LK151 - WM, where are we?

We storm Mpondo, garrisoned by a pikeman and an Imp (50-2).

We replace Tugela with Frank Elwood, setting up next turn’s attack on Zimbabwe.

Outside cities we unhorse just a single Zulu knight (51-2).

Brasilia completes the Military Academy.


990 (4): We bombard and seize the Zulu capital of Zimbabwe, held by a pikeman, a knight, and two Imps (55-2).
 
We found Nathaniel Peaslee, giving us access to Ulundi.

We capture Ulundi, defended by a pikeman and an Imp (57-2).

We found William Dyer, bringing us within range of Intombe.

We take Intombe, garrisoned by a pikeman, an Imp, and an archer (60-2).

We found Robert Mackenzie, giving us access to Umfolozi, the last Zulu city apart from their three island towns.

We storm Umfolozi, held by two Imps (62-2). The Zulu capital jumps to the Canadian Arctic, so the distance-from-capital factor in flip calculations won’t hurt us now.
 
On the negative side, this essentially concludes the Zulu war with a yield, in terms of our hopes for armies, of just fifteen elite victories producing no Leaders, and four cavalry promoted to elite.

We sell Economics to Persia for 51 gpt, 73 gold, and their WM.

The Venezuelans still aren’t in their GA, though we’ve watched them send plenty of Llaneros off to war. Apparently they’ve already had it.

Venezuela and the Sioux form an MPP—the first I’ve noticed.

The Babylonians have SciMeth and are building ToE. This isn’t good timing—one turn sooner and we could have saved what became the Military Academy in Brasilia as a ToE or Hoover pre-build—but we have another pre-build in Fortaleza and we’ll see what we can do.


1000 (5): The Babylonians are building ToE in Königsberg—a conquered city, obviously, but a pretty good one—where it’s due in 16 turns. They might speed up the build a bit by railing there, but probably not by any other means. Fortaleza is comfortably ahead of that pace, so things look good.

We could try to steal SciMeth from Babylon, but it’s a pointless risk when we’ll discover it under our own power in plenty of time to complete ToE.

We send Theory of Gravity to Russia for 46 gpt, 6 gold, a worker, and their WM.

We sell Economics to the Aztecs for 22 gpt, 13 gold, and their WM.

We sell Steam Power to China for 149 gpt, 117 gold, and their WM.

We’d still like to give the Venezuelans time to send their Llanero force into Africa, and we still want to generate armies or at least elite cav before we fight them. So, by the same logic as dictated our attack on Zululand, we declare war on Australia. LK won’t like the fact that this will add about twenty tiles to our border with Venezuela ;), but defending tundra towns shielded by forest and connected by rail shouldn’t be too difficult.

As in the Zulu war, the terrain will be a greater obstacle than the enemy:
 
We’ll conquer Australia’s seventeen contiguous cities in the tundra and leave them Woomera in the Canadian Arctic as their capital.

We get the new war started by picking off three wandering Australian spearmen (65-2).

We seize Port Arthur, held by two pikemen, and capture a catapult (67-2).

We capture Broome, defended by two pikemen, gaining a catapult but losing a cav (69-3).

We take Sydney, garrisoned by two pikemen, and capture a catapult (71-3).

We found the tactical town of Edward Derby, giving us access to Alice Springs.

We storm Alice Springs, held by two pikemen and two macemen, and capture a catapult (75-3).

We seize Ballarat, defended by two pikemen (77-3).
 
Outside cities we strike down (all enemy units mentioned are Australian now, unless otherwise noted) six macemen and a spearman, also capturing five workers, a settler = two workers, two trebs, and a catapult (84-3).


1010 (6): We capture Cairns, an Australian border city we bypassed last turn, from its garrison of two pikemen and a maceman (87-3). We gain four workers.

By founding two well-positioned tactical towns, Asenath Derby and Richard Pickman, we gain access to the next four Australian cities on our agenda, and also to Port Augusta which we take later.

We take Melbourne, held by two pikemen and a maceman, and capture two workers and two catapults (90-3).

We storm Freemantle, defended by three pikemen and a maceman, capturing three catapults but losing a cav (94-4).

We seize the Australian capital of Canberra, garrisoned just by three pikemen (97-4). We gain a worker.
 
We capture Adelaide, held by two pikemen and a maceman, at the cost of a cav (100-5). We gain a worker.

We found Professor Pabodie, giving us access to Perth.

We take Perth, defended by one pikeman, three spearmen, and two macemen (106-5). Our veteran cav do all the work, but we get no promotions to elite. Our luck in that respect has been even worse than in elite attacks. On the positive side, we capture four settlers = eight workers.

We can reach Brisbane with cav through a gap in the taiga without employing tricks, and we storm it (garrisoned by three pikemen; 109-5).

In skirmishing outside cities we trample six macemen and finally gain our first Great Leader of the round, who forms the First Cavalry Army (115-5). We also capture a worker and a catapult.

We land a settler and covering forces on a Zulu-controlled furs tile in extreme western Alaska, as seen in the screenshot, so that we can claim a furs source of our own. We’re slightly squeezed right now at just four luxuries, and for various reasons we don’t want to deal with any of the three civs which could send us a fifth.
 
1020 (7): Five Australian cities remain in Eurasia, and we’ll conquer them all simply enough this turn.

We seize Townsville, held by three pikemen (118-5). We gain a catapult.

We found Captain Thorfinnssen, giving us access to Derby and Darwin.

We capture Darwin, defended by two pikemen (120-5).

We take Hobart, garrisoned by two pikemen, and capture a catapult (122-5).
 
We storm Derby, held by two pikemen and a maceman (125-5)

We seize Port Augusta, defended by a pikeman and a maceman (127-5). We capture a catapult and send the Australian capital to extreme northern Canada.
 
We conclude the Australian campaign by bludgeoning a final maceman and rounding up five workers (128-5).

We found Thomas Olney on the furs tile in Alaska…and then, after studying the position (see below), we decide to declare war on the wretched four-city Songhai. This isn’t pure bloodlust :D; the Songhai lands will give us our own secure supply of furs and spices, and serve as a very useful pre-established beachhead if we have to fight the Babylonians. However, we delay the DoW for a turn so that we’ll be able to get more elites into the battle.
 
1030 (8): We declare war on the Songhai as planned, and capture Jenne, garrisoned by four spearmen, a swordsman, and an archer (134-5). We gain a settler = two workers.

We take Timbuktu, held by two spearmen (136-5).
 
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