Pre=turn:
Well, actually, I don't see any reason not to start the war right now. Armies are ready to move, and giving France another turn just means more production for them.
An Immediate steal against France succeeds, and we now have Western Church. Well, then, I guess we do this the old fashion way- call Joan up and punch her in the nose.
Give Germany 11 gpt for Monasticism. 11 gold to England for Feudalism, and then another 11 gold for Chivalry.
That's some cheap techs. Had I realized, I would have traded real techs to Germany for Mon. Ah, well.
Time to
!
Army #2 kills 2 pikes and a knight, takes Ghent.
Ansar kills spear in Ampurias.
Lose an Ansar but Army#1 and 2 more Ansars kill 3 pikes and take Orleans.
Sword captures 2 workers and occupies France's iron.
IBT: France diddles its units around, but unless moving one's workers to safety is the new definition of "counterattack", there is little to report.
1128 AD (2): Madrid Town Hall->Blacksmith.
Rush an Archer in Verdun to free up the Ansar on guard duty.
Wreck two Ansars and Army #3 (red-lined, all), but kill 3 pikes and take Rhiems.
Sword kills Spear in Ampurias, and we take that back.
IBT: More French dithering. They have a huge spear stack moving through our lands, but spears aren't going to do anything against us.
1131 AD (3): Navarre Town Hall->Sheriff's Office. Valencia Barracks->Sheriff's Office. Seville Ansar->Manor. Santa Maria Town Hall->Sheriff's Office.
Lose an Ansar, but Army #1 and another Ansar kill 3 Pikes and we take Angers.
Hurry Archer in Carmona, which also has an Ansar guard.
Ansar Army #2 kills 3 Pikes, and we take Bolougne.
IBT: 3 French Knights show up out of the fog. Finally! A counter of value!
1134 AD (4) Cordoba Ansar->Ansar. Granada Ansar->Ansar. Malaga Barracks->Archer. Mertola Ansar->Ansar. Carmona Archer->Temple.
Moving Army #3 up to deal with the incoming Knights reveals another stack of 4 knights. But they can't actually attack anything this turn. Army kills 1 knight in the dangerous stack, and it turns out to be the only Knight- 2 horses underneath. Still, with only an regular spear in Venice, that's kind of bad.
IBT: Horse attack kills our spear, and France takes Venice.
1137 AD (5): We learn
Assassination. Decide for
Seamanship next- Galleys can carry our armies, and harbors will allow us to trade these )#$^)# wines we have sitting around.
Cadiz Settler->Settler. Toledo Blacksmith->Ansar.
Army #1 kills 2 pikes, and Lyons is ours.
2 Ansars kill 2 pikes (one Ansar promotes), and Genoa is ours.
Army #3 kills the 2 horses and retakes Venice.
Ansar kills a Spear defending a Settler.
Ansar army #2 kills 3 pikes in Paris.
3 more Ansars then wound 2 pikes, and kill a spear. Well, crap- no units left to attack Paris with, and there's at least 2 pikes and a spear still inside. Move all units out of surrounding cities and into position to hammer it next turn.
But that means doing something about the 2nd stack in NI; move an Ansar up, kill a Knight; Army #3 leaves Venice and kills the other 2. Now only an Archer is left, and it's in no position to attack anything.
Change of research plan- in looking to trade, found Byz with Seamanship and Middle Class; Abassids with Invention, Seamanship, Middle Class, and Medicine; Turks with Invention, Seamanship, Middle Class, and Medicine. Switch to Theology as something that may actually have trading value. Can do it in 12 turns at -18 gpt.
IBT: Norway offers to trade territory maps; we accept. Apparently, they noticed our scrawling of "norway is Europe's wang!" on the back, because
Norway then declares war on us and takes the cities of Ghent and Bologne.
1140 AD (6) Santiago Archer->Temple. Malaga Archer->Archer. Badajoz Ansar->Town Hall.
Bomb Paris. Ansar Army #1 kills a Pike and a Spear; Ansars and swords work together to kill 4 spears, 2 pikes, a sword, and
finally Queen Joan. Paris is burning; we get the Cross of Thorns.
