Continuation to this. Long story short: Was peacefully building my empire, had little to no defense, was unexpectedly declared war upon by my until-then buddy and neighbor Brazil, the most powerful nation on the planet.

Had to put on my thinking cap and consider every decision carefully, to make sure my resources would be employed as effectively as possible to build an adequate defense as fast as realistically possible. No more peaceful civilian construction until this matter was settled, assuming I survived at all.

And then I waited. And prepared some more. And waited. Prepared.

Nothing happened.

Turns out the declaration was a false alarm, at least so far. No foreign army at my gates (such as they are).

Who is dumb enough to declare war and then don’t follow through? What is the plan here? True, it disrupted my flow and forced me to redirect my efforts before I was ready, and that may have been to my detriment, but I’m pretty sure my detriment is not his benefit in this case, especially not when considering what comes next.

I was utterly unprepared and vulnerable at the time of the declaration. But that was then, I have now undergone a transformation. In every single area of control — units, research, buildings, technology, etc. — I’ve now prepared myself for an invasion. I have aligned all my resources and all my forces to achieve this one purpose.

Now I’m in a pretty good shape, military wise. Not better than him, but it might be easier and less resource intensive to defend than to attack. I believe I have a fighting chance even if he would throw all he got on me, and from the looks of it he’s not coming at all.

Ranking wise, I’ve gone from 7/8 in military to 3/8 in a relatively short time period, no small feat, and this is just the beginning.

I was going to build my war machine soon enough anyway. His declaration of war acted as a catalyst, and that’s fine. In the uncertain and fluctuating world of competing political entities, plans need to be flexible and subject to revision as the circumstances changes.

I will build up my army some more, and unless he belatedly initiates his invasion I will then turn the tables and take the war to him.

To be continued.