I've known for quite a bit now that theres only a couple cases where an attempt with the Sid skill level would actually be possible and I've come to the conclusion that the Viking Republic is the only strategy that will work.  The forced isolation and the AI's stupidity in naval warfare would be the only way to play at this skill level.

I originally started this game as an Emporer level game, but by 400 BC I had already found it too easy.  So I used the play last world option and gave a try at the Sid level, more as a joke to be honest.  So I did have some pre-knowledge of the map and where to send my early scouts...  So instead of making and losing 10 curraghs, I got by on 3 and saved myself a good 105 shields worth of scouts.

The save files I have here:

Addited:   conquests v1.22

4000 Autosave...  First save possible.  I built did move my settler to a diff tile to start as well.

The Golden Age - My golden age in the war vs the hittites.  The invasion of the Hittites land is still a few turns away from that file...  And thats a pretty fun invasion to play.  I think at one point I have 15-20 elite bezerks going at a stack of over 50 swordsmen, and that results in atleast 3 or 4 great leaders (which are turned into three or 4 armies )   Little addit here...  If you want to see how to use forests and get the most from your tiles in the middle ages, this is a great file to look at... My production here is really tough to match.  I've got forests all over the place (came with engineering) and am really maxxing the production on every city.

The Invasion of the Chinese - This was an interesting invasion.  Oh...  The Japanese declared war on me prior to that and I managed to use the armies from the Hittites invasion to capture quite a few Japanese island cities and pretty much forced them back to their main isle before that.  The Chinese during this save are involved in a major war vs the Ottomans (I allied and brought in the Ottomans) and the Chinese are pretty easily running over the Ottomans.  Your transports are coming up on the back side of China and he has little defence there...  It's all up on the frontline fighting the Ottoman.  The Chinese fall for me in a very little amount of time.  If you're loading the saves...  There are 2 invasion forces that hit the Chinese mainland.  One are the southern armies that have just finished cleaning up the Japanese islands and the other is reenforcements from my mainland that are going to hit the Chinese // Ottoman frontline.  The armies pretty much finish the Chinese off before the reenforcements arrive anyway.

The Fall of the Chinese - I had to save this as I've done it a couple times (did it to the Germans and Hittites as well)...  The frontline units for China are still wandering around and there are quite a few chinese units left on the map...  But I've now taken every one of their cities.  For some reason though, they aren't eliminated.  If you look through the chinese stacks, you will find a musketman defending a lone settler.  Theres a musketman army of mine able to reach them, so the final battle vs the chinese is my 15 health musket army taking out a 4 health musketmen unit (and capturing the settlers).  After killing that settler, the remaining chinese units are removed from the board (If I remember right, the Chinese units that are removed from the board are actually pretty close to the same power level I'm at).

The Fall of the Germans - Exact same thing as the Chinese...  Theres alot of German units still on the board as I capture their last city.  All the German units are removed without a fight when I captured their last city.

After that file came the tech race.  I managed to get to electronics pretty quickly and have a few techs the Indians and Japanese lack.  When I finally get espionage I planted some spies...  My next post will have the military screen shots... This is something you have to see to beleive.

You can see my military count is a bit under 400 there.  I've got 13 armies of 3 elite bezerks running around and 2 musketmen armies for defence (actually, I've lost a few armies as well, the total count is 18 I think).  The elite Bezerk armies will win vs a fortified infantry unit in a city, but usually emerge pretty badly beaten.  I think of those 132 bezerks atleast 90 of them are elite (well, 13*3 = 39 elite bezerks in armies alone).

Oh, and that pic doesn't show the 50 some medieval inf and the almost 200 guerillas they have.

Addit:

LMAO.  I just had this pointed out to me...  This screen shot is taken when Replaceable parts is out (and has been out for quite a few years) as you can tell by the high infantry counts.  Now the Bezerk is based on the longbowman that eventually upgrades to the Guerilla...  So at this point in time, the Bezerk is actually obsolete (123 obsolete units...  great).   Take a look at what the military advisor is saying I should build.  I wonder if it thinks I should mass build warriors as well?

So I wonder how well the 124 medieval infantry will do vs the 70 some infantry I'll fortify for the first wave.  Hehe, thats just going to be an ugly ugly invasion.

hey well wow thats a whole lot of units! and i hv seen a goofier number try 371.

wow i hv never seen so many old units next to such newer ones.  123 obslete units? wow you NEED a war to get rid of them lol.