Military chances

[MrWhereItsAt]

Deciding right now for a full-out war with Spain is a little premature perhaps, as we are nowhere near ready for such an encounter. Until we are, we have to plan for building up to a level that we can take at least the colony(ies) they put on the Southern Island. At the same time we will be exploring in the hope of getting Iron and linking up to a Horse resource. I think Spain is the likely best target for a number of reasons (I can find the posts if you like), and we know we will have to fight SOMEone soonish.

So for the time being, we should be building our military, as we need to do this before striking at anyone and we have to do so before either a limited conflict or a full-scale war.

[EnduringBlue]

I agree Spain is the best target for a military solution (but my alignment is Builder so I would wait)...their territory is a mess and I'm glad we don't have their starting position. Unfortunately (for us) spanish territory is a bullseye with our future swordsmen at the center. unless we luck out with iron in the balance of the south island.

Before we start cranking out military units, I think it would make sense to fill up the rest of the south island with cities. I don't even think we have ten turns before that shore is littered with foreign settlers otherwise.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by EnduringBlue
I agree Spain is the best target for a military solution (but my alignment is Builder so I would wait)...their territory is a mess and I'm glad we don't have their starting position. Unfortunately (for us) spanish territory is a bullseye with our future swordsmen at the center. unless we luck out with iron in the balance of the south island.

Before we start cranking out military units, I think it would make sense to fill up the rest of the south island with cities. I don't even think we have ten turns before that shore is littered with foreign settlers otherwise.

Do you really feel that they will flood the area by then?

[EnduringBlue]

The map is naturally seafaring, and in my experience at this level, a heathen settler/galley combo you see is almost never the first or only one out there. The Spanish in particular can't cross a street within their own territory without using a boat. The other civs have probably traded world maps to each other recently, and they all have proof that there is unsettled land in our direction.

I would consider it a distinct possibility they've already run up against AI island chains or ocean on their combined northern front.

If we wait much longer, we may have to fight mountain barbies to the SE for more territory in the near future, or be restricted to disproportionately tundra terrain on the south island, if it's larger than it looks.

A second concentration of cities would also be nice for FP, too. we need more of an industrial base to fund the military campaign to get us beyond this cul-de-sac, unless someone's mapped out a turtle strategy i haven't read anything about.

[Paddy]

a well stated case, thanks for that

[joncnunn]

Agreed about the need for us to settle the rest of the south island first.

Much cheaper than pumping out sufficent warriors to block the coastline.

[BigFree]

I think we need to settle our land while maintaining a suffcient military force to deter any other Civs from decalring war on us while we are REXing. We simply do not have the strength needed to take on any one Civ right now.

[EnduringBlue]

We should fill up the remaining easy-to-colonize space while building extra military units. I don't think we'll be able to initiate a war in the immediate future, but once REX is done having archers and galleys in hand will make sense.

What about diving into the center of Spain and seizing that iron? It would be time consuming to transport troops, but it might be as valuable a target as the GL.

We'll need better units to fend off the immortals which will eventually knock on our door.

[MrWhereItsAt]

We have a couple of cities with fantastic food production, and they can be used with some care to quickly build settlers, whilst the others can build Archers. We can meet both settlement and defense needs simultaneously, IMO. We must give up on landing something to cut off Persia's Iron for the time being (it would not be worth the trouble right now) and send that Galley to check out the island to our west!

[Jonny]

Originally posted by BigFree
I think we need to settle our land while maintaining a suffcient military force to deter any other Civs from decalring war on us while we are REXing. We simply do not have the strength needed to take on any one Civ right now.

That's pretty much my opinion right now as well.