LK58, The troubled middle ages.
1170: With the rejuvenation process rushed, it is a grumpy Grimjack who enters the throneroom of the french.
Good decision on Byzantine, Aqueducts would really help us. I suspect we lack libraries as we would need 60% science to get better than min time though.
Hmm, I will have to take a break rereading previous rulers notes, as wonderbuilding Paris is not shield maximized.
Diplomatic status:
Germany wars against us, Turks and Burgundy.
Most of the world wars against the Turks.
Cordova is backwards, and has two workers for sale. Will check back later if I need two more workers.
Sweden is also backwards, and has 570 gold. I will probably sell them Middle class for that money. Hopefully they will get more money to pay us then.
Magyars is also backwards, and they lack wine. They do own 200 gold though.
Bulgars also have two workers for sale.
England is up Chivalry but wont sell.
Abbasids is up Invention and Religious Persecution. Religious Persecution with the Inquisitor is something we very much want. 40 Shields for 4-1-1 that treat all terrain as road and see invisible...
Building an embassy in Jerusalem reveals they have 11 turns left on Notre Dame. They are running 100% science. Thats something I have not seen before.
They have Library, and Arab Medicine. They also have four luxes, iron, horses and tar. Garrison in Jerusalem looks to be 12 pikemen, a swordsman and a king.
I waste 2 shields and one turns worth of production getting a SHeriff's officed in Paris instead of the doomed Notre Dame. I realize I will have to hire a clown to cover the unhappiness the sheriffs generate, but I think the added taxes and work will make it worth it.
I get the 579 gold Seden had for Middle Class. I also get the workers out of Bulgars and Cordova, also for Middle Class. I want them to get money so I can trade them more techs.
IBT: England and Abbasids ally against Byzantines. A german knight falls against our siegestack. Another german knight kills one of our knights and hide in Regensburg.
Paris Sheriff->Knight, Orleans Knight->Knight, Strasburg Pike->pike
1173: Get three workers and 163 gold by trading Middle class to Magyars. Next turn we will have enough money for a medium steal. That steal could possibly net us three techs, so it might very well be worth it.
Kill off a german knight, and a pike.
IBT:
German counters kill a knight and a pike, while they lose one knight. Ghent Market->Manor, Anger Knight->Sheriff
Lyons Knight->knight,
1176: Kill off four german knights, and a pike, but we are gassed, and I aim to seek peace. Regensburg has lots of pikes, and it will take a long siege to break it when we have so few troops available. Most of our troops are spent trying to fend off the german incursions.
The careful steal from the Abbasids succeeds
I can chose between Arab Learning, Mercantilism, Religious Persecution and Invention. I take Religious Persecution.
11 gpt and Persecution gets us Invention from the English. Cancel the alliance with Burgundy against the germans.
Sign peace with germany together with Chivalry and four workers for Invention.
I was really fighting a stalemate here, even with the army. Barring a lucky break, it would have been even worse as Germany devoted more and more of their troops against us. I would have loved to get my hands on the wonder we were seiging for though.
Change Valencia to a worker, hoping to road the wool in the hills outside. Rush the temple in Wurzburg for the culture.
IBT: Bulgars sign peace with Byzantines. Our german friends help us move our troops out of Germany. Get popup about the Inquisition. It is a forbidden palace, so I will wait until the patch comes out.
Valencia Worker->Barracks, Wurzburg Temple->Town Hall, Tours riots with 3-1-3 citizens :? Chartres Pike->Granary,
1179 We have enough victory points so that if we get our two treasures to Jerusalem, we will win. I will devote much effort to reaching this goal.
Burgundy is using archers on offense though, and that looks mighty tempting to free up our northern borders a bit.
Abbasids looks a monster. Their coffers increase by 700 gold every turn. We will need a major dogpile to get our troops into Jerusalem.
I sell Feudalism on the cheap to Castile for 67 gold and 3 gpt. Only we and Abbasids have any kind of income.
I notice we still can only build curraghs. I will have to fix this ASAP.
IBT: Cordova and Castile sign peace.
