I see you have used the early surprise attack, but play on hard level and you'll probably learn the wisdom of defensive units. Surprise attacks are very effective against AI because they don't react effectively against specific attacks and often build few defences, but agains intelligent opponents I doubt you get far. (and yes, I also normally attack with 3 horsemen (I scout with defensive infantry first though; more scouting power for the same price)
And have you ever tried mountain units, air units etc? Those will let you conquer opponents in no time; without the need to build railroad. I never build railroad, except to increase the production of industrialized cities, and don't think the Shinkansen especially powerful.
I think Zeus, Lighthouse(smaller sea maps), Statue of Liberty and Hoover dam (large maps) more powerfull than Shinkansen and even Newton. (the latter since future society is the government too have when researching future tech, a high priority, at least in version 0 of the game)
Posted 4-May-06 08:43 by Retudin