This turn taught me a lesson in starting a war so ill prepared in this game. CivIV she ain't, the hex system can be punishing if you don't get to grips with it quickly.
Most importantly, as I felt in the second set, I had deeply underestimated the AI's capabilities. Seems they're smarter then I had thought:
These two jokers prove me otherwise. Signing peace and embarking on a trade agreement in the same turn? Do you two treat politics like changing hairstyles?
'Oh I feel like a change, instead of actively and aggressively trying to wipe the other player from the map, maybe I should sign a research agreement. Surely this won't result in the stalemates that happened TWICE before next time I go to war.'
I sense much dumbassery in the eastern part of this world.
Ok at the beginning, my drive was a medieval war against the Iroquois.
This essentially is the lynchpin of my army. My tactics are simple. Slowly advance with a smaller force of knights and longswordsmen on his narrow isle, with these units being covered in the rear by cho ku nus.
Since he has little room to move and flank, and since he doesn't appear to have fast calvary units, he will on average only just about come into range of my units, thus allowing my two-shots-a-turn cho-ko-nus to pick these guys off, minimizing my casulties and time spent healing my front line units.
When I creep on the cities, I will lay down siege from my Cho's and then mop up using my Knights/Longswordsmen.
Sounds simple right? Well yes and no. Remember I said the island was narrow? It is very narrow, and it's extremely difficult to muster a proper landing on his borders without getting shot to hell by Buffalo Creek. This is going on the basis I have a queue of soldiers waiting on the seas for war declaration. I don't want to lose any units in a hackenyed beach landing.
Thus bringing me to my saving grace.
Genoa is still up and running. As said previously, Hiwathwa failed to absorb it. And what better way to march in on his territory than simply paying the local Marquis to turn a blind eye to the army stalking through his lands?
Ok, rewind a little, there was a bit more exploration. Apparently, there is one more civ I have not met yet. I sent a trireme in the southern hemisphere. And:
Well blow me down. It's Washingmachineton himself. That and a slew of city states. He was allied with Vienna as of that turn. Not sure if he kept the alliance up.
Better yet, Washingupbowl was fairly rational in his treatment of China. I wonder if he'll stay that level headed throughout the game?
Also
No.
When I swing by Washingline's capital I spot something kinky
I wonder if the mod affected science yields for settled GS'? I don't know, I hadn't seen many in my games. Anyone confirm that?
A couple of turns from this point and Alex swings by in the aftermath of the party I threw earlier. He then proceeds to smash a chair over the head of one of my most trusted servants, punts my cat into orbit and rather curtly tells me:
He also stole about six bottles of wine while we were trying to get Catherine off Askia. And rode his horse through my main hall three times and ruined the floor. When I asked him why he did it he replied he was merely 'riding across the Silk road into China'.
fudgingg greeks
So by this point, despite Alex being a massive douche about it, this was actually a major clue from the interface that I was vastly under par in military in comparison to the bisexual nutter halfway across the world. I'm guessing this is the new 'We Have Enough Time on Our Hands'. I have to admit it's much more hilarious having the AI switch into 'schoolyard bully mode' if you're not doing well.
Now he certainly doesn't worry me yet but I wouldn't be surprised if Alex started assimilating city states parallel to his island. He already begun colonizing elsewhere.
But like I said earlier, I'm not too concerned. I'm bulking up on military by this point anyways, so once I'm finished he might not feel so keen to trample his horse up and down my patio on diplomatic meetings when my spearmen are watching him.
And sure enough, Alex begins his crusade on turn 152. Ghandi also built the porcelain tower while I was researching education! These AI's are getting pretty smart
Come to think of it guys, the AI isn't looking very seasick either. This doesn't bode well. Mind you, what the heck is Cleanington doing sailing a catapult that way?
Ok so, here's my army
Here's my bribe
Here's Hiwathwa getting wise
The AI in Civ5 are much more savvy about their borders, so no more amassing a million units outside Paris without Napoleon noticing. How it works is, the AI will come talk to you and accuse you of being a warmongering dick.
If you say yes, and declare hostilities, you will be seen as a warmongering dick, but not a sneaky snake like warmongering dick (i.e. your relations with other leaders won't take too much of a hit). If you lie and declare war a couple of turns later, then you wil be a warmongering snake like dick. This is why it's best to stack up at home, then send the gravy train of soldiers out.
Sadly I didn't have my entire force ready (it was in fact a group of triremes off his coastline that set him off) and organised when Hiwa came round and called my bluff, but I'm not prepared to alienate myself from the world just yet. I said yes, he said that I was honest, I laughed at him.
Genoa then decides to dogpile with me, and sends a spearman out:
There were several occasions during this war where Genoa floorwiped Hiwa's army. Starting with these happenstances in Genoa's borders. Both times Hiwa was the aggressor and both times he was promptly put in his place. The Marquis was even mad enough to chuck the spearman RIGHT HERE:
Lucky for him, my army arrives and proceeds to mop up. First it was some out of position archers, then some spearmen. Killing just a couple of these units earns me my GG.
Sadly his more updated units have better promotions. Longswordsmen with cover sitting just off of Buffalo Creek took two bombardments from Triremes and survived a charge from my Longswordsmen. His Catapults don't survive a stomping from my Knights.
This next screenshot's a bit confusing.
Basically, I lost that swordsman and my Cho was caught out in the open with its pants down because I had to move back one of my knights to heal. I was banking on the two move a turn cho to eliminate any threats but I didn't expect my right flank to cave so quickly.
The lack of clarity in these screenshots says it all folks. This was a really difficult landing for me. Not having stacks in this game means it's difficult to move your reinforcements to the front line and difficult to move your frontliners back to heal without giving up the ground you've gained. And though I could move my men on the seas, I didn't want to risk an insta-kill from the city bombardment.
I really didn't want to conceed any ground to this git, but I was aware of the irony that China was fighting a land war in psuedo China, and that my men wouldn't last against this onslaught of raw military spooling out from his capital.
But on a more positive note:
ND gives me happies
Before you comment on why I'm building wonders during war, I had pretty much conceeded to the fact that this war was mainly a pretense to gaining a foothold on his continent for any future invasion. As such my military is only equipped for taking Buffalo Creek, and that any future captures are risky.
Meanwhile I signed a research pact with Al-Rashid, and roughly around the same turn advanced to Renaisance with the help of Acoustics
I also adopted Rationalism for the 5 turn golden age. I'm going to need the science boosters on this policy tree way before long.
Later, Genoa comes to my rescue with a minor pikeman reinforcement on my flank.
I am liking this dude a lot. The City States are worthy allies
