Aabraxan Awakes: No More Mister Nice Guy

[Aabraxan]

Apparently, cyperin' isn't my strong suit. Thank you, Arexander, & I have corrected that.

 

[Elephantium]

I was thrilled to wake up and see this update waiting for me this morning, Aabra! I'm glad you found some time to continue this game while buried so much at work

 

[Aabraxan]

Chapter 4: The Age of Sipahi!​

1240 AD:
So, before I begin The Age of Sipahi, I need to take a moment to review:
1) I haven't killed off the AI as quickly as I'd hoped.
2) I don't have as many armies as I'd like. Frankly, I'm not even convinced I'll get a Sipahi army before the game's over.
3) The Pike Army proved great defense for the trebs. Unfortunately, the Pike Army/treb stack couldn't even come close to keeping up with the knight and AC armies.
4) I seem to recall at least a few of my mid-level micromanaging skills.

I prefer to win by conquest instead of domination. At this point, I have 24% of the world's surface and 70% of its population, so I'm not in any danger of tipping over the edge.

A status count reveals:
Cities: 44 (Next up is the Mongols with 11)
Gold: 54, +194 gpt (Vikings have 751!)
Workers: 19
Slaves: 54
Pikes: 42
Knights: 36
Muskets: 29
Spears: 16
Warriors: 15
Cannons: 15
Maces: 14
Armies: 8
Sipahi: 5 (I upgraded some knights.)
Longbows: 5
Settlers: 1

Also, it appears that I can no longer post pictures to ImageShack. In truth, there never were many pictures in this Chapter, so I'll just skip them.

Let's WAR!!!

Aabraxa finishes a Sipahi. I could build the Military Academy, but that would take 18 turns, so I have to either build it now, or just forego it altogether. Sipahi only take 5 turns, so I could build 3 Sipahi and be well on my way to another by the time the MA is done. Aaahhhhh, I don't know who I'm kidding. Start the MA.

1250 AD:
Pillage Mongolian saltpeter.
Destroy Aleppo.

Change my mind about the MA. Swap Aabraxa back to Sipahi. Even if I get the MA built, how many armies could I really build with it?

1255 AD:
Destroy Emar with the 1st Sipahi victory. Already had my GA, but that's OK. With that:

And then there were 3. (Ottomans, Vikings and Mongols.)

Burn Ulaanbaatar. Liberate 1 gold. Go, me!
Burn Tatu.

1260 AD:
Well, foo! I discover that the Vikings have actually found an island to settle. I picked a pangaea map for a reason, dagnabbit!

Raze Oslo. Get 35 gold in the bargain.

1265 AD:
Destroy Choybalsan.

1275 AD:
Drat. Lost a decade.
Burn Trondheim, destroying the GLightHouse and Colossus in the process. Gain 46 gold. (Well, technically, capture and abandon. I need to borrow its roads for a moment.)

1280 AD:
Karakorum falls. The Knights Templar is mine, at least until I burn Karakorum to the ground. With the KT goes The Mausoleum of Mausollos (sp?) and The Oracle.

1285 AD:
Nothing exciting. Killed off a few enemy units, but no towns taken. Armies busy healing. Upgraded a few units.

1290 AD:
Copenhagen falls. 24 gold. Sell the rax for 10 more. Abandon it.
Kazan is captured and abandoned.

1295 AD:
Bergen is captured, its buildings sold, and burned.
Dalanzadgad is destroyed.
As of the end of the turn, I have 49 cities. Scandanavia has 4 and Mongolia has 5. . .

-----------------------------------------------------
Wow. Work totally went off the charts for me again. I haven't played C3C in months. Time to get back to wiping out, umm, whoever it was that I was wiping out.
----------------------------------------------

1300 AD:
A lone Keshik attacks a Siphahi on a mountainside. Does the AI really not understand defensive bonuses?

Once again, I consider building the MA, but I still don't see any need for it. I've got 9 armies in the field, and at 23 spt, Aabraxa would still be, what, 18 turns building an army? It's building 5-turn Sipahi, so I still think I'm smarter to just keep cranking those out. Now, if I happen to get an MGL very close to home (think: off an AI "invasion"), then maybe I'll reconsider.

Erdenet (Mongol) is destroyed.
Stockholm, defended only by spears, is sacked and razed, generously donating 9 gold to the Ottoman treasury.

1305 AD:
New Mugla is founded.

Did I say that I would only accept conquest as victory. At this point, I'm rethinking that. Maybe domination will do, given the path that this has taken. The Vikes have a city offshore, and I'm going to have to either invade with galleys, or wait forever to win. I don't have that kind of patience, and it's not like Ragnar has any real shot at challenging me anymore.

Aw, hell. I cash rush a few galleys. . . . I'd still rather have Conquest, so I guess I'll have to invade.

1310 AD:
Galleys move north to begin invasion.
Hevd (Mongol) is destroyed.

1315 AD:
Mandalgovi is destroyed, donating 1 gold.

1320 AD:
Darhan falls.

1325 AD:
Hareid, a very lonesome-looking Viking town, is destroyed.

1335 AD:
Tsetserleg, the Mongol capital is destroyed.

And, like that, so are the Mongols.

1340
Aarhus (is in the middle of aar street?) is destroyed, and Ragnar generously donates 9 gold to my treasury. That's the one and only off-continent Vike city that I know of, and I destroy a caravel in the process. If I'm lucky, I won't have to mount any more invasions.

In 1345, I kill the last two Viking defenders, the last Viking city and, with that, the game is over in a rather anticlimactic fashion.

I realize that it's been very slow going, and I thank you for following along.

 

[CommandoBob]

Do it again, Daddy, doit a-gen!

 

[MTB4884]

Congratulations on another fine victory, Aabraxan!