IBT: Zerk forces Ansar to retreat. Norway captures Lyon.
1143 AD (7) Cordoba Ansar->Ansar. Seville Manor->Monastery.
Ansar army #3 kills Norwegian sword & spear, recaptures Ghent.
Ansar Army #1 kills 2 Norwegian 'zerks, recaptures Lyons.
Ansar warrior kills Norwegian spear, recaptures Boulougne.
Elite Ansar kills Norwegian 'zerk in the open, no fishie.
Found Ceuta on the ruins of Paris.
Found Tangier in open spaces of old French lands.
Swordsman El Charis Cid picks up the Crown of Thorns.
IBT: Norwegian ships head back home, probably to pick up more units. Hopefully, they'll negotiate for peace for they return.
1146 AD (8) Salamanca Town Hall->Archer. Mertola Ansar->Sheriff's Office. Huelva Archer->Blacksmith.
Elite Ansar fishes again against a Nor spear; gets red-lined for his trouble, but kills the spear.
Yipes! Okay, I'm going to end it here a little early because there's a massive trade possibility, and I want to throw discussion out to the group before we yes/no it.
We can offer the Turks Iron, Wine, and Wool- all of which we have in abundance. In return, they'll give us *either* 70 gpt + 30, or Seamanship + 10gpt, or Middle Class + 10 gpt, or they'll give Invention if we throw in another 50 gold. (Not even all of our current economy will get Medicine.) Unfortunately, no other civ has any one of those techs; Abassids and Byzantines have all of them, and possibly more down one of the paths we can't see.
Sounds like a great trade, right? Items useless to us for lots of loot or a 3rd age tech. Except Turkey has no harbors, so to keep the deal going, we need to keep peace with Germany and Poland.
I see us as having 3 main choices:
1- Don't make the trade, and simply overrun Germany once the gpt deal is up in 12 turns.
2- Trade for Seafaring, build harbors and Galleys, and send our armies south to overrun the Fatamids or make a massive landing to take these artifacts of Christ to their place in Jerusalem.
3- Coast. We're at over 25,000 VP. The next best competitor are the Abassids at 7290. Declare ourselves done with our marauding days, and focus on infrastructure, building the remaining Wonders, and grabbing all possible techs. Either we take the safe road and get Middle Class from the Turks (possibly giving us a good trade possiblity if only one of the 3 has picked up either of the techs it leads to), or we grab all the cash we can, put research of Theology to the max, and hope to get it first, allowing us to trade it at a premium to the Turks, Byz, and Abs.
Personally, I lean towards #3. All of the other middle-age scenarios I've been part of have been
heavy, and I'd like the chance to actually build some of the 3rd age buildings and Wonders. We're only at turn 100 out of 200, so there's still plenty of time to build lots of buildings and grab all of the techs. And if matters ever get dicey, we can still whack the Fatamids, who have not yet learned Assassination.
Remember, we're still researching Theology, which will hopefully allow us to get more techs in trade in 8-9 turns.
Choose... wisely.
Notes for the next player:
* We have a few Settlers left, and plenty of open space on the German border. I suggest encroaching there.
* The Norwegians still aren't offering peace, but they don't have any units close yet. If more units show up, we may be best off pulling all defense out of the coastal cities and letting them be captured so that our superior ground forces may take them back.
* If we do end up trading with the Turks, sell Iron to the Danes, since that will just use the same trade route. If instead we decide to go to war with Germany, we should decide whether to get Denmark's help or to attack them as well and grab the two cities they have in France.
Cordova is next but that means another 24-48 hrs, and I wanted to let Corrado either swap with me if he's idle or give Arathorn a nod to skip me if he's tired of these delays 
had started Notre Dame, they were the ones.
to the whole team, this was a great campaign, and I really enjoyed it. And for being out in "left field" we didn't have too many worries about the 'big three' running away with it! 
