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You don't need to keep a large standing army around your empire,
especially in the early stages of the game. Cities have a defense value
even when there are no military units stationed in them. Even if an
opponent gets lucky and blunders across one of your cities with an
exploring unit, he probably won't be able to take your city...and even if
he gets lucky and takes your city, your people's affinity for you will
likely return control to you on the next turn.
I don't even think about raising an army until I have located at least one
opponent. Instead, concentrate on building the improvements that allow you
to build more advanced units. Military units are cheap, and you can raise
a respectable army in 2 or 3 turns if you've built the infrastructure
first.
If you should discover an opposing civilization before it finds you, send
a small to medium-sized force to threaten at least one city. Approach it
from a direction other than directly toward your own civilization. The
idea here is to panic the other player into raising an early army of weak
units, and to mislead him as to the direction of your own cities, while
you continue to advance your infrastructure.
It's also a good idea to station some pickets near your enemy, as far from
your own cities as possible, to keep his explorers away.
Don't waste time or resources on internal trade. External trade will help
with conquest of opponents' cities, but as a practical matter the AI
opponents will rarely maintain peace long enough for you to trade
effectively. Merchants are a valuable unit in head-to-head play, but have
minimal impact on a solo game
especially in the early stages of the game. Cities have a defense value
even when there are no military units stationed in them. Even if an
opponent gets lucky and blunders across one of your cities with an
exploring unit, he probably won't be able to take your city...and even if
he gets lucky and takes your city, your people's affinity for you will
likely return control to you on the next turn.
I don't even think about raising an army until I have located at least one
opponent. Instead, concentrate on building the improvements that allow you
to build more advanced units. Military units are cheap, and you can raise
a respectable army in 2 or 3 turns if you've built the infrastructure
first.
If you should discover an opposing civilization before it finds you, send
a small to medium-sized force to threaten at least one city. Approach it
from a direction other than directly toward your own civilization. The
idea here is to panic the other player into raising an early army of weak
units, and to mislead him as to the direction of your own cities, while
you continue to advance your infrastructure.
It's also a good idea to station some pickets near your enemy, as far from
your own cities as possible, to keep his explorers away.
Don't waste time or resources on internal trade. External trade will help
with conquest of opponents' cities, but as a practical matter the AI
opponents will rarely maintain peace long enough for you to trade
effectively. Merchants are a valuable unit in head-to-head play, but have
minimal impact on a solo game