So I opened up the save and had a look at the state of the empire. Ouch, we have some serious happiness problems right now! The counter is at -9, just one point removed from severe unhappiness and we have some puppets that are still growing without a care in the world. Avoiding severe unhappiness (which brings a universal combat penalty) suddenly becomes a priority. St. Petersburg is tweaked to max hammers to finish its Colosseum in 3 turns, rather than 5. Some other cities see some tiles shifted to de-empasize growth and focus on commerce instead as our income isn't that great either. Then I start hunting for resources.
Getting those Furs hooked up is a good start, but we'll need more. Bismarck has some excess Ivory but is too unhappy with us to offer them up for trade. Same goes for his Dyes and since Hiawatha is down to a single resource, he doesn't want to part with it either. Tyre's Wine resource was pillaged, but the city-state will gift it once the tile is repaired. We'll probably have to deal with Monty before that happens though; the tile is right next to the Aztec border. Washington has a nearby Cotton resource, but taking the city will most likely cancel out the happiness bonus. Finally, there's no sign of Incense anywhere on this continent. We do have the option of buying Dublin into ally status again to gain their Gold resource, but I'll leave that as the last option.
I decide to focus on Washington first, since our forces are already in position for it and the Cotton resource will give Moscow a WLtK day. There's a group of Knights and Swords near the city, with general and catapult support. Other units can keep the new Aztec capital occupied in the meantime. Somewhat annoyingly, Rome has built a city at a small gap our border, right next to Beijing and may decide to push settlers though to found more cities in our heartland. Eventually we'll want to take over that city, but we don't really have the forces in the area to do that right now. If our happiness situation wasn't so dire, I would settle a city to plug the hole but for now we'll just have to hope that Augustus will have better things to do.
I also made a quick tally of the Horses we are supposed to have if it weren't for that multiplication glitch and came to 24. We are using 8 for units and have one active deal with Bismarck which involves another 10. As we have another 6 legitimately available, I trade 5 of them to Hiawatha for 212 gold and open borders.
Other than that, things are looking good so I start the first turn.
T146 (720 AD):
Helsinki wants Wine on the interturn, so we have another incentive to help Tyre get back on its feet again. As it turns out, they may not have to wait for too much longer either. Washington decides it's tactically sound to move up Archers next to our Knights. They are scattered without doing any damage, and the Knights are now positioned that another Knight unit can take out a group of Spearman using the Discipline bonus with minimal damage in return. Aside from the garrison, Washington seems to be out of defenders.
Knights really do pack quite a punch.
The catapult trundling towards Washington changes course and heads for the Aztec border instead. Washington should fall on the next turn without its assistance and Teowhateveracan may be a tougher nut to crack. Our units near the Aztec capital need a turn or two to heal up and allow for the Catapult to roll up, but there's not much to threaten us there. The city has a wounded Jaguar, an Archer garrison and very nervous-looking General on defense. I take advantage of the lull in battle to promote two Horsemen in the area to Knights, which should give us the punch to end both wars on this turnset. Seeing there's an awful lot of farms next to the former Aztec capital, a Worker starts replacing some with trading posts to help our economy, and I delete some excess Workers as well to lower maintenance costs a little.
Some leftover forces also start moving towards the area in between Ravenna and Helsinki to keep an eye on the Romans.
T147 (740 AD):
Washington is feeling the heat!
Sorry bud, but we'll take over your capital this turn and so I deny the offer. Our open border agreement with Germany ends as well in between turns, but I won't try to renew it just in case Bismarck decides to be cute and send a Settler through our lands. In another tactically clever move, Monty moved his fortified Jaguar and garrison Archer in to open try and go after a Pike on the coast that captured a Worker last turn.
Tyre notices the lack of defense and sends in a Spearman to hopefully soak up some bombardment damage.
This is feeling just a little too easy..
A capital falls after two Knight attacks.. somehow I expected a more resilient foe. Anyway, I decide to puppet the city. We do get the Cotton immediately, but also gain the 10th unhappiness point. Ungrateful whelps! Can't our citizens see we're creating a greater Russian state for all? I pay Dublin 250 gold for their Gold. Happiness is down to -5 again, and Dublin declares on both the Aztecs and Americans (heh). I also realize that I didn't include Horses provided by allied city states in the earlier tally, so the estimate may have been on the low side. But the only one we can sell Horses to right now is Bismarck, and I see no reason to provide a future target with strategic resources.
After the capital falls, I split up the remaining forces. Some will go to the small Aztec city east of Washington and raze it, while the rest continue on south. A captured American Worker starts laying down a road to link up the city with Moscow. If we capture Teosomethingacan as well, that should link up all of our cities again and earn us some good trade route income.
Now for the southern front.
The Swordmen take out the Archers without taking damage in return. This allows the Pikes on the coast to retreat back over the Russian border to patch themselves up, and I delete the Worker to save us some maintenance. Knights then trample the wounded Jaguars without suffering damage, and the other units move into position to attack the city itself on the next turn.
T148 (760 AD):
Moscow goes into WLtK as they got the Cotton they wanted, and St. Petersburg finishes its Colosseum which takes our happiness to a manageable -2. Novgorod also finishes a Market and Edirne a Catapult. I set the latter two to work on Colosseums to improve the happiness situation. St Petersburg will be a good place to start constructing the Forbidden Palace next turn and without anything else to build, I let it generate wealth for now.
