Alright, I decided to tackle a few months ago, and have been working on this and other achievements off and on with the following results...
Game 1: It's turn 70, and I've finally finished off both Chinas... then I remember that there's a 100-turn time limit. When I quit that playthrough I realized I'd only had it on Prince! Oh well, back for a replay.
Game 2: I hadn't taken any CS's in my first game, so this time I went overboard, grabbing all CS's east of Abbasids, and took both Chinas, India, and Persia, but couldn't even
begin to penetrate the Arabian's stonewalling. Again, it's roughly turn 70, and I rage-quit. Still, I obviously did better than my last playthrough, especially as this time it
was on Deity, rather than Prince. I figure I got a lot more efficient at Keshik tactics. Surprisingly, even with my mass conquests, there was only a single turn where the happiness hit -20, and a total of 6 turns where I was VERY UNHAPPY.
Game 3: I'm much more stingy with CS conquests this time around. I take W Xia, snag Beijing, then book it west to hit Persia with all I got, I also sold W Xia to Wu for a boatload of cash, 900+. I take Persia earlier than ever, and went on to run into Arabia around 35, defeating them after a vicious fight, bulldozing Greece, and on north to Cathy. Frisking her, turn 70(ish) arrives with Persia left with only their southern city, I own Beijing, Kaifeng, Kiev, a stalemate in Russia's NW city, her eastern city burned, Arabia and Greece destroyed, Karakorum nearly reduced to rubble, and a grand total of 16 Chinese units within sight of Karakorum. I still haven't touched Ghandi or Japan. Once again, I quit.
GAME 4: At long last, VICTORY!!!!
Seeing how Game 3 produced
far better results in the west than in previous games, I decide critically to go even MORE west-heavy. I take W Xia on turn 4, (odd, last game I know I got it on 3) contact Wu, and sell her W Xia to her for 620ish gold (also odd, why so much less than last time?)
Then I upgrade all available Horsemen but 1, and send my troops to Samarkand, con Darius, DoW him, take Samarkand, move on to Urgench, and puppet that city as well. It is now turn 12, and I try Darius for that savior deal everyone gets (which I
also got last game) for his two available cities), but he refuses! Puzzling, I took his capital 11 turns earlier than I ever have. So I begin the siege of the next city on that road. After 2 turns, during which I slaughter his troops and reduce his city to 1/3 health, he presents an offer... Tabriz, Open Borders, both his (unique
) luxuries, and the hundred-something gold he had on hand. Fine, that works for me, it's only turn 15. Last game I began the assault on Samarkand on turn 16, so I'm way ahead of last time, right?
I move my 6 keshiks, horseman, and 2 Khans through, and have begun building up the nucleus of an eastern army. I contact Arabia, con him, and attack his northern-most city, then the one south of that. I then send everybody to Cairo. After a few turns, Al-Rashid has only a single catapult in Cairo and a then-undiscovered Camel Archer in Mecca. However, a couple uber-Keshiks are dangerously low on health, so I send them east and south to beat down Mecca, along with the Horseman. A few turns later, Mecca is conquered and Cairo is low on health. I waste an extra turn of bombardment whittling Cairo back down to zero because my Horseman took so long moving there, but I do succeed. The only Arabian cities I kept were Cairo and his horse-city for the horse (obviously) and a couple luxuries, including a surplus Silver for extra gold from other civs. (I got the silver and cotton after buying some tiles, it was worth it, though, as with the courthouse and circus, I began using them as a scout factory for the surrounding cities.)
II've also begun the assault of Beijing around 25, partway through the Arabian war, with 4 Keshiks. This puts me about 20 turns ahead of last game on the eastern front and about as many on the western front. YAY!!! As a plus, I'm better off money-wise (bank and income), happiness, roadworks, diplomatic relations with Ghandi and Japan, SP-wise, and I've chosen better tech paths to better employ free civ-techs. As a side-note, last game I sold Urgench to Arabia for extra gold, and had for a few turns reduced Yellow China to just Kaifeng. Green China took Kaifeng, and Cathy took Urgench while those were their respective owner's' last cities. I got a nasty wake-up call when they were conquered, because I did NOT get the 1000 gold or free tech from finishing them off. This time, as I only sold W Xia, this wasn't a problem.
I rush Greece, and about 6-8 turns later, he is no more, and my troops are busy crossing the east-west river north of Constantinople. I've also taken Beijing at this point, made peace with Rammy, conned Wu, and begun laying waste to W Xia's environs with an army of 5 Keshiks, all but one with Logistics, a horseman and a Khan, my western army is still at 6/1/2, but is far better promoted, all Keshiks having Barrage 1,2,3, Logistics, +1 Range, and Indirect Fire.
