Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Round 8: 1658 AD to 1724 AD
I took VoU's advice and began the round by making some adjustments to try to generate a Great Artist:
I did something similar in the capital (where the National Epic is located), swapping the scientists for artists.
Meanwhile, I kept building Galleons, and in 1676, I finally felt like I had enough to launch a proper invasion:
That wasn't the entire invasion force, just the vanguard. You might notice there was another Galleon (two, actually) waiting near Apache to bring reinforcements over to Spain.
Meanwhile, I'd sent ahead my sole remaining Caravel to do a little recon:
Yes, it seems as though Isabella either researched or traded for Rifling! However, she lacked some other key techs:
It just made taking her on slightly more daunting--but not by much. She wouldn't be able to field Cavalry, Cannons, or Grenadiers. And Cannons, I knew, would be decisive here.
I was researching Communism because changing one civic (Slavery to Caste System) was going to take 3 turns! I decided I'd better obtain another worthwhile civic to make the change worthwhile.
In Rome, my next Great Person wasn't entirely what I was hoping for:
Still, you should never complain about getting a Great Engineer! I sent him to Ankara where he could finish the Statue of Liberty in a few turns. This confirmed my decision to go to State Property instead of Mercantilism, since I'd have free specialists from the SoL soon.
Once I had Communism, I changed civics for the last time in the game:
And on the same turn, my armada reached Spain (ironic, I know) and I delivered the bad news to our favourite comely religious wingnut:
I decided to forgo the Syrian Doctrine this time. I had a good defensive tile to land my troops, and Madrid only contained a Catapult to threaten them. With the Medic III Warlord unit, my units could heal within one turn if needed. Besides, I figured I wanted as many units as possible to survive the attack in order to protect the captured city against a counter-attack.
The Frigates then Cannons removed Madrid's cultural defense, then two unspent Cannons inflicted collateral damage--both surviving their attacks (one won, the other withdrew). Having City Raider Grenadiers came in very handy versus defending Riflemen:
The Spanish counter-attack never materialized. In fact, Isabella began evacuating troops out of Barcelona south to Toledo, making the former city easy pickings:
Meanwhile, back home, my GE completed the Statue of Liberty for me:
You might notice that I finally implemented the advice to max out the culture slider. I had free specialists from the SoL, Caste System allowed me to run some several artists, and running the culture slider at 70% all helped me close up the culture holes on my continent and reclaim some land from the Celtic and Mongolian cities there. It also meant that once Madrid came out of revolt, its borders popped to the 2nd ring right away. Here's how close all that took me to the domination win in 1721:
I considered various options to get the remaining 1.46%. I could declare war on both Brennus and Kublai and take their cities on my continent; I had mini-stacks outside of each to do just that. I was also moving my overseas stack south towards Toledo, and Barcelona would be out of revolt in 3 turns. But then I noticed that Izzy was willing to talk, and the solution was obvious as well as easy:
As you can see, 50% of Izzy's remaining territory gave me exactly what I needed:
So all I had to do was get to the next turn, and...
Wow. My earliest ever victory! I wonder what that will do to the score? You'll find out in the post-mortem, which I'll post next. Below is the save from the next-to-last turn.
I took VoU's advice and began the round by making some adjustments to try to generate a Great Artist:
I did something similar in the capital (where the National Epic is located), swapping the scientists for artists.
Meanwhile, I kept building Galleons, and in 1676, I finally felt like I had enough to launch a proper invasion:
That wasn't the entire invasion force, just the vanguard. You might notice there was another Galleon (two, actually) waiting near Apache to bring reinforcements over to Spain.
Meanwhile, I'd sent ahead my sole remaining Caravel to do a little recon:
Yes, it seems as though Isabella either researched or traded for Rifling! However, she lacked some other key techs:
It just made taking her on slightly more daunting--but not by much. She wouldn't be able to field Cavalry, Cannons, or Grenadiers. And Cannons, I knew, would be decisive here.
I was researching Communism because changing one civic (Slavery to Caste System) was going to take 3 turns! I decided I'd better obtain another worthwhile civic to make the change worthwhile.
In Rome, my next Great Person wasn't entirely what I was hoping for:
Still, you should never complain about getting a Great Engineer! I sent him to Ankara where he could finish the Statue of Liberty in a few turns. This confirmed my decision to go to State Property instead of Mercantilism, since I'd have free specialists from the SoL soon.
Once I had Communism, I changed civics for the last time in the game:
And on the same turn, my armada reached Spain (ironic, I know) and I delivered the bad news to our favourite comely religious wingnut:
I decided to forgo the Syrian Doctrine this time. I had a good defensive tile to land my troops, and Madrid only contained a Catapult to threaten them. With the Medic III Warlord unit, my units could heal within one turn if needed. Besides, I figured I wanted as many units as possible to survive the attack in order to protect the captured city against a counter-attack.
The Frigates then Cannons removed Madrid's cultural defense, then two unspent Cannons inflicted collateral damage--both surviving their attacks (one won, the other withdrew). Having City Raider Grenadiers came in very handy versus defending Riflemen:
The Spanish counter-attack never materialized. In fact, Isabella began evacuating troops out of Barcelona south to Toledo, making the former city easy pickings:
Meanwhile, back home, my GE completed the Statue of Liberty for me:
You might notice that I finally implemented the advice to max out the culture slider. I had free specialists from the SoL, Caste System allowed me to run some several artists, and running the culture slider at 70% all helped me close up the culture holes on my continent and reclaim some land from the Celtic and Mongolian cities there. It also meant that once Madrid came out of revolt, its borders popped to the 2nd ring right away. Here's how close all that took me to the domination win in 1721:
I considered various options to get the remaining 1.46%. I could declare war on both Brennus and Kublai and take their cities on my continent; I had mini-stacks outside of each to do just that. I was also moving my overseas stack south towards Toledo, and Barcelona would be out of revolt in 3 turns. But then I noticed that Izzy was willing to talk, and the solution was obvious as well as easy:
As you can see, 50% of Izzy's remaining territory gave me exactly what I needed:
So all I had to do was get to the next turn, and...
Wow. My earliest ever victory! I wonder what that will do to the score? You'll find out in the post-mortem, which I'll post next. Below is the save from the next-to-last turn.
Seriously, that's nearly double the next closest one in my Warlords HoF. I remember in one ALC a while back I talked about trying to max out the score, and in this game I finally did it. 
(free combat 1, free drill, plus city raiders, ouch!!!!).
I'll keep it in mind the next time I play as a Protective leader, though. 
) , and I believe the outcome with anyother leader wouldn't be THAT different.
