Now it’s just a question of how lucky we are with straight 4-2 attacks, no retreats possible.
We dispose of the first Mongol stack around Samarra—four ancient cav and three horse archers—at the cost of one knight (11-3). We don’t attack the bottom unit of the stack in this case.
We obliterate the next stack, two AC and three HA, for the loss of a knight (16-4).
I like the way that from some angles, our trebuchets seem to be clubbing their opponents on the head.
We expunge the third stack, four HA and an AC, without loss (21-4).
All seven luxuries are available on our landmass, so
it has to be a pangaea, even though it’s odd that there are eleven civs we haven’t met with that geography. The narrow chokepoint in the middle of the continent explains that, no doubt.
At Lagash the Mongols run out of retreat luck, and lose seven of their attacking Keshiks, while only two redline-retreat. We lose an arq and an Enk (28-6).
We lose a pikeman defending our elephant colony to the attack of a chariot (28-7).
Roskova bank --> knight, Uppsala mosque --> windmill, Elit town clock --> mosque, Visby granary --> town centre, Ur town clock --> town centre.
1610 (7): Our bombardes and trebuchets have arrived at Lagash, so we’re able to counterattack there and we unhorse eight Keshiks without loss (36-6).
We pick off a chariot outside Samarra (37-6).
We’re clearly over the worst of the Mongol attack, but there are still twenty-three Keshiks visible.
The Keshiks cease their suicidal attacks on Lagash. They’re now spread all over the map between Samarra and Lagash, few on flat land.
We have to grant a demand for 79 gold from the Israelites.
Zyr town centre --> bank.
1615 (8): We pounce on four wounded Keshiks outside Lagash, gaining a monk (41-6).
We bludgeon three Keshiks south of our elephant colony, losing a knight (44-7).
We can finally trade a tech for Sacred Art, though thirty-six turns into our minimum run on SA that’s not a huge achievement. We send Clockworks and 77 gold to the French for SA.
We wipe out the final five Keshiks around Samarra at the cost of a knight (49-8).
We lose a knight to the unexpected attack of a yellowlined Keshik (49-9).
Cathyton town centre --> knight, Smolensk town centre --> windmill.
The Americans establish an embassy with us.
1620 (9): Most of the remaining eleven Keshiks are in vulnerable positions now, and we expunge them at the cost of one knight (60-10).
That leaves a previously unspotted stack of three horse archers, an AC, and a chariot between Samarra and Lagash, which we crush, though one of our mullahs loses a seemingly safe attack on the chariot in four straight rounds (65-11).
It’s unusual in CCM for an AI civ to attack us out of the blue as the Mongols did, since the land fills up slowly due to the limited settlers. Perhaps the fact that the Mongol units were cut off from their civ by the chokepoint made their decision-making more aggressive.
We begin a great redeployment of our forces to the Chinese border where they began the round.
One of our slavers makes a raid into China, enslaves a trebuchet, and
destroys China’s turn-200 settler for a second slave (technically a worker; 66-11).
One of our mullahs kills, rather than converting, a Chinese worker.
We observe no Mongol activity.
Czar’s Gold bank --> knight, Malmo town centre --> town clock.
1625 (10): Our luck goes from bad to worse—the Chinese have Gunpowder/arqs now. Well, with our large and expensive knight force we can sustain high losses attacking cities.
We move units north and west towards the Chinese border.
1630 (11): Our military buildup has brought us up to average relative to China.
Linköping town clock --> windmill, Norrköping town clock --> town centre, Nippur mosque --> aqueduct.
Nineveh is targeted by a propaganda campaign, but it’s a very happy town and we don’t have to adjust its MM.
1635 (12): We’ve converted the Ellipi-Eridu-Assur triangle into a killing ground, with all the hills fortified and some of the forests cut down, so that China’s Riders can only invade by making themselves vulnerable on flat land. The goal is to wipe out most of China’s Rider force before we take any Chinese cities, because holding flip-prone towns against the move-three Riders will be so difficult.
So, we declare war on China and await the onslaught.
Some nation’s Famous Pirate, likely Dutch, sinks one of our exploring dhows (66-12).
Eighteen Riders come forward to the slaughter, we hope, along with nine slow Chinese units and two ancient cav.