Paris: Knight->Cathedral, Bolougne Knight->Knight, Clermont Knight->Knight,Marseilles Temple->Curragh ( Curragh upgrades to galley. ) Lyons Inquisitor->InquisitorAvignon Temple->Curragh
1182 Move troops generally southwards. We do not need anything other than seamanship and some galleys. While it would be good to have a few more luxes, they are not necessary. ( I hope. )
The money I save for a buy or steal when Seamanship comes available.
IBT: Magyar and Celts sign peace. Burgundy and POland sign peace, Celts and Abbasids sign alliance against Byzantines.Cast8ile and Byzantines sign peace,
Bordeaux Knight->Sheriff, Rheims Temple->Granary,
1185 Movement
IBT: Turks and Swedes sign peace. Germany and Abbasids sign alliance against Magyars. Fatimids and Abbasids sign against Byzantine,
Orleans Knight->Longbow, Lyons Inquisitor->Inquisitor
Danish city of Vorbasse completes Robin Hood.
1188 Road a bit of the unroaded tiles. Collect our troops outside Marseilles. I trade Sweden Theology for Furs and 5 gpt. Spend quite some time optimizing cities. Do not earn much from it though.
I ship quarry to Germany for 313 gold. I can get four workers for quarry from Turks, but the turks are pounded heavily, and I do not know if they will last for 20 turns.
Abbasids have managed to get Professional armies now. Jerusalem will be that much harder to hit. I get 750 gold from them for our quarry though. I am fairly certain it will take more than 20 turns to build up the 10 galleys we will need to get our troops to Jerusalem.
I get 100 gold from Denmark for our Wines. We have quite a bit of gold now. I am pondering a steal from Byzantine or Bulgars, as they are the ones most likely to have developed the tree with Aqueducts. Bulgars seem to be a safe non player to steal from, and a safe steal later we haev Byzantine Ingenuity.
Set our scientist on Seamanship. I trade Theologu to Kievan Rus for Lost Roman Secrets, Trade Theology to Bulgars for Heavy Cavalry and Finally I trade Religious Persecution with 8 gpt to Byzantines for Defender of Europe and Intelligence operations.
Switch our size six landlocked cities into Aqueducts. I will not do the same switch into Arab learning, as I do not think we need any Hospitals, and we will not do any research on our own.
IBT: Abbasids sign in Sweden against Byzantine, and then they sign peace with the Byzantines.
Paris: Cathedral->Knight
1191 MM Paris and adjoining cities so that Paris reaches 35 spt. I suspect Paris will produce knights until the end of game now.
We have roaded in wool now, and I nix lux taxes, and get a scientist in Angers. It is size 12, so having a food surplus is really optional.
We can get Silks from the Byzantines, but as the need is not great, and all they want from us is hard cash, I decline this deal.
IBT: Turks and Castille sign peace. Bulgars and Byzantines sign against England,Norway and Fatimids.
1194: Germany has managed to acquire Professional Armies. England has probably bought it from Germany, as England now has it too, but no money.
IBT: Magyars and Fatimids sign peace, Norway gets down to a single city. Denmark and Abbasids sign against Magyars, Abbasids and Germany sign alliance against Burgundy.
Paris Knight->Knight, Chartres Granary->Pikeman,
1197 Debate if I should join workers, but I will wait and let next leader make that decision. I move the army to Bordeaux just in case the two Swedish longships will get frisky.
IBT
oland and Cordova sign peace, England and Abbasids sign against Magyars,
Nantes Granary->Market,Boulogne Aqueduct->Granary,Marseilles Curragh->Curragh,Metz Pike->Pike,Avignon Curragh->Barracks ( For upgrading our pikemen, It may be better to continue the Curraghs. )
1200: I start a forestchop outside Basel in order to draw irrigation up north. There are hills enough outside Basel so that we will not miss the forest much. I give Norway Invention for their three workers.
I will leave the army awake, so you can decide if you want him on the south or west coast.
The save is
here
I would recommend to start merging workers into our more slow growing cities in order to get production up. If Meldor is correct about our treasures giving 10.000 victory points, all we need to do is to get our two treasures into Jerusalem.
Having some 20 knights, 10 Swiss and 10 cats ought to get us there. It is maybe feasible to trek across land, but then we would have to cross a fair bit of Abbasid countryside.
Grimjack
Wurzburg flips back to Germany taking away a Quarry source. Multiple units were lost. 
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