Here is the Infinite Attack Sleaze Victim:

The Victim

The gang's all here, and the sheep are leaping in fright.

The Gang

All is going to according to plan:

Took Catherine

Catherine cries for peace too easily. You often get some free tech this way, too.

Catherine Cries

I went on to take Moscow and pretty much eliminate Catherine. However, a horrible feeling came over me as I realize that the higher city and unit costs were killing me financially. Also, citizens were far harder to keep happy, and my cities wouldn't grow past 5. Furthermore, the happiness-conferring buildings were on a different part of the tech tree from my warmonger plans, which left my cities only able to build MORE units that I couldn't afford (is there no way for a city to produce NOTHING?!). The whole economy collapsed. Game over. I can't say this would be very fun for a warmonger to sort out, but it's certainly a challenge I might return to.

I just have to put this in showing how I can mouse over the city and tell exactly what's guarding it. In this case, just two archers. This knowledge allows me to bring a carefully calculated attack force. This makes siege too easy!

2 Archers

O.K. Now Monarch with Aggressive A.I.s should be a realistic test. Let's see what happens.

Monarch

Way in to the Infinite Attack Sleaze plan, I find that I *can* balance my economy, but I have to absolutely streamline myself. Unhappiness in cities coincides in a more balanced way (for a warmonger), though it's still a welcome shock to have to think more carefully about following the religious techs to get some happiness-conferring buildings. Things like terrain, while not entirely ignored when I play on Noble difficulty, suddenly become crucial. Here I am determined not to lose even a single unit if I can help it by sneaking to the rear of the city so I don't have to attack over a river and take a penalty. I think this is what Firaxis intended.

Terrain

Catherine is basically dead. I'm in my building phase. On Noble level (non aggressive AI), this is the part of the game where nobody would attack me.

Building Phase

Well, somebody attacks! China, who seemingly had a huge start, leverages its power and attacks. I'm thrilled – and find it funny that cultural borders + bad luck on geography trapped some of my rescuing units in a nearby city.

China Attacks

It's brilliant that these Chinese units are pillaging like crazy waiting for a larger attack force to arrive. THIS is the AI behavior I was hoping for!

Pillagers

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