Babylon deity NO IRON

[vanjito]

On neighbor relation front Wu had the idea that a city near Babylon would be nice. NOT!?

She settled on the position of my grey worker?!

Spoiler :

I had to reload and put the worker there block her. Also I demanded that 'she not settle near us' and it worked.
Don't know was it because my worker was there (now on time) or because of my request but it worked. Nice

Our happiness was running low and the next policy came just in time for us to keep up with the rapid growth!

Spoiler :

Gold income is always welcome

Stables done and we are on the way of producing our first Pikeman. You can see the juicy Cattle and Sheep tiles with 2 and 3hammers. The upper one is not yet improved hence nott worked as the main concern is food... I kinda switch to production when city is 2-3 turns to pop. Then I have a feeling of not loosing so much growth and gaining much production.

Turns to grow 2->3 and turns to produce 20->14

It's all in my head of course

Spoiler :

It's quite expensive - 22 turns for such a lowly unit.
Well.... Strength 10 is not quite 12 of Swordsman but wit superior Human tactics we can get away with it.
Not near 18 of Longswordsman

AI wages war like a and with inferior units we'll prove it!

Interestingly enough Wu was behind us to reach Medieval Era.

Spoiler :

The training is business as usual as you can see all the AI's are about double our points and Catherine is the rightful first.
Only one to have full cash must be respected

 

[vanjito]

The techs were researched quickly the city was growing training was set up, let us see the Demographics

Spoiler :

Still dead last?! At least not in GNP which was troubling me even more - AI's with low cash means no big trades, no RA's. No RA's for them also but...

As the happiness was going down again and to prepare for impending conquer we'll build the Colosseum and Temple for faster policies. 7 per turn is very slow when you need 740 and from previous experience we'll need Theocracy to continue the war once we conquer a few AI's.

Spoiler :

As soon as Engineering was researched the Aqueduct is bought. No sense in waisting precious turns building it while the city can grow with it for only 1050g. Hm - that was expensive. But well worth it!

Spoiler :

Let's recheck the tech tree. All is fine. RA comes on 218 and we are at 184 with 25 turns to research Calendar and Theology. Couple of turns of tech blocking and we're there!

Spoiler :

The training was going very well our Bowman is one level away from 3-tile range at which point he can gain the EXP for himself shooting at the CS. Pikeman also joined the party and was gathering his Rough EXP. With 2 Medics it's much quicker.

Spoiler :

 

[vanjito]

The first round of resource selling is over with the discovery of Calendar.

Spoiler :

How much easier is to have mining resources at start.
You need Mining whatever path you go and Calendar is kinda expensive tech for it's Era.
Then it's always the question Mining for chop-chop or Calendar for luxuries.
With mining you just know you are doing the right thing!

We did have to research Sailing here but, well... that was after Mining, right? No questions 'what first' there

There was barbarian uprising to the south so the Pikeman went to gather 10EXP and 75g.
He was not level 3 so he got the EXP.

Gold sold to Catherine and Isabella for... erm
What's this?!

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Russia and Spain were the only AI's to have enough coin (or income) to pay (almost) full price. I'm disappointed.


***********


Ah well, let's check how are we doing in the GG points departement.

Spoiler :

168/200 - nice. Our GG will be more than ready for the first war!


The CS EXP grinding is better than the whole Honor policy tree!
Well, maybe not whole tree just 3 policies but you get loads of EXP and GG
That first policy in Honor is just underwhelming...

And 3 policies is a LOT - we have acquired only 4 so far and our progress is so great?!

Let's see how great are we doing from screenshot few turns ago

Spoiler :

Maybe not so great.
But we'll catch up!

Must!

Must... must try at least

 

[vanjito]

Our first Great General is born!

Spoiler :

The warrior is upgraded slowly - he can rarely stand in the hotspot more than the initial turn. Pikeman is getting more experienced quicker.

On turn 208 - same turn we researched Theology - Ramses declares on Wu. How appropriate
Let him spend his precious armies on dear Wu, we'll have a easier job.

Spoiler :

I'd pay him to war with someone, how he came to idea of war against Wu... well maybe we'll find out later

Back in Babylon the known bug is exploited - everyone can build Terrace Farms with Construction not only Inca. It's sure nice to build them but I hope they patch this.

