Nadenu wrote:
I've won the game with a cultural victory and about 7 units. So it *is* possible to win with a small military. It can get kind of boring though. Keeping city states funded and hitting next turn. Yay. I think there are going to be more tweaks to the AI eventually.
Cultural? Not diplomatic? How many cities did you have? I've been trying to see if I an work up a OCC strategy, but it hasn't gone so well. First time, I was kicking butt, right up until Arabia decided that he was jealous of my wonders and not concerned at all about my wimpy military. Second time, I didn't get wiped out (never got attacked at all, so it's possible it all depends on who you neighbor just happens to be), but didn't get the cultural stuff I really needed, and was about a half a policy tree short when someone launched their spaceship.
I've read some stuff which indicates you can do it, if you get the right techs at the right time, and build the correct wonders. I imagine it might be easier to do it with a few cities instead of one, especially if you get some puppets going to help keep the techs up to speed. I just find that as soon as I start doing any fighting at all, I inevitably end out having to wipe someone out (or mostly out), and then someone else attacks me for being a war monger, so I have to wipe them out. And next thing I know, I end out conquering 3/4ths of the map just to get the others to stop bugging me.
And that ultimately winds out with me obliterating things with Giant Death Robots! :)