CO-2 Monarch Early Conquest

[rddc05]

I think Grogs' outline will serve us well. Couple of things I noticed from the save:

Alex will not offer Delphi for peace. I think it is worth taking before moving on to Sal. Razing the rest of Alex's cities will just give JC more room to grow and we will be fighting him eventually, so I say let Alex live for now.

Corinth needs a theatre or Confucianism to get its borders to pop. It becomes a very nice city with popped borders, right now it is just a drag on the economy. We should heavily whip all the former Greek cities for infrastructure (Courthouse-Granary-Forge-Barracks).

Some trade routes would be nice also.

 

[Grogs]

OK, I played my 10. I captured Delphi and gave Alex peace, then turned our forces west towards Saladin. I razed Anjar (built on the ruins on Mansa's old city) and captured Basra and Medina. I've got 2 stacks moving towards Baghdad and Najran, and a couple of samurai & knights ready to raze Khurasan next turn. Tech-wise, I researched music and philosophy and we're on the road to Military Tradition. FP was built in Athens, which helped our finances immensely. Just a few notes from my session:

• We should get our next GP in Osaka next turn. If it's an engineer, I think we should keep him around to build West Point. Then Osaka could pump out 10xp cavalry to speed up our conquest.
• I think Athens would make a perfect GP city. I started building the library there so we could build the National Epic.
• Saladin has a galley with a mace and a horse archer just west of Medina. We've got plenty of troops nearby to deal with it, but just keep an eye on it so it doesn't surprise us at Osaka or something.

Here's the turnlog:

Turn 171, 1110 AD: Rearrange a few citizens. I think Athens would make a great GP city. Trade Ghandi Compass for 380g. Trade Caesar CS+Guilds to declare war on Ghandi. He throws 270g our way as part of the deal. We've got 1088g now, so we can keep researching at this rate for ~20 turns. We should be able to reduce costs before then.

Turn 172, 1120 AD: Kyoto grocer->harbor; Djenne grocer->catapult; Timbuktu theater->Missionary; Thermopylae theater->CH; Khazak comes out of revolt and begins CH. I move forces towards Delphi. Move research to 80% to finish gonpowder next turn.

Turn 173, 1130 AD: Caesar wants to trade Optics for Engineering. I pass. Gunpowder discovered. Music is next. Science back down to 70%; Forces move into position beside Delphi. I should be able to take it next turn. Osaka knight->musket; Hun missionary->catapult; Djenne cat->samurai; Walata knight->catapult; I pop-rush the CH in Thermopylae.

Turn 174, 1140 AD: I spread confucianism to Athens. It's enough that the city is happy now. Hun cat->cat; Pharsalos forge->barracks; Thermopylae CH->barracks; I bombard the defenses in Delphi. Saladin has founded Anjar on Mansa's old city-site.

Turn 175, 1150 AD: I bombard Delphi to 5% - close enough. Suicide cat attacks and dies. Knight def. archer; kinght def. archer; Sam def. archer; Sam def. phalanx. We get 85g and capture the city. That's good enough for now. I make peace with Alex so we can turn our attention west. Kyoto harbor->Samurai; Osaka musket->sam; Djenne Sam->pike; Kumbi knight->LB; Timbuktu missionary->missionary; Pharsalos barracks->LB; Sparta theater->CH. We'll be ready to go after Saladin in 1-2 turns.

Turn 176, 1160 AD: Kyoto Samurai->pike; Hun cat->cat; Djenne pike->Samurai; Walata cat->cat; Pharsalos LB->LB; I've been gathering forces in Kyoto and Timbuktu for the last 5 turns, so I'll be ready to pick a fight with Saladin next turn.

Turn 177, 1170 AD: Music researched, philosophy in 4; Chichen Itza built by Ghandi. Spread confucianism to Thermopylae; Kyoto pike->sam; Osaka Sam->knight; Kumbi LB->knight; Timbuktu missionary->missionary; Thermopylae barracks->knight. Rush the FP in Athens. Time to kick over the anthill! I declare war on Saladin and move the following forces in:
- 3 samurai, 1 axe, 1 knight move beside Basra;
- 2 samurai move up beside Anjar;
- 3 knights, 3 samurai, 1 musket, 1 pike, 4 cats move onto the ivory tile by Medina;

Turn 178, 1180 AD: Caesar wants us to join him against India - I decline. Anjar is razed easily, 6g. Basra is captured easily with no losses, 74g. Our main stack moves up beside Medina. Confucianism spread to Corinth. Hun cat->samurai; Walata cat->cat; Athens FP->library (for national epic); Gao comes out of revolt and begins a CH.