Spoiler :

2food 2hammer is just like Sheep (without Stables).
I hope border expansion will be nice to me and include two Terrace tiles to the south soon.
Nothing much to do with other Worker so he's doing what he's best at - chopping trees.
Even at 4 distance you get 20hammer...

Since we'll buyout the University and hire 2 specialists and Babylon UA is 'double generation of GS' it seemed like no-brainer for us to build a National Epic - 25% more
One more Pikeman and Bowman are scheduled for production and that will be the army to conquer... someone.

In fact that will be the whole army for long long time. There were so many other nice things to build

(Temple built - next Policy in about 30 turns)

Spoiler :

Whales sold to Isabella.
I don't even want to comment on the rate

Spoiler :

 

[vanjito]

After some tech blocking we reached the second milestone (first was NC) - Education!

Spoiler :

At the same turn first BIG upgrade came -> +1 range for Bowman. Now, he's going to gather EXP like crazy. For some reason you get 3EXP from bombarding a City and only 2 from bombarding a unit. Better for us

The gpt was traded for hard cash with Ramses and Catherine. At this time I still wasn't sure who to attack first - now Ramses seems like obvious choice - among top scorers and VERY near... I wasn't sure how promoted army will I need. Double attack and March on 2 units is must, didn't know if I needed 3 with March

City stats before University

Spoiler :

Food 14
Hammer 22
Science 45
Gold 19
Culture 10

And after

Spoiler :

Food 12.65
Hammer 18
Science 73
Gold 16
Culture 10

Interestingly enough the Gold and Science are swapped when in City and Production view

We lost 1.35 food and 4hammer (ouch) but we gained 28bottles!!! That's over +60% increase!

Not to mention the 12GS points from Specialists!

Maybe NOW we're doing better in Demographics?

Spoiler :

Well, 5th place in Literacy just below average. Wu is last with 26% just like us. Darius is first with 30% (just got our RA).
If the average is 27% then many AI's have 26% or 27%.
We haven't researched the lower part of the tree (we got Pikeman before researching Spearman, weird) so with new 60% increase in bottle generation the things are indeed looking bright!

I'm still annoyed by our 'high' place in GNP - at 11gpt we are only half way from the best (Darius). That means no coin for our luxuries. On the bright side no RA's for AI either

 

[vanjito]

The natural border expansion managed NOT to advance to new Terrace tile so it was purchased. Really nice those tiles

Spoiler :

This is our production queue for the next period. The disappointment came in view of National Epic and GS points.
12 +25% should well be 15 not 13?! I gave up on building the Garden right there

Spoiler :

Ramses declared on Hiawatha - so nice of him
Also the Bowman gained his new Double Attack Promotion - now he'll advance even more!

Spoiler :

Our main Pikeman needed only one more level to mighty March!

Spoiler :

First unit to acquire March is the true turning point in conquest game!


If I planned the next event I would be VERY proud of myself. Instead this was a (VERY) lucky stroke.

Spoiler :

At the same turn the research of Compass completed and we get a new Policy AND a GS was born!
It maybe doesn't seem like much but as it happened I did some thinking. To plant new Academy or to pop a tech?
We're taking policy path to Theocracy, right?
And I was getting annoyed by Academy eating up 2food from riverside grassland

Then it hit me!

We can pop Astronomy with GS and then we can take the MIGHTY Rationalism policy!
It had to be just like this, if we didn't get the GS and/or Compass with the Policy it wouldn't work!

Spoiler :

Rationalism it is, we'll deal with happiness how we can

Our BIG army isn't going to conquer much soon, right?

 

[vanjito]

The final preparations for imminent war with top scorer Ramses were done, last Bowman then the infrastructure!

Spoiler :

Indirect Fire with Logistics and Range make a killing machine. Machinery comes right in time for upgrade. Only 11 turns from last upgrade (237 -> 248)!

Spoiler :

Another GG born, let him sleep for a while to pop new Golden Age. Is GA short for Golden Age or for Great Artist?
You can see the Iroquois settler in right top of the screen. Settle there? OK!
It turned out that he had higher aspirations...

Spoiler :

With nothing to do with our workers I remembered another exploit. Fort building over Luxuries!
Let's try that, our cash is low as it is.
It turned out that we didn't need it that much and you need to improve the resource from scratch, whole 23 turns of it...

Spoiler :

I'm not sure how they can patch this, you must be able to build Fort anywhere...
(not that I EVER built one?!)

