Pre-flight Check: I'm looking forward to this turnset. I'll be following a battle plan drawn up by Brother Bede, which is a fun little role-reversal. The plan looks like a tricky little envelopment scheme; he clearly has not forgiven me for "Arnhem". Though this doesn't look quite as brilliant as Hannibal at Cannae, it looks workable.
Scanning through our cities show that the Heroic Epic is complete in our Capitol. A scan of the map indicates that the Mongols have a source of iron between Bukhara and Ta-Tu, and it appears to be connected. Horses appear to be connected to Qaragandy. We need to rename some of these towns.
We can build a library in Calcutta in 3 turns... the FP queue isn't that far gone. Swap to Library, and start looking for other potential FP sites...
Spend 116g cash-rushing the courthouse in Almora.
IBT - Delhi trains a War Elephant, starts another. Almora Court>Market Palace Expansion, Vikings start Leo's.
Looking at Bede's notes... I see the logic in abandoning Canturbury (wanted that one razed and replaced) but I do not see the logic in abandoning Tiruppur. It can work 3 grassland tiles that cannot be worked by any other city, which will be enough to make it grow with a little irrigation.
Turn 1 (610) mostly worker turns...looking at places where I want to stick some War Elephants.
IBT - Harappa Harbor>Market
Kootanad Settler>Court
Turn 2 (620) ...fine tuning our troop positioning... upgrade 5 Cats to trebuchets at Hastings.
IBT - Calcutta finishes its library, starts training War Elephants. We lose our supply of silks and a suicide galley.
Turn 3 (630) Dial up Ragnar and buy silks for 57g+20gpt.
IBT - Train another elephant.
Turn 4 (640) ...almost 'go time'...
IBT - Manali Court>Barracks
Panchkula Harbor>Market
Turn 5 (650) Dial up Temujin and declare war.
Turn 6 (660) moving troops into Mongol lands
Turn 7 (670) still moving troops against Temujin.
Turn 8 (680) War Elephant pops a Mongol Horseman outside Barcelona, and Our Civilization Enters a Golden Age!
Rush the Market in Almora.
IBT - Mongols advance a bunch of troops in the west, this could get dicey.
We build some stuff and train some troops. Almora finishes its market, and starts the Forbidden Palace. Due in 19 turns.
Turn 9 (690) Kazan and Ulaanbaatar fall. Abandon Canturbury. Found Viperborough.
IBT - the Mongols request an audience. Already? Tell him to stuff it, and the first Keshik attacks our MDI in Ulaanbaatar.
Kazan Riots, and a heavy tax is levied on Kazan.
Turn 10 (700) Ulaanbaatar is renamed to Bedevillear
In the process of duking it out with the stupid Mongols, I get a leader in an...awkward position.
Next better player: Based on the troop movements I observed, the bulk of the Mongol forces appear to be near Ta-Tu. I lost a horseman and a laggard Trebuchet near there. I've been working a few War Elephants down that way. The force doesn't look formidable, but is worthy of respect.
This is going to be touchy, because Temujin has Keshiks on line, and we've got some cities within striking distance of a couple of his cities. Try to push one war elephant into each city near the mongol border as a reserve force. Our forces in the east are not sufficient to maintain an offensive, which will effectively neutralize our War Elephant Army until we can get some more forces down there. As you push the reserve elephants into our southeastern towns, take War elephants out of those eastern towns and build a stack of 4 or 5 War Elephants to augment that force. Just try to "hold what we've got" in the east until the Mongol forces around Ta-Tu are reduced. Ta-Tu should be the next tactical priority. Try to reinforce the stack in the east in the second half of your turns.
You will be fighting with divided forces. Don't get over-agressive; fight patiently and deliberately, and you'll be fine. Maintain a reserve! If Temujin gets many more Keshiks we will need War Elephants in our border towns to skirmish with them.
We've got a MGL, but getting him home will be a trick. Keep him under the sword army for the moment. We could swap the FP build to just about anything, and simply use the MGL to rush the FP wherever we want.
You might want to wait for some input on the whole FP/MGL thing... but here's
> > The Save < <.