LK75-800AD, the age of cavalry. Goal, clear Africa of foreigners. Payment, free choice of five gems of the Songhai diamond fields.
I do not know why we think so badly about the Aztec war, it got us out of a 87 gpt payment quite a lot of turns early, so it was not just a silly defiance thing. Of course it almost got out of control with Russia/Persia, but I still think it was the right decision to make, given what was known at the time. The trade embargoes will eat up most of the benefit though. They seem to be more common now in 1.22.
Given I go after LKendter, I give our cities only a cursory glance, more to familiarize myself with them, rather than in any hopes of finding unexpected MM opportunities.
Note to self, Start building settlers/workers out of Zimbabwe and Bapedi after they complete their Banks.
Note 2 to self, Remember the prebuild in Islan
, it is probably a bad thing to build rushables from scratch in a game heavy with warfare.
I rush a worker out of Thebes instead of starving them. I see no reason to starve the citizens when we can pay 60 gold for a worker.
I partial rush the bank in Zimbabwe by way of Colloseum. I realize belatedly that it would have been more efficient to rush in one of the food rich cities.
We are a bit weak on the frontline, and I spot a border city defended by an imp. This is a bit weak in the age of cavalry. I find five pikemen in New Umtata, so I start to shift them around a bit. Four of them had moved this turn, so I could shift only one.
IBT: A pirate sinks our galley. A cavalry strikes at our sacrifical warrior, and the proud old regiment is no more.
810AD Diara who last turn was defended by a musket now has a rifleman instead. I use the army to destroy the city, saving our cavalry for better odds. Four workers are netted. I lose a cavalry taking out the Songhai cavalry. I lose an elite knight, and gets severely wounded with another knight taking out the other visible Songhai cavalry.
Lots of movement and positioning. Things will be slow against the riflemen, as I am a bit conservative. We have a long way to advance before we can grab the gems. I move workers corewards as they complete their roading projects, as I want them in our core the moment we get rails.
Hammurabi is up Theory, but lack Magnetism, India owns 20K gold, so I can guess who is the tech leader. No great chance of a trade though, as Ivory and 60 gpt still is insulting to any sellers of Magnetism. In six turns we will have our gold back, and we might still be able to swing a twofer then. For now, it is impossible without converting half our population into taxmen.
IBT: Aztecs and India sign against Australia, Bad news, Songhai manage to sign India in a trade embargo against us. Cavalry storm out of the desert, and we lose lightly defended Pi-Ramses. Losses are up to imp, cavalry, knight and 2 pikes, and all we have defeated are one of the knight-equivalents. Given we build mostly banks, this was not a very good IBT for us.
820AD 69 gpt/169 gold and Ivory barely makes it doubtful for Magnetism. Brazil has 127 gold, and I sell them Banking, hoping they will get even more gold to pay for our obsolete techs. I lose one cavalry destroying the defenders in Kangaba. I am tempted to snag it just to get a cultural border and stop the hordes of Songhai, but I raze it, when I realize the two pikemen destroyed were the defenders to be. I will now spend the next turns trying to gas the Songhai war machine. I will likely lose the cavalry used in grabbing the site, but such is the price to pay when overextending oneself.
I spend some of the gold our map sales have netted to rush a couple of frontline cannon. Not that they are much help against cavalry, but we lack barracks for rushing defenders.
This will hopefully be the last turn with loads of exposed troops, but exposing troops is inherent when you raze instead of capture. Hopefully the next player will be able to raise a SoD of Muskets so we can have real frontline settlers so we can get a better cultural border.
IBT: What is it with all these embargoes ?? Egypt sign one against us.
It is bloody, and we lose three cavalry and one crusader against two losses for the Songhai, and at that we were lucky. China who is at war against us, sign a trade embargo.
Reinforcements this turn is a single musketman in our core, and a couple of cannon at the front.
Furs deal run out, and we have no obsolete techs to trade for the furs, so I expect this to be expensive.
