Start off by asking 50 gold from Justinian. If we're the target, this buys us 10 turns. If we're not targeted, we're not gonna get a huge diplo penalty for it. Sal has 16 units in the east. We don't have the troops in the area to deal with it, immediately. I'm just not sure which direction to go immediately. And with Justinian occupied, we're not in immediate danger.
I decide against GA on the inherited turn. I want to see how things go a bit. Plus, I'd like to get to Emancipation without anarchy and we're not going to have Democracy in 15 turns. We're more of a CE than an SE, really (even with CS), and that means Emancipation is the way to go. I'm not sure we'll have 3 great people later to trigger yet another GA. We're not desperate at this point. So it can (and must) wait. I think Sury going away first is just as good as Sal going away. And at 36 war weariness points, we can do it.
York set to max hammers and starvation (won't kill any people, but losing food) while building Versailles. I tend to think we'll get cash out of it, but that's OK, too. Culture turned off for now.
It takes 3 turns to get our troops through the cultural borders to attack one of Sury's cities. Meantime, I lost three fights at 75+% and win a couple at >85% on troops Sury dreams of pillaging with. I'm not going to let that happen. Anyway, at Angkor Thom, we bombard at the 85% defense and attack over 23% (no castle) defense and capture the city with no losses.
(Sorry for no pics, for whatever reason, screenshots aren't taking for me right now)
Angkor Wat, home of the Taoist Shrine, is captured on turn 5. Cost a single redcoat. I've lost more troops with minor clean-ups activities in the backlines than in attacking cities. Similar odds, though. I'm building a Taoist Monastery there (once it comes out of revolt), so we can spread it for more shrine income.
Justinian unloaded his troops and they're now wandering around. We're clearly the target. Honestly, though, with the troops on land, I fear them less than when they were on the water. They have to pass through cultural borders or attack one of our cities on the front. Neither option is going to go well for Justinian.
On turn 7, I trade away Liberalism to Gil to get the rest of Constitution (saving 4+ turns) and some gold. Liberalism is reasonably widely known now. I want to get to Democracy, as Universal Sufferage, Emancipation, Nationalism/Free Artistry, Free Religion, Free Market (I guess) is the way I want to go.
All of Sury's cities have castles now. Many are on hills. And our spies absolutely suck waste water, rarely making it even a square into enemy territory before being discovered. We're starting to take casualties, including our difficult-to-replace CR3 redcoats. The other option is interminable bombing, so I'm just pushing ahead. We have reasonable reinforcements from the backlines, though I've switched over most builds to economic stuff (including jails). By turn 10, Sury's down to 3 cities. And one of those is pretty vulnerable, having had several casualties last turn.
I couldn't decide whether to pass off here or not. One the one hand, it's late. And I should let others have this fun. On the other, I've been watching Justinian's troops (they're all in Yakutsk) and that might be an awkward place for a hand-off. Plus, it's a lot of fun attacking with these units.
In the end, I decide to stop after 10. We're in a good position. If we triggered our GA now, we could get to Nationalism and draft (a reasonably good idea) for a few turns, before making final switches, including US and Emancipation. We should also get to work on SoL. And we should decide on a National Park city fairly soon.
I didn't do a final city review, so that can probably be done. We're sitting reasonably safely at this point, however. It's probably not really critical.
When Justinian declares on us, he'll be kicked out. Our frigates in the west should go after his ships, which are back. His units will get kicked out and he'll have to move toward a single city. We can defend that city and watch his troops break or take him in the open field. I'd go for the latter. We're maybe a bit short on troops in the area, but not really, IMO.
War with Sal can happen whenever. I was just waiting to finish off Sury to make sure we had no ww concerns.
Arathorn
Regardless, once war is declared we have to start sinking boats. Justinian can't get much accomplished with the troops already on our shores and for the most part an amphibious invasion by him is futile.
