I hope nobody minds. I took Belials save and played 6 turns That puts us at 650AD.
Couldn't wait for Belial anymore so I played some.
Preturn analysis(TM)
We want to hit China soon. Their last deal expires in two turns. We can get Chivalry, Sign Ottomans and Koreans to a MA and then attack China while their back is turned.
To hit china, I want to deny them their two iron sources. Razing Chendu will disconnect both sources so I want to move my troops up to Ulaanbataar. Also, I don't want to attack with horses if I can help it. I'll hold off for upgrades as much as possible.
I'm going to try to be a warmonger and skip the micromanagement. Lets see how it goes.
Checking on our enemies I see that Korea and Babylon are in the Industrial age and they both have Nationalism (MPP available) That means they have rifle. China so far does not. If we can pull Korea and Babylon in then our attack will be that much easier.
(0)590AD
Wake horse stack in Madras and move the horses to Ulaanbataar. Wake the stack in Ta-Tu and move them to Almarikh. I will have to rush the barrack in Ulaanbataar. The four horses outside of Chinan are brought back to Karachi for upgrade. Horses fortified near dehli in the foothills are split. One to Karachi, the other next to Yangchow border.
Hyderabad barrack changed to catapult. Dehli changed from piek to horse. Lahore changed from granary to horse. Wake the worker irrigating the mine in Lahore. We want to have more shields going into our GA.
I see no reason to research Chivalry at minimum since we're going to buy it in two turns. Fukushima science guy put to work on the gold hill netting an extra 2gpt. Combat settler moved to Ulaanbataar.
China is currently trading with Korea and Zulu. Salt peter must be in the Korea trade. Guessing Zulu has a luxury.
BT China moves a worker through our territory.
Dehli horse>horse. Bangalore med inf>horse.
(1) 600AD
Switch Ankara to horse and shift some tiles around. Bengal duct 2 turns earlier. Our horse deal has expired with China and I don't reup it. Mongols are the other potential horse traders. I get China to do a trade embargo against them. Now they won't buy from Mongols until we get the mongols to go to war against them.
Mugla entertainer put to work on the gold mine. 48g rushes the barrack in Ulaanbataar. Upgrade two warrior for the attack on Chinan.
BT lots of Chinese workers moving.
Ulaanbataar barracks>pike. Fukushima galley>cat.
(2) 610AD
Diplomacy.
Cancel all but the trade embargo deal with china.
Get Babylon in a trade embargo against China.
Get peace and the island city of Kafa from Ottomans.
Get an MA against the evil Chinese and get Chivalry for the bargain price of 14gpt. Actually, ROP makes it cheaper, 12gpt.
Build an embassy with Mongols for 35g. They have 2 spears in their capital. Putting them at war with China will eliminate them. That could be good for us. as we'll be the basement in tech prices. Get MA with them against China for Feudalism.
Get Korea in MA against china for 32gpt. (ouch)
OK ATTACK!. Upgrade all the horses in Ulaanbataar. Upgrade 2 horses in Karachi. Un upgraded horses from here take position on the hills NE of Chinan. They get a worker and cut off the trade road for that source of iron. Med Inf with catapult escore take position outside of Chinan.
Attack Yangchow. First horse dies promoting a redlined regular to 2/4. Another regular appears. Next horse retreat without doing any damage. Same for the third. Fourth redlines but wins. Elite finish off 2/4 spear and we own Yangchow. Order temple. Remaining four horses goto Ulaan. MI grabs worker on border near Bangalore. Archer runs a pillage run into the jungle as a decoy. Get a ROP with Mongols and Korea. Think we can try an end around to get at Beijing. Use last to upgrades to get elephants in the Northern task force. Now I see why Belial had them in Ta-Tu instead. Korea road net starts there. Shift them back. I can afford 2 upgrades there. Bangalore and Ankara can't afford to build elephants so are switched to pikes. Ta-tu hires 2 specialists because we're cut off now. It's starving so I swap library to worker for rushing later.
BT china moves all workers indoors.
Korea comes calling. wants to trade TM. Sure, what ever you want.
