A Passive Approach? Not This Time

Unlike most, I tend to take a passive approach toward Civ 2. Generally I sit back, idle, while the two or three most powerful civilizations duke it out; I dislike being the strongest, because then everyone declares war on me, which isn't very fun at all. So generally, my strategy is to be at peace with all but one or two powers, leech off of them until they can barely stand me, and then shut up for a while to let them calm down.

My strategy in my most recent game, however, didn't work. I was ruling the Celts (On the world map with fixed starting locations), and I was off to a fairly slow start, so when I made first contact, with the French, I was immediately declared war upon. I quickly settled Northeast Germany and took a beachead, setting up forts around the one city the French seemed to go after. I held out there, desperately searching for an ally against them (I had five cities at this point, the French were the most powerful with about 8 or 10). Soon I contacted the Chinese, who seemed receptive, but upon speaking with them, I was again immediately declared war upon! The same happened with the Carthaginians, a few turns later. So there I was, at war with the three most powerful civilizations in existance, myself being the fourth. What helped the most was my contruction of Marco Polo's Embassy, making it infinately easier to find peace with people and strike up deals with them. I soon made an alliance with the Carthaginians, by agreeing to declare war on the Chinese (who I had made a peace treaty with under conditions that I give them Feudalism). From there on, sailing was fairly smooth for a while; the French couldn't break my defences, and the Carthaginians were thriving.

When my resources were sufficient, I began plotting against the French... my initial idea was to land Cavalry on the shore from the British Isles and attack Paris straight out, which proved futile; they had some five veteran defenders with walls. I quickly abandoned that plan, and turned to my favorite military tactic of all: Subterfuge. I built about ten diplomats, and landed them all on the shores by Paris, and, Paris being one square from the coast, immediately sabatoged them so many times that all they had left was an aqueduct and a marketplace. This made the landing invasion much easier, and Paris had fallen within two turns. After this, subduing the french was an easy process, and I had crushed them down to about half their strength within about 5 to 10 more turns. Just goes to show what a well-placed surgical strike and a little subterfuge can do...

By The C