It was time. Sitting Bull had the oceangoing ships he had seen in his visions. He was on the cusp of a monopoly on the death-dealing thundersticks. Only his own trepidation and indecision held him back. He had a nagging suspicion that the Khmer would be a more fruitful target, but the arguments for England's isolation were irrefutable. With a resolute nod and set of the jaw, he called his counsellors into his throne room.
"Order all information-gathering activities to focus on the Dutch and Celts."
Spies might not play a role in this conflict, but if they did, Sitting Bull wanted to make sure they tipped the odds in his favor, not Boudica's.
"Begin the Golden Age. And make the Civics changes we discussed."
Trade flowed from the port cities of Brave, Islander, and Laker, and the people were permitted to say and do whatever they wished, so long as they maintained strict religious orthodoxy. Sitting Bull was about to declare war on a supercontinent. Fanaticism in his armies would serve him better than doubt among his civilians.
In 1270, fearful of foreign Settlers, the Native Americans quickly founded the city of
Moosehead along the Atlantic coast:
A quick, concentrated logging spree by Workers as the populace wrote poems and beautified their homes resulted in the borders expanding and a Harbor being completed in record time.
Spies, meanwhile, slipped into the unaffiliated indigenous villages of Australia and made off with a map of the south Pacific. This was useless, but it was a celebrated
objet d'art amongst the literati of Hawkeye and Green Wave for a few years. The other village was more productive, hiding a cache of 75 gold which our skilled infiltrators easily absconded with.
In 1280, a rapidly-militarizing Native American heartland received welcome news about their future targets:
Versailles would be a most useful Wonder to have in the Old World. This made war with Boudica that much more appealing.
Joao, meanwhile, was fairly innocuous. Sitting Bull made a most profitable trade with him:
The people, still living it up in their Golden Age, did not seem to notice when their rights to Free Speech were quietly revoked, and Buffalo flags began to hang from every wall. The ability to draft a few quick Riflemen, along with the decidedly lower maintenance (a patriotic people is an efficient people) would, hopefully, make up for the loss of Town revenue along the Atlantic coast.
In 1295, the Gilgamesh/Hannibal bloc declared war on Boudica and Willem. Much of Celtia's appeal as a target was in its vulnerability. Sitting Bull had to act fast. The interior built units while the coastal cities focused on building transports:
Money was also stockpiled in trade to upgrade older troops to crack Riflemen.
In 30 years, when Gilgamesh asked Sitting Bul for aid, the answer was a resounding "yes":
The invasion force was fairly ramshackle, consisting of a trio of ships loaded down with Rifles and Trebuchets, followed up by another boat every turn or so. Islander and Brave chafed under the Draft, which they considered little more than a new incarnation of the Whip, and Hawkeye's agricultural surplus finally led to overpopulation, but Sitting Bull largely maintained the peace at home.
The Native American empire even continued to expand on the home continent:
Baja caused much in the way of difficulty for Sitting Bull. It would represent his 11th Harbor, and the completion of the Harbormaster quest. But things moved slowly in that dry, windswept place, and Sitting Bull solemnly decided that researching Steel as quickly as possible was more important than waiting for that final Harbor to be constructed.
The Emerald Isle, meanwhile, long a place of peace, was the first battlefield in Sitting Bull's campaign of domination:
And... Huh. There's the 11th Harbor. I guess I shouldn't have canceled my campaign of Caravel-building. Boy is my face red
In happier news, Rene Descartes was born in Hawkeye:
I couldn't think of what to do with him, so I let him sleep.
On the European mainland, Boudica was on the ropes:
This is actually a good thing for us, as it'll dial back the cultural pressure significantly.
And in the British Isles, her alliance wasn't faring too much better:
That's a nice little jackpot. The Customs House, once a new Harbor was built, combined with the Academy and Observatory, and of course the resource-rich nature of the Isles, would result in a powerful science city.
As bivouacing Riflemen struggled to impose order on The Hague and Ireland, the bulk of the army swung south to consolidate control over England:
Sitting Bull smiled. The sumptuous palace of Versailles had survived intact. It would make a wonderful vacation spot for him, as well as a defensible beachhead for his armies.
But Cultural pressure from Vienne posed a problem. Of course, it wasn't a problem that couldn't be solved with a careful application of materiel:
So, with Boudica dead and Willem on the ropes, let's pause here for advice. We'll start with a close-in look at the vastly-changed expanse of northern Europe:
We have taken England and Brittany (except for a Holy Roman outpost Charlemagne snuck into the Scottish Highlands). Hannibal controls Amsterdam. Babylon controls most of France. Willem is limited to Scandinavia and that odd little protrusion from the northern polar ice. I think it's supposed to be Iceland.
The Americas continue to be unchallenged:
Pacal seems to be expanding nicely into the southern jungles, though he still languishes at the bottom of the scoreboard.
And here's a look at the Old Countries as we know them:
Yup, it's looking like Hammurabi and Justinian are my long-term rivals, with Wang Kon and Hannibal as the next tier (and the score chart bears that out).
Finally, Relations:
And techs:
We have an absolute monopoly on Rifling, and have gotten a few decent offers for it (Like Scientific Method or Constitution). Steel is starting to show up on others' tech charts, though, which is worrisome. Right now I'm researching Steam Power, planning for going Railroads (not gonna delay that again).
So should I make any trades? Who should the next target be? Am I doing anything incredibly stupid (Other than letting the Harbormaster slip through my fingers)? What should I do with that Great Scientist? The game has finally started, so I look forward to some input.
(Oh, and I'm sorry for the somewhat slapdash, inconsistent nature of the writeup. Life's been getting in the way, and I figured a weak round was better than no round at all)
The save:
), but you're far from ready to war Justinian in Europe ....