Gold to Catherine and Isabella ended (sorry my ladies) and our main Pikeman needed only 10 more EXP for March.
That would be in 3 turns.
Machinery in 4 turns.

All the puzzle pieces are falling into place!

Spoiler :

And there it is!

Nice screenshot this one, you can see the Pikeman with March, City attack promotion for Bowman (soon to be Crossbowman) and, well... Machinery

Spoiler :

After this I just clicked on Rifling and went on to take Ramses!

 

[vanjito]

It was all downhill from here. Or... almost all downhill.

As the new established leader in tech we went to make long a due corrections in the rest of categories

Spoiler :

I wanted to upgrade both Bowman but it turned out that it's kinda expensive

Spoiler :

You can see the Egyptian settler right there, ready to pop a new city. Not?
This decision I lived to regret many times later. And make it over and over??

We had 2 Medic (and March) units and I really wanted to get third March. Medic didn't seem so important since we already had 2, one can always position his units in a way that one with Medic is in the middle, right? Or NOT put the one without Medic in the middle - easy enough.

Note to self - Wrong - take the Medic and don't think about it!

Spoiler :

The usual war preparations went on, all cash for gpt (only 262g there) and my recent default addition - Denouncement!

When you declare war you get a big negative diplo hit, but with Denouncement you might get a (smaller) diplo boost!
All to keep the trade rates high!



The war begins!



On our path to Rifling it's finally time to research Iron

Spoiler :

We forgot to Make Peace with Cape Town and now it's blocked

Spoiler :

Little on unit placement when attacking cities.

Spoiler :

The AI will regularly attack the unit that has been injured so I can position the ranged unit within it's range and it will not be touched. Also the Warrior could take some serious beating there, but all fire was directed at our fortified Pikeman. Nice

I was kinda hoping that Ramses would finish the Machu Picchu (it can be seen on Mountain tile next to Heliopolis) but... he didn't

 

[vanjito]

We messed up a little bit wanting to 'win more' (moving pikeman to the left to enjoy full Rough bonus) and it took whole 8 turns to conquer Heliopolis.

Spoiler :

The master Crossbowman slices trough city defenses like hot knife trough butter!
We didn't raze this city, Wine was nice addition to our Luxury trade and I never raze first big captured city. Maybe later...


In the mean time Wu came by with her appreciation for our Denouncement

Spoiler :

And Hiawatha was crazy with his settlers. I was worried that he'd settle west of Babylon but it seems Cape Town got the hold of the Settler. Way to go Cape Town!
Babylon loves the king! Of course it does
Machu built by unknown player that was still hiding... now 3rd on scoreboard with the decline of Ramses.

Spoiler :

At home, after selling the Gold to Catherine (full price now!) we purchased the Workshop.
28.75hammers - nice.

Spoiler :

Memphis was next to fall - it was going faster now that the Wine was sold to Catherine (806g+1gpt) and the other Bowman became Crossbowman. Our Pikeman almost died there but situation was resolved with capturing the city that turn - all units flee from it once it falls (thanx Maltz).

Spoiler :

It was well improved but with no Luxuries - burn baby burn!

Spoiler :

 

[vanjito]

Demographic witnessed our progress, few levels up in all categories. Not Approval OFC...

Spoiler :

The siege of Thebes begins!
I was very pleased for Heliopolis to decide on building the Monastery - more culture!
The punishment for misplay of not making peace with Cape Town came in the form of a Pikeman!
That would be the same Pikeman that got that Iroquois settler, and now it's blocking our road building endeavor to Babylon. We'll have to wait for the fall of Thebes...

Spoiler :

On same turn we get GG and a GS. GG will be spent for another GA and GS will sleep it off until Rifling. Rather Chemistry as it turned out...
AI's are happy playing their games and the world is burning with war!

Spoiler :

Monaco is under attack and on half hit points - I'm not sure why is it shown when we have no units there?
Also Hiawatha managed to pop a great city to the south!

I know, the Whales, but I'd plant it at least one tile to the northwest?!

The siege of Thebes was a little more difficult and I had to reload a couple of times but it came down in 4 turns. Without reload it would take a few turns more but I was eager to build a road to Babylon and couldn't wait

Spoiler :

Ramses is no more, peace with Cape Town signed and I managed to take the Open terrain promotion over Medic... AGAIN!
At this time I was in poker terms 'pot committed' - when we invested everything in gaining the March this far - we can't stop now

Spoiler :

Catherine declares on Isabella. Way to go girls!