Turn 179, 1190 AD: IBT: Saladin sends a pike after one of the knights I had scouting our territory. The knight wins (4.0/10); Our pike attacks a camel archer that has wandered into our territory and wins (5.0/6); knight kills a wandering LB by Basra; cats bombard the defenses of Medina to 0%; I lose 2 samurai, but Medina is captured, along with 146g. Confucianism spread to Basra, Sparta; Kyoto Samurai->sam; Osaka knight->knight; Djenne sam->cat; Timbuktu missionary->missionary. I send a knight to investigate Baghdad. It's very soft right now, only 1 LB.

Turn 180, 1200 AD: Pike attacks our knight and dies. Axe attacks our knight and kills him; pharsalos LB->musket; Hun Samurai->missionary; Djenne cat->cat. I begin a stack of sam/cats moving towards Baghdad.

Turn 181, 1210 AD: Kyoto Samurai->galley; Osaka knight->musket; walata cat->cat; Kumbi knight->knight. Philosophy discovered->researching Nationalism next.


Roster:
Colony - Skip until early June
Grogs - Just Played
Doc TK - Up
rddc05 - On Deck
mike p

And the save:

 

[Grogs]

One more thing from the save: I noticed that Saladin has a mace/longbow/settler in Roman lands just north of Hun. They're probably not much of a threat, but it might be nice to take them out and get another worker from that settler.

 

[Doc TK]

Hey, I'm back from the weekend and got the file. Wow, we are killing people quick.

I'm a bit confused on our strategy at this point. Are we just going all out war using Cats/Sams? We are building missionaries, libraries, stuff that you normally build if you are going quick dom as opposed to quick conquest? Turn off research after military tradition?

Also, since we are looking at conquest, I'm assuming that we are going to raze any city that doesn't look really nice? There's at least one Greek city that's a dog that we kept. I would have thought that we would have razed it.

Note: I'm normally a guy who goes for Dom so its not natural for me to raze things, but seems like that's our play.

What's the game plan for different kinds of GP? Engineer -> FP? Artist -> ???

 

[Grogs]

Hey, I'm back from the weekend and got the file. Wow, we are killing people quick.

Welcome back Doc!

I'm a bit confused on our strategy at this point. Are we just going all out war using Cats/Sams? We are building missionaries, libraries, stuff that you normally build if you are going quick dom as opposed to quick conquest? Turn off research after military tradition?

I pretty much geared it all-out warmonger mode. The missionaries are so we can spread religion to newly captured cities and pop the borders. Some of the cities (Corinth for example) can't do much until their culture expands. I was building a library in Athens for National Epic since it has tons of food. It may be too late in the game for it to really do any good though.

As for the research, I guess it depends on how Ghandi/Caesar are looking once we get to MT. If they're still running mainly longbows for defenders, that's probably a good call. If they're starting to show a lot of muskets or even grenadiers, we may need to grab Chemistry. Of course even grenadier and rifleman defenders can be overcome by suiciding enough cats, so that may not even be necessary.

Also, since we are looking at conquest, I'm assuming that we are going to raze any city that doesn't look really nice? There's at least one Greek city that's a dog that we kept. I would have thought that we would have razed it.

Note: I'm normally a guy who goes for Dom so its not natural for me to raze things, but seems like that's our play.

Well, as I said before the name of the SG is 'CO-2 Monarch Early Conquest.' We should be true to our name.

I think the best way to play it is this: Capture Baghdad, Najran, and Mecca -> burn Damascus (unless Saladin has developed it a lot since our map was updated.) Then turn south into Germany. I'd raze every German city. If we really want, we could keep Berlin for the Great Lighthouse, but then we'll have to leave a few troops down there to fogbust that peninsula. Once we see we've got enough troops to take Germany, declare on Ghandi and head north. I'd raze every single one of Ghandi's cities, save for possibly one close to Caesar we could use to heal up troops. After Ghandi is done, we hit Caesar from the south and the west and finish him. As we're winding down with Caesar, finish off Alex and win a conquest victory.

