IT: 19 turns for Gunpowder? I DON'T THINK SO.
Let's try 6 turns for Astronomy (after wholesale MM of everything under the sun).
We must follow the AI's on research. I can't stress that enough.
860AD: Lost a pike to Romans, another to Chinese rider. Romans lose all their knights on my counterattacks. Pressure is ON at Anyang. No hope of reinforcements, so those will have to do!
I use our leader to rush Cathedral in Hlobane. Very helpful. Next turn I can get rid of those TWO entertainers. (What's that you say?? ENTERTAINERS???
![[pimp]](/images/smilies/pimp.gif "Pimp [pimp]")
No, really. Entertainers! I had my reasons, and they had something to do with 19 vs 6.
).
870AD: Heavy action at Anyang. Impi on a hill KILLS a rider attacking from BEHIND the city across the river, promotes, then retreats from a sword and our army ZoC takes another hp off the sword. And then our elite knights attack the sword:
880AD: Rush cathedral at Ngome. I contemplated saving the leader for Copernicus, but we've had three leaders in the last two turns, so another will turn up soon, right? ... Right?
890AD: Roman front cools, Russian front warms, Anyang still getting gangbang. Chinese are sending riders, not good. Greeks turned on the longbow spigot. Hot hot water.
Some impis sent out to pillage are, um, slain. Guess that tactic has grown obsolete.
900AD: Cumae flips to Zulu control. Some locals volunteer to serve in an impi unit.
910AD: Romans turn around. Cumae starved to size 4. Anyang cooling a bit, Russians heating up. Lose TWO vet knights on southern front, attacking two riders. Luckily I had a sword down there, and also one extra knight I had trucked in, and they mop up, but OUCHER. That's most of our counterpunch forces down there wiped out! Luckily this front is cool.
In fact, ALL the fronts are coolish, compared to what they once were. I think I know why, too. Looking at F8, our culture share of the total is STILL GOING UP at almost 1000AD. I have never seen such a thing before! Looking over the map, almost every last Roman city has not expanded borders. NO Chinese cities have except their capital. The AI's on our continent have virtually zero infrastructure. The Greeks have a few bits, not much. Russia seems to have built some temples or libraries recently and they are finally improving.
But while the AI's could crank out units they need 16 or 24 shields to build, they need 56 to build a knight/rider. 56 is hella lot when you have size 4 cities with no infrastructure, not even barracks in most cases. The poor AI's are locked into what is becoming for them a losing struggle. We've been able to get almost all the wonders with leaders, and also used them to rush a lot of infrastructure, and our lower losses for a defensive war means time here or there to build some temples or libraries, etc.
On the other hand, once the AI's can draft, they will do so endlessly (and at no penalty -- silly game). That's still a way off, though.
910AD (cont): We research Astronomy. AI's all have Banking, so banking is our next tech. I -must- turn research down by 10% now, so banking not due for 8 turns. Oh well. 8+6 = 14, that's two techs in less turns than it would have taken us to research gunpowder @1st.
Seeing all the Roman knights head toward poor Cumae, and us lacking ANY ships to send reinforcements across the strait, I give up on holding the city and turn to pillaging its lands with our free impi, starting with the gems tile.
920AD: Cumae starves to size 3. I pillage a plains tile. Russian miniSoD of longbows arrives on the front. I have been reinforcing New Z-town, so it's not a worry.
930AD: Cumae recaptured, Romans waltz into undefended town, but they woulda run over the impis anyway. I pillage another plains tile. Anyang finally quieting. Could have something to do with the impi I have running around pillaging every turn east of Isand (meaning temporary relief only).
940AD: Odd turn. Only one battle: that impi gets bushwacked by a Greek longbow and is forced to retreat.
950AD: Forces closing in on all sides now, for our raider impi units. The one near Isand IS TOASTY. 1hp left, surrounded on all sides, they are finished. The ones near Cumae, I get them into the mountains, where they should have a half decent shot at surviving a little longer.
Zunguin founded at an old dot location, now prime real estate on innermost circle around FP location. Needs forests cleared and some irrigation happening. We also need some more workers near the front lines, hurting for roads on ALL fronts, but I went ahead and continued the jungle clearing for now, for the most part. Peeled off a couple here or there to send to the Roman and Russian fronts, but we'll need more in place before we can go much on the offensive.
Our knights are in position to attack the Russians. Ten Russian units, ten of our knights. The battle begins!
Ten battles later, the Zulu knights stand victorious. The Russian forces are pushing up daisies.
Sadly, no new leaders. And the Russians DID cascade from Leo to Cop, so they may actually steal this wonder from us! I guess I should have saved the leader and not risked trying to get another, but I thought it would work out. If it does not, I'll take the blame, since I did not play it safe, knowing that a wonder would come available in just a few turns.
ROMAN FRONT: we reached out too far and got our neck chopped, and now we're actually LESS progressed on that front than prior to my last turn. With no workers anywhere remotely near the area, I gave up on the idea of trying to reclaim any lost ground there and just played defensively.
RUSSIAN FRONT: progress is good. We are in position to attack and capture the closest Russian outpost if we want -- within a couple of turns. Most of our knights were wounded in the fight on the last round though, and no idea what sort of reinforcements are on the way for Cathy. Still... worth considering. Just be careful, only four knights in Intombe and the Romans ARE coming back soon.
GREEK FRONT: treading water at Anyang.
CHINESE FRONT: south front was fairly quiet. Chinese have sputtered a bit, and I replaced the troops I did lose. Still... this front is too thin, and we must retain that iron!
COASTAL FRONT: no action. However, we have astronomy now and I am building a caravel. In a perfect world, I'd like us to have five ships and soon: one to explore in each direction, two for when Navigation comes online so we can go make new enemies, and one for shuttling across to Cumae if it ever flips again.
LOTR2 950AD
- Sirian
. It's all sorted now, and I didn't actually play the turns. Still funny that the same guy can be on both ends of the same mistake 
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