Round 9: 990 AD to 1310 AD (38 turns)
Is it possible for a computer program, or component portions thereof, to be a wimp?
If so, then Saladin is a total wuss. Seriously, I'm calling him out. He's a skirt-huggin' momma's boy of the first order. A paper tiger with as much backbone as your average gelatinous invertebrate.
But I should stop there before I mix any other metaphors. I hear they can be like cleaning fluids if you're not careful.
I kept researching Steel while continuing to build up defensive forces, mainly Pikemen and Musketmen. These gathered in Akkad, mostly, since Saladin was concentrating his forces across the border in Kufah.
Along the way, the AP was built, I assume by Mehmed. Or maybe by Pacal? I'm honestly not sure.
Surprisingly, Pacal wound up winning.
That little guy's doing remarkably well considering how little land he has. I don't care if he's Financial, I can't figure out how he's researching so well with so little territory.
Oh well, he's turning out to be one heckuva tech trading partner, at any rate.
I mean look, he's at the bottom of the Civ size rankings. How is he doing it?
Hmmm. Well, like I said, as long as he wants to keep trading techs, I don't have a big problem with it. But it's kind of like the damn Caramilk bar, you know?
In the meantime, Saladin was building up a large force of Camel Archers and War Elephants in Kufah.
And as you can see, Saladin did indeed research Gunpowder next, right after Military Tradition, anticipating upgrading his Camel Archers to Cuirassiers. I still was focused on building up my own military response, producing more Muskets and Pikemen and giving them Combat II and Formation promotions in anticipation of the Arabian onslaught.
I had a response of my own being prepared:
With Steel in the bag, I shifted production from Pikes and Muskets to Cannon. In the meantime, Saladin had researched Gunpowder and promptly upgraded, as we all anticipated, his CAs to Cuirassiers.
With this accomplished, Saladin promptly marshaled his forces, mustered his army, girded his loins... and did absolutely nothing. Not just a little bit of nothing, but the type of pointed, deliberate, and focused inaction of which legends are not made. The ground did not shake beneath the pounding hooves of his war horses, no great dust cloud arose to mark their fearsome passing, and the peasantry did not cower in their hovels in abject fear of the mighty army's wrath. The countryside was not ravaged, virgins not deflowered, the wail of widowed wives and bereft mothers did not fill the air. Yes, it appears that Saladin saw that his moment had arrived, so he ferociously seized it by the throat, then apparently let it go with a muttered apology and, I'm guessing, some sort of parting gift.
While the Arabians continued to shock and awe the globe with their skillful display of complete inactivity, I kept on trading techs and keeping up with the Joneses--or the Pacals, as it were.
My next Great Person was a Great Engineer. I was at a bit of a loss about how to use him, but then I noticed that he'd lightbulb a goodly portion of Replaceable Parts for me.
Riflemen would do better against Cuirassiers than Grenadiers, even if the techs take a little longer. With the Arabians continuing to deftly do diddly squat, I figured I had time.
I also had an eye on getting Cavalry before too long, hence this trade:
And having Jails and running Representation might not be bad goals for the near future, so I made this trade after Hannibal briefly went into "We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced Mode" for a while and then sauntered out of it:
The war between Justinian and Ragnar finally ended:
So I suppose if the Arabs ever do something, I now have a slightly higher risk of being dog-piled. This is assuming that Justinian and Ragnar haven't become Saladin's understudies in passivity.
And at the end of the round, while the Arab forces continued to mill about indifferently, I finished researching a tech which will, together with Cannons, ensure that all those Arabian mounted units are fit only for dog food and glue factories.
I selected Military Science next; I figure I should be able to trade for Military Tradition before too long, as you'll see.
Now for a look at the advisors, starting with the domestic one:
I figured I should build a couple more Macemen before Grens come along and make me do without City Raider promotions until Tanks appear.
Foreign Advisor, Glance:
Yes, Pacal is now up to Friendly, which is good, since he's the tech leader (which I still can't figure out, the little beggar has maybe 2 or 3 cities!).
You think if I
work at ticking off Saladin, he might do something? I haven't upgraded any units to Rifles--I figured I'd save up some more gold and do it in the event of a DoW.
Techs:
As I recall, Replaceable Parts costs the same as Military Tradition, so I could switch to researching it for a few turns and then Pacal will probably trade it to me. Or one of the others might loosen up.
Power:
Saladin is still the most powerful civ by a large amount, but he's very proud of his ability to do nothing and might just be planning on continuing that fine, centuries-old tradition.
Demographics:
So, at this point I'm thinking of trying to deliberately provoke Saladin. You know, leave several units without upgrades, maybe build up my queues a bit so I look weaker than I am, then go demanding tribute, closing out borders and what not, and see if he'll declare war. I was thinking of giving him about 6 turns or so before giving up and declaring war myself. I was also thinking of running the slider at 0% for a couple of turns to save up some gold to upgrade a few more units to Riflemen. Or should I just not bother beating around the bush and declare war now?
Either way, I think rather than letting Saladin sit on his butt, I should just get off mine and hand his to him.
Er... did that make any sense at all?
) has not found any sizable SOD I would think that MilSci should be next.
).
). The gren route is more a of a way if we are going to move inside the sal land to deal with their cuiraseers.....