What's the game plan for different kinds of GP? Engineer -> FP? Artist -> ???

Engineer: I think his tech will be chemistry, so that's one option. We have the FP already, so we want him to build a wonder, West Point seems to be the obvious choice, but we can't build that until we research MT. I guess another option would be the Hagia Sophia so that our workers could build roads to speed the flow of troops into India/Rome/Greece faster.

Artist: Will research Divine Right. I think that's a useless tech for us - Spiral Minaret is useless without temples and Versailles is too bloody expensive. The only real use I could see for the artist would be for a culture bomb. We could culture bomb Mecca to push Saladin's borders all the way back to Damascus and take the city the next turn.

 

[Doc TK]

Played my turns. Sal dead. Greeks dead.

Turn 181 (1210 AD)
Kyoto begins: Samurai
Ling Lun (Great Artist) born in Osaka
Hun finishes: Confucian Missionary
Djenne finishes: Catapult
Timbuktu finishes: Confucian Missionary
Athens finishes: Library
Gao finishes: Barracks
Delphi finishes: Courthouse

Turn 182 (1220 AD)
Hun begins: Samurai
Djenne begins: Catapult
Timbuktu begins: Samurai
Athens begins: National Epic
Gao begins: Samurai
Delphi begins: Barracks
Basra begins: Courthouse
Kyoto begins: Galley
Doc TK: Great, a great artist
Samurai loses to: Arabian Longbowman (2.40/6)
Knight defeats (1.00/10): Arabian Spearman
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Longbowman
Buddhism has spread: Khurasan
Captured Khurasan (Saladin)
Razed Khurasan
Buddhism has spread: Khurasan
Khurasan lost
Kyoto finishes: Samurai
Osaka finishes: Musketman
Hun grows: 10
Djenne finishes: Catapult
Walata finishes: Catapult
Timbuktu grows: 10
Pharsalos finishes: Musketman
Athens grows: 8
Thermopylae grows: 6
Thermopylae finishes: Knight
Sparta grows: 5
Sparta finishes: Courthouse
Corinth finishes: Courthouse
Khazak grows: 4
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Maceman
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Horse Archer

Turn 183 (1230 AD)
Osaka begins: Musketman
Djenne begins: Catapult
Walata begins: Samurai
Pharsalos begins: Samurai
Thermopylae begins: Samurai
Sparta begins: Barracks
Corinth begins: Barracks
Samurai promoted: Cover
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai loses to: Arabian Longbowman (0.30/6)
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Catapult
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Longbowman
Buddhism has spread: Baghdad
Captured Baghdad (Saladin)
Knight defeats (8.40/10): Arabian Maceman
Khazak finishes: Courthouse

Turn 184 (1240 AD)
Khazak begins: Barracks
Knight promoted: Combat III
Confucianism has spread: Baghdad
Kyoto finishes: Galley
Osaka finishes: Musketman
Hun finishes: Samurai
Djenne grows: 13
Djenne finishes: Catapult
Timbuktu finishes: Samurai

Turn 185 (1250 AD)
Kyoto begins: Longbowman
Osaka begins: Samurai
Hun begins: Samurai
Djenne begins: Catapult
Timbuktu begins: Confucian Missionary
Catapult promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider II
Samurai defeats (1.60/8): Arabian Longbowman
Pikeman loses to: Arabian Camel Archer (2.80/10)
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider II
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Camel Archer
Buddhism has spread: Najran
Captured Najran (Saladin)
Razed Najran
Buddhism has spread: Najran
Najran lost
Kyoto finishes: Longbowman
Osaka finishes: Samurai
Djenne finishes: Catapult
Kumbi Saleh's borders expand
Kumbi Saleh finishes: Knight
Pharsalos grows: 6
Gao's borders expand
Gao finishes: Samurai

Turn 186 (1260 AD)
Kyoto begins: Catapult
Osaka begins: Catapult
Djenne begins: Samurai
Kumbi Saleh begins: Samurai
Gao begins: Samurai
Medina begins: Barracks
Confucianism has spread: Khazak
Hun begins: Confucian Missionary
Samurai promoted: City Raider III
Musketman promoted: City Garrison I
Musketman promoted: City Garrison II
Osaka finishes: Catapult
Walata finishes: Samurai
Kumbi Saleh grows: 8
Timbuktu finishes: Confucian Missionary
Athens grows: 9
Sparta finishes: Barracks
Khazak grows: 3
Worker loses to: Arabian Warrior (2.00/2)

