This guide is mainly for the Caribbean map or island map, but can also be played on very watery maps. I've already touched on the subject already in another thread, but I cannot emphasize how powerful and effective this is. Wasn't Andrew Carnegie who believed in true effectiveness of a product, way of doing something, event, etc...

With that in mind, let's go to the guide. Now I usually play Ottoman, but this should work for any civ. First off (this isn't going to be real specific, for it can vary to some degree-map,civ,etc...), start your game as you usually would. Explore the map, collect resources, and so on. I usually work on food, so I can age fast. I would advise not exactly turtling, but have your defenses ready. Try to emphasize on wood, especially later in the game. Generally, with Ottoman, I'll age up once I get about 14 villes, the mosque and millet upgrade in place(like I said it will vary with other civs, and remember Otto villes cost nothing), but I do not build a dock till age 2 usually. I do reccomend trying to age fast, because it will probably give you naval superiorty later in the game(providing you age before your enemy)

Once you get to age 2, the free warship cards usually kick in. I highly advise getting those, if not, make your own caravels or galleys.Also, get the admiralty card, that is probably the most important card in this guide. Explore the map with these and start shooting your enemy's fishing boats and warboats if he has any. Now at home, just play the game as usual-build new buildings, gather resources(mainly food and gold, with the wood starting to pick up), get the naval upgrades, and maybe get a defensive army(I usually just take the military shipments from my home city, but I still build a barracks and all that just in case).Also, try to either blockade his dock/s or blockade your coast to form a coast guard. Once again, try to age fast, but with sufficient resources.

Once I hit fortress, I get the fort shipment and build it on a strategic point (what's new here?), generally where it's hard for the enemy to sneak by with your blockades in place. This is the age when you really want to start emphasizing on wood and gold. Now I hate losing men, so if I see a ship that's got a lot of damage to it, I always send it back to repair. In this age I also start building my frigates, which really protect the monitors and clear away enemy fleets. I'm not a big fan of galleons, so I usually don't build them till my economy is strong enough to produce that many ships so fast. Then once you can, upgrade to the Indrustrial Age, make sure you have a pretty large navy first.

Once you get to age 4, now you can make those monitors. By now, depending on my opponent, I've been forced to form the coast guard around my island, where he tries to land his ships, but hopefully, you have outposts around there too(by now, I usually have my city walled and outposts in there. Now take those monitors, I usually group mine together and just put them in the middle of a fleet. Then find the point from where you can hit the most of his buildings (this may change from time to time as you discover new areas)and start firing. He'll probably try to send men to attack your monitors, but you have a fleet around you and you can always pull back and snipe them with the monitors. By this method, you should be able to destroy quite a few of his buildings, depending on the map.

Monitors are particularly effective against groups of villes, especially ones cutting trees, because the shell destroys trees too, though not all the time. Now some times (actually a lot of the time) you're not going to be able to destroy all of his buildings with your monitors. So that's where that defensive army and your economy kick in, so you can have a grand army. With your coast guard system and walled and towered city, you shouldn't have to worry much, and by now, I can pretty much guarentee that he doesn't have a dock(since you can always hit those with the monitors, and every other boat come to think of it). Then this is up to you and your civ. Transport your army to his island and take it by whatever means you wish for. And that should do it, and believe me it works, I use it all the time, and it really makes those home city levels go up, especially if you get the trade posts.

Villes/age/resource chart(plz keep in mind that I play Ottoman{free villes})
age1 14 villes 8 food 5 wood 1 gold
age 2 34 villes 12 food 10 wood 12 gold
age 3 45 villes 15 food 15 wood 15 gold
age 4 68-70 villes 15 food 30 wood 25 gold
age 5 70 villes 20 food 30 wood 20 gold

Plz reply your opinions

[This message has been edited by Custergrant (edited 01-05-2006 @ 07:07 AM).]