Beware of the Little Guy

In my game, I was having a tough time growing territorially and economically because all of the land in my scenario had been settled. So, I had an idea. I decided to attack my neighbor who also happened to be the weakest and least successful empire up to that point. How hard could it be to conquer them? I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as I declared war, I was shocked to see that they had a defensive pact with one of the strongest empires, who happened to border me on the other side. Now, I had to battle two empires; one to the north and one to the south. The southern empire that I was now at war with had military units that were very strong and almost equal to the strength of my army. The northern empire that I was at war with had very weak military units that were equal to those that were adaquate many years in the past, but they had lots of units and many extra advantages that are available with experience points. My tanks and armored units were struggling against longbowman and catapults. Even though they are much weaker than my units, every time I tried to attack them, I was at a distinct and large disadvantage. While this was happening, I just kept thinking about the U.S. attacking Iraq. The U.S. has the greatest military and technology in the world, but we are struggling tremendously against people using gorilla warfare tactics and modernly primitive weapons. This disadvantage is mostly because the Iraqis use their background and landscape to their advantage. They attack our units from much higher ground and by surprise. They use little rogue units that in a straight up fight would stand no chance, but due to their advantages, are able to be very successful. Even if they do not win that battle, they prolong the war which does more damage than just winning the battle, both economically and psychologically. So watch out. Just because your neighbor is weaker than you, they could cause you a lot of damage to not just your attacking units but to your empire as a whole.

Technology Plays Important Role

As the empires in the game become older and larger, what seperates the successful ones from the weaker ones? Obviously, wealth is a huge factor in this, but so is the strength of your military units. The common denominator between these two is technology. The more technologically advanced that your empire is, the stronger, richer and more successful it will become. Diamond talked about how technology played an important role in the transformation of hunter-gatherer societies into stable and growing villages. He references his example of the people of New Guinea a lot when talking about this point. They never developed the technology that other civilizations did and they still possess little technology today. Heilbroner also discusses how technology was a crucial means of growing and enhancing a society. He references the steam engine and Adam Smith's pin factory as examples of ways that technology sparked a growth in the civilization and allowed them to expand both economically and spatially. Colander states in his textbook's definition of the new growth theory that "technology is the primary source of growth." All 3 of our resources state in their own way that technology is vital to the growth of your village, city or country. So, in Civ, technology is probably pretty important as well.

Marginal Cost

In economics, we are always looking for the marginal cost in each one of our actions and decisions. Sometimes, it is easy. Sometimes the marginal cost is monetary and other times you have to delve a little deeper. In Civ, we are forced to look at this concept on a turn by turn basis. Each time that we decide which technology to discover, what our workers need to construct or which military unit to train, the marginal cost of this decision will have an impact on the rest of the game. Obviously, if you construct a lot of buildings and wonders, then your marginal cost is the deficiency of your military and vice versa. But, the more difficult marginal costs to consider are the workers and what they build in each given category. For instance, what is the marginal cost of building a longbowman in 4 turns instead of a rifleman in 13 turns? The rifleman is much stronger and is a better military unit but is this benefit worth the longbowman unit and an aqueduct that will keep the citizens of your city healthy whether fighting a war or not. How about the marginal cost of building a wonder that will give you added benefits over other smaller and less beneficial structures? Example: you have the opportunity to build Broadway, which provides you with 5 hit musicals, but it takes 24 turns. You could also build a university, observatory and a hospital in 26 turns. Which situation is most beneficial for your city and your civilization as a whole? Marginal cost is very important in real life and in Civ and much like in real life, it is often ignored.