Calcutta pike>elephant. Bengal duct>cat. Chitagong worker>pike.
(3) 620AD
Bombard Chinan, second cat does 1HP damage. Wounded horses from Yangchow got to Bombey for healing. War elephant kills pike in Chinan and our GA starts. MI kills wounded pike and we capture the city, sinking a galley in the process. Order temple. Elephants, horses and MI move north toward Anyang. Elephants in Ulaan all move to the hill SE of the iron. We could have attack but it would have been across the river. Archer captures a worker. MI kills spear in Kayung. Horse dies trying for the other spear and I decide to halt the attack. Other horse retreats to Bangalore. Upgrade one more horse in Ta-Tu. Sell maps.
BT
China gets Japan to sign trade embargo against us. Longbow retreats an elephant near Anyang. Longbow kills wounded MI.
Ankara pike>duct. Kolhapur barracks>duct.
(4) 630AD
MI kills longbow near Anyang.
Chendu:
Elephant retreats, no damage.
Elephant dies, no damage. This is not looking good.
Elephant kills pike. Finally! Spear appears.
Elephant retreats.
Elephant kills spear. WE raze Chendu. The iron is still in Chinese territory. Settler coming.
Archer pillages jungle road.
War elephants start the Trek from Ta-Tu around to Beijing. First one out ends up next to a Chinese cav. We fortify on a hill hoping Korea will kill it.
Horse in Bangalore kills longbow.
Anyang. Horse retreats from pike. Second kills pike! Spear appears. Horse dies, Horse retreats. Elephants have gone back to heal so we're out of attackers this round. 2 more Ta-Tu horses upgraded.
BT China kills archer with a cav.
Korea move 2 dozen riflemen and longbows and MI into China.
Hope they don't end up with the GL.
Dehli Elephant>pike (build in 1 with no waste.)
Bangalore pike>elephant.
Karachi duct>elephant.
Hyderabad cat>cat. Same for Bengal.
(5) 640AD
MI kills spear and Anyang is ours. Starve it and order temple. Two slaves go to chop forest to help temple.
Elephants approach Macao. Special ops elephants are grouped in Korea.
BT Chinese cav attacks horse on iron mountain and we kill him!
Dehli pike>pike.
Lahore Ele>Ele.
Kafa warrior (rushed)>Spear.
Anyang starves, Yangchow ends resistance. Second palace addition offered.
(6) 650AD
Macao falls to 2 elephants. We keep it. That might be
I risk a 2/4 elephant on the second spear and it works. Xinjin is ours. I'm only keeping them to allow our elephants faster motion on the roads. I don't care if they flip back as long as we don't loose to many units.
I'm quitting here as I have to go on vacation and its already 1AM.
My plan from here is to Grab the cities along the western Coast. We won't face much resistace until we get to Beijing. I'm sure that China is researching Nationalism. The faster we get to Bejing the better our chances are. That means we may not have time to heal everyone. I've been taking the cities so we can use the road system. I'm not even defending them. We have a steady stream of elephants coming and should be able to play zone defense. Remember, our goal here is to take Beijing. We've already met our other goals including taking the first ring cities and stealing our iron back. Looks like Korea and Babylon will be the heavies in this game with Zulu as a distant third. Sipahi may change that a bit. We may get Industrialization from the Great Library at this rate.
Good luck.
Please remember. We can not settle for peace until everyone has canceled their MAs. We can not settle for trade until the Embargos are lifted. Keep the elephants together. China has been bringing one or two units at a time. If the Special Ops (sneaky elephants
) make it to Beijing at the same time as the Tramplers from the south then I think we will get caught up in tech. If you get it. Take some screen shots and write down the long list of techs. We might make some kind of record for most techs from the GL.
The SAVE at 650AD
). Mugla forced to rush a temple (didn't see that before). Japan has crumbled losing all of their core cities. Ta-tu forced to hurry a temple.
The sooner we can grab chivalry the better. I don't want to kill off a lot of our horses before they can be upgraded. Nice thing about elephants is they don't need resources so once we get chivalry, we can sell our horses if anyone want them.
