You cannot war against a nation you've viewed the most recent spoilers for. In other words, your spoilers are supposed to be secrets!
Does this mean that if we're reading along, we can't declare war on anyone? I could see not being able to declare war on the most recently played nation, but as written it seems like it means you can't both play and read the story.
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I decide to play Persia. We are not shocked to see Montezuma invading our lands.
Thankfully, we know Rifling. We also decide allies are good, and find Gandhi is willing to become one.
Rome doesn't know the Aztecs and wants contact with them for a tech trade; we decide an Aztec with friends is a very dangerous thing right now and thus don't trade with Rome.
Instead, we switch Parsagadae from Bach's in 54 to the Great Wall in 7, and set several cities to build Barracks, hoping that our Indian allies give us enough of a breather to make longer-term investments.
While moving troops to the front, we notice that cities grow and produce more slowly when their garrison leaves. What's up with that? The AI has been whipping a lot, as it turns out.
India does declare war on the Aztecs, and offers us a vegetarian curry to celebrate:
We counter-propose a trade of Rifling and 1 GPT for Nationalism, which Gandhi accepts, and then trade Nationalism to Rome for Philosophy, Delegation, a World Map, and 220 gold. Tech brokering for the win!
Bactra is at risk of falling when its Rifleman dies, but thanks to its Pikemen it survives, and the Aztecs land troops near Persepolis, but a Musketman heading north is there to reinforce the capital.
Despite some minor construction delays due to whipping-induced riots when the garrison moves to the front, we complete The Great Wall in 115.
Most of our offensive units were fighting barbarians outside of Rome when the turn started, and never make it to the front. But our Riflemen do enter Aztec territory, and keep the war hot as our session ends.
All in all, neither defeat nor victory, but we hope we are better-prepared for the future, and are pleased that Montezuma seems to have as much war as he wants between us and the Indians.