Round 11: 1553 AD to 1709 AD - Part 1
Keep up the pressure, all of you urged, so I did. I moved my stack to Vilas and attacked it next:
As you can see, I also kept researching Replaceable Parts with Rifling in mind as the next target tech. I originally planned to also get Nationalism, switch civics, and draft Riflemen, but things didn't work out that way, as you'll see.
I also thought it made sense to have a fire sale on some of my old techs, especially to erstwhile allies who would be dead by my hand before long:
And then, as luck would have it, Ragnar finished researching Nationalism! It didn't come cheap, but I got it from him:
Whatever its other failings, the AI is quite capable of driving a hard bargain. A pity he didn't have more gold, or another, cheaper tech to throw in there. I actually kind of hoped that with Printing Press, the Financial Viking would have more money to throw around. I did get a little over 100 "spare this for a good friend" gold from him later on, so I guess it helped. I certainly didn't want to make his life easier by giving him a military tech like Chemistry, though!
I spawned my next Great Person, a GS in Persepolis, and used him to lightbulb most of Scientific Method:
Meanwhile, the campaign continued, with a slight diversion from the plan I'd posted previously. The next city I took was Murcia on the south coast:
I also kept it, despite Cabert's recommendation to raze it. Why did I prioritize this city? Check out the resources: silver and whales. 2-4 additional happiness in every city, depending upon buildings. War weariness was not unmanageable at this point, but it soon could be, so having these resources helped.
My stack then turned its attention north, heading for one of the key Incan cities we had discussed as a primary target:
Machu Picchu held a nice prize, too--a wonder:
Okay, the Sistine Chapel isn't exactly going to be a cornerstone of my victory in this game, but I never scoff at a wonder I get for "free".
All this fighting (and the Imperialistic trait) spawned my next Great General. I decided to have some fun with him, and combined him with my best city raider as a Warlord:
I gave the CR III Grenadier Leadership and Combat I (and II, I think). Leadership is a fun promotion for a unit like this, especially with the Charismatic trait's cheap promotions. He'll accumulate promotions quickly as a result. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Imperialistic also multiply the extra XP's earned from Leadership? If so, there's a definite synergy there between the two traits that would argue in favour of creating a Leadership-promoted unit much earlier in the game to rack up more Great Generals even faster.
Around this time, Huayna apparently got tired of fighting a two-front war and made peace with the comely religious fanatic:
Notice that Isabella did not become a vassal. It meant I could focus on Huayna. Unfortunately, it also meant he could focus on me; after this, his counter-attacks increased in frequency. I managed to hold him off, though.
Despite the wars, Huayna still managed to find the hammers to build a wonder:
That's actually a pretty good spot for Versailles--for me. I looked forward to taking it off his hands.
As I shared in a post above, Huayna, strangely, researched Astronomy rather than a more immediately useful tech like Rifling or Military Tradition. Since he had Chemistry, this gave him access to a more advanced military unit...
As I mentioned in a previous post, I could only defend my seafood tiles with Caravels at this point, so I was resigned to having them pillaged and losing some population in my coastal cities as a result. (That high production rate I had was supported by all that seafood allowing my coastal city citizens to work more hammer-rich tiles.)
Undaunted by the Frigates, I kept pressing Huayna, next depriving him of his sole source of horses.
And just as Huayna's Frigates were approaching my closest seafood tile, Freddy came to my rescue:
Again, the tech did not come cheap, but it allowed me to quickly upgrade a couple of Caravels to Frigates and build more of the latter. Rather than attacking my better-protected seafood tiles, Huayna used a Galleon to drop off a meagre little stack outside of Ecbatana (the city built right on top of the ivory). They did a little pillaging before they were wiped out--not a big problem.
In 1646, two important things happened. First, I finished researching my next military tech. I had actually delayed Rifling a little bit by lowering the research slider. My think was (a) I could afford to delay it a turn or two; (b) it allowed me to spawn more Macemen out of Beijing with CR II; and (c) it gave me a little more gold for upgrades.
And even though Ragnar and Huayna had both finished researching Nationalism before me, I nevertheless managed to build the Taj Majal in the former Mongolian capital of Karakorum--starting a very welcome golden age!
The irony of this combination of events, however, was that with a GA underway and Cyrus lacking the Spiritual trait, I couldn't revolt into Nationalism to draft Rifles. I had to build them all from scratch instead! Fortunately, with my already-high production levels boosted by the GA, the Riflemen started appearing pretty quickly, and with full XPs from the barracks.
I researched Military Tradition next, thinking Cavalry might prove useful.
To be continued...
(RIP mansa musa).
a civ really hard and they're down to 1 city, they won't vassalize to you.
Oh, well. If the AI were smarter I'd be concerned about him landing an invasion stack well behind enemy lines...but I wouldn't be too concerned about that...