Turn 187 (1270 AD)
Osaka begins: Catapult
Walata begins: Samurai
Timbuktu begins: Confucian Missionary
Sparta begins: Musketman
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Warrior
Kyoto finishes: Catapult
Osaka finishes: Catapult
Hun finishes: Samurai
Djenne finishes: Samurai
Pharsalos finishes: Samurai
Corinth's borders expand

Turn 188 (1280 AD)
Kyoto begins: Samurai
Osaka begins: Samurai
Djenne begins: Samurai
Pharsalos begins: Samurai
Samurai promoted: Cover
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai loses to: Arabian Longbowman (2.04/6)
Samurai defeats (1.60/8): Arabian Longbowman
Samurai defeats (6.80/8): Arabian Longbowman
Samurai defeats (7.04/8): Arabian Pikeman
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Arabian Longbowman
Knight defeats (8.70/10): Arabian Catapult
Buddhism has spread: Mecca
Captured Mecca (Saladin)
Osaka finishes: Samurai
Timbuktu finishes: Confucian Missionary
Thermopylae finishes: Samurai
Delphi finishes: Barracks

Turn 189 (1290 AD)
Osaka begins: Samurai
Timbuktu begins: Catapult
Thermopylae begins: Samurai
Delphi begins: Samurai
Baghdad begins: Courthouse
Knight defeats (4.30/10): Arabian Camel Archer
Knight defeats (0.50/10): Arabian Maceman
Musketman promoted: Cover
Musketman promoted: Combat II
Musketman defeats (7.56/9): Arabian Longbowman
Knight defeats (5.80/10): Greek Archer
Knight defeats (7.40/10): Greek Archer
Captured Mycenae (Alexander)
Razed Mycenae
Mycenae lost
Spearman defeats (4.00/4): Greek Worker
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Greek Worker
Confucianism has spread: Delphi
Knight defeats (10.00/10): Greek Worker
Kyoto grows: 14
Kyoto finishes: Samurai
Osaka finishes: Samurai
Hun grows: 11
Hun finishes: Confucian Missionary
Kumbi Saleh finishes: Samurai
Timbuktu finishes: Catapult
Athens grows: 10
Corinth finishes: Barracks
Khazak grows: 4
Gao finishes: Samurai
Medina finishes: Barracks

Turn 190 (1300 AD)
Kyoto begins: Samurai
Osaka begins: Knight
Hun begins: Confucian Missionary
Kumbi Saleh begins: Samurai
Timbuktu begins: Catapult
Corinth begins: Longbowman
Gao begins: Knight
Medina begins: Samurai
Samurai defeats (2.56/8): Greek Archer
Knight promoted: Combat I
Knight promoted: Shock
Knight loses to: Greek Phalanx (2.30/5)
Knight promoted: Combat I
Knight promoted: Shock
Knight defeats (5.50/10): Greek Axeman
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider II
Samurai defeats (7.04/8): Greek Phalanx
Captured Argos (Alexander)
Razed Argos
Argos lost
Samurai defeats (8.00/8): Greek Worker
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider II
Samurai defeats (1.20/8): Arabian Longbowman
Samurai promoted: City Raider I
Samurai promoted: City Raider II
Samurai defeats (3.92/8): Arabian Longbowman
Samurai defeats (5.28/8): Arabian Maceman
Buddhism has spread: Damascus (Arabian Empire)
Buddhism has spread: Damascus
Captured Damascus (Saladin)
Knight defeats (4.80/10): Greek Archer
Knight promoted: Combat II
Knight defeats (2.20/10): Greek Catapult
Razed Herakleia
Djenne finishes: Samurai
Walata finishes: Samurai
Basra's borders expand
Baghdad finishes: Courthouse

Turn 191 (1310 AD)
Research begun: Military Tradition
Djenne begins: Samurai
Walata begins: Samurai
Baghdad begins: Barracks
Doc TK: Germans formed city near us


Some notes:

1. I haven't gone around to MM cities since my first turn. No doubt they can be doing a lot better, but...

2. We are kicking butt right now and with roughly 4 major stacks, we can go to war with just about everyone, so ...

3. I would suggest we declare on Ghandi and Bismark within a turn or two. Bismark is going to be a little slow to conquer because of land mass (and I've been using Cats/Sams although with the number of units maybe I should have been using Knights).

