Executive summary:
A few factories, one hospital. ToE tech coming soon.
China is no more.
Iroquois are reeling.
Greece is out of steam -- nearly.
Russia is rampaging.
Coast is hot, with a landing imminent.
Rome is troublesome.
Many many more GLs but never two in a turn, despite my best efforts.
Universal Sufferage is ours, for no reason other than denial.
A more detailed summary follows, a kind of stream-of-conciousness effort....
(0) 1550 - Reviewed the situation. All looks very good. It looks like the Iroquois city of Akwesasne is in our way, so it will have to go, too. And I wake our settler and move him towards an awesome spot with two cows and two wheat in ex-China. More will be ordered. Some/much of this area is close enough to our FP to be quite useful.
(I) About 16 Greek cavalry arrive, decimating our forces in old China, killing our settler, capturing workers. Another dozen Greek riflemen move into our lands -- we are short on troops.
Industrialization completed. Sanitation (4 turns only) begun.
(1) 1555 - Captured Akwasasne -- might be only briefly. Emptying internal cities to guard cav in the field. Tons more workers are needed. GL rushes a factory in New Zimbabwe (Iron Works city) first thing.
(I) Greek onslaught continues -- killing riflemen across rivers with no damage, bouncing around doing nearly as they will. This is not pretty. Akwasasne captured -- longbow kills defending rifle -- who knew? Really bad HORRIBLE numbers this off-turn.
(2) 1560 - AARGGGHHH!!! Where is Pepe to man my cannons? I have a horrible hit rate. This combat is most frustrating.
At least I get a GL with my first cavalry attack. He'll become a factory in Ulundi. Why not Universal Sufferage? Because Arathorn is an idiot at times.
Akwasasne back in the correct hands.
More combat crap. Elite cavalry dying to 1 hp riflemen. What's up with the PRNG?
Lots of workers move from mountain tops to flatlands where they can finish jobs MUCH faster and get a lot of benefit sooner.
(3) 1565 - Macao razed. Chinese destroyed. Will cost a couple cavalry. Lots of factories underway.
Did I do something wrong? Am I cursed? Three consecutive full-hp elite cav lose to defending cav. This is the worst combat run I've ever had.
(I) Russia sends in 15 cossacks. The peasants put sphinxes by the palace.
(4) 1570 - Another GL. This time he becomes Universal Sufferage in Ulundi. LOTS of chipping away at the Russia stack, with minor effort given to the half-dozen rifles Rome sent and the continuing Greek annoyance. Most cavalry attacking the Russian stack, though, after cannon softening.
Caughnawaga is ours. That means Isand can be connected in the not-too-distant future. Walls ordered up.
(I) Sanitation finished. Electricity ordered. Espionage and spies relatively soon might be very nice, too.
(5) 1575 - New Hlobane founded in old China. Fantastic site, once it can get up to speed on infrastructure and such. Minimal defense (only two rifles), but it's quite a ways from the front with anybody. Tons of unused land down here begging for cities.
I'm forced to do a few attacks with rifles, as we're so low on cavalry. Factories are nice infrastructure, but they take some time to build. I'm building them primarily in central cities (and some hospitals), letting the outliers do troops. Eventually, this will need to change.
(I) Russia's not running out of steam. Another dozen or so cossacks appear and move towards New Zimbabwe. This is getting old. Just die already!
(6) 1580 - Salamanca razed -- three cavalry down south are just basically looking for things to do. They captured Tonawanda a while back and can't get home quickly enough. Salamanca was close. One pike and two spear defenders. I'm guessing the Iroquois are toast if we can ever get the forces together to tell them that.
With all the factories I'm building, I'm starting to have a major troop shortage. Could be interesting.
(I) A source of coal exhausts, leaving us only one source. The Iroquois form Salamanca again.
(7) 1585 - Captured Centralia. Trying to RR to Cahnawauga but not lose any workers in the process. Cahn is under a withering attack. Last turn, the knight army fought off three cavalry and a riflemen one before dying. Walls completed, though, giving us a better chance but no surviving riflemen there. More should be on the way this turn.
(I) Knight army, behind walls, with 6 hps, manages to deal 0 damage to an attacking cav. Sigh. Scratch one old army. Oh, yeah, he had cannon support, too. Caughn.. under serious attack. And another fifteen Russian cossacks appear. Where are they getting all these troops???????
(8) 1590 - Lots of our ships sinking. Full hp ironclads attacking galleys, after bombardment support, dying without dealing a scratch. These turns are insanely bad.
A GL becomes a factory in Umtata.
Niagara Falls, in the south, captured.
(I) Once again, I can do no right. Riflemen on a mountain gets attacked across a river by a cossack and deals no damage. Three elite ironclads in a stack (to provide bombardment support) fall to two galleons and an ironclad, taking nobody with them. AARGGGHHHH!!!
Electricity finishes. Nothing else appears completed. I order Sci Method, though, as we can really afford to do a bit of research on our own.
Time to sci method drops dramatically inter-turn. English building Theory of Evolution, but we should GL it in about 4 turns...
(9) 1595 - GL appears again. He becomes a factory in Anyang.
I again run out of cavalry for the defensive attack and use a couple riflemen. The Russians are going nuts with number of units.
(I) More troops moving in. At least a few cavalry finish, so I can attack a bit more.
(10) 1600 - I start with 9 consecutive cannon misses. The 10th finally hits. "Calling all musketeers!"
Mauch Chunk captured. Those three rogue cavalry are doing more damage than the rest of my army combined.
One of the rogue cavalry in the south got mismanaged onto a mountain. Another is lost near a city, where I miscounted movement. They could die.
A city in that area, Niagara Falls maybe? -- the one closest to Awkasasne, had a rifle die to cavalry last turn and only has a cav defender, so it's probably toast. Sorry about that.
Cities/workers needed in the south. Jungle-clearing by New Zimb/Yakutsk begun a bit again. Russians coming from the north. Should be another exciting 10 turns.
Jester, you're up.
Sirian is on deck.
Save is at
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads/lotr2-zulu-1600ad.zip
Arathorn
In the above case, I'd start the cheapest tech so the ToE would give me the more expensive ones.
.
