Turnset 57 (T277 to T279)
T277 Continued - My military buildup (which I can't afford for long) and tech trading has made the Turks the #1 Civ on the scoreboard with the #1 Army.
Power Graph shows that Persia finally stopped whipping/producing units.
Tech trade screen shows that I could probably trade Priesthood+Aesthetics for Math if Julius was Friendly, but he's not.
There isn't any easy way to get more relations either because the only resource he wants is Gems and there's no room for city gifts. grrr
Samarkand finished a Library.
Traded Ivory to Poland for Crab.
T278 - Barbarians: No deaths.
Tokugawa of the Japanese Empire declared war on Gaujion of the Yue Empire!
Now Japan + Khmer are beating up on the Yue together.
A Hindu missionary from the west spread Hindu to Tashkent southwest of my capital, but I didn't see which AI it came from.
Any of the civs running Organized Religion could have done it.
Great Spy was born in Spain.
Swordsman 1-pop whipped in Kashgar, Invincible City, Tashkent, Delhi, Lahore, Pataliputra, Biskek, Dhaka, and Chinook.
The overflow will be almost enough make a
2nd Swordsman in each of these cities. (Sword costs 60 hammers, whip produces 90)
18 more Swordsmen will exist in a few more turns and severely strain my budget.
Persia must die!
Tile counting and road guessing had me expecting to see Cyrus' main army 2S1E of Copper, but it isn't there.
Probably just a few tiles behind.
There are 5 defenders in Gordium and a new Archer in Dariush Kabir that will slow my 2 Chariot vs. 2 Axe plan.
Spy has revealed the garrisons in Ecbatana and Tarsus (hilltop) to be 3 units each, with 3 extra units near Ecbatana.
Moved a few things around during my last turn of peace.
Time to pop the goody hut down south.
FREE TECH gogo!
..
.......
It spawned barbs.
Maybe they will attack the brand new island city Cyrus settled down there last turn?
I saw a Persian Galley at that island 2 turns ago, so the most there could be is 1 defender.
The Qin gift city Settler has finally arrived after eating my gold for 20 turns.
Hopefully it will proved a huge diplo boost with China who is still at war with Scandinavia.
Going from Cautious to Pleased with Qin increases my no_war_prob from 30% to 80%, so I won't be safe from a Qin DOW but it will become much less likely.
T279 - Barbarians: 3 Warriors died.
Cyrus demanded I give him Meditation. No! (Plus, a 10 turn peace treaty right now with Persia would be a bad idea)
Khmer demanded I convert to Islam. No again!
Khotan popped borders down in southeast India.
Once that hilltop city has Walls, Khmer will find it
very hard to conquer.
Gift City 3 was (Liberated) to Qin of China.
It gave +4 Fair Trade and +1 Liberated City, so
I'm now Pleased with China.
Still no sign of Cyrus' main army.
My Spy doesn't see them anywhere either.
**drums fingers on keyboard
**
On T279 I currently have
17 Cities, 17 Workers, 2 Settlers, 1 Spy, 1 Workboat
49 Axemen
12 Swordsmen
7 Chariots
3 Archers
2 Spears
There are 7 civs that are Pleased with Persia, but I only care about Rome and Poland.
Everything is in position to attack Persia. (35 Axes, 2 Swords, and 4 Chariots)
No extra Cyrus units near my cities that I can't handle according to my Military Advisor.
Cyrus infuriatingly has Horses now from a trade, so I'll have to deal with Immortals. (Chariots that get defense bonuses!)
Will just have to adapt to wherever Cyrus' main army shows up.
My Power Ratio with Persia is
1.531, so I'm 53% more powerful than Cyrus.
Time to start the
Battle for India™
I declared war on Cyrus of the Persian Empire.
Immediately I received -1 relations with Rome, Poland, England, Khmer, Japan, Zulu, and Arabia for attacking someone they were Pleased with.
The first target was Persia's source of Bronze.
My Vision Chariot
moved onto the hilltop and pillaged the bronze mine with a bunch of Axes to protect it.
Cyrus' capital revealed!
Persepolis is a hilltop city with 40% defenses, 9 population, and 4 defenders. (2Axe+Spear+Archer)
I don't have the troops to capture it and probably won't until the end of the war.
It's farthest from my Empire and will just have to wait its turn.
Dariush Kabir is a hilltop city protected by 1Archer + 2Axes, so my 4Axes + 2 Chariots will need some luck to capture it this turn.
Just need my Shock Axe to do significant damage to the Archer so that my 2 Chariots can each attack an Axe.
If it works, most of my forces can lunge for Ecbatana this turn.
..
......
My Shock Axe
lost against Archer in Dariush Kabir at 19.4% odds to win. (Very little damage)
Boo!
Moved up 2 units to check the battle odds across the river, but my Chariots will be murdered by the Archer and the Axes will easily beat my Axes.
Dariush Kabir is safe this turn, but I will move in enough forces to crush it next turn for sure.
Ecbatana will have to wait.