Played 22 turns to get to a nice round number. Start by touring our cities. Swap Rheims to work the quarry & Birka to work both forests. Cancel the goto move of the Galley near Haithabu. Move a Caravel to scout Paris. Lots of boats, light on troops.
When it comes time to attack Paris, plan is to land Trebs on hill north of the city & bomb defenses down, at least one turn, maybe two. Troops will also be landed south of Paris to prevent reinforcement from Lyons. Troops would be reloaded onto boats for the actual assault. With some luck, there should be enough troops still alive after taking Paris to roll over Lyons as well.
Hit <Enter>.
Turn 269: Saladin cancels Furs for Ivory deal. I trade him Deer for Furs, as we're happy capped, not health capped. Saladin then predictably puts up the return city vote again. Defy. Pop a GS in Nidaros, who lops 16 turns off Education. Chichen Itza BIFAL.
Turn 270: Roskilde grows into unhappiness. Garrison Spearman is OTW. Hindu cities now have +10
for world villainy. Maybe the only way to get rid of the damn votes is to kill off the Japanese? Scout Lyons, find 2 Longbows, 1 Axe. Also one HA and Axe between the two cities that can reinforce Paris if we declare war. Instead of bringing Caravel in Saladin's islands home, use it to search for the Japanese. Also get a not too useful event.
Turn 271: Revolt again in Orleans.
Nappy now has Combat 3 War Elephants!? Pick up Scout with newly built Caravel from Nidaros. Explorer Caravel was attacked by barb Galley & needs 8 turns to heal.
Whip Haithabu's & Rheims Galley for 1 pop as both cities are now on a downward spiral to size 1 because of all the unhappiness. In fact, every Hindu city with +10 world villainy
is on the same downward spiral. I mull over converting to Hinduism. It should bring us to Pleased with Saladin, but annoy the rest of the world. I decide to convert, hoping that improving Saladin's opinion of us might get him to stop calling that damn vote.
Turn 272: Saladin is now up to Pleased, while HC & Hatty remain Cautious. Not bad. Whip Bjorgvin Berserk, since the city is eventually going to shrink to size 1.
Turn 273: Whip Birka's Courthouse for 2 pop. Start Theatres in Bjorgvin & Rheims. Beg 100g from Saladin. Send Rheims' Galley to pick up Berserks at Bjorgvin & Birka.
Turn 274: Nidaros builds another Caravel, starts a Theatre. Birka Courthouse --> Theatre.
Turn 276: Another revolt in Orleans.
Turn 278: Nidaros Theatre --> Treb.
Turn 279: Education is in. Here's the tech situation.
Next GP due in 21, with <70% chance of being a GS. Set research to Philosophy, due in 12. Since we know Machinery, a GS will not bulb Liberalism anyway, so if we somehow manage to win that race, it'll be researching the old fashioned way.
Turn 280: Get a handy event.
Turn 281: Get a worthless +8 food event in Haithabu, which is stagnant from
. Rheims is no longer uphappy and works the Stone. Angkor Wat BIFAL.
Turn 282: Popped Gold north of Nidaros!
Our army, 12 Berserk & 4 Trebs strong is ready to cross the French border to try to capture Paris. It is time to break the French once and for all. We declare war and close on Paris.
Turn 283: The French immediately recapture Orleans. But Nappy foolishly leaves Paris with only 5 defenders, 2 Longbows, a Pike, an Axe, and a HA. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Paris was captured for the cost of 4 Trebs & 3 Berserks, all attacking right from the boats. (Forgot to snap a screenie.) The city houses the Great Wall, Scotland Yard, a GMI, as well as an intact Aqueduct & Forge.
Turn 284: Nappy continues to build boats. He just whipped a new Trireme in Orleans.
IBT: Some naval combat near Lyons. Lost Caravel to a French Trireme.
Turn 285: Kill French Galley & Trireme. Trade our map + 10g for Saladin's map. Turns out Japan is about 15 tiles due east of Birka. It's a heckuva long trip for Galleys.
Turn 286: Lost 2 Galleys & killed one near Lyons. Nappy is down to attacking with Galleys, as he doesn't have any more Triremes at Lyons. Galleys were deployed to protect a weak Caravel. No ground troops were on board our boats. Birka Theatre --> Berserk. World villainy
is now down to 5. Looks like converting to Hinduism and getting Saladin to Pleased might have stopped the annoying return city votes.
Turn 287: Load 8 Berserks onto boats for attack on Lyons. It'll be bloody, but waiting longer will probably make it even bloodier.
IBT: Berserk fortified on Wine hill north of Paris kills a Sword and a HA.
Turn 288: Trade our map for Hatty's map + 25g. Also trade her (excess) Dye for Spices. We could use the
. Captured Lyons for the price of two Berserks. The RNG was kind this time. Two 3 XP Berserks were suicided as cannon fodder, but they did very well to take down the two Longbows to less than quarter health.
Turn 289: Turn down Hatty's request to adopt OR. I thought about this one for a while, because adopting FR will drop Saladin back down to Cautious and maybe raise the return city votes again. Tokyo is still only 33% Viking. Anyway, whip Paris's Theatre for 3 pop (city was starving badly anyway).
Turn 290: Loaded 6 Berserks of at least 5 XP onto the boats & they can retake Orleans in two turns if it's lightly defended enough to be doable. A Galley with a Berserk & Treb are headed that way from Nidaros. Two French Triremes are looking to cause trouble, but two Caravels are patrolling the Bjorgvin Fish. I queued an Archer in Paris to free up the Berserk on the hill if he's needed for the assault on Orleans. The Berserk at Rheims can also be used for attacking Orleans if need be.
Overall, we're in good shape. The world villainy penalty is now only 5
, the Hindu cities are all well below the happy cap now and can grow without happiness issues for a while. The other half of the world villainy penalty should wear off sometime in yena's turns. We should end Gallic War II after retaking Orleans as we can't reach the French islands until Orleans pops its borders anyway. Then consolidate our gains, build infrastructure, maybe switch to OR to build it faster.
Liberalism due in 12, HC has Philosophy but not Education while Nappy, Hatty, & Toku have the reverse situation, and Saladin has neither.
I've been using the capital to carry most of the load for building units of all types, while the rest of the empire is catching up on some infrastructure. Once Paris gets back on its feet, I think it's a good choice for the Heroic Epic/West Point combo, as it's got decent production & a GMI already merged.
Here are some screenies:
Japanese home islands. Kyoto looks to be built on a hill.
Our side of the world.
Far side of the world. Germany is the mystery 7th civ, but we have not made contact yet. Looks like Germany & Inca can each be completely conquered with one well planned campaign. Saladin is apparently diplomatically isolated and not teching so great, even though he settled lots of islands. HC founded four religions & Saladin snagged the other 3.
Another term with me as dictator is now over and the honor of successfully concluding Gallic War II goes to Captain Yena!
each. Nothing to scoff at on this map.
