This round started with me making a change at Hao, adding two scientist specialists so that I would produce a Great Scientist in 12 turns. Note also that I am building Sun Tzu's Art of War, giving +1 exp to every unit I produce. This is also to keep the wonder away from the other kingdoms, who would then be able to promote two promotions off the bat.
Three turns later, after I had moved all of my troops into place, the attack on Shangjun took place. There were also a few minor barbarian threats in those three turns but otherwise pretty uneventful. I'll be glad to start work on the National Wall soon, then I won't have to deal with barbarians any more and I can pull back my fog-busters who are starting to cost supply maintenance because I also have troops fighting.
Anyway, the assault on Shangjun:
I lost the first Swordsman and then won all of the rest, capturing the city:
The war booty also enabled me to ramp up research, cutting a turn off Horseback Riding. Another thing about the economy, losing that swordsman actually saved me 2 gold per turn. Look between the first 2 screeenshots and you'll see. Why? - I think it was one for supply and one for unit cost. (There is no inflation in this scenario)
One turn later, I hit the Million People barrier.
Then, I discover
Horseback Riding which enables
Heavy Cavalry I which starts with a 40% withdrawal chance. When added to Flanking I and II for the two promotions that come with a barracks, that's a 70% withdrawal chance!
Who cares about catapults? Armed with the civic that nullifies war weariness, (so that people aren't unhappy about all the cavalry dying) all you have to do is use the Heavy Cavalry to wear them down!
Then, some bad news:
Can't see it?
Well, it is the notification in the event log that says that a Great Merchant has been born in Linzi and that a Great General has been born in Ji. It basically means that Qi(red) has discovered Currency, which grants a free Great Merchant and that Yan has discovered Militarism which grants a free Great General. I am pretty sure about the first and definitely sure about the second because Yan has never been at war! It is an indication of how quickly the AIs can tech as a result of all their bonuses. It means we need to hurry up!
Meanwhile, Zhao comes along with a trade:
I take it: I'm not particularly short on health but frequent checks on the Foreign Advisor have informed me that the other kingdoms have no resources to trade.
I complete Sun Tzu's Art of War in 371BC and immediately start work on the National Wall. It's a pity there aren't any wonder movies for this scenario though. But maybe I'm just being greedy, the scenario is very good the way it is. The designers have even taken care to name all of the cities correctly (historical accuracy) as well as adding lots of new content.
Chu approaches with two units (right of screenshot), endangering my city, Yong. I am forced to pull back a polearm whom I had been keeping outside the barbarian city of Ba to poach the city when the AIs had damaged it enough or if this didn't happen, to attack the city after Heavy Cavalry re-inforcements. It was mainly to keep an eye on the situation because the city has a high population and isn't in a bad location. It would also have been nice to capture it before completion of the National Wall.
However, this strategy was not to be because of the untimely attack from Chu. If I didn't do anything about the situation, it would be his two units, (both strength 5 polearms, though this isn't clear from the screenshot) versus one strength 3 archer. Because the roads in the area hadn't been built yet, I could not get any other re-inforcements in from the North in time.
In the end, that Han Chariot that you can see in the screenshot captured the city. A case of bad micromanagement on my part.
Another battle one turn later against a Wei chariot:
I win.
Demographics:
The most important - Production, we are still top.
Food - close to top
GNP - pretty shocking I admit (in fact I think it has actually dropped from 10 turns ago), but we don't have very many riverside tiles and the extra cities (4extra, undeveloped cities) and units (about 8 or 9 gold per turn at the moment) cost a lot of money. Also we are up against the AI bonuses.
I am beginning to think that we are not going to achieve the target of being first in all 3 categories by 350BC, in fact the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure we're going to miss the target.
Some more lovely statistics:
We have a granary, barracks and a library in every one of our core cities.
We've built a sizeable army of Swordsmen that has captured 2 cities so far.
The barbarian activity hasn't slowed by the way, it has just become easier to deal with since I have more units at my disposal and my borders have expanded. I have also not bothered to deal with every barbarian encounter because really, they're not as potentially damaging as they were at the start.
Thus concludes the update.
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