Grimjack is back after a short hiatus. Daring to throw himself into the game of Diplomacy and warmongering that is known as Civ3,
we start right off the bat with the highest priority. the TDG.
Since the game has evolved considerably since last I played I spend quite some time familiarizing myself. I note the two spots for fishing-villages.
SInce we do not have any obvious sites for settler production, I will have to check more thouroughly when I go through the cities. Note we have a staggering 500 gpt surplus while still researching in four.
Will hope we get Steam as our free tech. WIll prepare workers for a Railnet, ( which will mean Game Over for most of the AIs. )
Next I check diplomacy, in order to prepare plans for my turns. I will lean rather heavily towards warmongering, as that is the aspect I enjoy most, and also, the Cossacks are so very very good at it

We have no deals with either Ottomans, nor with Celts. Since we would need a RoP with Egypt, and I also would like to prevent Ottomans any chance of using their UU to great effect, I will see if I can move our forces in position to strike at the Ottoman resources first, cities second.
( Will perhaps need to strike at cities first, in order to get enough move to take out their resources. )
Having learned from Speakers comments on workers, I decline to buy Englands two workers, and instead clear out their gold ( 126) and get 41 gpt for Magnetism. I suspect this is quite close to Market value.
I do not do any more deals, as twenty turns in the age of our Super UU will be hard to defend. I do nto think we can win in twenty turns, but we may have put a sizeable dent in most of our opponents.
Note that is we capture Izmit, we will have move enough to occupy Ottomans second Saltpeter. Note that Stavanger, Aarhus and Hareid have chances of flipping. Will see what I can do about defensive forces there.
Ottomans are poor, so I doubt they will be able to buy into any partnerships.
Find Stalin lounging about. Options are Army or Smiths Trading. Smiths Trading would net us some 30-80 gpt during the next 50 turns. Army would be able to break through more easily into musket defended cities, as well as open up for Heroic Epic.
I doublecheck forum to see if there is any mention of Stalin and plans for his future. None found. I will get an army then to crack the Musket cities with. I am thinking Ottomans will use shields to build muskets, since they are so poor, so they cannot afford any upgrades.
I spend 100 gold investigating Izmit, which is a key city should our assault succeed in taking away both the Saltpeter in the first turn. I find Izmit is defended by two pikes. Yummy. Other news about the Ottomans are:
They have traded away one of their saltpeters, they have two iron and one horse. This makes it only necessary to take one Saltpeter source in order to deny it to Ottomans. I do not know if AIs can break trade agreements at will, so I will play it safe, and go for both of their sources in turn one of the war.
Ottomans are in Anarchy. Heh, getting yummier by the minute. Four luxuries. some of them probably imported, since they only have one of them. I think this is a good 100 spent, as I will now strike at once. Anarchy and pike defenders is an opportunity too good to pass up.
Check other targets of opportunity. Edrine has SunTzu, and Istanbul has Pyramids. We are in a Democracy, so losses should be kept low, and wars quick. We do not have any spare settlers lounging about, so we will have to keep cities we take. Due to us being in Democracy, I suspect we have to make peace before we
can comopletely eliminate the Ottomans. Time will tell.
So field plan is to use Kuibushevs Cossacks for taking Izmit, and Nankings Cossacks for Sinop. Amass a huge number of Cossacks for strike two against Adana and Istanbul in step two, and Edrine in step three. Thereafter targets of opportunity until Ottomans are ready to talk peace. We have a huge production, so some losses are acceptable.
Will do attacks, and then check cities for Micromanagement. Believe there is some, since I see smoke above one of our cities. Will perhaps do some Courhouse rushings. I am a big fan of Courthouses.
Kossack 1 shaves two hps off of the Vet Pike and retreats
Kossack 2 gets one hit and kills the Regular pike
Kossack 3 takes two hits and kills the vet pike, and Izmit is ours, along with seven resisters. Due to high flip risk, and small counterattack risk, I will just put a single Kossack into this city.
Capturing Izmit reveals a knight fortified in the mountains. I will attack this in spite of this being a low odds affair, since I much prefer to get him while I know where he is, rather than letting him counterattack where he wants.
Sinops top defender is a regular pike.
Kossack 1 is defeated while redlining him
KOssack 2 defeats the spear without taking damage
Kossack 3 is defeated by the redlined pike, promoting him
Kossack 4 defeats him after taking two hits.
Sinop is defended by 1 resister and size 6. Looks promising.
Put Sinop on Starvation Taxmen anyway.
One KOssack promotes to elite while defeating a stray warrior found at large.
Manage to capture two workers while advancing Kossacks towards stage two.
So after first turn of war, we have lost one Kossack and killed three pikes, one knight, one spear and two warriors.
We have captured two workers, and two cities, size 8 and 6. Unfortunately the size 8 is so full of resisters, I cannot starve it. Will try to build workers.
Sinop is so corrupt that I cannot get more than one shield in spite of it only having one resister. I have put only a single Kossack in each city, as I would rather lose a city, than a stack of KOssacks.
Time for checking cities. Novgorod is an amazing city that draws in 33 shields per turn net and 96 commerce net before rails and stuff. Will let most of our large cities complete current KOssack, and then set on Factory prebuilds. Counting on us being able to research factory in about 10 turns if we draw Steam, 14 otherwise.
St Petersburg has not invested any shields into Kossack, so I decide to put it on Cathedral after thinking about Kossack, Cathedral or Courthouse. St Petersburg is at 27 spt with 5 waste. Had I been sure it would reach 25 spt net, I might have gone Courthouse instead. NOw I prepare for the War weariness I am afraid will come with losses in Ottoman war.
Note that Canton, a city in our first ring around FP is working unimproved squares, and we are clearing non-river jungle with a smallish stack. WIll try to remember to push some workers here and see what they can do before rails come.
Minsk is set to bank. Change Aarhus from Aqueduct to Settler. Intend this city to build settlers. It has irrigated Floodplains as well as grass game. Lots of food here, and a coupel of settlers would let us have the option of razings, if we would venture to go up against a culture heavy foe.
Stavanger seems to be hopelessly corrupt as 33 commerce generates one beaker and one gold. It is also quite large. I rush a settler instead of teh also needed Barracks, in order to have a smaller population and get city easier to control. Tbisi is at an evil 26 spt, and I build a courthouse here to push past the magical 27 spt for Kossack in three.
Do some redeployment of citizens to trade some sectors around. Trying to think of something to get the old Viking cities to survive war wearines. Cannot think of anything, and I press return, to see what happens in Ottomans sorely pressed empire. NOticed also I could not build an Army with Stalin, since he didn't have any movement left.
Also thinking if Industrialization comes in in about 8-14 turns, could be worth it to keep him for Suffrage. Do think we can self build suffrage with factories and rails though. Should be able to clear 50-80 spt, with our best cities which ought to be much more than AIs could build.
IBT: No Ottoman counterattack. Notice several workers flee to cover. Will try hard to capture them. Kiev KOssack->Cathedral Yakutsk, Kossack->Market ( For happiness) Smolensk, Market->Barracks Odessa, KOssack->KOssack.
760AD: Adana is defended by a PIke, Spear and a Longbow, with a Catapult as fire support. This town is only size 6, and falls without losses. Elsewhere, a Longbowman in the mountains is handled with a small southern task force.
A pikeman in teh mountains, defending three workers is a target to juicy to resist, will try to take him if I have any Kossacks left after assault on Istanbul. Hmm, Istanbul is defended by a Musket on top. We have nine Kossacks that can strike this turn, and our army is still two turns away. Lets hope for some retreats instead of defeats.
First KOssack discovers a Catapult as well. It redlines but retreats.
Second Kossack wins without damage

