Something that just dawned on me is there no defined space of what one’s territory really is. In the later versions of this game territory is defined for each nation. It grows and expands based on cities, and the culture that is produced in the border cities. This has made alliances more important, because borders can be closed or opened, and if one wishes to force themselves into a territory they were not welcome to is an act of war, and shall commence until peace can be agreed upon. Monuments and other buildings become very important when developing, because they help enrich the culture that is produced in the city, which effects how far borders reach, and what level of happiness is present in the respective city. If happiness is ever low, effected is the speed in which buildings or units are produced.

I am fascinated too by the difference in the strategy of unit placement, and movement based on tile shapes. To begin, in this game compared to the later versions, and what I am trying to get at specifically in this post, is the fact you are able to stack units on top of each other in this game unlike the later ones. This changes the complexity of the game and strategy used. In the later versions a key strategy when attacking another city is to arrange your units based on their type of attack, so swordsman would be in the front, archers in the next row of units, and the catapults in the back. With the version we are playing currently I can stack all of my men on one spot, and have an endless attack stemming from it. Tiles too in the newer versions are hexagons, unlike the squared shaped tiles that are used in this version. This allowed units to be able to move in a more diagonal direction, and speed up the process of getting units from point A to B.