RBD13 SG - Cretan Army Variant

[meldor]

Got it.....

 

[meldor]

will edit in summary later.....Germany and Rome sneak atacked us!

 

[meldor]

 

[meldor]

In Sirian's Hamlet, Sirian and Charis met to discuss the present state of the Minoan nation. It seems that some of our cities have become contaminated with foreign culture. After many hours of discussion it was decided that these cities must go. But could someone be found who is gullible and stupid enough to give away these cities. Both turned to the other at the same time and a great cry went up......"Meldor!". Thus was Meldor once agian prodded from his just rest and respite to be thrust once more into the hot seat.

There was found to be five cities with foriegn population and culture Xinjian, Sting This, Cursed Blessing, Rusty and MyCoup. Meldor was ordered to give them away...but to whom? It must be to someone who could pose no threat to Crete and had even less culture than we did. The answer became clear. China! We still had peace with China for 10 more years, and they only had two cities left. Meldor called up Mao. Would he offer something for these pitious cities? No not even he wanted these offal heaps. But Mao could never resist a freebie and so one at a time they were gifted to him. He was furious with us to start and after a most generous gift of five cities he became.....furious. This insolence will be repaid, but mad Cathy still had our attention. It was noted that the rightousness of the Minoan culture was restored to its true balnce. Now only the two cities, Knossos and Forbidden Wormtown, show any culture at all. A special running of the Bulls was held to celebrate.

One thing that Meldor did manage to sneak out of Sirian's grasp was the veto hammer. With this weapon (almost as powerful as the Sacred Prod) he set forth on a tour of our grand holdings. He noted that our scholars were still mumbling over strange lines and symbols but swore within 20 years we would have Music Theory. Deja Vu.....seems last time Meldor held the thrown we were working on the same thing.

Meldor immediately broke out the veto hammer and began a reign of terror with it.

Petticoat Junction, New Hersonissos, Cattle Prod Crossing, Comrade Coast, Agios Mironas, Giraffeville, Kisamos, New Doxologia, New Knosssos, New Vai, Sirian's Hamlet, and New Malia are all switched to Courthouses. Noting that we had close to 500gpt income and not much to do with it Meldor broke out the Sacred Prod as well. Settlers are hurried on Leradetra, Stalis, Foul Odors, and Pandora's Box. Couthouses are hurries in Plakias, Samarais, and New Vai.

(1) 860 AD - Meldor orders the assualt on Kaifeng and we take and raze the city. The last Russian city in the north of china no longer exists. Germany takes umbrigde to this for some reason and declares war on us! One German warrior assualts a Musketman defending a city in south China and is quitely dispatched. China is upset with a worker that could not get away from one of the cities we gave them fast enough and asked not so politely that they move faster. We ask instead if they will keep the Germans occupied whilst we finish off the Russians and they agree. Thus we will have to put off our reconquest of those cities for at least 20 more years (or until they grant peace with Germany).

(2) 870 AD - Among other trade deals Meldor also gets the Aztecs to occupy the Germans for a while. Novgorod is over run and razed. In the process a longbowman is butchered by a knight and we get the leader Heracles, who returns to Wormtown to form an Army. Meldor so enjoyed prodding the common folk the last ten years that he again breaks it out. This will be a common theme throught his current reign. Thinking the one advantage we have is a big cash flow, why not use it? Hurry Courthouse in New Doxologia, Petticoat Junction and New Stalis. Japan and China make peace. Cathy begs for peace but is turned away at the gates for her poor offerings. New Littos revolts and jions the Roman empire! This city will be razed to teach the others a lesson they will not soon forget. Everone and their brothers start building J.S, Bach's

(3) 880 AD - The aqueducts in Makritihos and Stakia are prodded to completion. The prod is put to the marketplace on Kyie Eleison and the bank in Malia.

(4) 890 AD - The good people of Comrade Coast are prodded into building their courthouse a little faster as are the people of Sirian's Hamlet and Doxologia for their marketplaces. The city of Kuibyshev is forever smitten from the face of the earth and so passes any Russian cities in the parts of former China. In celebration of this event Russia and China now make peace, as they would have to go through us to get at each other anyway. Last to the party, the Aztecs start Bach's.