Now it's obvious why Ramses declared on Wu. She planted Guangzhou right next to Thebes.
Why didn't he just reload ask her nicely not to?

Also, now you see why I had so much trouble selling the Gold for full price - everyone has it...

 

[vanjito]

Time for some treasury replenishment.

Sold Horses to Catherine for 469g, one Gold to Darius for 782g and another Gold to Isabella for 480g+4gpt.

And of course... time to wage war again!

Our next target is (of course) top scorer Hiawatha! Maritime CS Venice will be our first ally and with rare pearls it can fuel our happiness for further conquest. No need for Theocracy for now.

Maybe some of you will be disappointed now, but I was getting tired of dodging bullets and not playing with the Warrior so I bought one Iron from Darius for 135g. Also the bright idea of NOT promoting the other Pikeman to Medic played a big part in this decision.

Spoiler :

This is by no means a Longsword rush, as we brought down a top scorer Ramses and were well in Renaissance Era.
As it turned out little later the Longswordman didn't do anything special - all cities went down to Uber promoted Crossbowman...
I just didn't have to hassle with it. The requested strategy was 'not use any iron in first war' and it was well accomplished!

Enough of apologizing on with the game!


For distraction we bribed Hiawatha to declare on Catherine, sold 8gpt for 470g, Denounced him and declared war!

Spoiler :

Dear Catherine shared our disgust with Hiawatha.
For sure she was referring to his city placement! *Disgusted*!

Spoiler :

Former China city went down quickly *burned* and the Crossbowman was dominating the field!
Thebes opted for Mint - so nice of them - more coins!

Spoiler :

Liberation of Vienna was next - child's play - city defense of 13

Spoiler :

 

[vanjito]

Vienna liberated, it's Pearls will be nice addition to our Happiness. We may even get a natural Golden Age!

Spoiler :

Before this patch GA were awesome!
Extra hammer and extra coin from every tile that has one, wow!
You could as well get +50% even +75% production during those times.
Now, with 20% production boost, Golden Ages are just not that impressive...
Extra coin, yeah... it comes and goes...

On the other hand, this patch introduces much more steady production.

Spoiler :

You could only dream of 39hammer during early Renaissance. And 2 mines are not even worked on in this picture!

****

Back to our conquest, Montreal is next to go, Akwesasme after that. We purchased a Scout to gather the wandering Iroquois workers (and to stop the false 'enemy is near' messages )

Sold the Whales to Catherine a turn before (full 900g) only to discover that Thebes demanded them. Bleh.
Wait! That's a good thing! Happiness control

Spoiler :

At the doorstep of Akwesasme it was a good day for promotions!

Our Elite Crossbowman got all relevant promotions I wasn't sure what to take next?
Rough terrain is definitely better than Fortified or Cover

Vienna was really interested in the whereabouts of Russia so our Scout cemented the alliance with them for a long long time

Spoiler :

Akwesasme went down fast and set to demolition. It took more time to burn it than to take it.
I was missing that OOC feature of instant-razing and the constant changing of production in Babylon was annoying (not being able to build National wonder).
Ah, the sweet troubles of fast conquest!


Hiawatha's capitol Onondaga is next to go, then we can make peace with him gather his coins and move on to China.

Onondaga is in kinda tough position to attack, but our Crossbowman will devour it, even from far away

Spoiler :

It will take us a few turns, like the rest of... like the rest of... wait?! City strength 34!


THIRTY FOUR?!?!


Well... that's one tough nut to crack!

No way we can bring THAT down, even with all our promotions!

Shanghai has 11 citizens and strength 22. More like it.

Things were going so well on the war front we forgot all about bottles and coins and other stuff.
It's time to revise our standings, regroup and make new short turn plans, because the current ones... just don't work

 

[vanjito]

In the beginning of the game on Marathon, 30-40 turns is not much.
It's the basic unit of measuring time; you get 'one thing' during that period.

