In
1755 AD, Gordium (one of those cities the AI's keep building on that key northern road) is destroyed once again. This time, I take measures to keep it that way: I use size-6 stacks of slave workers (each guarded by an Infantry) to build a railroad into the area. Any further incursions can now be destroyed immediately.
My empire is pretty much fully railroaded by now. Some of my Zulu slaves are joined to various cities to fill them out (my rule here being to only do this with slaves from a civ that's been eliminated; saves on civil unrest during wars).
In
1762 AD, I destroy Barcelona again. Well, this time around it's Toledo, but hey, ya seen one, ya seen 'em all.
1764 AD: Roman Cavalry units make their first appearance.
1766 AD: Paris completes my Military Academy. Next turn, Paris builds a settler. It's now a given that I'm going to have to build some more cities to secure territory; the steady onslaught of Roman and Persian troops may have slowed down, but it isn't stopping, and my forces are spending so much time killing them all (or receiving medical attention) that I never have any spare troops with which to mount an offensive. Besides, war weariness is becoming more and more evident, and I need to solidify my border if I'm going to make it through a single turn of peace without having to kill off AI settlers. I managed to destroy a Persian city and a Roman one on the peninsula north of Marathon (clearing that peninsula of enemy presence for the third time), but that's all the offense I'm able to squeeze in.
I'm gonna hate having to make peace--I've been having a lot of fun running these yahoos through the meat grinder. One of the highlights had to be this boneheaded move by a Roman cavalry looking to snag some workers:
....and the low point was when one of my Infantries almost died--killing a conscript barbarian Warrior:
In
1772 AD, my settler reaches his desired spot:
One cultural expansion should bottle up the north pretty nicely. In the meantime, by using more of my Infantry in an offensive role, I've been able to buy my three Armies time to heal up to full health in preparation for a big move.
I take a minute to make a minor adjustment so that Theory of Evolution finishes just after my next research project does. I tweak Doomville and the research slider; Steel now needs 6 turns, ToE needs 7.
I scrape together the few non-wounded Cavalry I've got on hand; I have three. Two elites and one vet. I send them to attack Hispalis (that Roman city that keeps springing up again and again northeast of Impregnabolopolis, just off the corner of the previous picture); the first two are red-lined and run away; the third scores a kill, but there's another Musket defending there. Nice try, BasketCase--maybe next turn.....
Computer does a whole lot of nothing during his. I see exactly one Roman Cavalry cross into my territory; the AI's look like they're gassed again--but you've heard me say that a million times already.
1774 AD: I've now got two vet and two elite Cavalry ready to kill stuff. Two of my Armies are back to full health, the third needs one more turn.
I come up with a daring battle plan that will score me three big hits if it works:
The attack plan is similar to a plan for dealing with, say, Jessica Simpson: start at the top and work your way down
. I send my four Cavalry to attack London (controlled by Persia). My troops have a tough time of it; two are killed, and the third chickens out and runs. After the smoke clears, I see that London is down to a single defender with 2 hit points. I may end up having to use an Army here. Looking around, I find a wounded Cavalry with 3 health at Entremont, and send him into the breach. And London falls!
With London out of the way, I send five Infantry to attack Antium next turn--and both of my Armies head straight for the Spanish capital; there's a route down from the northwest of Madrid that brings my Armies within one tile of their target.....
Computer's turn. The Greek soldiers who destroyed London find themselves on the receiving end of a vicious counterattack from enraged Persian and Roman troops. Even Immortals. During the attack, the Persians recapture the slaves I took at the Battle of London. In their anger, the Romans, hungry for any kind of victory at all, even attack with red-lined Cavalry units--two of which die. At the end, one of my Cavalry is still standing.
1776 AD: My turn for some blood. My five Infantry units attack Antium; I only lose one, and the other four all score kills--but Antium holds out with one last red-lined Cavalry in the city, simply because I'm out of stuff to attack with! I scrounge up an elite Cavalry from Entremont to finish the job.
Spain is next on the menu: two armies (13 and 14 hit points) against Madrid. Both Armies have their full move, meaning each gets three attacks. Neither Army will get a chance to use all three. The city is defended by Pikemen, but the first puts up a vicious fight, doing eight points of damage before he falls. I send that Army heading back towards Greek territory, taking a minor detour to kill a Spanish archer on the way out.
My second Army fares almost as badly; it wins easily on its first attack, attacks again--and is dropped to two health before taking Madrid. There's no safe place this Army can retreat to, and the only units who can come to its defense are other Cavalry--and those are in short supply.
But then, my Army can't die if nobody is at war with me. I've done enough damage for the last two centuries anyway. Off to the negotiating table.
Sorry. Off to the exorbitant demands table.
In most of my games, having to click "We seem to have overextended ourselves. Will you agree to a peace treaty?" has been an embarrassing necessity. For once, I get the enjoyment of telling Spain: "You just got your ass kicked. Give me a nice tribute, or I'll keep doing it." Isabella hands over her entire nation's treasury--all of 17 gold. Not a lot of gold, but getting a chance to click the Extort-Peace-From-Enemy option made up for it.
Persia doesn't cave in to my threats, so it's back to "We seem to have overextended ourselves" with them. On the flip side, Xerxes gives up Navigation and 92 gold.
Rome also has a thick skull. But when I talk nice, he hands me 96 gold.
The Ottomans, to my surprise, also refuse to cave in to "Our troops approach you cities...." despite their being down to two cities and having lost a whole lot of units in combat with me. Sheesh. Okay, okay, I overextended myself. I stretched my leg too far while kicking that Ottoman ass. They have Music Theory, but aren't willing to hand it over, and their coffers are empty. Bummer. I only get straight-up peace from the Ottos.
And that's it, folks. War over. Greeks at peace with everybody. Feel free to
now. I'm not happy about it either, but my citizens are getting pissed off.
Guess next time I'm gonna have to build more troops and hit more stuff with 'em.....
What did you tribute to the RNG God?
