War Academy: Don't Underestimate the Power of Temples

[GoodFella]

Currently I am playing a game with the Romans, and I have managed to became #1 by a huge margin before the middle ages through two strategies: conquest and massive temple production. Basically, send one spearmen with a settler to build a city at the edge of a rivals border and build a temple ASAP. Pretty soon I had managed to dominate my subcontinent land wise, money wise, resource wise, everything wise mostly through strangling the other civ's which a quick but large surge of culture. Now that I"ve gotten as much land as possible from Persia and Egypt through culture, I plan on declaring war on them and finishing them off.

This got me wondering if we could successfully use the same tactic to expand us all the way to the Ivory Coast (or at least as close to it as possible). We also have the benefit of cheap temples and industrious workers, neither of which I had as the Romans. Once we have our cities we let them grow, and once we get as much land as possible through culture, we declare war and finish them.

One of the reasons this worked is because much of the AI neglected culture build up due to most of them ganging up on America while I built my Empire. Perhaps creating several wars among the AI would be to our benefit.

[MrWhereItsAt]

I certainly agree here - in Civ3 my build queue was essentially the same as in Civ2, but now temples take a very high priority. More land and culture is like manna from heaven.

Once we take those American cities and start producing some settlers, we need rapid-fire cities in decent spots and temples built in them ASAP in order to reach the best land quickly.

[GoodFella]

Don't forget diplomacy. I think if we create several wars to divert the AI's attention from the land from America to Ivory Coast, they'll not only neglect culture to a large degree making our flipping their cities more likely, but also to a lesser degree settler production.

The downside: it could create several strong opposing militaries, but with vast lands we'll be able to build a strong military our selves after initial settlement.

[kring]

I build temples for the border expansion, and as you noted, the AI doesn't. I also build military as well, but the boost in border of either library or temple (whichever is cheapest for the civ I am playing); the temple is also happy maker as well.

[civman2000]

Yes, temples are very big in m strategies. Build queue:
Defender (if i didnt bring one with the dettler).
Depending on whether i'm still expanding and if there's engough food, settler.
Temple
Worker (agin depends on the situation).

For important culture-blitz-to-take-resource-from-other-civ's-city:
Bring defender with settler always
Temple (rushed asap)
Library (rushed asap)

[Edrix]

Originally posted by GoodFella
I think if we create several wars to divert the AI's attention from the land from America to Ivory Coast, they'll not only neglect culture to a large degree making our flipping their cities more likely, but also to a lesser degree settler production.

Aha! one of my ideas is spreading! And you all doubted me! Ahaha... heh... eh.

Anyway, yeah. I really like this idea, but creating a war normally requires us to have some military presence in order to avoid a reputation hit. Your plan requires us to rush settlers/spearmen and divert attention to new cities. If we were to start a war that we wouldn't want to get killed in, we'd have to have a military force larger than we currently have on one of the fronts, because the 1st and 2nd American Armies are probably going to be worn down. So what this comes down to is: Can we split our efforts and focus on military replenishing and expansion at the same time?

[Kuciwalker]

We have to seize the Incense Valley, and if this'll do it, I say go.

[GoodFella]

More than just Incense/Fragrant Valley, I think that there is a strong possibility it could bring us all the way to Ivory Coast, with us basically dividing Abananaba Major. And if someone beats us to Ivory Coast, we just build a bunch of cities right on their borders and have all build temples til they culture flip.

[BigFurryMonster]

*agree with skywalker*