It is the 310th cycle of the Random Calendar when Lord Mucco the Unpredictable abdicated his claim to the throne, and Omni Paul II The Haphazard took leadership of his Indiscriminate minions, bent on appeasing the Random Lord by seizing a third city from a yet unfound civilization - the Romans. Whilst the RNG Minions had met Roman travellers before, they had not yet discovered Roman lands. Much searching by the new King's minions discovered a gold mine to the North East that was claimed to be Roman territory. Alas, it lay on the wrong side of the evil Asoka's capital, Delhi.
"So be it", said Omni Paul II The Haphazard, "Delhi will fall".
"Oh, and we kind of need some cash", he added, noticing that the empire was losing 16gpt at 40% research. "Why do I always inherit the throne when we're bankrupt?".
So, 19 turns to get one of JC's cities. Should be doable, but we need to get through Delhi first. Rex seems bent on us burning it, which I can understand, but honestly, it's the Buddhist Holy City, and a shrine in there is easy money. At the moment, I'm inclined to keep it despite our economy. Anyhoo, I'll cross that bridge when/if I come to it. Meantime, let's do some mming.
I MM St Petersburg to grow twice as fast with no loss in other areas, and Rostov to grow more than twice as fast again with no loss. Everything else looks very good, and Moscow is keeping our research alive with 36 beakers. There are lots of unpromoted units around, so I greedily allocate those.
Swordsman > City Raider I
Swordsman > City Raider III
Archer > Guerilla I + II
Rename Axeman > The Mighty IPA
I move research to 30% @ -11gpt (we don't hit the green until 10%). Looks like courthouses are on the menu for me.
I press ENTER.
IBT:
Barb warrior suicides on our fogbusting sword.
TURN 1:
Horseback Riding > Music
Music > Currency
Currency > Calendar
Hmm. Music for the Great Artist, Currency for the trade routes, or Calendar for the Incense and Silk we could hook up. We're financial, so the Incense and Silk are tasty.
Novgorod > Spear > Courthouse (12)
Horses hooked up.
Asoka has a chariot near Madras' copper. Promote sword to Combat I and move to defend it. Promote spear in Bangalore to Combat I and advance on Delhi. Check out Lahore with Axe/Sword stack and see that it has 2 unpromoted archers on a hill. Too much of a distraction - bypass. Also see this:
Tasty, but it will get away on the roads most likely. Besides, we have limited time to knock over Delhi and get into JC. If JC is well defended, we could be in trouble with time. Promote sword near Rostove to Raider I and send north. Start cottaging around St P. Promote some more units and send them North. Good fun.
Save and restart the computer as sound has died. Does anyone else get that occasionally? Most annoying.
IBT:
Monastery recommended for Moscow. Not a bad call, but I have a better idea.
TURN 2:
St P > Forge > Courthouse(8)
Madras > Barracks > Courthouse(17)
Asoka's chariot retreated and was replaced by a Horse Archer. I fortify the sword and pray to the RNG for a favourable 50/50. The settler group did get away, but is headed for an icy wasteland. Have fun.
TURN 3:
Moscow > Spear > Great Library(27) <--- will chop
Rostov > Spear > Courthouse(14)
Rostov's spear promoted to Combat 1 and sent to Madras to help with the horse archer crisis. He's moved past the defending sword and is threatening the city and a worker. Not nice. I move a group of units close enough to Delhi to get a look inside.
It has 1 spear and 3 archers inside, 1 of those archers is Garrison II, the other Garrison I. It's on grass, so it shouldn't be TOO hard, but without cats those archers will have a big fortify bonus in the city. May lose a few units unfortunately.
IBT:
Asoka pillaged a road connecting to our copper. SOB.
TURN 4:
Calcutta > Archer > Courthouse(40)

I MM it to work the silver and make it 30 (+4g, should have done it before).
Swordsman(4.0/6) def Indian Chariot
Swordsman(4.8/6) def Indian Horse Archer <--- the 50/50 shot I had to take. All praise the RNG for his generosity.
IBT:
Fogbuster Axeman (0.8/5) def Barbarian Axeman
Yaroslavl's borders expand: Developing
TURN 5:
Cottaging... chopping...
Promote sword to Medic I and send in to the SOD@Delhi. The line advances.
IBT:
Calendar > Construction (6) <--- Cats!
TURN 6:
Asoka has a chariot near Calcutta. /ignore
Swordsman (3.1/6) def Indian Archer <--- was guarding Asoka's stone quarry. A spear goes with the sword to defend against a lurking horse archer.
Asoka has moved an archer out of Delhi. Clown.
IBT:
Axeman (2.2/5) def Barbarian Axeman
TURN 7:
Research falls to 20% (+5gpt). Construction in 6.
Uh oh.
We've got some archers around. I move them on to a wooded hill and pray.
Spearman (2.1/4) def Indian Horse Archer
Axeman (2.5/5) def Indian Chariot
TURN 8:
Promote some units and assemble SOD.
IBT:
Archer (3/3) def Barbarian Swordsman
TURN 9:
THE SEIGE OF DELHI
...will wait another turn while units heal
TURN 10:
St P > Courhouse > Horse Archer <--- I figure the Roman city run might need a little quick support. Lets face it, anything we build down south won't make it there in time unless it's got 4 legs.
THE SEIGE OF DELHI
Spearman loses to Indian Archer (2.5/3)
Spearman loses to Indian Archer (3/3) <--- ouch
Spearman loses to Indian Archer (1.2/3)
Axeman loses to Indian Archer (2.1/3)
The Mighty IPA (4.0/5) def Indian Archer
Swordsman loses to Indian Spearman (1.7/4)
Swordsman (6/6) def Indian Archer
Swordsman (6/6) def Indian Spearman
Delhi is ours!
Sadly the screenshot failed, but we pillaged 129g, and our gpt jumped to +8 with the city, so I took it. It is the Buddhist holy city after all. We should teach these misguided brethren that we all worship the same Holy Random Lord.
I up the research to 30% @ -1gpt. Construction in 2.
Some Housekeeping:
Peace should be made with Asoka. He's got squat we want, but we don't need him at our back while we take down JC.
There is a mini barb stack (axe + archer) at the ping below:
You'll notice I'm grouping the sword and axe to handle it.
Here's the Random Empire in two shots (we stretch a long way N/S.
And that's it! 9 turns to get into JC's land and do some damage. It won't be easy, but we have a good chance at it. The economy should recover soon, and we still have a small tech lead.