Civ 4 - Fit for Minors?

[Ben Kenobi]

The Mongols were not partiuclarly inventive- I can't think of any ideas they provided the world becuase other civs did not even adapt their military structure-but they are a mayor civ simply by the fact they conquered the biggest land empire in history and in doing so changed history.

Just because other nations did not adopt their military structure does not mean that they had nothing to contribute.

Their military structure is their inventiveness, and the reason for their vast success over slower and weaker enemies.

Another reason why their tactics were not adopted is because the Mongol tactics were uniquely suited to their land, and their area. Does it make sense in Europe with densely populated forts to learn to fight as the mongols did? Not really. So Europe did not adopt their style,

[Ben Kenobi]

I have an idea, why not allow for annexations? Suppose a nation is getting clobbered, but wants help? Couldn't you have that nation band with your enemy, and allow your enemy to gain all that territory instantly in order to continue the battle?

This would speed up simplification, and allow for better games, as the smaller empires become vunerable to annexations.

You could even have bidding wars between two strong nations, and a nation in the middle.