"So here I am, appeasing the sun god." Neal thought back to his history lessons and all those Discovery Channel shows and completed the gruesome ceremony. Swallowing hard, he tossed the heart into the brazier before him and raised his arms in triumph. Neal could definitely get into the cheers of adoration from the crowd, though he tried hard not to think of how good that heart smelled as it sizzled and popped in the coals.
Later, the King of the World sat amidst his maps and troop manifests, trying to determine what needed to be done. The Aztec "Navy," in particular, bordered on the ridiculous:
What, exactly, were we going to do with 13 Triremes? With another 4 or 5 being built across the empire? Neal held off on scuttling ships already in the water, but he swiftly cancelled any further production. He redirected his empire's espionage efforts to his vassals, who were keeping scientific secrets from him. The Americas were fine lands, full of resources and production potential. But Azteca was woefully behind in technology. It was time to change that.
The secret of Guilds, it turns out, was easily bullied out of the broken Americans:
Roosevelt had enough dignity to deny further requests for Compass, but Guilds alone was worth the time spent on extortion.
And Genghis Khan, after a bit of buttering up, was also willing to trade a few techs amongst blighted, ignorant civs:
Genghis was grouchy about his global irrelevance and grumbled more than once about how he had been "doomed from the start." Neal didn't have the heart to explain that, with an early strike on Beijing, he could have been the map's top dog. It was too late now, though and, well, poor old Temujin was kind of screwed. Neal simply thanked him for the tech and moved on.
Huayna Capac, our voluntary vassal, was more than happy to share his own findings for Roosevelt's secrets of Guilds:
The Inca were a stoic people. Like the Mongols, they were hosed from the start. Unlike the Mongols, though, they were surrounded by similar backwaters, so they weren't forced to wallow in their own filth while watching their neighbors prosper.
And with Compass in hand, Neal was ready to make a play for Optics:
At this point, Neal felt a pang of guilt. Roosevelt was being beaten like a rented mule. Which, I suppose in this instance, he kind of was. Nevertheless,
noblesse oblige (and pure pragmatism) dictated that we trade the Americans Drama and Paper for Banking. How societies can manage banks without paper is beyond me. That'd be one mess of papyrus rolls! But I digress.
In 1706 a Great Engineer was born in Tzintun... Tzuntzi... the Pacific Northwest:
Engineers have many fun uses, but, unfortunately, most of them involve World Wonders, which are kind of meaningless if you're centuries behind in Tech. So, in order to play a little bit of catch-up, Neal expended him on a Golden Age.
After all, it was time to begin colonizing South America. When Neal mentioned this possibility to his advisors, their reception was less than kind. "South America? It is the Forbidden Zone! For centuries, we have attempted to walk there, only to be repulsed by the mountains."
"Have you tried using Galleys?"
"Boats? To travel to another spot on the same continent? Blasphemy! You yourself declared the jungled south off limits!"
"And now I'm declaring it UnForbidden. And I will decide what is and is not blasphemous. Or would you rather take this up with Quetzalcoatl?" Neal hefted a knife. "I can send you up to meet him, if you'd like."
And with that, Azteca's massive Victory Fleet finally saw some use ferrying Settlers, Workers, and troops to the shining south. Barranquilla was founded in 1708:
And set to work expanding borders manually, thanks to Musical training from the French.
Caracas opened for business not long after:
A Work Boat already on site kickstarted the colony.
In 1714, we were given a quest!
The Renaissance era was about to begin by the advent of the Printing Press, and we were short by two Forges. A quick tax adjustment bought us a little bit of time (and earned us a nice chunk of change), and brutal Aztec justice (read: the whip) turned out those Forges.
The rewards were unspectacular:
But the opportunity cost for completing the quest was trivial, so the free Engineer was probably worth it.
Thanks to a careful management of the Incas' research goals, we were able to nab Philosophy from them rather easily:
The original plan was to take it through espionage, but the cost was a bit high for us to pull off with ease.
The colonies expanded quickly:
They never really had a chance to pay for themselves during the round, but, as long-term investments, they are crucial to Montezuma being more than an afterthought.
Replaceable Parts, a key tech on the road to Rifling, was, in its own right, valuable trade bait:
Again, careful management of Huayna Capac's research path is turning him into a valuable trade partner.
We established ourselves in the southern end of the American supercontinent:
And in its center:
Hopefully, that'll make up for my... oddly named city in the Mali round. I'm really starting to regret giving Mansa Musa a New World presence. It's rather difficult to work around, and declaring war would just bring China down on our heads.
By 1744, Roosevelt finally finished researching Astronomy, and was willing to trade it for Music and Printing Press. A quick Opening of intercontinental borders later (along with a conversion to Free Market), and our economy experienced a nice little (huge) boost.
Campo Grande was founded outside the ruins of a Barbarian enclave which had been wiped out by our massive army:
And Salvador was founded on the coast, south of Mansa Musa's Brasilia. It would take more time and Workers than Azteca had left to fully tame, but, except for outposts of the Mali and Romans, South America, like North America, waved the puke-green flag with pride.
Our Incan friends finished Gunpowder for us:
And the race to Rifling was on.
In 1772, as the round began to draw to a close, Emperor Qin came forth, asking for aid against the puny Mongols:
Neal heartily agreed, seeking both to finally see Genghis Khan killed or subject to the Chinese, and to have a purpose for his massive army.
Unfortunately, the King of the World's short-sightedness led to Neal not checking the Diplomacy screen and finding out that the Mongols were, in fact, vassals of Rome. Neal had been drawn into a far larger conflict than he had anticipated.
And, before you ask, no, we weren't going to be able to take Bantu:
At least not without some expensive upgrades.
Fortunately, Rifling was still relatively rare even in the Old World, so it allowed us to trade up to approach parity with the league of nations:
So the state of Azteca was strong. There was a sizeable Roman army to our south, but, while dislodging it was out of the question, we had the forces in place to hold it off (especially with a few key upgrades). While we had not exactly sprinted ahead of the pack, we were not longer rude bumpkins. And our treasury was sizeable, ready to...
#$%&ing Qin. Drawing us into a conflict we don't want to be in, and then extorting us to prevent a dogpile. He's clever, I'll give him that. Anyway, Azteca's concerns are no longer our problem, because we are now...
... The Inca. Crap. Okay, this round is, obviously, not going to be our finest hour. I don't think there's a heck of a lot we can do here. I mean, we can gun for a Great Prophet (for some reason, Huayna built the Jewish shrine but not the Hindu one). And we could break vassalage with the Aztecs, which would choke Monty's Amazon cities pretty brutally. But I don't think that's worth it. What are your thoughts?
Here's the save:
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