evil persians!!!

[mabellino]

Ok so after almost a year of playing (warlord level) I finally got to the modern age (thanks in no small part to the advice gleaned from this forum! )... I had not been in a single war with anyone and had been gifting and trading and generally sucking up to the AI... It was 2041 and I was thinking I might actually get to 2050 without being wiped out when out of the blue the bloody persians attack! I was waaay behind in tech and the city they picked on had one marine, 3 infantry and a cuople of spearmen I hadn't got round to upgrading (D'oh!!!!!!)... it didn't stand a chance against a stack of 16 tanks! Plan B was to reload to the previous turn and suck up bigtime (500 gold for free Mr Xerxes?) Then I made an MPP with the iroquois (biggest civ) and the Japs... BIG mistake... stupid japs only went and declared war on the iroquois dragging me in... grrrrr! Anyway what I'm trying to ask is what can I do to stop the wars breaking out in the final few turns?? I've got a small stash of gold plus a few strat. res. but bog all luxuries...
suppose I could attach a save file if that helps..
Please help... I desperately want to finish at least one game!

[Lord Merciless]

Spearmen in year 2041? No wonder you are toast.

I expect people to wipe out their opponents with 200+ Modern Armors by year 1600.

Yes, signing MPP can get you into big trouble. I would only sign one if I want to go war and drag the other civ along with me.

[pedrojedi]

Suck up, like you never sucked before. Maybe you shall live.

[Panzer]

Hmmm, one question:

Why are half of your cities without factories in 2041? The first thing you should do when you get industrialization is to switch to building factories in every available city!

And why do you still have archers fortified in your cities? Disband them, they're not going to help you against Modern Armor anyway. Build some tanks and more Infantry, maybe you'll last a little while against the onslaught .

[Alex]

Been there, done that.

[Strakorfsky]

Um....If you gonna survive, try and invest a bit more in production...

Your civ reminds me of what a third world nation would look like.

[pedrojedi]

Investing on production with 9 turns left? You gotta have LOTS of money to make that worth it!

And no, not all third world nations defend theirselves with spearmen and archers.

[Alex]

pedro: but it is almost like if they were using them (spearmen and archers)

[TheStinger]

You should try chieftan.

[mabellino]

cheers for the advice peeps...
I've just moved up from chieftain about 3 games ago... I thought that the tech race was easier on higher diffs since the ai don't have so much of a handicap and can thus trade more. Didn't realise the chance of war was sooooo much higher too... I've played lots of games where I didn't have a single turn of war... I'm a peaceful builder type and haven't quite got the hang of an offensive war yet... usually when civs declare war I am able to defend all my territory and often gain a few cities through culture flip. Thanks to the info here and at civfanatics I've made loads of progress recently but I guess my warmongering skills need a lot of work!

[pedrojedi]

Alexnm: Heh, well, I was not including ourselves. But if we count Amazonia indians...

[Ubergeek]

mabellino, if I may make a suggestion. I'm a peaceful builder as well, but my game improved by leaps and bounds after I played a few games as militaristic civs. Maybe you should start a new game as the Romans (you get Legions early and they are great units) and play with the intention of building a large army and whipping up on your neighbors (one at a time, preferrably) as early as you can. When you run a few wars, you'll understand better how and when to fight; when you find yourself in a close war, you'll learn both why and how to build up your production capacity quickly, and having to support a large standing army in peace time will make you learn ways of increasing cash flow and minimizing corruption. I know I became a vastly better player when I played a few games that way; it didn't change my preference for playing peacefully, but now when I need to fight I now how to do it well. Plus, annihilating your peaceful neighbors is fun for a change of pace.