4. We got a Great Artist and I've not seen a good place to use him. Seems lame to save one turn in capturing a city, but we could at some point.

5. We could probably declare on Caesar soon as well, but we may just wait a few turns while we build up next set of units and send them his way.

6. Economy is horrible, we may want to back off of research rate to be safe, but likely we can just keep conquering fast enough to maintain gold.

Honestly, at this point, it seems to be pretty much mop up. Build lots of units and kill as quick as we can.

Save: View attachment 128445

 

[Grogs]

Good job Doc.

2. We are kicking butt right now and with roughly 4 major stacks, we can go to war with just about everyone, so ...

3. I would suggest we declare on Ghandi and Bismark within a turn or two. Bismark is going to be a little slow to conquer because of land mass (and I've been using Cats/Sams although with the number of units maybe I should have been using Knights).

I'd like to use the first 2 stacks to go after Bismarck, one down the east coast and one down the west. Those cities all have mega-culture so it's going to take forever to get them all with one.

Once we've got what we need for Bis, we can move the forces that captured Greece accross Roman lands to attack Ghandi in the north and build another to attack him in the south. I'd like to hold off attacking Caesar for a while because those northern Indian cities are so far away and OB with him will really speed things along.

Before we attack India, buy his world map. We don't even know where most of his cities are and he only wants 80g for it.

4. We got a Great Artist and I've not seen a good place to use him. Seems lame to save one turn in capturing a city, but we could at some point.

Man, I have the worst luck with that in my SG's... We pulled a Scientist when we had a 93% chance of a Great Engineer in one of my other games. We can save him and keep and bomb one of Ghandi's border cities with Caesar as a base of operations or just bomb the city by Germany now. Neither is super useful. I forgot to look at Athens and see if we were producing any decent GP points there. If we could get another GP in the next 20 turns or so, I might suggest holding onto him for a Golden Age. Otherwise, it will probably be too late.

5. We could probably declare on Caesar soon as well, but we may just wait a few turns while we build up next set of units and send them his way.

Well, like I said I'd at least wait until we had used our OB to get the attack going on India. Personally, I'd probably wait until we were nearly finished with Bis, but I tend to play a bit conservative.

6. Economy is horrible, we may want to back off of research rate to be safe, but likely we can just keep conquering fast enough to maintain gold.

We can research MT in about 11 turns even with the gold we have, and we should be able to augment that with our spoils of war, so I think we're fine. We're nowhere near having units going on strike, so our economy is doing great. After MT, we really don't need to research anything else anyway, so we can shut it off for a while and save some money for upgrading knights to cav.

Honestly, at this point, it seems to be pretty much mop up. Build lots of units and kill as quick as we can.

Yep. When we win will be mostly determined by how many turns it takes to move our units to the enemy cities.

 

[rddc05]

I got it, will try to play tomorrow night, but it might be Sat. morning.

 

[rddc05]

I'm three and a half turns into the set right now. Caesar declared on us in Turn 2 (while Pleased!), so that kinda changes the war plan.

Question: The northeastern-most German city has Sistine Chapel. Keep or burn?

I will finish the set later tonight.

 

[Grogs]

I'm three and a half turns into the set right now. Caesar declared on us in Turn 2 (while Pleased!), so that kinda changes the war plan.

Man, what a bummer. I don't think I've ever been backstabbed by Caesar before, he's usually pretty level-headed.

I don't think the Sistine chapel is all that useful to us. We're just trying to kill everyone, not max our land for domination. The only German city I'd consider keeping would be Berlin with the Great Lighthouse.

In any case, I hope you're able to show Caesar the error of his ways and wipe him off the map.

 

[rddc05]

Finished out the turns and it went OK with Caesar. He should be gone in the next turnset. Bismarck, on the other hand, now has Cavalry. I think I might have flubbed the invasionby turning back a good portion of the second German invasion stack when JC attacked. Now I'm not sure if there are enough troops on the peninsula to get the job done and it takes forever to get re-inforcements there. In any event, if we pillage his iron and his horses we can probably wrap up Bis in the next turnset as well.

