The game turned out to be very unusual. "An eternal strike with short breaks".
After 3 silver and one bronze medals, I was aiming for gold. This is means, fast/medium domination. Moreover, we played for Montezuma, which pushes us to play aggressively.
At the beginning of the game, the scout found deer and rice, so the capital is 1SW from the scout. Due to the presence of a deer, 2 pigs and silver in the capital, I chose an unusual order of tech - the wheel, AH, mines, writing and in 1400 BC the alphabet. After that, I traded BW, fishing, agriculture and polytheism. Next turn - pottery, archery, priesthood and IW. Later - meditation, sailing, masonry.
Before that, there were unexpectedly many problems from barbarians, my 3rd city was demolished a couple of turnes after foundation, I had to found it again. After the alphabet, I started saving money for CoL and continued to build cities under cover of jaguars. At this point, I was hoping to learn CoL and attack Gilgamesh with jaguars. However, after the founding of 7th city, I saw -1 gold at 0% for science. Nevertheless, I built 2 more cities. 8th was near the marble, I expected to get money from ToA, but AI did not want to build it. At the same time, I built 10-15 jaguars. This was not enough for a full-fledged attack on Sumerians, and I did not dare to do more because of economic problems. Instead, I went to war with the barbarian cities. Thanks to the production beakers, I was able to learn CoL in 100 AD. I having -20 gold/turn at 0% at that moment. 150+ coins from barbarians saved me from the strike (I captured 2 and auto-destroyed 1 city).
I got monarchy and monotheism for CoL. I slaved 5 UB and accepted caste systems. I think it was a mistake not to fight Gilgamesh. I would have had enough jaguars to capture 2 cities, and I could have taken CoL for peace, and not taught myself. In 300 AD, I finally got about 450 gold from ToA. They were just enough to learn the currency (5 turns, -100/turn at 100%). Shortly before that, De Gaulle was the last AI to learn MC and sold it to me for CoL + monarchy. For the currency, I got math, calendar, and 300+ gold. Later I received 1,500 coins from 1st GM in 760 A.D. and 1900 from 2nd GM in 1090 A.D., learned CS in 840 A.D., exchanged machinery (840), feudalism and constructions (860), learned guilds (980) and horseback riding (1000). After that, I stopped science, accepted slavery and started building army. I needed the money from the second merchant as a safety cushion from a strike during the conquest. At the time of the outbreak of the war, I had 23 cities and -70 gold at 0% for science.
In 1090, I attacked Alexander. 3 or 4 turns before that, he had learned engineering. And he had iron. In general, all the AI in this game had castles and pikes before I attacked them. But with all this foods in my cities and my UB, it didn't make any difference. I had 30 knights available, 23-25 of them at the front. Already in 1140 AD, 9 out of 10 Greek cities were conquered. I left them 1 city with 1 pop (east of the stone) and vassaled, taking engineering and philosophy. I lost 11 knights, and had 43 available. and -140 gold/per turn. In 1160, I attacked Gilgamesh with 52 knights (32 at the front). After the war started, I had -230 gold/turn. In 1230 AD, I captured all 8 cities Sumeria (lost 27 knights) and attacked Mehmed (with 40(30) knights). -415 gold/turn. In 1300 AD, I captured 6 from 8 cities in Turkey (including Istanbul) and make him vassal (lost 18 knights), took theology, paper and a compass.
In the same year, I attacked De Gaulle with 31(22) knights. and take -510 gold/per turn !!!. I planned to take 3-5 cities and make him vassal. Maybe I had to wait for 2 moves and attack with all the knights, but the main mistake was that I divided the attackers into 2 groups. As a result, I didn't have enough in each group 1-2 units, to capture and, most importantly, to hold cities. By 1330 AD, I had lost 18 knights and retreated as survivors. I had to accept slavery again and slaved about 30 new knights. In 1350 AD, my money from the merchant and the conquered cities ran out. At 5 gold in the treasury, I had a consumption of -400/per turn. But on this turn, GE was born in my capital. Having started the GA and optimized the residents a little, I got +10 gold/turn. By the way, MoM was the only wonder I built (660). In 1360 I attacked France again, in 1390 I captured 4 from 10 cities and De Gaulle capitulated. In the 2nd French campaign, I lost only 6 knights, and I have 32 knights left.
After the end of the riots in the captured cities, I managed to get a little more than 62% of the territory. Initially, I planned to fill the voids with 3-5 setters for domination, but since I still had an army of knights left, I changed the plan. Shortly before that, Capac, who had been a vassal of Mongolia since the beginning of our era, decided to become free. He had 7 cities and the last power the whole game. I attacked him in 1450 AD, captured 4 cities on the first move, and 6th and 7th cities at 1480 AD. I lost 16 knights, 17 left. The game could have ended in 1490 AD, but because of the riots in Istanbul, ended in 1505. I could have finished game10-15 turns earlier, but for the last 20 turns my score grew up by 10k points/turn on average, and at the end it just peaked. So I was satisfied, including with the riots in Istanbul.
In total, I built a little more than 100 and lost a little less than 100 knights.
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. I bribed Alex against him, but unfortunately, they made peace by turn 135. My recon on Mehmed's land saw his stack, which was definitely moving towards my border. I was completely unprepared for the upcoming war, so I had to do something. I adopted Mehmed's religion and gifted him techs, but no luck - he was still cautious
. And Kublai Khan 6 turns later.
. My usual number is something like eight. This was a very fun map to play, thanks!
