Round 8: to 1200 AD
So I wish I could report that Vicky is no more...but, alas, there was a complication.
I finished researching Currency and then moved on to Polytheism and Literature. Meanwhile, my units built in the north had something to keep them busy on the trip south:
One of several barb cities that have popped up. Good for XPs, but they slowed me down a little. I razed this one and another one just south of it, then moved the newly-experienced units (Swordsmen and a War Elephant) on to the long road south to England.
As they were in transit, several units I had waiting outside of York moved in once my first catapults joined them. I didn't face much opposition--just two fortified Archers, though one had CG II. The Swordsmen did an admirable job; I only lost one of them. I probably could have preserved him, but I was more concerned about preserving more of my catapults for the assault on London.
But this was when the complication reared its ugly head.
Remember I said the AI is not completely dense? Vicky was throwing Horse Archers at me now. I started countering with Spearmen, who are darn effective against them, I gotta say. So Vicky went shopping on the tech tree for a good counter unit to the mixed forces I was now bringing to bear. So guess what she did?
She bee-lined to Feudalism.
Well,
crud. Longbowmen. Scads of 'em. I hate it when these guys start showing up in the AI's cities. Of course, I'd kind of backed Vicky into a corner; I'd pillaged both her copper and her horses (though she probably got the latter hooked up again--she killed the Axe and Archer that had gone in to pull off that mission). So what did she have left? Archery units. Why not go after the best one available?
This caused a further delay, as I now had to bring everything I had down for the assault on London.
At the same time, I was starting to implement my plan of slow but steady expansion:
Good suggestion, Nares. Yes, that's ANOTHER barb city to its south. First thing I built in Alexandria was a wall. The barb cities will have to wait until after Vicky is dealt with.
I won't post as much detail about the assault on London as I did about Madrid. It was a pretty standard takedown of a Civ IV city and the UU is becoming less of a factor. Catapults first stripped the city's defenses to 0%, then all but one of them suicided for the collateral damage. Then it was the best city raiders' turn: Swordsmen against Longbowmen. Not really a fair fight, especially since London is on a hill and Cats ain't gonna change that. But once again, the Swords really came through. I think I only lost one, and most of them won against long odds in the 50% to 65% range. I was fully expecting to have to throw all my WCs at the remaining units, but as it turned out, four of them did not have to attack any units inside London at all.
The problem, however, was that I had just taken a city that Victoria would desperately want back, and only had five War Chariots in there to defend it for the first turn. The WCs have been great, but they're not exactly the best city defenders around. And yes, as you can see, Victoria did have a Horse Archer right outside the city, ready to attack, and could have thrown units from Hastings and Nottingham at me as well. Even on the following turn, when I moved the rest of my stack into London, most of those units were badly weakened from the assault.
Hmmmm...what to do?
Well, if you're going to throw in two techs and some change, okay. Especially since Metal Casting leads to Machinery, and with Civil Service, that will give me...uh...never mind. Let's just shake hands and take a breather... (before we take this up again).
So I had a few turns to do a little building. Some good news occurred along the way.
Oh, that's gonna help. I still can't push the slider any higher than 40% most turns without going into a deficit. Fortunately, I had lots of war botty to fund my pointy-stick research.
I should note that winning the GL was the result of crazed chopping on my part around Vandal. I got news that the Hanging Gardens, the Parthenon, and the Great Lighthouse had been built, and that Christianity had been founded--so there's another civ out there finally giving me a run for my what little money I have. Plus I wanted to get the GL's boost going ASAP.
I also managed to pull off another first:
Yep, I finished Music before anyone else. Free Great Artist! Very helpful for the cultural win we're talking about. I was tempted to use him in London to expand its borders, but decided to put him to sleep in Thebes until the end game. London will just have to starve itself down to five pop while it waits for the rest of England to fall. I should probably start building Notre Dame before too long. Nova Roma, with its stone quarry, may become the next city in line on the slow-but-steady expansion queue.
Here's the power graph for the last 50 turns:
You can see exactly when Vicky got Longbowmen, and when London fell. I am producing Cats and moving them to London right now in anticipation of the peace treaty expiring and the final assault on England's remaining three cities.
Three? Yup.
One:
Two:
And, uh, three:
Sneaky and tenacious, those AIs. I'm building a trio of Spearmen in Madrid to help take it down.
This is one tough slog, kids. I'm still paying for my ambition (or is it hubris?) to own the continent so early. I may not need Macemen to finish Vicky off, but I'm heading in that direction anyway, just in case. If it wasn't for war booty, my research would be even worse than it is. I've spammed cottages and I'm building courthouses and markets but it's still way below what I'm used to at this stage in the game. During the next round, Vicky and the barbs die. I'm getting tired of putting up with them and the drag they put on my economy.
And I'm looking forward to playing as Mansa. Spiritual, an early UU...and he's
financial. I'm really missing that trait right now.
