Unassailable Empire

[Badtz Maru]

I was playing a 16-civ game on a standard sized archipelago map recently and had an interesting situation arise. I was stuck on a tiny island with only 6 squares of land in a narrow strip. I built two cities on it, and then realized I could put a bowman on every square. This made it impossible for the other civilizations to invade me, since they could not unload ships anywhere on my island.

True, I couldn't develop very far, nor get my cities bigger than size 3 until I built harbors, but I was later able to catch up in the tech race. I decided to expand to a square on the next island that my influence had expanded to cover. Immediately the two civs who I was at war with came to attack it, and it soon fell - but a few turns later returned to me through culture. Now, I knew I had no chance of holding on to this city with the few units I could transfer over from my low-production home island, so I traded it to the Chinese for several techs and a lot of money. A few turns later, it returned to me via culture, so I traded it to the French for more tech! I don't think I'm going to win this game, but I think I'll make it to the end. I know when the enemy develops ships with bombard ability later I will have some problems, but though they can hurt me they can never wipe me out.

[Shiva]

Marines will be able to attack from the ships.

[Venger]

Shiva is right, I'll get on your shore in a heartbeat - I'll bombard with the navy till you have one hit point left on those defenders, then attack with marines (with properly redone combat values of course) and kill all the defenders in that square. Then, I'll unload 4 transports worth of mech inf and modern armor...

Of course, a nuke could do wonders on those as well...

The only thing that you are really doing with that strategy is keeping the AI from trying to drop a city on your land...

Venger

[Badtz Maru]

Didn't know about that ability for marines. Well, it will work until modern ages, at least. By then I will have fortresses on all of those squares, artillery, and a navy of my own.

[sophist]

He's doing the best he can with what he's got. I'd have quit long ago. Building an invasion army's gonna take a long time with just that. How far around have you explored? Any open islands?

[Libertarian]

Badtz, I think your strategy is a good one for the earlier ages. I'm always on the outlook for some sort of bottleneck that I can secure against early AI expansion. I had never considered one from the sea.

[Badtz Maru]

I don't start over when I start with a bad position, I play it out to it's natural conclusion. I haven't played on that game in a few days, though, I've been helping my wife learn how to play and now she's monopolizing the disk.

[G.A]

Well, one thing - what are the odds, that AI will actually build marines? Zero, I think

[AHO]

If you keep trading techs for the city with the other civs and making nice nice with them, they won't have any reason to invade your little utopia. I don't see why your strategerie couldn't work right through the modern era until you start trying to win with the spaceship or something. Good for you for keeping at it!