(5) 900 AD - VAldosvostok is broken and burned to the ground, and with this battle we gain a new leader starry eyed Pleides...he then is ordered back to Wormtown to start another army. Harbor at New Gortya and courthouse at New Knossos are both put on Prod-a-long plan. The Germans land a couple of horsemen near our dyes in the south and Meldor is shocked to find Catttle Prod Crossing completely undefended. Luckily the Germans have to rest up form the long voyage and can not attack this turn.

(6) 910 AD - Sometimes being lucky looks an awful like you are good. A nervous Meldor looks over the troops near Cattle Prod Crossing and finds none who can force march past the Germans into the city. And on top of that the only attack unit within reach is an old sword. The sword boldly marches into the fray. With the Germans caught between two of our cities and their ship sailing out of sight, they were left with no where to run and so offered no quarter. The swords cut down the first horseman. Now, with only one German horse left and no other attack unit in range...Meldor grabs the Sacred Prod and charges into battle with the only defender from the second city a rusty Pike. If we lose the Germans will have their choice of cities but can take only one, if nothing is done then they will still get Cattle Prod Crossing. The great units clash....ZAP! No more German horses! Our cities are safe, even if three are now currently undefended. Settlers are hurried in Kourtaliotiko Gorge and Pandora's Box. A musketman is hurried in Cattle Prod Crossing. Japan starts Smith's.

(7) 920 AD - The bank is hurried in Helispont. The Germans start Smith's. We trade the Japaneese Silk for Economics, World Map for Printing Press. We hurry the University in Forbidden Wormtown. Thinking to jump on train to Smith's. We disperse a barb camp the north China for 25g!

(8) 930 AD - The backstabbing Roman's land troops near Cattle Prod crossing. Obviously they had not heard the drubbing the Germans got a short time ago and think that their puny warrior is man enough to take our dyes. Rome declares war and in their initial sneak attack their forces throw themselves against our defenses without effect. They do however move a Knight and spear deep into our territory and Several Knights near New Vai.

(9) 940 AD - Due to the dasturdly acts of the Romans, the people of Rafkos, Helispont, Doxologia and Mont Plexis are are prodded into early completion of Knights. The people of Loutros, Zakros and New Vai all hurry to complete Musketmen. Our main armies are still engaged with the Russians. The Roman Knight and Spear pass up easy targets and seem to be headed for Helispont, which is currently undefended (due to shuffle to cover cities closer to Rome).

(10) 950 AD - The Roman raiders are dispatched by our new troops and movement continues to relieve the defenders in New Via. Finding that the Sacred Prod needs recharging and hoping to get the Holy Veto Stamp back before Sirian finds it missing Meldor sneaks into Sirain's Hamlet in the middle of the night. Approaching the humble home of Sirian, Meldro overhears him and Charis discussing all manner of strange things...dot maps, culture borders and some strange beast named Diablo. Fearing for his sanity, Meldor quickly tosses the relics through the nearest window, and runs for his life. The last thing he hears is Charis yelling..."Hey, someone just put a veto on my GL wonder gambit....Sirian!"...and "Look Charis, The Romans have chosen UNWISELY"

Notes: There are several settlers wandering around China looking for good homes....and At least one waiting for the next Russian city to fall.

We have nothing to build but military in a lot of towns and should have no problem with the war on two fronts. After the initial rush from Rome, they will join the English in the dust bin of history.

The Chineese and Germans seem to be happy playing with each other, and probably the German attack and Roman attack were prompted by our weak defenses around those 4 dyes.

I did start Smith's in Wormtown but in fit of weed forgot to set it for max shields.

How long have we been at war? I don't think we have stopped since our first jump at the English....I guess we can forget the UN vote.....

We have a ton of one shield towns that may in two thousand years of careful help become two shield towns......

File posted above....

 

[Charis]

That was a hoot of a read, thanks!



