OK, so anyone can set out to conquer the world by 3800 BC or get a man on Alpha Centauri by 100 AD through means ruthless and unsavory, but can one win big by staying true to Democratic principles? That is the question I intended to solve as I became Cuauhtemoc of the Aztecs on a large, temperate, archipelago world on Prince level.

I was determined to hold fast to an iron rule of government: my people deserved freedom, and I would deliver it. The rest (as in expansion and war) would just have to fall into place. I went straight for the Republic form of government, making a brief stop at Monarchy, and then went full speed toward Democracy and stayed there. I refused to pick fights or to bow to my military advisors over my domestic consultants. I would be a beacon of hope in a world of despotism, I figured.

What thanks did I get for my trouble? All 6 computer civs dog-piled my case and made life miserable for me, that's what. OK, so maybe I had some of it coming after I bought a few cities off the Celts, but they kept dropping off troops on my mainland and wouldn't keep out of my city radii. I picked up 2 of their cities and then it was on. They invaded my homeland with their armies of elephants and crusaders.

Unfortunately for the Blarney Folk, I had 3 aces up my sleeve: Riflemen, Leonardo's Workshop, and bags of money. Democracy is very good for getting rich, I must say. As I bought off his forces and had them upgraded to, say, Dragoons from NONE, he kept throwing his obsolete forces against me in a terrible waste of effort. I drove him from the field and established a foothold on his main island. By this time, I had spread my forces around the watery world and was laying down track from city to city. My people were happy and joyous and I was cranking out wonders of the world as my population built supermarkets, banks, and stock exchanges to celebrate their collective pursuit of happiness.

It was then that disaster struck. The dastardly Celts jumped one of my cities and took it. No amount of game-saving and emergency purchases could save it: Popocatepl had fallen. I then swore I would wipe the Celts from the face of the earth and rename every damn one of their cities in unpronounceable Nahuatl. Since they had attacked me, my Senate allowed me to switch to a wartime footing. I wiped out their ironclads and caravels with my destroyers and cruisers and took their capital city after a rough battle. The Celts begged for peace and, even though I wanted to finish them off, my Senate agreed to peace. Vox populi, vox dei.

As soon as I had made peace with the Celts, I got hit by the Mongols and Greeks. The Celts were small potatoes compared to these big guys. They were pulling alongside me in technical development, thanks in part to their spy network, and had the economy to field the big guns. Worse, each had a client state that was nearer to me doing most of the dirty work: the Greeks used the Chinese and the Mongols used the Germans.

Now, I had lived peacefully next to the Germans for over 5800 years, so I was most upset when the Mongols poisoned their minds against me. I took a city from each and forced a peace on them. Same for the Greeks and Chinese. I then built the United Nations in the hopes of establishing peace around the world. I just wanted to get along with everyone else and tend my cities and fields on perfectionist peace.

It was wonderful for about 20 years, but then the Greeks, who were now Fundamentalist and would remain largely so for the rest of their history, got the Celts, Babylonians, Mongols, Germans, and Chinese to all sign the "Athens Pact," which was directed against the glorious Aztec Democracy. Sensing trouble in the wind, I embarked on a new research path: bombers. I could not generate quantity to match all 6 empires, but I was certain I could more than make up for it in quality.

That, and Women's Suffrage, won the day. Once I started producing helicopters and stealth bombers in numbers, the tides moved in my favor. First to get set back were the perfidious Celts. I conquered their new capital and left them with 4 cities on a remote island. Next in line were the Chinese. I had eliminated every one of their ground units and was poised to take their capital when they managed to conclude a peace with my senate. So be it. They've been good neighbors ever since, so it's not all bad. I can live and let live.

I then got hit really hard by the Germans and Mongols. I decided since they had an actual land connection to two parts of my nation that they had to go. My senate backed me up in this, approving several key peacekeeping resolutions. My technique was elegant: move ground forces up to the city limits and wait until the bombers and helicopters finished off the defenders, then roll on in and fortify the place. A few quick purchases of airports here and there for upkeep and fast reinforcements and the Germans and Mongols were assimilated. That left the Greeks and Babylonians as my chief foes, and the Babylonians quickly dropped hostilities once Berlin became Ecatepec and Karakorum became Calacatzin. (My, how I love the Nahuatl language!) The Greeks held on a bit longer, but eventually concluded a lasting peace.

I smelled a rat, though, as they massed armor and battleships on my borders. I did not stop building bombers. Sure enough, the Greeks started landing troops on what they mistakenly assumed to be complacent shores. My Democracy was an armed one, in spite of maximum possible discontent in several of my cities due to bombers drawing support from them, but in spite of the unrest, my people held fast and bombed the invaders off my home soil. I then had to carry the war over to the Greek home islands.

Since my transports were vulnerable to his subs, I opted instead for the airmobile option. Helicopters now became my surface troops and took out a whole major island of Greeks, partisans and all. Building ground forces only as garrisons, my helicopters rolled up all the cities after the stealth bombers emptied them of war materiel. The nice thing with this tactic was that I could generally bypass the field army around the city, which would then dissolve after the city fell.

At the same time, I had to divert resources toward the space race, as both the Babylonians and Greeks started building their craft. The richness of Democracy, however, paid off big time. My ship is further along than any of theirs and I can keep an army in the field, or rather, air, without any trouble at all. Meanwhile, the Greeks may be pumping out land forces and fighters, but my stealth bombers cut through them like a hot knife through lukewarm butter. The year is now 1902 and my ship will be ready in a generation or so and the Greeks are on the ropes. I am poised to take a city on their home island and use it as my bomber base as long as the Greeks see fit to be warlike. If I have to, I am prepared to conquer them, but I know my people ultimately want peace and I am prepared to deliver that most precious of resources to them in volume.

I know we're in the endgame now and that I have won the battle for ascendancy in the world. I held true to Democracy and free trade throughout my history, making sacrifices only of luxuries, never of rights. During the time before I had bombers, I was quite tempted to switch to fundamentalism and just wipe out all rival civilizations, but I did not. I kept my side of every peace (except one, when the Babylonians got too close for comfort to my capital and I had to make a pre-emptive strike) and I respected the borders of my neighbors as long as they respected mine. So the answer to my question is a resounding yes. you can win big and stay Democratic, but you must also be prepared for mule-headed neighbors who don't take kindly to folks that just happen to be happier, richer, and more free than they are. But, hey, it's not my fault they didn't embrace peace and harmony. (OK, so I could've hacked RULES.INI to make them all more peaceful, but I wanted an actual contest, not a love-feast. Therefore, not my fault.)

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Dean Webb DWebb@capgemini.com
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