830AD Snag two slaves from a Songhai settler pair. Thats good, as long as he is building settlers, he lose pop, and he does not build cavalry. A pair of Impis that survived, pillage an iron for Songhai. Hope it hurts. I kill three of the visible cavs, and then spread out my cavalry while waiting for the armies to heal, and the Songhai troops to expose themselves in a way that do not necessitate me to expose myself in response.
I rush a frontline Barracks this turn, to facilitate said healing. Only exposed troop this turn is our elite horse who stuck his snout out while dispatching a redlined cavalry.
Russia is up to 8K gold, so I guess they have researched another tech and sold to India. Sell Printing Press to Greece for some pocket change. ( 11 gold + 5 gpt. ) Renewing the Furs costs us Ivory and 5 gpt.
Income is up to 101 gpt, but we still cannot even get close to buying Magnetism. Too bad.
IBT: A pirate tries to sink a Songhai galleon outside our southern coast. Unfortunately it does not succeed. We get very lucky when I had missed a cavalry, and it attacks a backline city defended by an impi. Our valiant Impi will be rewarded by a congressional medal of honor. Also honourable mention to the Crusader who beats off another cavalry. Otherwise there are lots of ships travelling south along our coast, and it may be that we need to sign peace with Songhai real soon now.
Songhai also manages to recapture four slaves, however they keep them for us to recapture.
840AD Hopefully things will start to turn now, that I can start to counterattack, and perhaps advance our borders a bit. Zimbabwe 2 is built to secure rubber from the Jungles.
Kill off two cavalry and a Dyina.
Gwandu is the only visible source of horses for Songhai, and any long term plans should have that foremost in sight, and as soon as our armies are healed, I will start the advance. Having a fit army on top, should allow our cavalry to approach.
I also am not certain what would happen to size 1 Pi-Ramses if we recapture, as it has no culture, and the citizen is not ours.
I get five gold and a worker for peace with China. Brazil has a little more money, so I sell them Chemistry for 13 gpt.
Madagaskar is defended by warriors, so I suspect the Songhai fleet is headed here. Make peace, or make ships to transport military here. First drop may happen as fast as in two turns, and we do not even own a barracks on it. Since we do not own Magnetism, I cannot build a warship to sink the lone caravel that is the Songhai vanguard. We will be able to speak with the Songhai next turn, so I suspect we will have to go to peace at that time, somewhat short of being able to grab the gems. I do not long consider rushing two regular cavalry.
Something has increased our unhappiness, but I do not know what it is. All the unhappy people claim it is only crowded. We still have four luxes :shrug:
135gpt and 224 gold is still only doubtful for magnetism. Magnetism/ToG better be the last techs we buy, as prices seem to be really high here.
IBT: An amazing amount of move 1 troops well in over our borders, but no counters. I have no idea how to deal with this. I will likely try to regain Pi-Ramses, and then sign peace, so we can grow some military before we go to war again.
Apparently I missed New Ulundi when I MMed, and I get an embarrassing riot in my hand over turn.
850AD We have 39 Songhai troops visible. In one turn, an invisible caravel will drop an unknown number of troops on Madagaskar, defended by three warriors and an imp.
I have left movement on troops at the frontline. This is in case you want to war for one more turn with the Songhai. I have also left movement on our two armies. You may even want to do this, as we could possibly raze the Songhai horse city if we move all troops into position. You should be able to gather the two armies, and some six cavalry for striking at the Songhai horse city if you elect to not take peace this turn. Peace is likely to get more expensive next turn, as the Songhai will have much more troops in our territory by then.
We can get enough of a rebate with a peace deal so we can afford to buy Magnetism from the Songhai. Trade it to Abe and/or Hammurabi for ToG, and we can start to save up for a steal of Steam.
Sorry for not getting any further, I had problems blunting the Songhai counter, and on more than one occasion I was plain lucky.
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Grimjack.
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