Not one but TWO leaders??! Excellent! Good thing you didn't sit on that first one

Germany *AND* Rome. Unwise. Very unwise. If everyone we ever had war with came against us at once, China, Russia, Germany, Rome, Iroquois, Japan... that would be ugly. Nod, UN is *right out*

Speaking of prods...
Smith's?? That's Commercial, not Military or Industrious! Bzzzzttt :whip: Hoover and Manhattan are the only two we're eligible for at this point.

Great turn Is there now a warmonger among us to take on three nations and teach them a Cretanous lesson?!
Charis

 

[Sirian]

You rang?

Oh wait, you said WARmonger, not WHOREmonger! Maybe I should pass! Oh well, too late now. I've got it. I'll try not to let them take over our entire civilization.

Approaching the humble home of Sirian, Meldro overhears him and Charis discussing all manner of strange things...dot maps, culture borders and some strange beast named Diablo. Fearing for his sanity, Meldor quickly tosses the relics through the nearest window, and runs for his life.

- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

IT 950AD: Been a while since I had a turn here. (Last one for me was nabbing Sun and Leo). Much has changed, but no time to dwell on that now.

960AD: Rome kills one of our knights on counterattack. More of their knights are arriving now, and I get the distinct impression that this is just the vanguard of their force. They're going to throw all their spare units at us, the knights arriving first, the foot soldiers following up in big stacks some time later. I've got a lot of work to do, and this isn't even the PRIMARY war we're in!

I look up at Russia. We have five (5!) armies now. Our original bull rider armies are both sitting on a single hp. Yikes. We have one roughed up knight army, and two that aren't even filled yet. It looks like more than anything else, our troops on the Russian front need rest and reinforcements. I won't be pushing anything up there for a few turns.

FourDor is in an unfortunate location but hasn't built anything yet so I'm going to pick it up and move it. Maybe that was a good spot for it at the time, I dunno, but not any longer.

We have way WAY more undefended cities than I'd like. Too bad we didn't build more pikes before getting gunpowder, as we have a surplus of cash, and a shortage of production in the areas that are thin on troops. Much cheaper to upgrade than to rushbuy. Upgrades cost 2 gold per shield, (and only 1 with Leo!), while rushbuy costs 4 per shield. Can't afford to disconnect the saltpeter in the middle of wars, though.

960AD-990AD: the brunt of the Roman horse arrives. Well over a dozen knights, and my luck is generally poor on these turns, we lose units slightly faster than I'm replacing them, and each turn sees a larger Roman force arriving than the last turn. "Gravitar Plains" or whatever it was (was! I didn't get a close look) got burnt to the ground when the first stack of Roman foot soldiers came out of the north. I wasn't expecting THAT, as all the horse were arriving from the east, so... nothing I could do but pull back and try (try!) to save the next line of cities. In the south, things were going a little better, but only because I got some catapults over there, was sending all the knights from the area around our capital (the FP units headed north), and was rushbuying more than 600 gold worth of units every turn. So far, so good, but wow I hate ancient warfare, so hard to conserve your forces, losses are much higher than I would see with rails. Oh yeah, I also built walls at Loutro and I removed that red blight from our land on the southern coast (razed that westernmost Roman city).

In the north, nothing much happening. We trade a few skirmishes with Cathy, but nothing major happens.

In the west, I rushbought a couple of muskets to take us from "Sieve" to "Woefully Thin" (that being... IMPROVING us to "woefully thin"). I founded the new cities with the settlers I inherited, including one on the island. That island won't benefit from our wonders, but what the Hell. It's real estate and somebody went to a lot of trouble to set up the option, and UNlike a typical game, this one is a cash cow with minimal expenses, so it won't hurt to sink some cash into colonies.

1000AD: As the first Roman foot troops close in on New Malia, , one of our two main fortified front line cities, and a major stack of knights is barely fended off, with some heavy casualties, the first of the Three emerges.

 

[Sirian]

1000AD(cont): I forgot to mention that I did attack Russia with one of our bull armies. He killed a pike, but dropped from 18 hps to ONE, almost dying. I fended off Cathy's feeble counterpunches and nothing more, after that. Until now.

