Between rock, and a hard place...

[Tattila the Hun]

Funny thing happened during my last game. I'm alone on my small continent, fighting barbarians, while on the other continent, Washington has become the top dog, master to Brennus, at war with Mao, on the way to defeat him. So, Brennus comes and asks me to declare on Mao. I think, he is on the way out anyways, and I could use the good will. So I say "Sure"... And find myself in war with, not only Mao, but Washington and Brennus aswell.

Seems, that news of Mao's capitulation to Washington had not yet reached the celts... : Now, my options are to go to war with the world, or decline the request, with the attached -1... I wouldn't mind the -1, if it weren't for nothing, essentially.


Allright, I have a question. Being alone in smallish continent, having gotten rid of the only rival, how does one stay competitive? With no-one to trade tech to, I still have axemen, when someone comes declaring on me with his rifles... Or should one just leave the rival alone, to prosper, and to research tech to trade? The temptation to take out his warrior defended cities with my swordsmen is... hard to resist. This on Blake's Prince, btw.

[Provost Harrison]

I always go for annexation and build their cities up. The earlier, the better!

[Addled Platypus]

I never war with more than 1

I am a wimp

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
I always go for annexation and build their cities up. The earlier, the better!

Sure, their capital ofter becomes one of my best cities. But before Alphabet/Currency/Code of Laws it can really kill your economy... And you still need to keep troops for barbs.

[ben04]

If you are alone with a single rival on a continent then go for a tech race. Build vertical and basically only found cities if you have a commerce heavy site (Gold/Silver mine) or need a resource.

Build enough defenders to keep the other one out but not too much. Unless you're stuck with Gandhi at some point he'll declare war on you and thus attack you. Defend. Don't go into the offensive. In the early game only the best cities are worth keeping, often this means only the capital. If you are really in the situation warrior vs swordmen (which I doubt) then you could consider razing the entire civ.

You should get a tech advantage on your rival in the early middle age when the first additional cities in non ideal spots start paying of. It should not be hard to crush him with a mazemen / catapult combo especially as your capital should be able to crank out units every turn or every second by now.


The trick is to keep the commerce income high, meaning maintenance as low as possible. In the early game a single well developed city can outperform a whole empire and as your rival can't call for help on the military nor tech side you may exploit this to the max.

However a few mines don't hurt either as you will need production in your capital.

Needless to say that this strategy screams for CS. With a commerce heavy starting site the CS slingshot is still possible on Blake Prince.

It also often a good idea to go first deep into the tech tree and then trading the non military wonder techs for the ones you left out. A wonder tech has the advantage that the rival might start building it and thus miss a few hammers on the military side. Remember he can get any wonder which you don't immediately need as you'll integrate him anyway when the time has come.