Round 5: to 1400 AD, Part 2
I started the war by attacking Kublai's southwestern cities. He had two new, small cities there just west of Hippo that made easy targets and needed to be cleared out of the way before I could move north to his core cities. I also captured a couple of Workers from him.
I was determined to give the Numidian Cavalry
something to do, even if it was just mopping up after several Catapults had done their jobs:
They were effective enough against equally obsolete units, I'll say that much.
Otrar was razed--I couldn't be bothered to garrison it, nor to fend off cultural encroachment from both Mongolia
and Japan.
Meanwhile, I continued to produce Great Scientists out of Carthage, and continued to use them to lightbulb (partially, now) techs. The next one was Education. As some of you suggested, I have been using Shaka as a source of "backfill" technologies:
Again, if he gets preoccupied building universities instead of units, so much the better. What was worrisome was discovering that Tokugawa had already finished researching Education.
Sanchu, the next little town, suffered the fate of its neighbour. This one was tough to take, since it was on a hill. It cost me about 3 Trebuchets. But I did manage to take out several of Kublai's units and earned some promotions along the way.
I left the units to heal for a little while, then sent them off towards Beshbalik--the first Mongolian city I wanted to keep.
Right around this time, the civs on the other continent started showing up:
Yes, I got beaten to Liberalism, and by several turns! Yikes, look at all those techs Huayna has on me!
Mehmed showed up not liking me at all--in fact, I'm now his "worst enemy"! All this because he's Hindu and I've been trading with my Buddhist neighbours, whom he also doesn't like. This is too bad, since as you can see, I'd be able to pick up a decent tech or two from him if he wasn't so peeved.
The third civ I had to go find myself, which as you'll see, was rather surprising.
Meanwhile, I attacked Beshbalik, and continued to use the Numidian Cavalry. As I said, there's no shame in using an old unit for mop-up duty.
Not bad--a granary, lighthouse, and courthouse already included, it sits on top of a gold mine (which is a waste, that needs to be adjusted in the new AI), and it will eventually claim another banana and cow tile for me. Eventually.
I also earned my first Great General. I made him a Warlord with a Numidian Cavalry unit that still had one unassigned promotion. I was able to give the unit Medic I, II, and III as well as Morale for an extra movement point (very handy for a MASH unit), on top of its existing Combat I/II and Flanking I.
Even though Shaka, of all people, had won the circumnavigation race several turns before, I still sent a couple of Caravels out to explore the world and meet the seventh civ:
It was a nice surprise to have a tech that the board leader did not. It was also encouraging to see that all three civs on that continent have different religions, but disappointing to see how they were more advanced than me. Though in some ways I didn't mind that they had Astronomy already, since it allowed me to immediately start trading with them.
Of course I used Printing Press with my Buddhist backfill buddy, Shaka:
I'll have to be careful, though. That puts him on the track towards Riflemen, and I wouldn't be surprised if he trades it to Tokugawa.
Fortunately, if Riflemen do show up, I now have their counter:
This is all part of my strategy of researching military techs, and ones the AI does not prioritize. Grenadiers are going to be very handy, especially since Kublai still doesn't have Gunpowder! I can't wait to get the first bomb-tossers in the field against Kublai's units.
Speaking of which, the next city on my list of targets is Tiflis, and Kublai has it well-defended:
He also has a stack next to it, no doubt on the way to try to take Beshbalik back, consisting of 2 War Elephants, a Crossbow, a Catapult, and a Trebuchet. Nothing I can't handle, but I have to do that before I can carry on conquesting.
Now I could get some help with that:
Shaka will also go to war with Kublai for the same price. However, I'm obviously reluctant to do that. I will probably have to take these guys on next. I'm now thinking that I'm so far behind, the only way to catch up is to win myself a big empire that can out-tech, out-grow, out-produce, and out-muscle the other continent. If the plan is to once again take over my continent, then I don't want my next two targets to easily gain a military tech--nor do I want them conquering any cities that I want. They haven't joined Kublai so far, and since I'm now slightly more powerful than either of them, I'm thinking (hoping?) that they won't. But, as always, I will yield to the wisdom of the group mind.
Kublai will buckle and give up the following for 10 turns of peace:
But again, I am reluctant. The gold would be nice, as it would allow me to upgrade a couple of highly-promoted Numidian Cavalry to Knights. Before I can do that, I would need to get my sole source of horses back on-line; Kublai pillaged it.
Then again, I can also get booty from capturing a city, and a Grenadier should do an admirable job of protecting my sole horse tile. And Kublai is powerful--why give him 10 turns to become more so? I think the thing to do is absorb his counterattack and keep pressing him, especially once I have Grenadiers.
I will follow this with a State of the World post, but here is the saved game file:
But I am, according to the demographics screen, the import/export leader, and my economy needs all the help it can get. Maybe I should wait for Economics and Free Trade? 