Now I finally had healthy armies, and reinforcment knight units had arrived, so I filled the unfilled armies and attacked, razing the city on the east coast. Didn't actually expect to raze so soon, and got caught without settler in ready position. Would take two extra turns to get him to where I needed.

1010AD: Decided on a new "rushbuy" round of settlements in the west (China). Also, everything west of the choke is hopelessly corrupt. I sold a courthouse because the city was still on 1/1 even with it, so no more courthouses in China. That area is too far, and is never going to amount to anything now, other than score and buffer (and lands that we occupy, being lands we don't have to conquer). Also, for hopelessly corrupt lands, no use any mines, so I started changing over all the land there to irrigation. Defenses are still WAY thin, but I'll try to beef them at least a little before my turn ends.

Rough exchanges with Rome in the east. BAD round for me with luck, lost three knights attacking one Roman unit and RAN OUT of forces to keep attacking! That was in the south, and thank goodness we now have that new army unit there. (I filled it with three musket, to give us a defensive anchor).

1020AD: Caesar backs off the anchor at New Vai, and shifts his whole stack toward New Malia. I fend off the vanguard, but next turn a big ole stack of crappola is going to stink up our land! I scramble to prepare, including rushing a bull rider. We had none in the area at all, but that blitz is perfect for taking out a pair of longbows on the same turn, once knights have cleared any units with strong defense (legion, knight, pike, spear).

1030AD: I stick a lone musket in Cathy's face on the east side. On the west coast, I finally (finally!) move against that city up on the hill, and move in force! Incredibly, lost only one unit in the attack there, and that city is razed, and one knight promoted to elite.

Then... in the east, dealing with the major Roman assault at New Malia, the second of the Three reveals his presence.

 

[Sirian]

:shotgun:

 

[Sirian]

1030AD (cont): I use him to form a second musket army. We now have anchors at both New Vai and New Malia.

In the north, I move all of our armies forward to Fort Sirian. Our musket up there got attacked twice, fended off both and promoted to elite!

Final round of settler rushbuys is done in the west. Our lone galley is ferrying two more settlers to the island but will not arrive before the end of my turn.

1040AD: Pentagon completed.

Rome skips around our two anchors and moves a mini-SoD next to Moni Prevelis! Over a dozen units, including some elite, mostly foot troops. Uh... I do have three musket in Moni, but that's not going to cut it, and there is just no way I can reinforce sufficiently in one turn.

This is a situation I've never been in before! I stop to wonder why and realize that it's the no-culture rules. Not only is there only one tile of cultural control buffer between our cities and the wilderness (or other nations) -- which allows them to move even foot troops right next to our cities -- but more to the point, the lack of VISIBILITY beyond our border means no advance warning. I'm used to seeing them coming from a mile away, not plopping stacks down on top of my cities. With rails, I could still react, move whatever I needed into the hot zone, but... we don't have rails yet. Moni Prevalis is doomed to fall. So much so, I don't even bother to rush anything in it, just be wasting cash. I rush at New Malia and all the other cities in the area, though. With luck, after they take it, I can have a shot at grabbing it right back.

On to the north! I drop a fourth knight into one of our armies and our troops march on St. Petersburg. They have regular musket on defense. If there is anywhere that armies matter, it's here, in the middle ages. They just can't be stopped!

St. Petersburg is burnt to the ground! It took all three of our knight armies, but it's done now. I send our two bull armies vs the city on the southeast coast up there, and they both win, but the city has more defenders, so it will live another turn.

1050AD: ROME CAPTURES MONI PREVELIS!!!

Nicely done, Caesar. The AI shifted its attack turn by turn, aiming always for the weakest point. When the player has rails, that's irrelevant, as he can shift defenses instantly to wherever they are needed, removing ALL of the initiative from the AI. (I'm really looking forward to the later stages of RBD14, to see just how the AI does in the industrial and modern ages when the player does not have any railroads).

