The World War!!! (WARNING!!! This is pretty long.)

I started a game on the large earth map as the Vikings, lead by Canute, no random starting places, Warlord level, 7 civs, choose computer players (Carthaginians, Celts, Babylonians, Chinese, Sioux, and Aztecs). I did this so that all of the civs would have room to expand. Raging hordes of barbarians to get the extra 25 points.

I founded my capital, Trondheim, one square west of my starting point, but not before deforesting the area. Now my capital would have a gold resource and a fish resource. I built a Phalanx, and a Settler, and sent the settler to found the city of Kaupang. Back in Trondheim I started work on building the Colossus, the wonder I always get first. After I built a Phalanx in Kaupang for defense, I set the city to build Settlers, and continued to build new cities, all coastal, until I had to start moving in towards the center of Europe.

By this time I had control of lands from Norway to France, and had started to move towards Spain, but not before the Celts landed near Uppsala, which was built where Amsterdam is today. They demanded tribute, I refused, and they declared war on me, and sent one or two Horsemen to attack Uppsala, but failed. Soon after that, I expanded ny empire to build in Spain, Italy, western Russia, and Greece. After I built by Italian city, I got news that the Babylonians were defeated by the Carthaginians, and a few turns later I heard that the Chinese had met the same fate that Babylon had.

I decided that if they conquered two nation that quickly, then they might be a threat to my nation. I made peace with the Celts, and then made an alliance with them the next turn. After trading cartography, I learned that Iceland hadn't been colonized yet, so I sent a Trireme with two settlers, and built a city on Iceland, and one in Nova Scotia (island about 2 squares west of America). I also learned that Greenland had a couple of decent city sites, so I sent two more Settlers to Greenland, and found the a Celtic city, Armagh, was there, and I settled the two remaining city sites, one of which would grow to be one of my biggest cities. I also expanded my empire to cover Turkey and into the Carribian islands.

Soon after I expanded into Turkey, I met the Carthaginians. We managed to maintain peace for a few years, but ended up in war. One year after the war started, the Celts traded technology with me so I got Gunpowder, which was good because I found two Carthaginian Dragoons outside of Greece. I quickly replaced my antiquated defenses, and repelled the attack. I had another meeting with the Celts and traded maps. I learned that they had colonized Canada, but were being pushed back by the Sioux, who had killed the Aztecs some years back. I asked for a gift from the Celts, and they cancelled the alliance.

Back in Europe, I was waging an effective Defensive War against the Carthaginians. They had now settled almost all of Asia and almost all of Africa, but were stopped by the Japanese, who started after the downfall of the Babylonians, and for some reason, they started in Africa. In one of my cities in Greenland, I built a diplomat, and bribed Armagh to side with me. The Celts declared war, and I sent another diplomat to bribe a city on the Celtic mainland (England). I sent an explorer to Asia, where I met the Americans, who were started after the Chinese downfall, and were started in Australia. They demanded some advance, I refused, they declared war on me.

I was at peace with Celts for a few turns, and asked them to re-declare war on the Sioux, and they accepted, but the Sioux found out about my treachary, and declared war on me, and the Celts were completely gone from North America. Out of anger, the Celts declared war on me, and after I launched an attack on the Carthaginians, they activated their alliance with the Japanese, who declared war on me, so I found myself at war with everyone in the world except the Egyptians, who I would find later. I decided that I would take on the world one Civ at a time, so I decided to go after the enemy nearest to me: the Celts.

I quickly loaded up a Galleon with Dragoons and sailed 3 squares over to Kells and quickly conquered it, so the Celts only had one city remaining-Cardiff. I was unable to conquer Cardiff, so I decided to let it alone for a while. Meanwhile, in my outpost in India, I built a diplomat. I sent it to the nearest Carthaginian city and bribed it for 300 gold. Then I continued the loop (build diplomat:bribe city). Within 20 game years, I had conquered almost all of Asia with nothing more than diplomats. After the Asian conquest, I sent a large group of cannons and cavalry and took Cardiff. The Celts were destroyed, and only 30 more years later, the Carthaginians are dead.

Now I decided to turn my attention to the Sioux. I loaded up 3 transports with cavalry, artillery, and 2 spies. I bribed Wood Lake, and used it as my military base. I used the other spy to take out the city walls in the Sioux cities, and quickly conquered all but 2 cities of the Sioux empire, which I conquered 17 years later. Now for the Egyptians. They were no challenge at all, and I quickly conquered them within 13 years. Now for thhe final challenge-the Americans. I sent my Egypt and Sioux units to Australia, the American mainland. They put up less of a fight than the Egyptians, and I left them with one city, St. Louis, which I conquered in 1792. My final score was 1396 points with a 69% rating. Trondheim, my glorious capital, only came under attack once, by a barbarian cavalry in 1791. I was remembered as Canute Ironfist.

By OrionPriv@aol.com