Civ 4 - the losing streak is over!

FINALLY... FINALLY.... FINALLY... my long and frustrating losing streak at Civ 4 is over. It took a lot of patience, and a lot of planning, but I did it. My opponents were Germany, Japan, Mali, Russia, France, USA, and my nemesis from Zulu. The world map was small, so I wanted to expand as quickly as possible. I only was able to build one more city, and then there was no more room. So I had to go with only two cities. Surprisingly, it worked quite well. I was able to develop both cities very quickly, as all my workers were focussed on them rather than being stretched out over 4 or 5 cities.

By the year 1000 AD, I had a strong economy, strong culture, and was doing very well in research. Around 1200 AD, Germany, my neighbour, declared war on me. In previous games, I had been unprepared for a war. Not this time. I was able to easily push the Germans back, and even took over one of their cities. In the next 50 years, I had wiped the Germans out. I then started to concentrated on research, building universities and specialists. By 1500, I had a big and advanced enough military to make a move on Russia. I invaded, and to my surprise, the USA and and Japan both declared war on me at the same time. I managed to hold the Japanese and the Americans at bay, while taking over a Russian city. After declaring peace and giving my troups a bit of time to heal, it was back to war with the alliance of Russia/Japan/USA. The war dragged on for 25 years or so, but late in the war I made peace with Japan and the US, leaving Russia to face me. I wiped them out quickly.

At this point, I declared war on the Zulu, reducing them to one city. But I had a plan for them. I wanted to leave them for last, to get revenge for all the past times they made me lose. So I declared war on France, and after about 50 years, wiped them out. Around the year 1700, I took a bit of time to concentrate on research again, and by 1880, I was ready for the stretch run. First up was Japan, and they were tough, and it took me about 50 years to beat them. I then beat the Malinese quickly, as they only had one city. Around 1950, I went after the USA, and by 1963, they were gone.

Hello Zulu empire. Remember all those times you caused me pain? Caused me to lose? Well now it was their turn. They had managed to build a second small city, which was gone by 1965. In 1966, I had a large group of tanks at the Zulu border, and kissed them goodbye. 1967 - game over - I win. Bye Zulu, thanks for coming out. Score one for the good guys. So I'm back in the winning column. Hopefully I can build on this momentum now that I've rid myself of the Zulu curse.

Go Leafs Go, and take the Zulu empire with you.