I'm not super confident about this round. I felt like I was spinning my wheels a little bit. But, then, I always feel that way when I'm not crushing two Civilizations per round, so I'll let you all be the judge.
I started out by making some much-needed Civics changes:
At the end of the Golden Age, I switched Slavery over to Caste System. We are running a specialist economy, after all, and besides, Slave Revolts are no fun for anyone. But this brief dalliance with the whip helped us get some much-needed infrastructure up and running, especially in Cairo.
Playing an Alphabet-ready game with AIs that are willing to play ball (and not in, say, Always War), I found myself back in the tech-trading seat, and found that I've still got the touch:
So maybe that's not the most amazingest deal in the world, but it'll do, considering that Elizabeth is
not going to beat us to the Sistine Chapel. And Compass, well, it's an important stepping stone to Optics, and also provided another potential benefit, which I'll show you in a bit.
Charlemagne decided that his advisors were correct. Despite the fact that the Holy Roman Empire was, at its core, a European entity, it had valuable interests in North Africa, and those assets were under threat from Aksum:
The city was worth conquering, certainly, but Charlemagne thought long and hard before deciding to keep it. It was, after all, one off the coast (Argh!), but it had the ability to work valuable tiles, and it was a Christian city. The generals stayed their hands, and one more polis was added to the new Roman Empire.
With our war with the Arabs over, Charlemagne decided to do a bit of trading with the surly Saladin:
This was less for the three gold per turn and more for the deliciousness of selling the Arabs pork (Hey, it was either that or Wine, which would have been no better). Say what you will about Salah ad-Din the man, but in Civ? Guy's a jerk.
Louis proved himself a capably crazy AI, founding yet more unsustainable colonies far from home:
Frankly, I'm all for this foolishness. France is known for beautifying its cities, which'll make them that much more inviting once the Christian brotherhood dissolves and we are regrettably forced to take them for ourselves.
But what of the short term? Will there even be a Holy Roman Empire to war with France if Paris' Culture overruns our borders? After all, as many of you have pointed out, Bremen starts in dire straits in this regard. Don't worry, guys, I got this:
Suddenly, those free Scientists hanging out in the Great Library are painting Mona Lisas when they're not working on gyrocopters. It's no longer us trapped next to them. They're trapped next to us!
One disadvantage to the Apostolic Palace is that, well, the available resolutions aren't very entertaining when everyone's already at war with everyone else. All you can do is beg for peace. So in the way of an experiment, I decided to call an end to the war against Ragnar. It failed, predictably, but what's interesting is
why:
Stamped out by Saladin and Justinian. Saladin's Defiance makes sense. As the other Enemy of the Faith, the Arab leader wants Europe's armies to spread themselves as thinly as possible. But Justinian? What deviousness does he have in store?
Anyway, we made another tech trade. This one I'm less proud of, but, well, we need to get some Forges up and running, especially now that we have all these bonus Hammers from Christian architecture:
Again, it's weird that we have Machinery and Engineering without Metal Casting, but whatever. I'm not gonna argue it.
Anyway, you remember what I'd said about Compass being useful? Here's why:
So, Harbors and Caravels. The Harbors I can justify, but the Caravels might be a bit of a stretch. If we complete the quest, we can give all our Naval units either Combat I or Navigation I, or we can get +1 Gold from every Harbor. The Harbor bonus seems a little weak to me, but the Naval promotions could be fun in later eras, particularly Navigation. It would turn us into quasi-Vikings! Historically, this would be a little ridiculous (The Romans weren't really sailors, the Holy Romans even less so), but gamewise, it might be a good investment. I will say we're rather behind in the race for circumnavigation (a few empires already have Caravels puttering about), so stacking would be tough. But it still might be worth pursuing...
The Sistine Chapel bore fruit early. Bremen's triumphant Culture sent the outpost of Ribe into paroxysms of revolt:
A Viking city bristling with Berserkers and Longbows bolstered by City Defense bonuses is a tough nut to crack. Half-strength Longbows and Berserkers, though? In a city without a bonus? It was a sign from the Lord. War must come to the heathen north.
The fighting in Denmark led to the birth of a Great General, who was sent to teach and drill in Salzburg:
I figure, with both Representation and the Sistine Chapel, the Super Specialist made sense, and Salzburg seems the best fit for our military pump. For now, it's mostly producing Knights and Trebuchets. It's too bad Rifling is so far off.....
Ribe fell late in the 13th century. Given the holy mandate of this war, Charlemagne opted not to spare the city. The citizens were butchered in the streets, and hogs were permitted to feast on their corpses:
These swine were quickly penned in and fed to the burgeoning population of Bremen. A few cases of kuru broke out, but we lacked Optics, much less Medicine, so those extra deaths were never properly investigated.
We earned a Great Scientist in 1300:
I probably should have settled him (again, we get crazy bonuses to specialists!), but the 9 turns shaved off Education seemed worth it to me. I haven't found a great deal for Philosophy yet, but I'm sure one will turn up, and then the Liberalism race will be all mine!
In 1330, I took the opportunity to steal Tunis out from under Saladin:
This cemented our hold on the central Mediterranean, and we bought a cheap peace a few turns later. 50 gold for a halfway decent city and a guarantee that Syracuse's borders would go unchallenged? I'll take that deal any day. And it's not like our relationship with Saladin can be salvaged anyway at this point...
I made what may be a controversial research choice a few decades later:
Economics is expensive and is, basically, a dead end tech until we get Constitution online. But Free Market is pretty awesome, and the sooner we can get that, the better. And the Great Merchant will look mighty fine settled in Bremen.
What of Optics, you say? If we're gonna do this Harbormaster thing, we're gonna need to get some Caravels in the water? I've got that covered, too:
Again, not a fantastic deal, but whatever! Isabella's an afterthought, anyway. Stupid fanatic can't even reconquer her own peninsula.
So in 1400, I noticed something that made me worry a little bit:
You'll note that Aksum is no longer being squeezed by cultural pressure from the east. That can only mean that Saladin no longer controls Mecca. And, given that Justinian has taken Jerusalem, I'm gonna lay the blame for this on him, too. The Arab empire has basically fallen, and the Byzantines are getting too big for their britches. I think it's time the Holy Catholic Church reminds these Orthodox @$%^&es who's a player, and who's just a stinkin' AI. Besides, we've already established that the Byzantines are up to something. Not that Justinian's gonna lay down and die, especially with those hulking Cataphracts on his side. But we've got Landsknechts, which are basically Pikemen with really fancy pants. So that should even things up.
Here's a look at our Military Advisor. Still not where we want it to be, but we're making progress:
Should we rip off a few more chunks of Saladin's bloated corpse, or should we go right at our real enemy? How much more do you think we're gonna need before we can make our move?
Here's a look at our empire in three screenshots, north to south:
You'll notice our pair of Knights up there in Scandinavia. I was hoping to make a quick raid on Ragnar, but the trip through Russia was long, I couldn't reinforce by boat owing to the Viking mastery of the North Sea, and the settlements up there are better defended than I was really planning on. So, I dunno. They're kind of stuck for now. Anyway, with the capture of Ribe and Tunis, our technological accomplishments, and our progress in turning the Culture War, I feel like it wasn't a total waste of a round, but I look forward to hearing what I could be doing better.
The save:
keep it for latter and raze it.
), but I don't know any reason why Bremen would be chosen. Salzburg would be better, but some more western city would probably make more sense...?
