Shoo Be Doo Shoo Shoo Be Doo!
Qin Shi Huang signs two Defensive Pacts;
one with France & one with the Byzantines.
Sign your Defensive Pacts as soon as possible,
as they provide a sizable stability bonus.
Make sure to look for allies from the top-down;
you don't want weak allies now, do you?
Of course, arrangements of this nature are...
...always temporary...
We start harassing Portugal in preparation...
The last of the Europeans; the Dutch spawn.
We Open Borders with them.
It's time to die, Portugal!
No, this isn't an arbitrary decision.
Leoreth implemented Trading Company conquerors for the Europeans.
Basically, when certain Europeans build the Trading Company National Wonder,
they get 1-3 free Cannon+Riflemen/Infantry+Settler stacks against
a region/civilization that they've historically colonized:
It follows as this:
England- conquerors spawn in India
France- conquerors spawn in southern India
Spain- conquerors spawn in Philippines
Portugal- conquerors spawn in southern China
Dutch- conquerors spawn in Indonesia
The Europeans can choose to pay gold for cities in those regions,
or they can enter war with the owner of those cities.
More often than not, the AIs choose war.
And because of that, Portugal must never see the light of day again.
(It was really bad in an earlier version of 1.8, when the Portuguese would
simply spawn their stacks on top of my cities and auto-capture them, while expelling my garrisons
.
Ever since that time, I've hated the (AI) Portuguese with all of my heart. [Thanks, Leoreth!])
We finish Porcelain Tower, a VERY valuable wonder that helps out with your economy.
In collaboration with Koxinga's Pirate Lockdown,
our boys touch down on Lisboa and give them a beating.
We, of course, burn it down since we don't want the Portuguese
to come back to life (and drop down conquerors on our soil if they do).
San Marco Basillica, another wonder that does wonders for your commerce, is also completed.
It requires Catholicism, so it puts more emphasis on the Theology gambit I introduced here.
We raze Corunha.
See London developing under the banner of Qin Shi Huang.
Also see Viking Scotland and French Southern England.
Oh, and Taj Mahal now requires Islam, so it's harder to
stack it's Golden Age with Olympic Park and GP Golden Ages.
In other news, Spain collapses and France gobbles up
the remainder of all that it has left.
France is going to be a real monster to deal with now...
Chinese Currassiers burst forth from the waves of the Atlantic
and stormed the last bastion of the Portuguese, the fortress
of Ponta Delgada and put it's inhabitants to the sword.
China's reputation in Europe skyrocketed as within the span of 100 years,
Portugal had been completely wiped off the map and England was now
under the direct control of the Republic (and horrifically forced its inhabitants to endure "Swagger Jagger" being played at every corner).
It had a very fearsome reputation, indeed.
Their military successes in Western Europe could mostly be attributed
to the mounts that the Chinese bred for battle.
They were specifically bred for amphibious assaults as their performances
in the Battle of Ponta Delgada indicated, they lived up to their namesakes.
Everywhere in Europe, mothers silenced their children by telling
them tales of Chinese soldiers, rushing out from the sea,
riding the dreaded...
SEA PONIES!