My plan was to capture the Hindu holy city of Aachen. The reason that I chose this as a target over KK's capital with the GLH is because I think that Charlemagne poses the greater long-term threat if he's allowed to keep that shrine income for himself, especially given the large amount of very good land that he has staked out. Certainly, Karakorum is a far easier target, with its close proximity to our borders. But I think we can take that city any time, whereas Charlemagne will be a much harder nut to crack once he gets access to his UU.
Since Kossin changed civics just before his 400AD save, I have to wait 3 turns to revolt to caste, where I can keep the economy going by assigning merchants while still building units in my cities. So, in 460AD:
A market was built in the capital to take advantage of the maturing villages, and research was construction> MC> machinery> archery (for xbows)> engineering. I immediatley set Uruk to building a stable, and then a forge. Once MC came in, I saw that the colossus could be built in 6 turns, so I decided to build it (for the cost of 2 WEs). Eridu was set to build a settler, to claim the iron spot on the coast and prevent KK from further encroaching on our land. It would have the added benefit of being able to farm the riverside grassland to the east of the gems city, thereby chain-irrigating the corn and grass tiles there so that the many hills could be worked.
I build a few WEs in Uruk until machinery was in, and then switched to *maces, popping one out every 3 turns. When machinery was done, many cities were set to build trebs, including Uruk. The army was position in the coastal iron city, where it could strike either east (KK) or west (BK).:
Previously, I had scouted out the HRE land north of the capital for spots to pillage, and I have a small force of 3 impis (one is a W2) ready to pillage the roads leading north in order to delay HRE reinforcements:
I used Nongoma as a GP farm to get a GS, which I used to bulb part of education. I was already researching education when he popped, so there was no way I could have used him for philosophy.
I probably should have done this as soon as I switched to caste; I could have gotten him much earlier.
At 1100AD the attack is ready to go. Looking at the tech situation, neither KK nor BK even have machinery yet, and BK doesn't have CS either.
I have a decent force of trebs, maces (all CR2 ready, since they were all built in Ulundi and Uruk, which both have MIs), pikes, and WEs. It should be a piece of cake to take either target (Aachen or Karakorum), but that choice can be made at the start of the next round. BK has conveniently put his stack in the first city in our path:
Our units:
The sit rep:
Uruk, which I feel should become the new capital after the war (with FP built in Ulundi):
Education is done, and philosophy is 6 turns away (by turning the slider up and doing defecit research). Unfortunately, BK has yet to build the hindu shrine, which explains his slow tech rate.
EDIT: Also, the capital is building ND for failure cash. It's not that far from completing, so it should be a pretty good windfall.
I'll take it! (quite literally). I also traded Philosophy to KK:
3 Elephant.
than plain building wealth.
and teching towards Nationalism.
