I didn't start a war with anyone, but we are in position now to go very hard on anyone we want; I have a target picked out, so read the summary for details!
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Unlike past times of government change, there was no period of chaos as the Japanese exchanged their leaders this time. The Japanese Republic peacefully elected a candidate to the presidency, and Mr. Toragashu was ready to be installed as the new leader of the nation. The day of the inauguration ceremony saw a shocking turn of events however, as the foreigner Sulla landed on the eastern coast of Japan and advanced to Kyoto with a massive force of samurai under his disposal. Where he got them, or more importantly where Sulla had been for the last 800 years remained a mystery. Sulla was "elected" president in the emergency elections called the following week. The people grumbled over the resumed dictatorship of a 3000yr old man but could do little to upset his complete control of power.
Now for the turn by turn:
(0) 820AD Let the vetoing of other decisions begin! I check the military advisor screen and determine that we have an average military compared to most civs, a weaker one than the Persians, French, and Zulus, and a stronger one than the Russians (wow - big surprise). Since all civs except the backwards ones already have Chivalry I trade it plus 100 gold to the Babylonians for their world map. I know it's pricey - but by now the computer will have filled in the whole world through trading of maps and they would have gotten the tech in a few turns anyway from another civ. Presto - we can now see the whole world. The whole world is one continent, although its the most convoluted one I've ever seen. We need money badly - let's give ROP to nations that will never reach our lands. Hmm... we only have one embassy, and the Zulus want us to give THEM gold for ROP? Not likely! Actually, all other civs are broke at this point, so nothing can be done trading. We are not ready to fight at this time, by any means. Sulla sets a goal of 20 samurai by the end of his rule. Some changing of workers to get better production. We have bad infrastructure, but I reluctantly conclude that the best option is to build up a strong military and steal land from others, then use our golden age to catch up on city development. Therefore, cities are set to max production, ignore libraries and other such cultural developments. Babylon is so close to us that they appear a better target to attack - we'll see.
(1) 830AD I see a samurai on goto - don't do this in succession games! I understand it was going to the American border, but as a general rule of thumb don't automate workers or use this command in a SG.
(3) 850AD Xerxes demands 19 gold and territory map. Since we are pretty close to Persia, they're a lot stronger, and it's a pretty reasonable demand, we give it to them.
(5) 870AD Sulla wonders why the Persian cities have not defected to us - we've got a lot of cultural pressure on them.
(6) 880AD We run a deficit to research Education faster - if we get it first we can broker it for lots of money - unless the other civs remain broke....
(9) 910AD With the production of our 6th samurai, our people opt to expand the palace! Sulla adds some properly Roman columns to the Eastern architecture.
The Russians are so backwards they don't even have Theology? Well, since they will NEVER build the Sistine Chapel on that worthless hunk of ice, we will gladly give it to them for 20 gold and 2/turn.
(13) 950AD The Persians complete Sun Tzu; everyone switches to Sistine. It's doubtful we'll get that one...
Tokyo placed on palace PLACEHOLDER.
(14) 960AD Predictably, the Zulus complete Sistine this turn. Cascade stopped in all computer civs though - that's extremely good news. Immense wincing as Kyoto wastes 175 shields on samurai (I should have predicted this at the beginning of my turn - there was no way we would get either of those wonders. Damn it) Time to research education has dropped to 1 turn. That means all other civs already have it. They didn't have it 2 turns ago. No brokering the tech. Damn it again.
(15) 970AD We learn Education. I choose Music Theory so we can get Bach's cathedral; we can get Education and Invention from the AI when we conclude a successful war. It takes 14 turns at 40% science; we will have almost enough shields for it in Tokyo at that time. The Persian city Ergili defects to us (finally!) Too bad it's permanent size 2 until we get some irrigation on our continent (not any time soon).
(17) 990AD We establish an embassy with the Americans in order to better relations and facilitate the trading of luxuries. They are broke and will not give us anything but their world map - why won't the AI trade a luxury for a luxury? They seem offended by the thought that we could deal on an even basis. Apparently the whole world is broke at the moment, so there's little we can do to trade. Their capital sucks big time too
(18) 1000AD Zulus demand territory map and gold. Sulla looks at his ranks of samurai and tells Shaka where he can shove it. They back down from war, which frankly we didn't want either. World map given to get them back to polite.
(19) 1010AD Russians still need Education? Better get what we can from it now. It's sent to them with furs and 50 gold for Engineering. I check every civ - only Persia, Zululand, and (now) Russia have more than 0 gold. Why the hell are they so poor? We can't get rich off of trade if they're too poor to trade. Oh well... I should comment that this is the slowest tech progress I've ever seen on Regent - must be because the land is so poor and there isn't much of it - I think we're on an 80% water map.
(20) 1020AD We have 17 samurai and, as of next turn, 3 galleys on our eastern coast. Sulla falls just short of his goal, but remains confident nontheless, as that many samurai will cut a mighty swath through any foe.
Sulla departs at the end of his reign for parts unknown. The Japanese rejoice at the end of a foreigner's government. Sulla leaves behind his army of samurai to "keep the peace" while he is gone. There is considerably less rejoicing.
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I evaluated whether to attack America or Babylonia, and it seems pretty decisive that we should go after the latter. The main US cities are so far away it will take an eternity to get there even with samurai, and we would be dangerously exposed to attack even if we succeed in an attack. On the contrast, the Babylonians are practically in our backyard across a very narrow sea and they have great land with 2 new luxuries in them that we could take. We could get Persia to attack with us if needed and absolutely crush them under a wave of Immortals and Samurai (ouch
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I left the ultimate decision up to the next ruler, but let me just say that there's a stack of 15 samurai on our east coast and three galleys ready for transport....
I should mention that I did not think to patch the game, so this save is still 1.16f. Anyone who wants to patch in the future should do so before it gets around to me again. Here's a picture of the army of samurai: