TURN 150
As always, I have to survey the sitcheeation…
Diplomacy: It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve played my last turns. Anyway, I see Japan now has land envy ‘cause they border our lands and I see Ramesses has gone friendly. Not much else has changed on this front. Cathy is warring on both sides… good luck.
Our RA situation: Basically, we’re only going to get a four-turn return when our RA with Suleiman matures next turn. Our RA with Cathy matures in 21 turns, but it’ll take us 25 turns to set the median to 14 turns with Military Science and Rifling. I don’t think I can make up 4 turns by assigning scientists, but I will fully staff the Wats in Sukhothai and Muang Saluang by the end of my set. No matter what techs I selected, we couldn’t do better than a five-turn return on our RA with Catherine. This means we’re looking at about 50 turns before we can bulb Dynamite. Starting another RA with Cathy or Sully would only result in another very small return as long as we continue to beeline. If we wanted to get anything out of any further Renaissance Era RAs we’d have to balance out the tree to improve the median, which would actually delay Dynamite (but, obviously, get us a greater turn advantage). I chose to pass on any further RAs for the time being, but we may want to consider it again soon.
Stopped worker from TP in York & finished silk. I thought I could trade to Cathy for Silver, but I must’ve been drunk. She wasn’t interested in our fine Siamese silks, so I sold them to Suleiman.
Shuffled some units around. Found our scouts in the water. I don’t know where they’re headed, but it looks like we’ve found most of the AI lands so I assumed they were headed back home? It looks like we could poke around America’s lands some more, so I’ll renew straight open borders with them if they ask. We’ve only found 12 of the 16 CS. I’ll check the shores on the way back (looks like one may be north of America) and assume if we don’t find them then they’re on islands.
Upgraded one horsemen to NE and moved him & the cannon toward Pataliputra. It looks like Delhi has all three of the wonders. I’ll move in from the south and leave him with that tundra city.
TURN 151
Scout blocked by Japan’s borders In the SW & we don’t have Astronomy, so we head the other way.
Units shuffle and heal. Delhi is still pumping out longswordsmen and trebuchets.
Wanted to build a cannon in Hastings but a stable gives us three production.
TURN 152
Metallurgy done, started on Banking.
Canon finished in Sukhothai. Started workshop so we can get the Ironworks done before we start annexing our puppets.
Water mill finished in Muang Saluang, started cannon. I put 2 scientists to work in this city.
Egypt’s still spamming research agreements (Japan).
Our horse trades with Cathy end (including the horses for iron) and I see she has 15 horses. She probably isn’t interested in the trade any longer. I move the trade to our new friend Suleiman. He takes 4 horses for 180 gold and a 1-for-1 horse trade for iron. I upgrade our last remaining warrior to a sword.
I TP a hill near York. Watch this city! It’s growing like a weed. TP all of the hills until we can annex it.
Monarchy.
TURN 153
Golden age is over and we get a GS in the capital. I put him to sleep there and we’ll wake him when we want to spring into the Industrial Era through Dynamite? I take the specialist out of the temple and fully staff the Wat.
A longsworman, musketman and catapult magically appear in Pataliputra and I promote our swords to longswords.
TURN 154
India allies Genoa. The game tells me Genoa is somewhere in the clouds NW of Belgrade, so I’m not worried.
The AI takes the bait just like it did in Hastings. I put a weak unit (the pike from Hastings) in the forest and it focused city fire and melee attack on the pike and left our elephants alone. Because the AI has to move its units every turn, the musketmen move from the north side of the city to the south side of the city. We move into position on the north side. The AI did put this city in a valley though, so it’s hard to position siege.
TURN 155
Because the AI has to move its units every turn, the longswords split east and the musketmen split southwest forgoing flanking support and putting themselves in vulnerable positions. Gandhi’s cities are going to be tough though. He’s rocking Oligarchy, a full complement of defensive buildings in each city, and the Himeji Castle bonus. The double shot to one of our elephants from the city and trebuchet rips off 9 HP. We’re going to lose our first elephants in this war. I kill the musketmen, rotate in some fresh meat and hold off on the longswords. I’m hoping Warsaw’s archer deals him some damage and the LSM goes after him.
We actually popped a culture ruin in the hills on the other side of Hastings and it took a turn off of our next policy. We may have a HOF ruin game here.
TURN 156
Gandhi’s city craps out another musket. Why not? The city and the treb focus fire on our LSM. I just upgraded him and he’ll probably die next turn. I fortify him and hope for the best. One canon shot and three elephant attacks deal about 20 HP of damage.
The capital finishes the workshop. Forbidden Palace is only 10 turns if we’re interested. I start the Ironworks in the capital.
TURN 157
Gandhi offers a limp peace deal. We refuse.
Warsaw’s archer shots helped get Gandhi’s LSM an insta-heal and, along with the wicked ranged shots from the city, they got one of our elephants. horsehockye! We take the city.
TURN 158
Healing up. Sydney wants silver.
TURN 159
Ramesses smells blood and backstabs his friend Gandhi. Sully denounced Gandhi the turn before.
Both Coventry and Nottingham grew a pop during my turns. Nottingham is only working sea tiles though. I actually like all of the cities Liz built for us. I would annex them all as soon as we have a chance. I take back what I said about not building a fleet. Those English cities could really help out with this and Nottingham actually has great production potential.
Grandad, this is what you’ll see as you approach Delhi.
I backed off and put ranged units in close support. The crossbows near Mumbai can probably redline that one longsword, so it shouldn’t be too bad. There’s a good chance we’ll lose at least another elephant here. It might be a good idea to replace those units. They should really be our bread and butter for a while. They’re way cheaper than rifles to produce and there’s no upgrade cost… some of them are getting good promotions too. Some Deity players don’t even upgrade NEs until tanks.
Cathy’s actually beating Sully. She took Ankara. She allied Venice a couple of turns ago, so Sully’s troops probably all went after Venice.
TURN 160
I’m going to leave the units with movement. Two more cannons finish next turn and you may want to move one or both of them up to Mumbai, Grandad. If you want to press forward, you can, but I didn’t want to commit you to it. I found another musket hiding behind Delhi. He’s shooting one of those out about every 4 turns.
ROSTER
Grandad
Brichals
Gozpel
Optional