Washington has moved up a Drill II Spearman from New York which is ignored for now. I'm sure we can lure it out of the hills later on. Let's see instead whether I can crack Monty's capital this turn.
That's an affirmative!
The catapult bombarded the city and two Knight attacks later Monty is forced to relocate again. Puppeting it raised our unhappiness to 8, but those Furs will be hooked up soon to counter it.
Over at the northern Aztec city of Tlaxcala (woohoo, finally something I can pronounce!), I captured a former Tyre Worker which I returned for some free reputation, and perhaps it'll get that Wine connected a little faster as well. The city will most likely fall next turn and will be razed to keep down our happiness deficit.
Most remaining units move and heal up where possible. We have some good momentum now, and there's no reason to let it go to waste.
T149 (780 AD):
Education comes in, and I use our Great Scientist to bulb Banking as discussed earlier in the thread. This sends us into the Renaissance Era, increasing our gains from city-states. I set research to Engineering (4 turns) to open up Physics (Trebs) and Machinery (faster road movement), and Printing Press after that (Theathres and the Taj Mahal). Steel for Longswords was also an option, but our Knights look to be more than sufficient to clean up this continent on their own.
St. Petersburg starts working on the Forbidden Palace which currently takes forever and a day to complete. I'll let the city borrow Instanbul's horse resource once it finishes its Circus, and may place a Lumber Mill or two one Engineering research finished.
Beijing wants Furs, which is convenient since the resource will be hooked up next turn.
Unfortunately I'll have to wait a turn before razing Tlaxcala, because we'd spend a turn in severe unhappiness right now while the city is being razed. I check to see if Bismarck is a bit more inclined towards an Ivory trade now, but rather than refusing outright he just wants every single other luxury resource we have. Umm, no thanks.
As a result, the capturing of the last American and Aztec cities will have to be delayed slightly. Instead, I position our forces to entice the AI in throwing away their units.
T150 (800AD):
I'm not quite sure what the Aztecs have to smile about, but I'll give you one guess who's dead last.
The American spearman attacked and inflicted some damage on the nearby Knight but was severely wounded itself and finished off later with Catapult fire, and the Aztec garrison fell gracefully on the Russian swords nearby. It's good to see that the AI is still predictable.
The Furs are finally hooked up, reducing our happiness deficit to -3, so I captured Tlaxcala and set the city to be razed next turn.
I shuffle the units around to let the wounded ones retreat and heal, while fresh units take their place. I could probably have finished off Monty this turn, but that would briefly move us into severe unhappiness. I think we can hold for one more turn.
T151 (820AD):
A trade route between our Yaroslavl and Moscow is established. Along with the cities starting to come out of resistance, our finances are starting to look up again. An old marble deal with Bismarck expires, but we have our own source now so our happiness remains unchanged. Hooking up the Furs also sends both Istanbul and Beijing into We Love the King day.
For some reason Bismarck isn't angry with us anymore, so I trade one of our surplus Spices for Ivory. We are back into positive happiness!
One downside of that is that all cities will start growing like a weed again, so I tick the 'avoid growth' box for most cities just to keep it down a little. But that also means that Monty is finished:
How dare we indeed.
I move up a Knight into viewing distance of New York and see that the city has just an Archer garrison in defense. Most units can heal up for a bit, and start positioning themselves to take on Rome although I would advise ensuring we won't crash our empire first before picking another fight.
T152 (840AD):
A fairly uneventful turn. We will be in position to hit New York next turn, other than that nothing much is happening.
T153 (860AD):
Engineering research finishes, I set research to Physics (5 turns with some tweaking) so we can upgrade our Catapults. They feel a bit underwhelming compared to our Knights, so perhaps they will be more impressive as Trebuchets. Plus it'll open up both Printing Press and Gunpowder later on, both of which will be good techs for us. Lots of other things happen as well. Instanbul finishes a Circus and Tyre has hooked up its Wine resource again, taking our happiness up to 8 (!) and sending two more cities into WLtK day, and also pours some more free reputation into Helsinki. Dublin wants Helsinki eliminated but I think we'll pass on that.
The battle to capture New York was easy enough.
Better luck next time Washington, but the Commies will take this round.
T154 (880 AD):
Units either rest or reposition themselves. I purchase a few cheap tiles so that our Tundra cities have something useful to work, it just doesn't seem worth the hammers building monuments for that. Out latest acquisitions have turned the happiness counter into the red again, but that should only last for a single turn.
T155: (900 AD):
Another quiet turn, but most of our units are now healed up and positioned next to the Roman border.
An overview of our empire at T155:
Moscow needs 3 more turns to finish Chichen Itza, after that its Horse resource should be passed to St. Petersburg so it can speed up construction of the Forbidden Palace. Workers are also busy on the road between Moscow and Washington and once it is finished, it will connect every single southern city save for New York to the capital for some good trade route income.
Western cities are mostly working on increasing our happiness, which we will need if we are going after the remaining Civs on this continent. Istanbul started on a bank by virtue of having nothing better to build. None of the remaining wonders really seem worth the effort and we have enough military units already.
The south will need some work, but we will need to start annexing cities to do that. Most forces are positioned near Rome, but a small contingent is healing up near NY and can attack from that side soon enough. In hindsight, it might have been better to keep the last Aztec city, but at the same time, we do have some room with happiness to continue taking over the continent, or perhaps annex a few cities.
Finally demographics, we're doing pretty well!
Roster:
Kylearan ->
SleepingMoogle -> just played
Gold Ergo Sum -> UP NOW
MuLepton -> on deck