Spain, a powerful civilization.

[DAVOUT]

Standard map. Pangea. 8 civ Regent

The landmass is crescent-shaped, and Spain is in the bottom of the middle. Clock-wise, Spain is surrounded by : Mongols, Celts, Ottomans, Vikings, and in the west end are Carthage, then farther Arabia and India.

Quite rapidly the Vikings came, I asked them to leave and they declared war. Swordsmen and horsemen were all I needed to take one city after the other, and then the Mongols declared war. It was a second front at the other end of my territory, also I made peace with the Vikings as soon as they accepted to give me their two techs; I left them with four cities.

Since my army was operational, I took the offensive as soon as it has shifted from right to left, and I took five cities without difficulties, again with swordsmen and horsemen, when the Ottomans started visiting my territory. I asked them to leave, and they declare war. I made a quick peace with the Mongols, gaining one tech and leaving them with about six cities.

The war against the Ottomans was easy; I took city after city, until the Arabs declare war, certainly as a result of a MPP. I made peace with the Ottomans, gaining one tech and leaving them with 6 cities. One of their cities has already flipped to Spain, and two more will flip later on.

I had some difficulties with the Ansar warrior, and their three moves. They succeeded in taking two cities by surprise (previously Mongol), which I took back later. But the Celts started building up their military, and entered my territory; as usual I asked them to leave, and they declare war; again I was at war on two fronts. Fortunately I destroyed their forces quickly and offered peace, because I was expecting the chivalry soon, and also I wanted to end the war with Arabia before starting the conquest of the Celt Empire. So I destroyed the remaining Arabian forces on my border and made peace against 20gpt.

After five wars in a row, against five different enemies, I was at last at peace. I upgraded my horsemen then my Swordsmen, organized two armies, and began a long war that I have declared for the first time. They had really a big empire, and I had around forty cities when it ended. Spain was then dominating all the right part of the continent, and my Chivalry has become Cavalry.

It was the time that Carthage chose to declare war, rapidly followed by the Mongols. At least it was almost the same front. Soon after I got Infantry and artillery; I had no problem for upgrading all my units, my treasury being comfortable. It should be an interesting campaign. A Mongol city, right on the front has just flipped to Spain. My railroad net is almost complete. I am researching the last tech before refining. We are in 1475.

I have accumulated the handicaps:
- no rex
- no pop rush
- except the first two cities, all others (settled or conquered build a temple first then barracks)
- only one tech bough (mysticism) all others discovered or conquered
- no gold rush : Spain is still under despotism (another testimony of my loyalty to Togas)
- all cities connected from the beginning.

I will tell you the end, but I am tempted to say that Spain, with his traits, is a quite powerful civilization to resist such a treatment.

[astrologix]

Bravo amigo !

It sounds like an easy game. But I think, playing against human opponents could not be the same

[Arnelos]

I agree with astrologix. Human opponents make it an entirely different ballgame.

[Togas]

Maybe Davout should lead our Spanish armies.

--Togas

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by astrologix
But I think, playing against human opponents could not be the same

I totally agree. My purpose was to test the Spain civilization with the worst possible strategy in order to make appear its intrinsic potential.

The Religious trait is as good as expected; it provides without great effort the best culture, and the flips, although marginally important, can offer a bonus in some circumstances. And it make things more difficult for the enemies.

The commercial trait is fantastic in providing funds for upgrading and financing the research enough to get the tech lead.

But my first contact with the UU is not enthousiastic; I think that it requires some training to use it efficiently; to be franck I would not have it, the result would not change. This is another proof of the intrinsic strenth of Spain which can behave well without UU.

I think that all this would remain true against humans.

[DAVOUT]

It took 57 more turns to crush Carthage, take a bit of India and win by Domination in 1754. Motorized Transportation was still 6 turns away. Score 3230. I had in cash 6619 golds coming only from the empire, since I did almost no trade, but it is a mistake not to have used this cash for increasing the research above 70% after the last upgrade.
My anti- strategy includes also the non-razing of conquered cities; it resulted in two cities flipping back to Carthage, and retaken the following turn.

Finally, I find that the Spanish civilization behaves extremely well under abnormal (?) conditions. Interestingly, since my last post, a new thread was opened in the strategy forum on the Commercial trait. Everybody interested in strategies based on this trait should read it.

[Thud]

Even if it does make for a different game, that just means that no matter what the weird and unusual things brought on to us by the humans should be dealt with well, if Davout is correct. Bravo, davout.