The history might have been a better place had I been there

Toying around in Civilization V again, and revisiting the idea of bipolar AI. See, in Civ V, you make an empire from the ground up, although instead of seeing Rome built in a day, it's just a single turn. All the diplomacy and direction in which you take your empire is up to the player. My playstyle involves me hiding away until the AI decides I'm a vulnerable target, much like China before Europe decided to take interest in its affairs (Ironically, my favorite civilization is the Chinese).
In one game from a few months ago, playing online with my friend, our empires were on opposite ends of the map. He had his share of AI empires near him, I had mine. Luckily for him, he didn't have Gandhi creeping up on his borders. I played as usual, expanding when appropriate, building up roads with my empire. I had seen a few of Gandhi's scouts earlier in the game, but he didn't worry me. The image of a peaceful protestor ingrained in my memory only caused more anguish as he declared war and proceeded with the invasion of a horde of elephant warriors. They might have been real elephant men hybrids, but I was panicking too much to worry about the details. My friend could only donate so much money, but by the time I had built up a defense, he had already captured most of my peaceful empire.
No screenshot of the invasion (caught up in fighting back the Mûmakil), so here's an old one that I took with a stark backdrop for such a happy camper.

He's peaceful, so friendly that he lives in Mordor. I feel like the right thing to do here would have been to declare war.

Red Alert 2 - The Reckoning

So, I dug up my old copy of Red Alert 2 a week ago or so, and I instantly fell in love with it again. As a kid, I watched my friend's dad play the this game all the time, commanding legions of tanks and struggling to stay afloat against multiple, brutal AIs. I had to get it, I had to be that commander pushing back the soviets. My little elementary school self had trouble with the normal AIs, but I distinctly remember cackling in my best mastermind voice as I completely overwhelmed the little easy AIs with their miniature bases, and panicking as the shark blimp with the face of doom flew overhead and tore at my base from above.

 And, when left unchecked, a seemingly well fortified base turns into a satisfying pile of rubble.

It's just little moments like those that make victory so sweet, especially after reeling from the AI stealing an entire unfortified base, or unleashing the gates of their tank factory.

But there's one strategy that the AI can't replicate (Well, admittedly, there are plenty since AI from 10 years ago weren't the most complicated out there). But, my little self discovered it one rainy night, and it involves sending your base directly into the enemies base along with a few premade towers. In my case, the Allied prism towers, who rely on focusing bolts of light directly into the victim. The victim yells out in a heap of agony and falls to the dirt fried. It's more gruesome imagined than it actually looks in game.
After setting up the base near the enemy's compound, I immediately built up the infamous prism towers. Normally, you're limited to building near your own buildings, but with the expansion, you can build right into the heart of the enemy.

Here, I built my construction yard in the valley below, but with a few little power plants and prism towers (my buildings are cyan), the enemy was slowly eaten away by electricity.

 Completely trapped, the victimized AI slowly released conscripts out of their barracks, but it wasn't enough to hold back the creeping wall of prism towers. Finally, satisfied with my sadism, I put the AI out of its misery and ended it, burning a hole through their remaining buildings.

 Each tower directed light into a single prism tower, and the result blew up their last building.

Now, the other option would have been to just mass up a bunch of tanks with the prism tower technology mounted on top of them (really shocking when a swarm of them appears at the doorstep of a base), but when's the last time you destroyed an enemies' base with a  base?