I started off as the Americans, who I changed to the Legion. I founded my first city and continued to expand. After a while of expansion, my territory was full. Turns out I had landed on the upper part of a continent that was shaped like an upside down t. The Germans were at the bottom. There was also a large continent attached to each end of the east and west part of the land. I allied with the Germans, but I was screwed.

All the islands around me were taken by the Japanese, and I had ten cities at the most. Yet somehow, I kept up both military production and research, but I had a weak economy. I rarely went over 1000 gold, mainly because I had to buy wonders to finish them in before other players. Things improved, however. my allies, the Germans, literally tied down the advancing Japanese for hundreds of years, and I helped them for it.

In an aggressive effort to protect the helpful Germans, I built a line of cities cutting the Germans off from the western continent. Stupid English had to get involved. They either captured or destroyed the cities, which really sucked. By the 1700s,The civ next to me, the Aztecs, were WAY behind in tech. Seeing the opportunity to gain some free cities, I attacked their cities with a battleship and two tanks (keep in mind I was economically crippled, this was the best that I could do) I captured four of their cities, which were defended by warriors, but at the same time, the German front collapsed.

The Germans were doomed, so I finally cancelled the alliance, which had stood for over 1500 years. Only one size 4 city was stopping the Gaps from overrunning my nation, but surprisingly, it held. Until the ships came, I was doing fine. I had about 8 new cities along the west coast of my starting territory, that were not well developed. Then wave after wave of ships came, destroying the defenders. Ironically, the cities developed normally, they just usually weren't defended.

The thing that was horrible, was that on the west coast, I had no good cities that could build ships. They were all on the east coast. I built 8 battleships and sent them on their way all the way around my continent. Now I was determined to take what was left of the Germans. By this time, through casually attacking their cities one by one, I had taken over the Aztecs. I attacked the Germans from the north and the east.

I tried to time the attacks perfectly, so the two attack forces could overrun the Germans, then make a huge stand against the Japs. One fatal thing happened though. The western attack force became tied up in petty battles with rifle soldiers. To keep momentum, the northern force made a right turn and charged east. Are you seeing where this is going? Those freaking Japanese overran the attack force.

I tried to retreat, but my howitzers were damaged, and weren't as fast as their tanks, plus they got stuck in a forest. My prized attack force was destroyed, and the Japanese drove north, capturing the former Aztec empire. And that city I talked about, that held the Japs back, fell the enemy howitzers. I played it right to the bitter end. Seeing that my units, thinly scattered across a vast area were to be destroyed anyway, I abandoned my outer cities, and fortified my capital and one other city. Just so happens that my capital was by the water. So here came the imperial fleet, and the rest isn't hard to figure out.

The lesson, NEVER underestimate those Japanese, and unless you want an almost impossible challenge, don't bother bother playing a game where you are trapped on a tiny piece of land.

|| Sir Adam: rbird@odyssey.on.ca ||