Buwayahads pt. 2.
Was aiming for a temporary bit of peace... so as to secure my economy. But you know how these things go. First thing, the remaining two islamic nations (umayahad and ghana) requested to be my vassal. Not checking who they were with war with, i accepted and promptly was in a war with the holy roman empire, spain, and kiev. not exactly what i had planned, but not so bad. the turn after, the vikings, byzantium and aksum declare war on me. ok not so good.
reload... this time without the vassals. guess what? jerusalem flips too byzantium. there is no way this will stand as jerusalem earns me about 60 gpt. so i declare war with byzantium and aksum (their vassal). they turn out to be a little tougher than ghazni, the arabs, the french or the mongolians. already (1300 a.d or so) rifleman and grenadiers are being used quite frequently by the christian powers. turns out the invincible mamlukes are not much use anymore. despite there amazing ability to withdraw 80% of the time, they do little to no damage to these new units, even with gunpowder promotions. even the crusaders are just about invincible. incidentally theyve turned up as the first defenders (in an attack) on my quest to constantinople, so they still must be pretty tough.
despite this setback, overwhelming numbers won the day. when i bring 25 units to take on 6 defenders, i've got to win. and in taking attalia (byzantine), the 25th unit to attack was the unit to take the city. not many losses though (three or four rifleman), so it was an agreeable if not lengthy siege. one quick tip to all future warmongerers, if you havent learned this trick already... if you got plenty of dough to spend you can give your rifleman or grenadiers "attack city promotions" by building macemen, promoting them, and then upgrading them. i just learned this little trick and it gives you some mean rifleman.
im now at year 1460. and just in time to conquer constantinople at a historical date and everything. about to have cannons researched too. i will say, i am really amazed at how fast the ai is researching, several of them almost have infantry already. especially the vikings. i'm only playing noble and these guys are a good couple techs ahead of me, still.
another note on the scenario, the culture of the christian civs seems to be a bit overpowered. the umayahads (and any middle eastern cities i conquer) don't stand a chance culturally unless i venture into europe to take these cultural rich cities. basically, they will keep revolting until there is a cultural flip. not matter how much culture i apply in the cities (10+ turn) i cant even gain the squares immediately around the city. this forces me into a perpetual offensive strategy. with each new city i take, i must take the next one to prevent the previous one from flipping. this is not entirely your fault, just the faulty mechanics of the game.