(0) 1050 - Building culture in recently-captured cities, huh? I can see the appeal, but I hate not having a pop-up to let me know when I've come out of anarchy. Then, later in the turn, I realized building Culture built culture until the next border pop and then quit. What a fantastic feature! I like it a lot. And I'm using it now, too.
I don't see the need for monasteries. We've got heads to bonk. Izzy won't be longbowless forever. We gotta get some forces there pronto. Our economy will support 40% research, so we can still grow more without too much difficulty. Getting a hydra-ish city won't hurt, either. Still, I kept the one going in Nidaros.
Put all EPs on Izzy. I want some visibility before we go in there. And, apparently, all our spies have perished.
(1) 1060 - I think it's going to take about 3 turns to get into position to attack Izzy. We appear to have two attack groups. If she's got counter troops like an AI usually have, one will be mostly hurt taking our her counter stack and the other will be hogwild. I don't understand the complete lack of trebuchets, though. That +100% vs. cities is a HUGE benefit and helps a ton in taking down tough hilltop cities, by wounding a bunch of units.
(2) 1070 - OK, maybe a bit more. Or maybe it'll just be a reinforcing wave 2-3 turns later. We have troops all over. Obviously, it was a hard-fault battle against Justinian and our troops were set up for that and not much else. Which is good, because taking out one foe at a time is the best plan.
I also turn up the espionage slider to 10% for this turn, so we can see what Izzy's researching one turn earlier. I'd like city visibility, but that's quite a few more EPs.
(3) 1080 - Moving toward Izzy. Spy reveals the excellent news that Izzy is working on Currency!
Now, that's a great tech, don't get me wrong. But it's not particularly appropriate when a horde of berserkers is descending upon you. Longbows make one sleep better.
(4) 1090 - I'm not quite ready, but 4 free workers?!? I can't pass that up.
Attack Izzy.
No response.
(5) 1100 - Marching, marching, marching. Should start seeing effect of that soon.
(I) Capture a Spanish spy. And the Americans marched a swordsman all the way across the continent to capture a barbarian icehole. OK. Not smart, but...OK.
(6) 1110 - Can't capture anything yet. And the unit support in foreign lands is a bit of an economic crimp. No matter, though, Izzy shan't take long.
(I) India comples the Apostolic Palace. That could be bad. We have Buddhism, so we're in on the voting, but we don't have enough Buddhists to influence the vote. We're not even a candidate. I'd hate to see some kind of diplomatic loss here. I might see if I can spread a bit of Buddhism, so we can influence the votes a bit more.
(7) 1120 - Cordoba is the first to fall.
And it gives us another GG. I immediately settle Cao Cao, said leader, in Carthage, to provide a few more xps from this, a very solid production city. Immediate gratification.
(I) As expected, Asoka is head of Apostolic Council. Capturing Spanish cities also increases our Buddhism power, so PRESS ON!
(8) 1130 - It costs us a berserker, but Barcelona is now Viking, as it should be.
(I) Guilds -> Banking. We can recovery our economy in several ways. Now, city captures are taking care of it. They might for the rest of the game, but some mercantilism or something might be handy.
(9) 1140 - Another minor capture; another lost berserker.
A tiny bit of income there, though.
We also got a great scientist that I don't know what to do with. Instead of sprinting into action with him, I'm going to save Isaac Newton for team discussion
(I) I was semi-expecting this. Doesn't make things easier and we may lose a city or two, as I was pushing hard in the south.
(10) 1150 - Asoka has macemen and he's right up against some of our cities. I have to whip an archer, because we couldn't do a longbow. I have an archer/pike defending against a pike/mace attacker. And not much ability to re-supply there.
All EPs were sent to Asoka a little while ago. That continues. We're getting a bit of unhappiness at home, but Izzy's almost gone. Two little tundra towns left. Most forces wheel, yet again, and head back north.
Washington won't budge in our favor. I just hope the Apostolic Palace doesn't get too ugly for us. We have a fair bit of happy, but not really enough.
One big bummer is that our forces are hurt. Healing ones are further behind, so can get north earlier, but I don't want to send injured forces against fresh ones. That's not good for kill ratio -- at all.
I move most of our cities from food to hammers. We need units, like 5 turns ago. Front could be dicey until we can get into position. Then Asoka will feel the power of 'zerks.
(I) We lose both, of course, and Pataliputra is back in Indian hands. Briefly.
(11) 1160 - Not much. Maneveuring in 7 directions and trying to finish off Izzy, prepare for Asoka on both fronts, and not given Washington too huge an opening. And get units out.
(12) 1170 - Penultimate Spanish city is now a nice shade of lilac.
Realize I'm out of position a bit by Carcassian and send in the 'pults for collateral damage. They both, amazingly, survive. But the shock axe loses to an axeman.
I shouldn't have split these forces in this way. Oh well.
And, then....
Even though it's a worthless icehole, I keep it. It'll be several squares toward domination. We're not TOO far from it, and every square is semi-helpful. Plus, it means only 3 names in the lower right, and that makes me a happy camper.
Still playing defense/positioning against Asoka. Circassian's going to be a tough nut to crack, with 100% cultural bonus and several units there. It's the home of Taoism, so....
(I) Wasn't even trying to do this, but....
Get pillaged some by Asoka. Not in a position to attack the pillagers. Maybe by Lee's early turns.
(13) 1180 - Maneveur.
(14) 1190 - Ditto.
(15) 1200 - Constantinople is in danger. It's gonna be unhappy for a while, but I whip another crossbow, to help protect it. If they send in their siege weapons first, it could be a bloody battle. I have a few more troops en route. Once that mini-stack is taken care of, though, I believe we'll be able to carve through the Indian core and get the rest of the land we need. Asoka's land, in addition to ours, is Domination. I believe I've played my last set.
We have two spies nearing Circassian and we should have the EPs to do a city revolt there. I'd send in the siege weapons (probably to die), which should weaken the defenders enough that we can take the city with forces on hand (barely).
Patal..., on the other hand, is in major trouble. And most the Indian core seems minimally defended (2-3 longbows per city). We'll get in a position to get them all relatively soon.
Roster:
Arathorn -- just played
LKendter -- up (10 - 15, your choice)
Strauss -- on deck
Admiral Kutzov
Tartan
Arathorn