Research Mil. Trad, started on Chemistry but no beakers in it, so discuss and change. We got a GE on our last turn (Athens), so we have the option of a GA. Taj Mahal is close to being built also.

Lastly, I kept the Sistine Chapel (played before I read Grogs comment), there is an academy there too, really nice city. Also, I capture Ravenna in a slip of the mouse - meant to burn it. Other than that, there are a lot of Rocky piles around.

Here's the save:

 

[Grogs]

Looks like you did pretty good considering getting stabbed in the back by Caesar. Bis may have cavalry, but with 2 cities, he lacks the industrial base to build many of them. Once we pillage those horses, muskets will be the best unit he can build. Caesar's move may have actually been good for us since he can already build knights and muskets. Ghandi on the other hand lacks guilds, gunpowder, and nationalism, so we should be able to sweep through his lands in a hurry.

At this stage of the game, a GA is probably the best use of that engineer. We can score one now, another in 5 turns or so, and spend the next 16 turns in our GA. That should be enough to get us to close to the end.

 

[mike p]

It's mop up time.

1410 Go for chemistry for research. Figure we can promote all of our experienced Sams with City Raider and sweep over whatever is left. Spend down most of our cash upgrading our knights to cavs.

1420 pillage Rome's Iron mine and start a golden age with our two great people.

1450 Took a while to get humming, but on this turn I burned Antium, Munich, Carib, and Cumae and captured Berlin and Rome. I figured we could use Rome as a staging ground and an upgrade point for when Chemistry is completed. War weariness is becoming a problem.

1460 Boost research to 70%, so Chemistry in 2. I raze Dortmond, which was founded a few turns ago by the Germans. Germany has been destroyed.

1470 Djenne finishes the Taj Mahal. Arpinum razed, Rome is destroyed. Solves our War Weariness problem. I buy Gandhi's map for 10 gold.

1480 Chemistry complete. Set science to 0% and start upgrading our best, unwounded samurai to grenadiers.

1490 I extort 140 gold from Gandhi, then declare and raze Karachi.

1500 I raze Lahore. Two more cities should fall next turn.

Meanwhile, I fortified a bunch of workers to bust fog.

There's a slew of units on goto orders, all towards the vicinity of Rome from further east and south.

It's been fun. Look forward to the next game.

 

[Grogs]

OK, I've got it. Kill Ghandi. Not much to say beyond that.

 

[Grogs]

Well, I was hoping I could finish Ghandi in 10, but since the defenses in Dehli were pretty weak, I was able to do it in 6. Ground sloggers were useless and the cav did all the work.

1530 AD Conquest Victory, 93,306 points.

Thanks for playing guys. It was a lot of fun and it's actually the earliest win I've ever pulled off. I'll have to apply some of the skills we used here in the GOTM's. Hopefully we can play again in another SG.

Here's the save from the turn before we won if anyone is interested in adding it to your Hall of Fame, watching the victory movie, or whatever.

 

[Doc TK]

Good job everyone. 1530 is respectable.

 

[mike p]

Six turns sounds about right. Gandhi was totally overmatched.

Looks like I wasted a bunch of time getting all of those samurai upgraded. Cavs do have speed and power, especially against a civ without gunpowder.

Nice finish.

 

[Grogs]

Looks like I wasted a bunch of time getting all of those samurai upgraded. Cavs do have speed and power, especially against a civ without gunpowder.

Yeah, I've got to remember that in the future. I tend to look down on cav a bit since CR2/3 Grenadiers have better odds against cities, but if you can get enough cav, the slow-moving cats & grenadiers just can't keep up. Other than at Bombay, where you had already had a stack of granadiers/cats almost at the city, cavalry did all the fighting. I think I only lost 3 cav going against Delhi, and it had +105% defense bonuses.

I was thinking Ghandi might take longer to take out because the AI's have a bad habit of keeping 25 defenders in their capital. Once I sent the first cav over the hill and saw only 3 LB's in Delhi, I knew it was going to be a quick finish.

Watching the replay movie, I was struck by how sad our little civ looked after we lost our 3rd civ to barbs, being hemmed in by Saladin and Mansa. It's amazing how fast things go once they get rolling.

 

[rddc05]

That was a most satisfying butt-whooping. I'd be pleased to play another with this group. Good job all around.