NOTE: this is NOT an instance of "He Chose Unwisely". I'm glad that phrase has caught on, but I see players using it with situations in which the AI has not actually pulled any treachery, or where the player was already on a war footing. "Choosing Unwisely" is what happens when the player WANTS PEACE and the AI gets aggressive and forces a war, or backstabs while the player is on a trusting footing, or the player has done favors for that AI (like RBD3, where we introduced Catherine to all the other civs and made some nice tech deals with her, and she declared war on us over and over for it) and they are mind-bogglingly ungrateful and snooty about it. In this case with Rome, I don't remember how the war started, but it's been an honorable contest, and incredibly, one that was well-fought by the AI.

Our muskets at Moni held out decently. They killed three or four attackers, wounded some others, but it was not enough. Rome had no defense units in place, though. Their legions had been among the first attackers. I was able to send my two bulls and a knight up there and retake the town, and knock out the units right next to it. Of course, the NEXT stack Rome sends will just take it back from us again, so... I'm ready to cry uncle before we lose more than control of a city for one turn. I think Caesar is running out of gas, but so are we. (Just LOOK at all the wounded units -- and the dead ones you can't see -- if you pull up the save game file).

As I'm mopping up units in the south before suing for peace, our Glorious Etc bull riders come through for us again! The final leader, head of the Three, steps up to deny Caesar any further gains into our territory!

 

[Sirian]

:shotgun:

 

[Sirian]

1050AD (cont): I attacked every Roman unit that I could, then sued for peace. To my surprise, Rome acquired Chemistry on this turn, and he gave it to us in the peace negotiation. (Wouldn't give us anything else, but hey... it was something).

I settled in the gap left by razing his city earlier, consolidating our border with him. Let's hope we don't have another New Lithos, as that city is now wholly Roman and will have to be razed. Such is the danger of the no-culture, though. Won't be the last border city we have flip on us, I'm sure.

In the north, I razed that coastal Russian city, making for FOUR of their five major cities burnt down on my turn. I settled on the west coast, as well, securing our new border on the doorstep of Moscow. There are gaps to the east. Russia has Moscow left, five iceberg towns, and a couple scattered colonies. Once Moscow is burnt down, their backs will be forever broken, ala China. Whether we want them for a vassal, or just get rid of them, I don't yet know, but at least we have plenty of armies in the region with which to attack their capital. (Remember the Rules!)


Finally, I rushed some troops, mostly in China. That area is paper thin and could crumble if attacked, but at least this will bolster the key choke points and defensive locations. There are numerous settlers in the area, plus all the new cities I founded over there. The island should be ours, just hope the next leader can design a good dotmap up there.

I fought the entire Roman war with new recruits, troops trained on my watch. Our Main Army stuck with Russia all the way. The Roman war wasn't quite smoke and mirrors, but the fact that I got THREE great leaders over there in SIX turns ought to give you a good idea of just how bloody it was -- dozens and dozens of units slain, more them than us, but we lost lots and lots too.


Whoever grabs next, CLICK HERE to download the save from the end of my turn at 1050AD.

Good luck!


- Sirian

 

[Charis]

Glad you got the right W-mongering! If you had trying the other, the landscape of Crete would be *wholy* different! Great job, and wow, THREE leaders!! It's ironic that after deciding it would NOT be an army game (except for the foreign capital rule), we've gotten scads of great leaders. As you said, it's just that bloody.
I don't recall being at war (real war) with 5-6 civs by Chivalry before.

Kudos to Rome though, it *was* a good and non-treacherous decision on their part. A smart human would have done the same, choosing a point where your foe was well thinned out and in the midst of another major campaign on the other front. In fact his timing was perfect, as he was surely our next target if allowed to quietly eliminate Russia. And he brought a successful combined forces stack against us with an element of surprise and rapid shifting???? (Thumbs up, Firaxis )

Next turn it sounds like Moscow and troop build up (defensive if nothing else) is called for, as well as settling consolidation. I'm glad we got the breather with Rome, and a tech to boot. This is really turning out to be an interesting game.

Is there a consolidator out there up to the task??
(If not I'll probably grab the game late night )

Charis

PS Didn't Germany declare war on us too?