A little recap of past events.
Turn 38 - Researched Writing
Turn 80 - Built National College
Turn 116 - CS training begun with Warrior
Turn 128 - RA signed
Turn 145 - 'Real training' - with 2 units
Turn 175 - 'Really real training' - with Pikeman
Turn 219 - Education and University
Turn 243 - Cool turn with Astronomy and Rationalism policy
Turn 264 - War with Ramses
Turn 290 - Fall of Thebes and war with Hiawatha
Turn 311 - Now

Domination requires that one has 'the last capitol standing', so the strategy is really simple - demolish all cities that stand in your way, puppet the capitol, make peace and move on.
Only once did a nation 'recover' after that - it was Lizzy because I left her with 4 cities leading with York sized 12. I had to come back for her and lost pace there - now the 'razing of all relevantly big cities after capitol' is also included in the program

Now, as we are unable to conquer the capitol we'll do the 'other city razing' and some research.

The cannon!

That's all we need, right?

And we have one GS sleeping at Babylon just for that!

Before Akwesamse burnt to crisp we sold Iron to Catherine (587g) and payed Genoa 1000g for their Gems and food.

Spoiler :

In past razing times (not building Circus Maximus) we were building Barracks for our Canon.

Spoiler :

The exploration with our Scout revealed the last remaining AI. The Pachacuti! Only fitting for them to build Machu Picchu

Spoiler :

¸

Next policy - Secularism

Spoiler :

And after Gunpowder - pop GS for Chemistry - Canon!

Spoiler :

We were finally able to see some of the chick fighting between Catherine and Isabella with our Scout

 

[vanjito]

With bottling the Canon we improved our lead in tech, army size is half of Darius, not bad...
Seems like Ramses went to a happy place when our happiness is worst than his

Spoiler :

We also found Madrid. Seems that AI is more than happy to exploit the Terrace bug

Spoiler :

Sold Wine to Wu (next target) for 470g+3gpt and purchased a Canon!
I just couldn't wait for Armory and Heroic Epic to build.
From hindsight we shouldn't built any of those gold buildings before army ones... but they seemed so shiny!

If you want to wage war - build war stuff!

Spoiler :

Every now and then Hiawatha came up with few units - only to get them wasted. We'll take Buffalo Creek and wait for Canon to arrive.

Spoiler :

Buffalo set ablaze, sold the Iron we found there to Catherine for 580g (again!) and we got our first natural Golden Age!

Spoiler :

It turned out that one Canon was not enough to bring down Onondaga so our burning spree continued to Osininka

At the time we were about 10 turns short of Metallurgy and were in sync of building Oxford University in Babylon for 10 turns but with all the burning Oxford was delayed... a few turns. Not a big deal, just annoying - what do the builders of University care if we are burning some city half a world away...

It was kinda peaceful between AI's at that time so we bribed Darius to declare on Pachacuti for 153g and Isabella agreed to declare on Catherine for 201g. Such small amounts!

All units were in place for promotion as Rifling (from Oxford) came.

Spoiler :

340g for Longswordsman and whole 730 for Pikeman, 1100 total.

Five-six times more than you need to bribe one AI against another, not to mention that one lowly Canon cost us 1830g...


For the first time we have tech advantage in military and it's time to use it for some serious butt kicking!

 

[Steamwerks]

Entertaining writeup

Those mega promoted marathon crossbows are totally ridiculous!!

 

[vanjito]

Let the final stage of Hiawatha's downfall begin!

Every now and then AI produced a 'surprise attack' like here. We had no cash for last Pikeman upgrade and he nearly died there.
Thanks to CrossbowSuperMan the situation was easily resolved.

Spoiler :

Yet again (pot commited) took March instead of Medic.


Back at home production queue was NT, HE, Armory and Notre Dame (5 happy for conquest)
Babylon demanded Marble and the magic acquiring of new tiles included 4-tile-away Marble before of 3-tile-away Mountains. Way to go Dev's! Automated workers were on the task a while now.

Spoiler :

The board is set, the pieces are moving.
We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.

Spoiler :

Wu declared on Catherine and Babylon loves king. Of course they love their king!
So nice of Wu to declare on Cat for free

The great battle of our time lasted for 2 turns.
Canon, XBowMan and Double attack City specialist Rifleman made short work of Hiawatha

Spoiler :

Made peace with Hiawatha for 179g+25gpt+Whales+Open borders. Nice gpt there.
Upgraded last Pikeman to Rifleman!


It was the time to move on... on to Wu.
Sold her gpt for coins, denounced and declared!

