IBT – Ottomans and Russia sign peace causing Russia to give me my second source of war jollies. Babylon starts the Great Library.
230 BC – Only 3 Ottoman units again this turn, but I have to wonder if the peace with Russia will make them send more toward me. One more elite win (15). There will be a few more units to kill next turn:
As you can see, my settler is now in iron poaching position for next turn.
IBT – The Ottomans kill 1 of the spears guarding my iron settler. The Russians sink one of my 3 remaining curraghs – I may never meet the final 3 tribes. The Ottomans start Knights Templar – I will be seeing knights in the not-too-distant future
.
210 BC – This time I have 10 Ottoman targets. After all my catapults fire, the top 2 units are still ¾ MDI. I am building 2 catapults per turn in my core, so hopefully I can hold out until they get to the front. My 1 healthy elite gets a victory (16), but I lose 2 veterans. I send a couple workers in that direction to build a fortress on that tile in case I can’t keep up with the Ottomans.
I found New Kente to steal the iron. Map Stat gives it a 20-27% chance of flipping. Obviously I am only borrowing this iron temporarily. I upgrade 3 veteran warriors to MDI for my first army (I will get a leader, really) and set core towns to MDI or pikes so I get a few before my iron is gone.
All troops head toward the front. I had been holding many in my core for happiness purposes, but now everyone heads forward partly because I will soon be facing knights, but also because I am going to have to start advancing. I wasn’t planning on advancing until I got a leader, but I have to relieve the cultural pressure so I can keep iron, and I’m almost out of room to settle peacefully anyway. I just leave a handful of mounted warriors behind for amphibious defense and to take the Babylonian towns once they get around to declaring on me.
My core has finally reached size 12 everywhere:
Now I’m short on workers from all the adding I’ve done, but there are plenty of corrupt towns to rebuild a workforce.
You may notice I am also about to go bankrupt – I still have 7 turns of giving the Zulu 252 gpt. As an American, I know the best way to deal with crippling debt payments is to borrow more so I give the Zulu another 88 gpt which gets me a worker (I can’t resist slaves) and 1128 gold. I should now have no trouble staying solvent until that first deal expires.
190 BC – Back down to only 8 Ottomans. Again I only have 1 healthy elite to win (17), but I gain 1 elite with 1 vet lost.
170 BC – Only 1 Ottoman MDI (18). Forces gather near New Kente (but not inside the city
) for an assault on Denizli coming soon. A curragh sees an unknown border!
150 BC – Not a single Ottoman in sight in the northern passage! A single mounted warrior slides one tile northwest and still sees nothing. I guess I will try to make progress in both land bridges
.
I found Salamanca 2 (twice through the city names so far). The advance stacks:
I really regretted moving the northern stack right after I did it. They can’t do any damage from there – I should have just waited a couple more turns for my pikes to get there. Hopefully it won’t cost much
.
The northern stack is 5 spears, 27 mounted warriors, and 27 catapults. The southern stack to attack Denizli next turn is 4 spears, 20 mounted warriors and 2 catapults (and yes, I still am weak to everyone except the Zulu).
So much going on I almost forget to check out the Mongols. They are up Engineering and The Republic on me. The Ottomans are still the only ones working on Leo’s so the knowledge of Invention is still rare. I build an embassy with the Mongols:
They are already are at war with the Russians and the Aztecs (as am I), but they haven’t realized how evil the Ottomans are yet. I decide to hold off on signing alliances with them for a few turns. I want to buy Engineering for gpt as part of a peace deal/alliances with someone. In 4 turns when my Zulu deal expires, I will have much more available gpt. If the Zulu don’t break our deal, then I will buy Engineering from them. If they do break it, then I will get Engineering from the Mongols.
IBT – The Ottomans do nothing to my northern stack. They attack the southern stack with a knight (retreated) and an MDI (killed a spear).
The Babylonians move a settler/spear pair into my territory from the north, so I can get them to declare anytime I want. It sure would be nice if they showed up with Engineering
.
130 BC – I retreat my northern stack. I can wait a couple turns until I can put pikes on top of it. Denizli was guarded by 3 pikes, 2 trebbies, an injured MDI, and a redlined knight. It costs me 4 mounted warriors to raze and gain 4 slaves. Now my iron is flip-proof.
IBT – A knight comes out of the fog in the south to attack a spear then retreat. The Aztecs start the Great Library. The Ottomans are building Leo’s – I could have sworn they were already working on that.