revealing a second Musket.
Third Kossack redlines but retreats without doing damage.
Fourth Kossack dies while doing one damage, revealing a third Musket, this one not a vet though.
Fifth Kossack redlines but wins against the regular Musket, revealing the damaged veteran Musket.
Sixth Kossack redlines musket but is killed promoting musket and revealing a pikeman
Seventh dispatches the pikeman, revealing another pikeman.
In another battle, a four hitpoint elite Kossack is killed by a veteran warrior.

Konya a size three city is defended by a veteran Musket. Not having many Kossack nearby, I let it be for now. WOnder a while how Ottomans managed to get the Muskets online.
The pikeman defending the three workers managed to retreat first KOssack, defeat the second, and redline the third. We have lots of woudned Kossacks now, and Istanbul is untakeable this turn.
IBT: Ottoman knight kills a KOssack in a counterattack. Have three Knights on screen now. Some production, no great changes. Finished a couple of border LIbraries, and set to Barracks. Will change if/when I capture Edrine, with the Sun Tzus academy.
770AD Capture Bursa, which is defended by pike and spear combo. A galley is torched as we enter the city.
Using two Kossacks, we kill off the elite musket defending Istanbul. ( one retreat, and one win. )
Third kossack defeats the regular pike, only to reveal another pike.
Fourth Kossack also wins, but reveals Yet Another Pike.
Some leaderfishing nets me absolutely nothing.
Amazingly enough, we still do not need to raise lux-taxes due to War weariness. Sell world map around for some spare change.
IBT: Weird. A warrior comes out of nowhere and defeats one of our Kossacks in the mountains. HOwever, this empties out the Ottomans luck, since we then defeats two Knights.
Beijing KOssack->Temple ( for a Cathedral prebuild.) Trondheim Courthouse -> Market, Sevastapol Completes Courthouse to reach 20 spt, and is set to Kossack.
780AD. This is the turn I expect Istanbul to fall. Lose an amazing six hitpoints taking out a pikeman in the mountains with our army. Set Kiev to Heroic Epic due in six.
In an almost anticlimax, we capture Istanbul with our first KOssack. It contains Sistine, as well as Pyramids. This is a city to keep

Time to see if we can reach Edrine.
Since Edrine has a veteran musket on top, and I only have three undamaged KOssacks in range, I will use this turn to heal before I tackle Edrine. Any cities taken after Edrine will be bonus cities.
I see the first signs of War weariness, and raise lux tax to 20%. Still need entertainers in outlying large cities though.
Rush production where I think it may be useful, spending this turns income mainly. Lower science to still get ToG in one. Send a Kossack towards Stavanger as Celts moved up two horsemen near city. Stavanger is defended by two swordsmen, so it ought to hold up, but just in case.
IBT: As expected and foretold, we enter a new age upon when the full ramifications of Gravity hits us. Big Picture shows us with a comfortable lead against the English.
For some reason, we discover ancient scrolls of wisdom regarding the use of medicinal herbs, and not the knowledge of steam we had hoped for. I let lose our scientists on the path to knowledge of steam, while our worker parties will clear jungle around our forbidden palace.
Yakutsk Market->Cossak, Oslo LIbrary->Settler, Aarhus Granary->Settler, Stavanger Worker->Market, Tblisi Courthouse->Cossack Vladivostok, Cossack->Cossack, Krasnoyarsk Market->University, Dnep Cossack->Cossack, Bergen -> Riot.
Celts start SHakespeare's Theatre
Continued.....