Spoiler :

As it were, her army was moving towards Russia, passing just by us. Quite a force (by numbers).

Next turn it was gone

Spoiler :

Tech superiority rocks!

Didn't even use the Canon.

 

[Civ'ed]

Added to Central.

 

[vanjito]

Our exploration of known world revealed an barbarian camp!
We would not tolerate than in midsts of our lands. I'll have to denounce Inca one day

Spoiler :

Another GS born in Babylon, nothing to do with him, so sad...

Spoiler :

And another Policy, more tech, yeah
Not that we built any trade posts in Babylon. Posts are so heavily nerfed with patch.
Maybe automated workers decided it would be a nice idea to build some in puppeted cities?
Don't know, didn't check. Let them to the improvements and we'll wage wars!

Spoiler :

Back to the battlefield, our troops are around Shanghai, pestering Chu-ko-nu's are nibbling the Rifleman 1HP at the time.

Spoiler :

Few turns later Shanghai is down and... nicely improved city with Coloossus? Maybe keep it for score? Nah, burn it all down!

Onto Beijing, the Great Wall was really annoying, but nothing can stop our force!

Spoiler :

Turn 370 marked the downfall of Beijing and long awaited peace (199g+6gpt).
We'll stop our conquest for a while now...
...our units need to reach Russia

Spoiler :

Great Wall and Hanging gardens in Beijing, nice.

X-BowMan, what a unit!

Spoiler :

Fertilizer researched, let's check out the tech tree.

Spoiler :

There's no way we can reach Artillery fast
One Cannon anyway
We'll go Scientific Theory first and then maybe bottle it.

 

[vanjito]

Demographics show our progress, first in tech and double average army size!
With 6 units AI's must have worn each other down well

Extremely rare occasion of being first in Happiness

Spoiler :

With loads of money we purchased Helsinki

Spoiler :

And now almost calmed Cape Town. Just now I realized that we already have Pearls from Vienna, eh.

Nice Diplomacy Overview - war all around

Spoiler :

But... it wasn't enough. Bribed Darius to declare on Catherine for 83g and Pachacuti to declare on Darius for 412g


Let's take down the remaining four AI's, starting with score leaded Catherine.
Liberation Monaco starting!

Spoiler :

GUI somehow glitched so there's only shadows of forest (like right to Mohawk warrior there). It was kinda confusing so we swam over

Spoiler :

The 'low level' XBowMan was promoted to Rifleman. Mistake there - didn't take March before...
Novgorod next, the promotion of XMan came to witness, as the troops get clustered and we'd get more from a ranged unit than from Rifleman that had to... wander around and not fight...

Spoiler :

You can see the Rifleman-from-Crossbowman on picture, it sure looks powerful, but without March it's just not good.

Novgorod set to fire and onto the Moscow.
Wait, what was that? Catherine built Himeji Castle? Free Himeji Castle

Spoiler :

As it turned out, Castle is not in Moscow

Spoiler :

Ankgor Wat and Hagia Sophia... not bad, but second place. We'd make peace with Catherine right there but let's spend 2 turns and check if Castle is in St.Petersburg.

Spoiler :

It is
We'll keep Petersburg as puppet. One can never be to careful...

Made peace with Catherine (308g+14gpt+OB) and now her long time friend Isabella is next!

 

[vanjito]

After demolition of Russia we became the score leaders.

First in all categories, not Population and of course Happiness

Spoiler :

I really don't understand what 87% Happiness means. If 9 happy is 87% then 100% would be... 10,3?

Onto Isabella... payed her 111g to declare on Catherine and 222 for Wu, denounced, declared.
Standard operation!

Spoiler :

Isabella is fielding her version of Musketman, our armies will make short work of them.
We were specially prepared for mounted units since our 2 Rifleman from Pikeman have +100% against them.

Darius must be really bored if he's building Forbidden Palace for his 4 cities....

Madrid down and no wonders there. At least Colosseum

Spoiler :

The conquering of Madrid was celebrated throughout the empire! King's days!

Spoiler :

Our last policy came to us in the form of 2 free thechs. Acoustics and Archeology.
Such a powerful Policy and not important at all...

Little mistake there. As I like to leave the AI lingering (you get extra Diplo hit for destroying entire CIV) we left Isabella with one city - Barcelona.
As it turned out - wrong one.

Spoiler :

Seville burning and only Pachacuti and Darius to go!