General Charis 'the Charger' Murabi was called forth to lead the nation
in battle against a fierce and aggressive foe, the Zulus. At first glance the
general mutters "their saltpeter is still connected? Zimbabwe still stands?
They could access horses?" He takes a closer look at our situation, after the
nice campaign by Ridgelake. We've seen just a small dent in the 'power' of the
Zulu, but at least have stopped the bleeding the other civs were seeing.
Our culture is tops. Sadly, we're second in land area despite being 6CC.
Sadly for other neighbors we're strong to all except weak to Zulu, and we're
spending out the wazoo for our high unit count. We're just seven turns from
Democracy and we could use that! Actually we're just 4 turns away with higher sci.
I see our main army is at Harran and will likely sack it next turn. They have saltpeter
out the wazoo, and just one horse - unhooked outside New York.
[0] 550 - A little shield reconfiguring to get an item or two done a turn early.
Hmm, there's movement left. Attacks left actually, at Harran. We continue the
attack. We lose an elite knight (ouch, was leader fishing) but a followup fish
pays off with the great leader Sumabaum. Too bad we can't support a second army

Nor can we use it for a FP. Letting the old army die and replacing with Cav would
be one idea, otherwise a Small Wonder rush like CIA or Mil Academy. At 400 shields
and one tech away, that's not a bad choice at all. One more knight and
Harran is razed. IBT We renew RoP with Portugal to keep them polite.
A Zulu MDI dies vs our AC.
[1] 560 - Kazan starts bank. In the open outside Ugarit we hit 2 LB, 3 MDI.
The Army hits Ugarit and is shocked to see it had but 2 defenders. Down it goes,
into ashes, netting seven slave workers and two trebs!? Hmmm, that's an opportunity
for a temporary saltpeter colony. We hit two more open MDI.
IBT One Knight sent as a decoy to protect weaker exposed troops had gone to a
mountain. Two MDI's died before killing it, and no other attacks mid-turn.
[2] 570 - Our slow moving forces head to Hattusha for some trimming, our army
heads to a rax to heal, and our fast forces gather on a hill outside Isha.
IBT Our worst fear. Zulu cav appears. They've hooked up the horses. That's gotta
stop 8-\
[3] 580 - LB beats lil Musket, and a classic UU battle, Bowman vs Impi goes down to
both red, then we win and the city is razed. A knight kills the lone cav.
IBT LB beats our knight. Democracy comes in and I revolt immediately, for 1.5 turns.
[4] 590 - We lose a Knight but Isadhwala falls.
IBT Vilcas is founded by Incans in one of the gaps.
[5] 600 - We're now a Democracy. For the worker benefit and the reduced unit cost and
better research power, it's our must-do govt. The downside of course is increased
war-weariness, which we don't welcome at this point. The General is looking now to
hit harder faster which means... Zimbabwe! (Via Hlobane) We're researching Physics
now, btw. That will help us move toward Rifle, and if for some reason we really pound
Zulus it will open up two more techs to sue. However I would go after Mil Tradition
next or buy/trade it, since our saltpeter supply may be limited.
IBT Ow that cav reaches far into our territory to kill an elite AC.
[6] 610 - We cut down that cav and two MDI and get some units in range of Hlobane.
IBT Cav out of fog kills a backrow healing bowman.
[7] 620 - Crud. The ingrateful Incans have sent a settler right next to our saltpeter
colony and it should disappear next turn. 8-\ Can we trade for MT? The Mongols have
it and lack Democracy! Same for the Incas, except the Mongols have Physics too.
They'll give us all three for Democracy, so we do it. All cities but Babylon swap
to cav. The upgrade of Knight to cav is only 30g, so all available knights head
to a rax. IBT The settler steps forward, so we'll have one more round of salt.
[8] 630 - Army attacks Hlobane killing two, but is lookin' kinda hurt. Cavs up.
IBT - Nada??? No counter attacks?! Nice. The Inca settler moves *BACK* and didn't
settle yet again. We lose an AC but raze Hlobane, which was settled smack on TOP of
saltpeter. We can afford a Zulu slave to colonize it for now.
I was going to have Sumabaum rush the Mil Academy now, but it's close enough to
next turn to let leader decide. In the meantime our capital can work profitably
on a cavalry (if the plan is to push our army to its death then fill a new one with
cavs. The downside there is that 3 cavs individually are quite nice too.)
IBT - Oh well, the Incans settle next to the salt, and our colony is gone.
A Zulu cav comes out of Zimbabwe and kills an AC.
[9] 640 - movin'
[10] 650 - healin' and movin' and even better, pillagin'
We renew the Ivory sale to Inca, who can now pay 9 gpt.
Notes/thoughts: The longbow in neutral territory is blocking a mongol settler pair.
The cavs around Zimbabwe have pillaged its iron and several tiles. They were
thinking about striking all together when the army has healed and moved to join
them. The new saltpeter colony will be connected in 2 turns. You should almost
certainly move some units surrouning it and the road back home otherwise that
mongol settler pair will found on it and destroy our colony!
IMHO, the key objectives over the next turns are: i) raze Zimbabwe, ii) try to
safeguard the colony if possible, iii) march the army and cav all the way
down to New York and pillage the horses and/or raze the city. That would end
the cav supply semi-permanently. Making peace with the Zulu still in possession
of horses could almost be a death sentence to our allies.
Remember, leader sitting for Mil Academy or if army dies for a new cavalry army.
Zimbabwe may not be easy. There are no doubt a min of five muskets, perhaps 7-8
although they seem too gassy for that much. It does hold Leo's and Great Wall,
so it's a very worthy prize to raze. With the army and cavs working together though,
I bet we can take it.
Maniac
Ridgelake
Charis
Matt_G <-- UP
Meldor <-- On deck
Skyfish
Save file 650AD
Good luck,
Charis