Civ 5: Conquering Caesar (Part 1)

My first attempt on Emperor level had ended pretty quickly - a half-hearted attack with Swordsmen against Musketmen provoked the ire of my neighbours who did me in pretty quick. A few more games at King level has restored my confidence, and hopefully refined my strategy. My experience has continued to show that the AI is weak in times of warfare which is all well and good while you're not technologically behind. So the plan is to push for early war, possibly in the classical era with Horsemen or Swordsmen or an early unique unit if my civ has one.

I draw Rome as my random civilization which dovetails well with my plan. Their Legion unit is a small upgrade over the early Swordsman. After moving to settle Rome a bit away from the unproductive mountains, I have quite a few nearby resources. In particular I want to get the early techs to improve the sheep and deer, Animal Husbandry and Trapping. As a bonus, I can check out if there are any horses nearby before heading down the tech tree to Iron Working.

I get lucky with my scouting Warrior exploring ruins the turn after settling giving me an early boost to my population. That scouting Warrior also finds my neighbour, Askia of Songhai is worryingly close. Fortunately there are horses between Rome and Goa, and my plan is to rush him with Horsemen quickly.

As I start researching towards Horseback Riding, I implement the Liberty social policy for quicker Settlers. I want to get 2 or 3 quick cities to produce a few Horsemen quickly when the tech comes in. By 2280 BC, I've settled two more cities, Antium and Cumae, by sources of horses.

Askia settles Tombouctu right between us - a prime target when I've built my army. He's been threatening me the whole time, laughing at my pitiful army and otherwise being annoying. By 1120 BC, I have an alliance with the city state of Genoa, started on the Honor social policy tree and have trained 4 Horsemen, 1 Chariot Archer and a few Warriors - enough for me to feel confident of my chances, and so I declare war on Askia.

Meanwhile I've discovered a few sources of iron, with the safest on the coast to the east, so I start up a Settler for there while the war begins.

A quick strike by my Horsemen capture Tombouctu. Unfortunately, Askia has more units in the area and the city is recaptured in his turn, costing me a Horseman. But the rest of my units close in and the city trades hands again. The city is to be razed; all the enemy units have been killed; the army rides on to Gao.

In 925 BC, just 6 turns after starting the war, I capture Gao, eliminating Askia. That war went extremely well; though it was helped by the fact that Askia spent a lot of production on the Great Library, now a fine addition to the Roman empire.

My happiness has dropped to critcially low levels: -10 which means I can't even settle my iron city. I research Calendar so I can improve the luxury resource tiles. When that's done, I settle Neapolis on the coast by the iron.

I've met Elizabeth, Catherine and Genghis Khan, and I know English lands are to the south, so my horsemen head down there to see if I can continue my conquering ways.

Continued in Part 2