I was playing Raging Hordes, King Level, on a world customized to be 5 
billion years old, continental in shape, and with large land mass.  I was 
the Celts, as always, and my opponents were the Vikings and the Indians.  
Well, I followed the strategy apt for this situation, namely, building 
cities and more cities.  I had about 30 of them by 500 AD.  The problem 
was, the barbarians hindered my settlers production.  Massive hordes of 
them swept down upon my poor, newly built cities on the frontier.  I 
built the Great Wall, which helps, but it was cancelled by some advance 
or another.  At any rate, I lost several of my cities to these rabid 
barbarians, one of them (Cardigan) a good deal away from the rest of my 
civilization.  I destroyed all the barbarian cities but this one, which I 
ignored because it was so far away, and because I was a democracy, and 
couldn't afford to make people unhappy by sending their loved ones away 
on a mission like that.

So I decided to concentrate on the Vikings, who occupied a small 
peninsula just south of me.  I pounded them in several waves, 
occasionally signing ceasefires to let my newly-conquered cities regroup 
(my military production was overall still very low--average military 
service of one year).  My Senate was surprisingly compliant when I wanted 
to attack after ceasefires expired, however.  To make a long story short, 
I destroyed the Viking civilization by 1880.  Oddly enough, however, 
barbarian riflemen kept pestering my newly-conquered cities in that 
area.  Finally I sent down a friendly armor into a small black area to 
check things out.  Lo and behold, a barbarian city named Hladir.  I 
wonder where that came from.  I conquered it easily (barbarians like to 
keep only one unit in the cities they conquer).  Meanwhile, I retook that 
other long-forgotten city, Cardigan, which I discovered had grown from a 
size of one when taken by barbarians to a size of eight, and that 
without any city improvements.

Meanwhile, a huge barbarian horde attacks one of my out-of-the way 
cities.  I counted 15 cavalry and 15 riflemen in that horde.  My city 
survived, but everything around it was plundered, and it was starving.

Needless to say, I survived.  After I could produce stealth fighters, it 
was all over for the barbarians.  Stealth fighters are the coolest things 
known to man.  They have fourteen MP and can use them all to attack 
(unlike stealth bombers).  I could wipe out a third of a formidable 
barbarian horde in one turn!

Meanwhile, I was working on the Indians, whom I had also confined to a 
southern peninsula from the outset.  They had been at peace with me for 
millennia, but their emissary had been uncooperative for millennia 
because I was so supremely powerful in knowledge, population, etc., but 
had no military units.  When I decided to make war on the Indians, circa 
1950, I had but fortified phalanxes and old catapults sitting around in 
my nearby cities.  That would never do.

I created armor, howitzers, stealth bombers, battleships, and all the 
necessary accoutrements for massive warfare.  The trouble was, I could 
not for the life of me get Senate approval to attack, and there was no 
way to provoke the Indians because I couldn't demand tribute.  Also, the 
Indians were themselves a democracy.

So I hit upon a plan.  I had the Statue of Liberty, which supposedly 
allow you to change governments without anarchy, but actually lets you go 
into anarchy for <em>part</em> of your turn.  It was easy enough to 
change to Communism or whatever, but I wanted to keep my production 
levels in case I couldn't kill off the Indians.  Hence I still wanted to 
keep democracy.  So I held a revolution.  During the period of anarchy, I 
attacked the Indians, without any problem whatsoever.  At the end of my 
turn, I switched back to democracy, but I was already locked into war!  
The Senate passed resolutions supported continued peacekeeping action, 
and I took over the Indians completely the very next turn.  It was a 
beautiful ending to something with such an irritating beginning.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laissez vivre,  |jsorens@liberty.uc.wlu.edu
                |On the WWW at http://www.wlu.edu/~jsorens/index.html
Jason P Sorens  |Air an WWW aig http://www.wlu.edu/~jsorens/gaidhlig.html


