Round 5: to 1300 AD
Change of plans, gang.
So get this: I go back to the game, hit ENTER to go to the next turn, and
right away, this happens:
Sheesh, what did I do to tick
you off, Julie? We're even the same religion!
Of course, Julie has no room to expand. But does he pick on Huayna? Of course not.
But get this: the war trumpets have just finished blaring, and I'm anxiously checking the map, expecting a stack of Praets to appear just outside of Guangzhou, which only has an Axe and a Warrior defending it and is just finishing its walls. Meanwhile, all my units are on the other side of the continent in Yayoi. This would be the perfect time for Caesar to strike.
So what does he do? He puts together a bone-chilling stack consisting of an Archer, a Horse Archer, and an Axeman, puts them on the tile one south of the horses near Guagzhou...and there they remained. He declares war on me and can't even be bothered to
pillage, for cryin' out loud.
I can't help but feel a little hurt. I just feel, I don't know...
unattractive, I guess. I mean, what's wrong with
my tile improvements? Maybe all those cottages make me look fat...
Not wanting to fight a war on two fronts, I paid a visit to Huayna. He was unwilling to part with any of his techs, but quite willing to say bu-bye to all his gold:
Aces. So I gathered my stack out of Yayoi and sent them west to Roman territory. Neapolis fell pretty quickly:
It only had two defenders--an Archer and an Axe--and I now have my four, accuracy-promoted, remove-that-pesky-cultural-defense-in-one-turn Catapults. I didn't lose any units, in fact, two more CKNs earned their Drill II. And now I had stone for any Wonders that benefit from it. Not that the next one did, but I finished it a couple of turns later:
A good thing I snagged that, since my economy is headed into the crapper and it's taking my research with it. More on that later.
The stack then went south to Pisae and met with great success, although I had to sacrifice a CKN this time:
I decided to raze Pisae, simply because I wanted to head to Cumae, which had several Longbowmen and was situated on a hill (shudder), so I knew I'd need every unit I had and didn't really have any to defend Pisae. Plus, look at those cultural boundaries threatening to swallow it up.
Cumae did indeed fall, though I lost several CKNs in the process. The fact that my lowly Spearman is the one who took the city tells you what a near-run thing it was.
I then considered whether I should press on, or sue for peace and perhaps a tech. I sent a Sentry-promoted Chariot towards Rome to check on its strength:
Hmmm, not too intimidating, especially since, unlike Pisae and Cumae, Rome is not on a hill. (Thank goodness. Several Incan cities are on hills too; the AI seems to have shown an inordinate affinity for building on top of them in this particular game.)
So the stack made its way south, and shortly thereafter...
Look at all those Workers I captured! They're gonna come in handy.
Meanwhile, I popped a Great Prophet in Beijing; the GL was obviously finished too recently to have much of an effect yet. I was considering burning him for Divine Right, but the money situation made me decide to send him to Shanghai to build Christianity's shrine. After all, this may be my last GP of the game. In addition, you'll notice that Mansa--predictibly--built a lousy little city on MY continent, so the shrine will put more cultural pressure on it and the surrounding tiles.
Speaking of Mansa, he founded Islam on that very same turn, so it's just as well that I used the GP for the shrine.
So here's how things look in 1300 AD:
I feel a lot more comfortable now that I have some buffer cities between myself and the other civs. Caesar is down to two cities, and it's Huayna's turn after he's done.
Nevertheless, I have some housekeeping to do. Neapolis' borders have not expanded because it's producing no culture. I need to produce a Buddhist Missionary--assuming I have a Monastery somewhere--and send him there.
Yayoi has
three unhappy citizens. With all those food tiles, it grew a little fast while I wasn't paying attention. I only have two units there and I don't want it to flip. I'm running Serfdom but think I should go back to Slavery and whip away the frownies for a couple of happy happy joy joy buildings like temples.
Finally, razing Pisae and capturing Rome has left a big culture hole. I think I should build a Settler and defender and rush them there before Huayna beats me to it.
In terms of power, I have a comfortable lead:
But in terms of tech, I absolutely don't:
You gotta give Mansa credit, he's making a silk purse out of a sow's ear on his lousy little island. He has a pretty commanding tech lead at this point. This is probably the most worrisome development in the game; it makes me rather regret all those tech trades I did with Mansa way back. Once Huayna's done, or even before then, I may have no choice but to load up a bunch of my veterans onto Galleys and head over to take him down a few pegs. Depending on how that goes and how the other unseen civs are doing tech-wise, I may have to forgo a Cultural win yet again.
(By the way, ironically, Huayna has Guilds but not Horseback Riding! He can't build Knights yet!)
I expect Caesar's last two cities to be a couple of tough fights, and that will likely hold true for all of the Incan cities. I'll be relying on overwhelming numbers to win the day since we're all pretty even tech-wise.
On a related note, it's sad to say, but I believe the Cho-Ko-Nus have had their day. Both Caesar and Huayna have Longbowmen, and their odds versus that particular nemesis have been deplorable. I've now lost all but one of the original wave of CKNs that took those two Incan cities so handily. The survivor, however, I'm happy to say has reached Level 5 and is now up to Drill IV. I've bestowed the simple but appropriate nickname "Killer" upon him.
I now have Macemen, who can receive City Raider promotions and do much better against Longbowmen. Speaking of which, I have those too, and they have an edge on the CKNs when it comes to city defense.
In addition, I'm reverting to Catapults for collateral damage. They're simply cheaper than the CKNs, who are now suiciding rather than surviving their battles. I do feel a stab of regret about it, and given the cultural environment, feel like I'm forgoing the high-quality merchandise for a cheap knock-off from Taiwan. But we all know Cats get the job done.
I can't help thinking that our assessment of the CKNs before the Mao game was correct: bee-lining to them is a red herring. They're a decent UU, but they're not nearly in the same league as Praets or Redcoats.
As always, your opinions and advice are appreciated. Especially, at this point, regarding my economy and research. I need to pull out of that nose dive if I'm going to catch up with Mansa.
Here's the saved game:
.
). The only requisite is having a city lacking religion. Trade routes certainly help, though aren't 100% necessary. Distance, I think, helps, but again, it's not a requirement to be close (I think trade routes have more effect than distance, or they at least work to balance each other). Just build a few coastal cities and hope Islam spreads to one of them before something else does. That's really the only way to grab it. Religion won't naturally spread to a city that already has one (though I feel I've seen evidence to the contrary, I'm more inclined to believe statements made off code than my personal experience on this one).
