LK151 - WM, where are we?

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

The Aztecs aren't quite stupid enough to declare war on us when we make demands, so we declare on them.

We take Yanktonai, defended by two musketmen and a cavalry (3-0).

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We trample a musketman on our approach to Chalco (4-0).

Chalco is garrisoned like Jacob's ladder, by nine musketmen, but we storm it without loss (13-0).

We unhorse five Aztec cav in the Chalco area (18-0).

We seize Tula, held by three musketmen and a cav (22-0).

We capture Tlalmanalco, defended by three musketmen (25-0). We capture a trebuchet.

We abandon Tlalmanalco and replace it with the tactical town of Ruy Lopez, bringing us closer to Coyotepec and Tepetlaoxtoc.

We round up nine workers, eight Aztec and one Sioux, in the battle zone.

We take Coyotepec, garrisoned by three musketmen (28-0). We capture a treb and a worker.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We storm Ixtapaluca, held by four musketmen (32-0). We capture a treb.

In scattered skirmishing against the Aztecs we smite four cav, two musketmen, and a pikeman, gaining our first Leader/army of the round (39-0). We capture four more workers.

On the IT the Aztecs move 23 cav into vulnerable positions, but only make two attacks, which produce a redline-retreat and a defeat (40-0). I think they would have made more attacks if we didn't have defense-eleven inf as our UU.


1275 (2): Destroying the Aztec cavalry force may limit our progress taking cities this turn, but it'll be well worth it.

We slay the 23 Aztec cav in advanced positions, without loss (63-0). We gain our second Leader/army of the round.

We found the tactical towns of McDonnell and La Bourdonnais, giving us access to four unspellable Aztec cities.

We overrun a musketman on the road to Huexotla, capturing a treb (67-0).

We seize Huexotla, defended by three musketmen and two cav, and sink at least three ships in port (75-0).

We capture Zitlaltepec, garrisoned by three musketmen (78-0).

We take Teayo, held by three musketmen (81-0).

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We storm Tepetlaoxtoc, defended by three musketmen and a cav, but lose a cav (85-1). We capture a worker.

We seize Texcoco, garrisoned by three musketmen and a cav (89-1).

We sweep a musketman off our path to Tamuin (90-1).

We capture Tamuin, held by three musketmen and two cav (95-1). We capture two workers and a treb.

We take Malinalco, defended by three musketmen, and capture a worker and a treb (98-1).

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We pick off two more Aztec cav (100-1).

We storm Cempoala, garrisoned by three musketmen, and sink at least one galleon in harbour (104-1).

We abandon Zitlaltepec so that we’ll never have to spell it again …no, actually so that we can replace it with Philidor and Cochrane, and have two towns not in resistance where we can rush ships to reach the island city of Chiconautla. The situation there is a real PITA, because the only land tile adjacent to the city is blocked by Russian units:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

In a similar operation, we abandon Cempoala so that we can found Anderssen and Morphy and rush ships to reach the island town of Tepexpan off that coast.

We apprehend a final Aztec worker.

Turning to our island-hopping campaign against the Sioux, we don’t have a lot of strength available at Oto, but after our bombardment redlines the garrison—and with the town reduced to size six by drafting—the attack is safe enough. We seize and raze the city, held by a remaining force of four riflemen (108-1). We gain two workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

At Osage, where we have fewer artillery available, we heal and land reinforcements before attacking next turn, or perhaps in two turns.

On the Russian front, which now means the British Isles, we capture Vologda, defended by a rifleman and two pikemen (111-1). We capture a worker.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We sink a Russian galley, and whatever it might have been carrying, in the Bering Strait (112-1).

The Chinese have just taken Ponca on the northern tip of Madagascar from the Sioux, aborting our plans for a landing there.

Off Ceylon we bombard and sink two Sioux vessels, a frigate and a galleon, along with the contents of the galleon (114-1).

We merge Herbert West up from size 13 to size 19.

On the IT a Sioux guerrilla bravely attacks out of Osage, but we gun him down (115-1).

We sink a Russian frigate that attacks our task force off Ireland (116-1).


1280 (3): We’ve fallen to 583 gpt as various deals expire, but no AI civ seems to have the missing money—it’s just disappeared from the game in the familiar way. We’ll only be at 100% research for the next three turns, of course, until we discover Steel.

At Osage in the southern Philippines our reinforced artillery group yellowlines the garrison of three riflemen, so the attack is safe and we take the city (119-1).

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Apart from two islands, the Aztecs are down to a narrow band of nine cities, although Tlacopan in the south looks too well shielded by rough terrain for us to take it this turn:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

The situation on Chiconautla Island is a total cluster, as LK would say—the only tile not occupied by the Aztec city or the Russian pike stack is blocked by Egyptian knights, and those civs are all mutually at peace. We may not be able to land until we eliminate the Russians and their stack disappears, and we can’t reach the last Russian city for some time, so a quick kill of the Aztecs is out of the question now. We’ll raze or replace most of the remaining Aztec cities to compensate.

We found the tactical towns of Harmonist and Schiffers, bringing us close to Teotihuacan and Xochicalco, respectively.

We storm and raze Xochicalco, held by three musketmen (122-1). We gain five workers and capture a treb.

We seize Calixtlahuaca, defended by three musketmen and a cav (126-1). We capture two workers and two trebs.

We abandon Calixtlahuaca and found the tactical town of Caro, bringing us within artillery range of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

We capture and raze Tenochtitlan, garrisoned by four musketmen (130-1). We gain five workers and capture three trebs.