110 BC – This time the Ottomans come at me with 9 units in the northern pass. I don’t have quite enough to redline all of them – 3 still have 2 hps. I lose 1 veteran mounted warrior, and all 4 of my elites get wins (I only have 4? Even promotions are few and far between.). That makes 22 elite wins – where’s my leader???? My first 2 pikemen arrive in the northern fortress – maybe I’ll try moving forward again next turn.
In the south, I kill the redlined knight with a veteran mounted warrior.
IBT – America and Mongols sign an alliance vs. Aztecs. Where is America?
90 BC – The knights are coming, but they choose to avoid my pike in the fortress:
And finally:
My third elite victory of the turn and my 25th overall. The leader forms an MDI army which will head the southern front’s approach over difficult grassland. The northern choke is so good, I don’t think the army is needed there. I optimistically start prebuilding both the Heroic Epic and the Pentagon (I have to get 2 more armies in the next 25 turns, no?).
My stack in Ottoman territory is 2 pikes, 5 spears, 35 mounted warriors, 1 worker and 2 slaves. If all goes well, then I will found a city north of where the settler is now, build a road in the tile that will then be in my territory and destroy the road 1 northwest of there to move the front.
I have to take out a small loan from the Zulu (8 gpt for 112 gold) to keep me afloat for 1 more turn before our major deal expires next turn.
IBT – The Ottomans got all the way to the mounted warriors in my stack and killed a few of them. The stack will retreat again. Zulu and the Aztecs sign peace – the Zulu are war happiness source #3 plus I was still paying them over 90 gpt for the next 14 turns. The Russians complete the Great Library – not all that convenient, but the tech pace has been so slow I don’t care much. The Mongols start Leo’s. The Ottomans complete Knights Templar.
70 BC – The northern stack retreats back to the safety of my fortress. The southern units start advancing under the protection of the army.
I decide the Babylonians' time is up – I don’t want to wait for them to get Engineering. I sign an alliance vs. the Russians with the Babylonians plus they throw in Republic. It costs me only 140 gpt. Then I make Hammi furious and kick out his units, and he declares war. I now have 100% war happiness (of course that doesn’t mean that 100% of my citizens are happy, but the only cities with happiness issues are size 2, 3, or 7 so I just need to maneuver MPs around).
The Babylonian city of Nimrud autorazes, but there was a settler in there for 2 slaves. I also get the settler under the spear for 2 more slaves, and they had 1 worker in the open for me.
It’s time to get Engineering. My military is up to average against the Mongols. I renegotiate peace with the Mongols (can I get more than 100% war happiness? I don’t know, but I doubt it. Regardless, it wouldn’t be bad for the Mongols to declare on me also, so I can sign peace with someone when desirable and keep my happiness). We sign peace and alliances vs. the Russians and the Aztecs (the Mongols would have paid me for those two, but the Zulu and the Ottomans would cost extra so I decided they were unnecessary). The Mongols provide Engineering, and I provide 95 gpt.
I still have 273 gpt, but I have very little to spend it on. My cities are at 15 or 20 spt, so there is not useful way to cash-rush military. I suppose I could use some for marketplaces, courthouses and aqueducts, but I don’t really need many more of them either. My primary expense will be rushing settlers to fill in the Ottoman territory as I raze cities, and I don’t need that much for that.
So I talk myself into buying Invention from the Mongols. It costs me 219 gpt, but I might not even end up paying it if the Mongols break our deals. This way I can keep tabs on Gunpowder, and once I get that from some AI, I will race to cavalry myself. It turns out the Ottomans already have Gunpowder, but I’m not ready for peace with them yet. I haven’t seen any muskets from them, so I guess they lack saltpeter.
IBT – The Ottomans attack my pike in the fortress with a knight, but the pike scared him away. The Babylonians land 2 units near my core. I realize that I could use money to upgrade catapults to trebbies – oh, well.
The Ottomans sent me 17 units, but I only have 2 healthy elites (with no *) and only 1 other injured elite. Both elites get wins, 2 more veterans get promotions, and 2 vets were killed.
Back on the home front, I kill the intruding Bab bowman and warrior without loss (getting a promotion to elite), pick off a newly landed Bab spear/settler pair, and lose 1 mounted warrior razing the Babylonian city of Hindana. My territory is now clear of filthy foreigners:
On the western flank, my army leads 31 mounted warriors into Ottoman territory and can’t find a city:
Score at 50 BC = 2223
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. Its in a town I cant even see yet. 
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. I cycle off my military builds to start putting marketplaces in a few towns at a time. 
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).
over the prospect of my very first luxury, but it will probably be too dangerous to claim for a while still.
. According to MapStat, those 4 turns took me a little under 2 hours.
