Emporer is bringing me to my knees

[Theseus]

Haven't looked, but vmxa1's advice seems sound... where I differ, though, is that Sipahi versus Rifles is just fine in my book!

[vmxa1]

Sorry for the rush job last night. BTW Theseus I would agree that they can take down a rifle, but it will be painful to take a big city with rifles and some longbows or cannons.

I did not look at the might of Egypt, but the AI usually has lots of units at this stage and will pound on any city you take. It could be that they do not have saltpetter either or you can cut it before they get rifles. If things come to that.

Anyway I meant to point out that you will need 3 settlers and a worker squad. Probably 6 units for each city of 2 knights, 3 MI and a pike.

If you are on decent footing with Egypt and Germany, then start gifting them tech if you have any they do not have, cash or luxs otherwise. Get them very polite. Get an RoP if you can with Egypt. Send the horde to the three sites, by the saltpetter, by the coast and one in between.

You need to hook those cities ASAP to be able to use the saltpetter. A work crew to road a tile each turn from the slatpetter to the harbor site.

First thing is to rush a lib in each city. Rush a temple in the two non-harbor cities as the harbor is next in it. You can hold off rushing it until you have the roads done to save cash.
Temples in next and the city in the middle get the barracks to upgrade pikes first and then knights.

To pay for this you will cut back on research after finishing MT. You will have time to raise cash. This all falls apart if you are on bad terms with Egypt or it takes too long to get the settlers in place.

[Node]

What should I do with my great leaders?

First one made an army, second one rushed a better palace location, and a third one.. I have no small wonders. Should I just make another army?

[vmxa1]

I forget what was going on, other than you need saltpetter. If you do not have any small wonder to built, then I like having an army. I want to get three so I can get the pentagon and have 4 units in my armies.

Leave the new army empty and wait to see if you can get calv for it.
Should be forced into a war before hand, then you coudl always load it up with troops.

[Ben Williams]

I stumbled into the strategy of attacking till i get a great leader, using him to build the great library and setting my science to zero. My plan now is to attack as much as I can before education to get a lot of land so i'll be able to hold my own in the industrial age. Anyone else tried this?

[vmxa1]

It is pretty common to one degree or another prior to C3C.

[dexters]

One game is usually not always a good measure of how well you perform.

Emperor is a big step up, but I played 5, 6 games on Monarchy and Regent in different configurations to get a feel for the real difficulty.

A bad start on Monarch can be very difficult. And almost unwinnable when a killer AI emerges and you're stick in a dinky little island continent.

[pedrojedi]

I would say impossible. Starting isolated in a small island is a real science nightmare. I remember fondly of a game that I played with the babs that started in one such location... I lost, probably a space race win made by the english, but I gained territory in the continent and at the end I was not so many techs behind...

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Node
What should I do with my great leaders?

First one made an army, second one rushed a better palace location, and a third one.. I have no small wonders. Should I just make another army?

Depends on where you are in the game... If it's reaaaaally early, such that you have not yet gotten any cities above 10spt, I'd prolly kill something with that first Army and rush the HE. Otherwise, yes, build another Army.