[continued from previous post]
Right after accepting her terms, I decided to test her willingness to commit to the agreement:
Naturally, she paid up
With Democracy in the bag next, we made yet another civics change:
I wonder if I can manage to wean myself off Spiritual after these games
Anyway, adpoting Emancipation meant that we no longer faced discontent for not doing so. Our cities could continue growing unimpeded, which could only be a good thing. Our cottages, meanwhile, would take half the time to mature now.
I decided to go for Rifling next for military purposes. You never know when one of the AI would decide to declare war and land a cavalry force on our territory.
Anyway, for some odd reason, furious Isabella asked for open borders:
Is such behaviour characteristic of a vassal?
After a while, I realised that she was too backward. She wouldn't be able to resist any army sent by Saladin, and no matter what it would be in our interest that she holds out as long as possible when the war comes. So I decided to help her out a little:
I suppose she should at least have grenadiers when she is attacked. By the way, that little clause that required her to stop trading with Huayna was to prevent her from disseminating those techs to our future victim.
On the following turn, we got a bonus:
Gold was found in one of Madrid's mines. It must be a good omen from the gods.
Confucius, guide us to victory!
Extra happiness and commerce certainly wouldn't hurt.
For some reason I suddenly remembered at that point that you could get you vassal to research something (never had a vassal before. I usually distrust the system). Since we haven't researched Compass (required for Optics, which we want for a caravel advance warning system), I thought why not make her research that and then trade for it:
I'm not sure if angry vassals are willing to trade, though. Could I at least extort it from her? If neither are possible, what's the point of asking them to research something?
The round ended after we've researched Rifling.
The GNP graph now:
I know I've poured scorn on this weird graph, but it's interesting to see that ours declined markedly and is now back on a slow rise. Was it because of the war? But how does war relate to GNP exactly? A few unhappy and whipped citizens are enough to cause such a change?
The power graph:
Our power ratings are climbing at a faster rate since we have upgraded our CR III units to grenadiers and are building more and more of those. As we start mass producing rifles next, it should increase even more rapidly. And then we'd probably be ready to take on Huayna-Saladin.
This is how we stand in terms of technological advancement:
It seems we're beginning to catch up. Can we keep it up and eventually surpass them? I think we can, especially since our newer cities are going to be developed.
The map of the continent right now:
Huayna's next, I suppose. I think he owns too big a chunk of territory for us not to bother. Certainly the addition of the SW city, right now a blemish in our empire, would be good.
So what do you think should come next? I've spelled out my intentions of mass producing rifles and then declaring war on HC. Our grenadier/trebuchet army should be able to take care of him, while rifles and other grenadiers can defend against Arab landing parties (hope they are not too large, though). any alternative suggestions or comments?
What should we research next? I'm thinking of grabbing Economics and then Corporation en route to Assembly Line for factories and Infantry. Then maybe Steel -> Railroads -> Combustion before finally going for Scientific Method en route to Industrialism. After that bee-line to Rocketry and then to Robotics. I have a nasty feeling somebody will build the Apollo Program soon (like in the previous Emperor Challenge). I hope superior output plus Space Elevator can beat them to the launch.
One more thing, we've settled all the cities in the dotmap except for Red D (took a bit of planning to prevent the Ottoman settler from planting a city in the SE first). Any other spots you think we should settle?