I frisk Cathy, and cream her troops on my side of the river just south of Kiev. I take up two turns safely crossing the river to attack Kiev. I mow her troops, take Kiev, then split forces in half to attack both her remaining cities simultaneously. 4-5 turns later, she is shrouded in the mists of history, and my western army is once again on the move, to the east, where they will then trek south past Urgench to finish off Darius. All this is accomplished shortly before/after 50. My eastern army, meanwhile, has succeeded in taking W Xia, and Wu's west-most city, and reduced her next-most westerly city, (Xian?) to zero health. My horseman was too far to take the city that turn, so I repositioned it within range and hit "Next Turn". Wu then approaches me with an offer, the mother of all savior deals. She will give me the city I am currently besieging, (big whoop, virtually no difference in my overall strat), the other three cities she's allowed to give (which will reduce her to only her original capital, not half-bad), Open Borders (worthless, as I'm not going through her capital) and
over 3000 gold!!!!. Naturally I accept her offer, (Turn 47 or 48) and set all those cities ablaze. Unhappiness hits an all-time high of 47, but rapidly declines in later turns, as I'm burning Thessalonica, the four cities Wu gave me and the other city of hers I had conquered before the peace deal. Next turn Thessalonica is no more, there's 6 fewer occupied population, meaning I am now at 39
, then 32, (some happy buildings and 5 fewer pop) then 27, and on down from there. I decide, (erroneously) to wait a few turns to let my
get back above -10 (wouldn't be long, 3-4 turns,
it's not like time is the most important factor or anything) at least and heal up my units.
East army frisks Jin, takes Kaifeng, upon DoW, Jin sends 5 elephants, an archer, and 3? pikemen in 2 waves to Beijing. As Kaifeng fell in 2 turns, (took a bit of fancy footwork), I began to fall upon his flank and rear. Another 3 turns later, his army is naught, he has only Liaoyang, my Keshiks and Horseman are all placed to attack it, and Wu's peace. I polish off Jin, then sprint south to Wu. I spend a total of 3 turns transferring my troops there, and positioning them for maximum effect. I frisk and DoW Wu, and 3-4 turns later, have her capital. China is no more! That's about 65-70ish. By that same time, my western army had finally frisked and DoWed Darius, taken his two cities, had found Ghand's western city, and I had 3 Keshiks and 2 Khans east across the river, the other 3 Keshiks, Horseman and a new Khan (that's right an army at 6/1/3, and surprise! the Horseman had Shock 3!) on the west side of the river... for now. (Turn 68 or 69)
The western army frisks, DoWs Ghandi, and begins chewing through Ghandi's army, taking a couple of turns to kill 6 units and hit his city a few times. My western Keshiks would shoot, and, each turn, 1 of them would cross the river in the newly cleared space on the east banks. I keep killing units, take his west city, then his northern one, then Delhi, and, lastly, his eastern city. Overall process to annihilate Ghandi was 17 turns.
The eastern army sprints again, this time back up north, where they DoW Korea, which pisses Obunaga off as Korea is under the protection of Japan, but I'll be at war with him shortly, anyway. I had my western army pillage 2 farms while my eastern army pillages the 2 eastern farms originally in Liaoyang (hadn't paid attention and accidentally burned Liaoyang to the ground, it all worked out, I had enough horse) and 5 in Korean land so I could finally get the "Pillage, then Burn" achievement without cheese. I conquered Korea, accidentally annexing it (meant to puppet, and then annex once out of resistance). I annexed Wu's former capital once it was out of resistance, and bought courthouse in both, I think circus in Korea (can't recall if I was allowed) a Barracks, Armory, and Shipyard in both. I then had the eastern army frisk, DoW Japan, then bombard his navy, embarked units, ground units, and western city with +1 Range Keshiks from the Korean peninsula. I spent a lot of gold on my buildings in Wu's capital and Korea, but I had began the Japanese war with 11000 gold, so I purchased 9 Frigates in 5 turns out of those two cities, and got another one later. I gave them all Bombardment 1,2. I actually took the western city before Frigates entered the fray. The boats proved invaluable in taking out the last two cities and the surrounding ground units. I finally claimed the last Japanese city on Turn 94!
In retrospect, I need to figure out some way to get an extra Keshik or 2 west so I can split, and take Greece and Persia simultaneously, then proceeding to Russia and Ghandi should reduce my time. I probably ought not to fiddle around as China burns but rather press my advantage and slay Jin quickly so I can get back to Wu and be ready as soon as peace concludes. I also did much better on the use of Scout garrisons, but I should've started sooner, and I need to figure out some way to eliminate Japan faster. Next time, I need to NOT burn Liaoyang completely, for a naval base is nothing else. That'll get me those Frigates sooner, get them more XP for +1 Range or Logistics or something.
But, hey, I got 7 achievements out of this game,
Pillage, then Burn, Golden Horde, Khan, Great Khan? Supreme Khan, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan. It'll be a while before I replay this, and in the meantime, I'm gonna immortalize it in my Steam Cloud saved games.
Also, for kicks and giggles, after conquering Japan, I began research of the Industrial technology, Biology!
And I'd like to thank this forum for your help, it's been a wonderful pain-in-the-arsenal beating this bugger.
