finally finishing them off and selling their cities to France and Russia. Germany and America never really trusted me either. If you're a peacemaker I imagine this would work even better.
2) Get ROP. Any way you can; on Warlord they just took it as it
stood, but if you have to beg, pay, plead, offer trades... do it. You'll be cancelling the treaties the hard way soon enough
3) ROP stands as it is for 20 turns before it can be cancelled. If you strike within those 20 turns, you can't be kicked out. I spent 10 turns of the 20 building forces and moving them beside each and every city on earth, except the island colonies, which I largely ignored - though I rushed an airport to move MA there when the continental area was mine. The ONLY way the AI will be able to stop you beforehand is to declare war - and if they do, you have MA and mech. infantry right beside their cities - not the wisest course of action on their part, wouldn't you agree?
4) Place troops in anticipation of the assault. I moved my mech. infantry hordes first, one to a city, then poured out my MA, two to a city. This was a bit too little, especially given that I was up against infantry; 4-5 tanks or MA and 1-2 infantry or mech. infantry plus 2 or more arty pieces and/or planes would make this strategy particularly solid.
5) Once EVERYTHING is in place... well... attack. MPPs don't matter. Reputation doesn't matter. Sack every city on earth, and this is the key point - TAKE EVERY ONE OF THEM WHOLE!
But what about corruption, one asks, or cultural defection after-the-fact, since it's unlikely that ALL cities will fall in one turn and unlikely that you can hit every city (especially if you're playing with continents or archipelagos). But you're looking too far ahead, simply put... this strat ends the game NOW, no consequences beyond two or three turns. Let a city or two defect a turn - your forces can raze them or retake them. The whole POINT here is to either win by conquest (if you got lucky and took every city, or at least all the cities of one civ) or have so much land under your control at the end of a single turn that you win a Domination victory by virtue of your (admittedly miniscule, but those 9 tiles add up when you consider 30-50 of them...) newfound borders.
If for some reason the game drags on (and it oughtn't), your opponents are so weakened and your military so refined (I got a leader somewhere in the mix and didn't even REALIZE it until the next turn, the turn after which I won by Domination) that there's no threat, save wandering troops and the like. These survivors are why defensive units are key - don't wanna lose cities after trying to hard to get them. The defensive units must NOT fight if at all possible - if you fail in the attack, let them sit there and defend against counterattacks.
Note that I explicitly flag this as an industrial/modern strat, because of railroads. You can move into place and strike so quickly the AI can't even gauge your intentions. It also helps that you get ROP shortly before producing the bulk of your attackers - you will be less 'threatening' during diplomacy even if 20 MA will be rolling off the lines next turn. ROP lets you use your rivals' railroads - so USE them.
Okay, so it's pretty lousy for a first strategy, but if you're into the dirty, merciless win over the AI, I have a funny feeling that this will work every time. You have to play nice - they forgave me at Warlord, but on Deity I think you'd have to be an oh-so-generous saint to wrangle ROP with everyone, but do it anyway - but the whole point is that the game is DONE when you do this, and you can do it fast - 20-30 turns from pacifist with moderately obsolete cavalry worn down by a Roman campaign to stealing every city on earth with the most modern military hardware on hand.
Once we get our beloved MP, of course, shelve this, because no human being is THAT stupid. "Aw look, 3 MA, 2 MI, and 2 Artillery defening every city I have, nobody will attack me with him as my friend!" Still, it's satisfying to do once or twice, just to get back at the AI for their backstabbing, condescending, I-want-gunpowder-and-your-world-map-for-2-gold-a-turn smugness.
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