Played your save to turn 168. Had a jolly good time!
The game looked rather challenging at first, which was good as it was King level and I knew it probably wouldn’t end so. It started off slow, but once I built the Temple of Artemis in Pokrovka things started to speed up. The original plan was to spit out a bunch of settlers, so I double promoted Magnus but that proved vexing due to the terrain and Gilgamesh’s war carts streaming past to the south toward Harold.
Early in the game I spied a couple of wounded Sumerian warriors and thought I could do some early game damage to the ziggurat crazed fiend in hopes of averting the famed Sumerian steamroller later in the game.
I noted that Persia has the most votes for next week’s Civ of the Week, so in that spirit I queried Gilgamesh if he was interested in a joint war against Harold, then, once he agreed, immediately declared on him eliminating one of his wounded warriors with an archer before the other scurried away. This strategy proved fortuitous! After peacing out with both Harold and Gilgamesh, they stayed at war...for...quite...some...time. Over the course of the next half a millennia, I watched what must have been 8 or 9 war carts roll right by my area, heading toward Harold.
At times I wondered how Harold could be holding out as nothing was happening except the occasional Nidaros garrison strength dipping to barely wounded, then right back up to full strength. Shrug. I bet the units that survived the 8+ warcart bloodbath must be racking up the experience! After some time Nidaros finally fell, and I accepted an EMERGENCY, joined by Harold and Kongo.
Pokrovka was able to build 2 horseman every 5 turns even without the +50% policy card (needed the slot for something else). As noted by another poster, after producing 6 horses, I had to stop producing them, as they became something of a drain on the economy. Anyway, rather than go toward the emergency site, I went to the emergency source (Gilgamesh).
Harold ended up taking his capital back without anyone’s help and I pocketed 1/3 of the EMERGENCY funds for doing essentially nothing I wouldn’t have done anyway.
The short of it: Gilgamesh’s warcarts put up a spirited defense against the 6 horseman I sent, but once a knight arrived it was game over. I soon took Uruk and a military emergency was declared. Gilgamesh was the only one that answered and this proved another easy 1800 gold.
After finishing the last Sumerian city, I called it. I know how this will end. GG though, as the start made it challenging and fun.