Contender save. Settled in place. Think I went fishing first, and then forgot to start a workboat. Early micro was poor, and I made several mistakes like that, costing me turns. Settled another city (rice+fish). Guess I got early AH, because... I stole a worker from Justinian early on, and the silly git refused to peace out. So the war kept going and going. He sent some archers over, which a defending chariot of ours was lucky to beat (not inside a city). Turns out we had horses nearby, and I did something I'm pretty sure I haven't done before, because it always felt like such a waste: bulb Math. By the time Justinian was willing to talk peace without wanting my second city, it was too late. The first Keshik was out in 1000BC (one turn after Math bulb), and we attacked in 875BC with 8 Keshiks. Over the coming turns, everything and more was chopped into Keshiks. Needed with only two cities
We bypassed Constantinople due to a pack of archers behind walls, so it actually was the next last city taken. In 675BC Justinian is no more.
Shortly after, in 600BC, we could have DOWed Joao. I probably should have done just that in hindsight. But he had a big build which could only be the Pyramids, and I wanted it. Unfortunately it was slow progress, and he refused to chop. After waiting for too long, war was declared in 500BC. Plan was to try to not threaten Lisbon too much (but to take out the metal, although he had another one (actually two). Then hope he would complete Mids when we weren't looking. Then I stupidly forgot about the Keshik's cool ability, and moved as if they were normal horsies. We could have taken the first city on T0 through a forest, but instead he whipped another spearman. Grrrrr!
Mids was finally completed in 375BC/T100, so glad I didn't wait that long. Think we had 'only' taken one city and razed another (Pacal soon later resettled on top of the ruins, despite the location lacking any food). A daring two-Keshik attack on Oporto failed. It only had two archers on flatland, but both my guys died at good odds. All hands on deck for the Lisbon attack, and we take it in T101, one turn after Mids. Silly Joao went HR... (bad pick + anarchy). Our guys badly needed healing. Out of 15-ish Keshisk, only 3-4 were at full health, and most of those were travelling to the front from the capital and Beshbalik (third ring forests ftw). A tactical cease-fire was undersigned. Didn't have a medic yet, so there was a lull for a little while. First GG went on units for promos.
War was re-declared in 225BC. Joao wasn't terribly pleased, and kept calling me a "vile person"
Lagos was captured and razed on the east coast. Another no-food city. Why, man?!? The economy was of course shot to pieces here, despite having Currency, and we were losing around 30
per turn at 0% research. Can't keep junk cities like that, although it's always fun with a high city count. However, Joao was still not dead. There was another city
somewhere, and I had no idea where.
Kept looking at the culture overview (zoom out), and there was no sight of any other Portuguese borders. Figured it had to be a random barb city way out of his starting area. Just before 1AD, I sent some Keshiks in different directions to try to find it. Nothing south of France (but then I had bribed de Gaulle on Joao anyway, so that was always unlikely). Couldn't find anything up in the tundra either. After moving units in 1AD, I finally spot his borders in the African jungle past Roman territory. Don't know what kind of outpost it is, but I sent out an "exploratory" force (sorry to all Africans and South Americans who know the true meaning of their intent..).
Did think about peacing out due to some unhappiness from war anger, but it would be nice to get rid of him (he has no techs, and can't even get a single coin out of him). There was also the shared war with de Gaulle. However, I'm also looking at Roman cities while travelling through with that scouting Keshik, and it seems like he doesn't have Iron and OPtorians.... Could it really be possible to DOW JC as well with Keshiks?!
I do know he has access to elephants, but I haven't seen any yet. However, Keshik vs elephant wouldn't be a nice sight -- for us! Need to think about that some more, but the tech situation is kinda favourable for another war of some type here. de Gaulle has a decent chunk of units I see, plus catapults, but both JC and Pacal look soft. Ofc it's possible that JC is teching Feudalism currently, and he is the tech leader. Pacal has Holkans, which is no good either. Tough one.....
Once I play past 1AD, will probably spend those turns to wipe out Joao (hopefully he doesn't have 4 spears parked there), and revisit further war plans. The economy is still shot and I'm trying to limp to CS.
Oh yes, and we finally settled a third city as well!
It was settled in 1AD, for the gold spot north of the capital. Should have been done earlier, but you know... WAR! Will make another settler for the north tip of the land mass too, and ought to get another bloke to the UK. First need to kill a barb galley that managed to sink a Roman galley (I feared it had a settler party, but probably didn't), and then got double promoted. Hate that.
Very fun game so far
With that overly long update, at 1AD we have 12 cities (plus 2 razed). Have had to chop+whip a few courthouses, and more are needed, but current population is 58. Not built Keshiks for a while and the count is down to 16, but that is still a fearsome lot if I get them all together (top global military). Kill count thus far is 36 archers, 9 spears, 4 swords, 4 axes, 1 chariot (plus a galley without fighting) ==> 54 units. Not bad with 13 Keshik losses (and a chariot+warrior).
The wise thing is surely to settle down and recover the economy, but got darn it it's tempting to have another go!! If JC and de Gaulle didn't have so many hill cities, it would be easier to dare.
So I went for fishing and built 2 wbs in case worker would have no job to do after building the first pasture. That decision delayed my expansion. I built 3 cities including the capital. Justinian quickly took all land tiles including Britain. He had 9 cities when I declared war in T83. Usually an imp leader is weaker at this time compared to others because over-expansion means cities are poorly defended. But this time Justinian got a good balance. When I dow, he had 15-ish sword axe spear and chariot within sight. I razed his metal mines destoryed most of his melee units and took 1 city from him. But then 2 bad news came: Justinian got longbow/my supermedic was KIA with 97% win rate. I should have prayed. Even though I still had 12 horsemen, no supermedic means healing would take 1 or 2 turns more. 1 more turn 1 more longbow. GG.
