Ralph left me some nice stacks to play with and get Ragnar out of the way.
Very soon Haithabu falls and we march on to Nidaros and Jelling, home of the people who eternally contemplate whether they prefer Ying over Yang or Yang over Ying. We'll help them by showing the third way, which actually is the First and Only Way by righteously burning the place of eternal doubt down. Nidaros just has fallen before that.
However, the war with Ragnar had gotten a new dimension by him foolishly vassalizing to Alex. With that Ragnar ultimately signed his own death warrant as now the only way to get him out of the place is by exterminating him. Of course with Alex offering his curious form of protection we're at war with him now as well. On a side note, I always wondered why the game won't show you properly the face of your new enemy saying that he will crush you while protecting the weak, when somebody you're at war with vassalize to somebody else and thus povokes a war declaration. Now it's just a measly little text in red that tells you so.
A first GA was triggered by the way at the start of my set with a GP and GA. Railroad finished and set tech to constitution. I didn't really fancy the deal with Justy for communism. However, after 1 turn of researching it, Sally has it as well, so we trade for it with him for a cheaper price.
The war advances and we march on to the remaining Viking settlements. Alex actually does come with some forces. The most important one was a stack of some 12-15 riflemen on the gates of Nidaros after we captured it. Luckily it was well enough defended but we took some losses unfortunately when Alex sacrificed this SoD on the former Viking capital. I think we lost 3 riflemen and 3 cavalry, but what remained of his stack was dispatched with on the following turn.
However, Alex did manage to slip some galleons past the shores and took Minoan, but it was retaken next turn.
We take Ragnar's dwelling to the SW which name I forgot now and finally also Bjorgvin and Ragnar is history in 1705.
I played on till 1725. We've got a stack of cannons, cavalry and some riflemen next to the jewish holy city in the SE, which can be razed soonish. In the SW I started an advance to Corinth, but a surprisingly fierce counterattack cost us some units so had to retreat.
We finished teching Corporation and Assembly Line and we got a first few infantry, also by upgrading some of the riflemen. 1 turn at 0% research netted something like 1100 gold which is quite impressive! Right now we're in the middle of the second GA I triggered with a GS that was born in Carthage, with the GAr and GSp that where still hanging around Madrid. Right now researching biology which is due in 2, while there are 4 turns of GA left.
I built exactly 1 watermill (at Barcelona). Sorry, Paulus!
Once railroad was in I thought it priority to build a railroad to the frontlines, which is in place already. Moreover, there were not that many riverside farms to watermill and I thought that the towns should be left untouched (especially with free speech).
I was looking for a natural stopping point to stop, but it didn't really come, so I stopped where I did as it was getting late and didn't want to
up my moves to badly, especially after having lost some units in the SW. I was actually waiting for a point where Alex would sign peace, but he is still unwilling.
Not that we necessarily need peace. Our power rating with him is 1.5 right now so he shouldn't pose any serious threat. But I do think we need some reinforcements in the form of infantry and maybe some more cannons.
Cities have been building mixed stuff. Units of course, but also improvements. Wall Street got built in Madrid and Seville built the Kremlin, basically because it kept on annoying me in the build queues
. We may not need it, unless we go US, but production is great in general. Well ok, I only saw turns in golden age, but the cities in general look good to me. Oh, IIRC we built West Point as well in Barcelona. I also started building some galleons and frigates for some not too distant invasion of Byzantium.
To finish off, the tech situation. Just or Alex is in emancipation as we are suffering unhaapiness from it. For the moment we can deal with it though.
And a save. I emailed it to my work to be able to do this write up (yeah, very busy at work as you can see
) so hope it didn't get corrupted somehow.