 

[Sirian]

Not a peep out of, nor any sighting of, Germany during my reign. They were probably busy with a closer opponent.

One of the major down sides of losing control of a city is that all your cultural improvements are destroyed. In this case, that summed up to... NADA. Neither of the buildings we built in Moni were lost. What we did lose was one population, plus all the food in the box, so figure equivalent to two pop points. (Even that is a noteworthy penalty for having a city taken, but is nothing compared to the norm). So... even though our variant rules here left me vulnerable to the AI's tactics, because I did not have enough warning of where he would strike, those same rules also softened the blow. Now THAT's functional symmetry!

- Sirian

 

[meldor]

I tried to get the Germans busy with other civs. I did see a lone Chineese archer killing defenders in the one German city on our continent. It was probably my fault for sending the muskets more towards the China area than building up the backdoor. Up until the turn that Rome attacked we had good relations with them. As a matter of fact they canceled a 2 lux for 2 lux and money deal right before they declared. I tried to get a new deal but the wanted way too much for even a single lux and were insulted by anything but me giving the lux to them. The weakness of our eastern defenses was just too much of a tempation for them with three luxes within easy striking range. It is pretty impressive that once they make their decision to take it by force, you can't bribe them with anything short of giving them what they want to take. Unfortunately, we can react a little better than them to changing battle conditions. You did an great job keeping our rump roasts off of the spit!

I have noticed that you have not used the Sacred Prod on me after my turn. I am fairly thick skined, maybe even cow hide, maybe good layer of bull sh.., eh hockey. Hopefully you and Charis will give me the same treatment as you do with each other....I was suprised to see that the courthouses had so little effect that far away from the palaces.

I don't know where the one city stuck between the Roman and American cities came from. I assumed that someone built it in the lane near the American city and then the Romans built after. I was waiting all of my turn for it to flip.

I was suprised by the lack of comment on giving the cities to China.....are we going to inforce the suggestion not to retake for 1000 years?

 

[Sirian]

About the prod... my attention is scattered around a bit at the moment. You did perhaps overdo the depletion of our treasury (I had to take us below the 1000g max-interest threshold on several turns, fending off Rome) and some of those buys were ineffective, but I don't have a handle on that yet, myself, as to when a fringe courthouse is going to be worth it, or not. (I bought one in my Deity game, and just a couple turns later, am pulling just ONE extra shield and gold out of it, so that was too far from the FP to have bothered. Sometimes you have to try it to find out). BUT... we now have enough courthouses on line with our number of cities that paying attention should tell anybody whether or not a new courthouse is worth it. IE, any more ineffective courthouses would be Hey, don't be too eager for the proddings! I'll keep in mind that you "like it rough", but I didn't prod Charis about his treasury depletions until, oh, about the TENTH TIME IN A ROW I saw it happen. You just never know what is going to drive me bonkers. Building nothing but roads through the jungles, or founding cities in really really bad locations, would be a good place to start, if you're feeling masochistic.

As for not retaking those Chinese cities for 1000 years... maybe we don't have to be that extreme about it. I do not think we ought to just go raze them, though. Wait for China to provoke us somehow (one of our cities flipping to them would do it, if they don't rebuff... or if they just plain get uppity) but otherwise they are all harmless anyway, and none in our productive areas, all out in fringe territory, so if it were entirely up to me, I'd ignore them and focus on more urgent targets. And if China backstabs us while we're showing them mercy, that would be Choosing Unwisely. There aren't even luxuries or vital resources being hogged by them. And uh... China DID start the war originally. Let them start another at certainty of their own extermination.


- Sirian

 

[Charis]

Scary thing about the [ bzzzztt ] electric prod is that after
a while [ bbbzzzzzztttt ] you actually start to feel comforted by it!

I gave you a wonder prod, and thought China an odd choice, but we were so far out in left field, any 'justifiable' solution was ok, and frankly, those cities are all of no consequence. If China gets to war with them we raze them, instantly, if not, they can sit quiet while we press more urgent matters.

I'll keep in mind too you like the prod But if your writeups continue to be so funny, I won't be able to use it!

Charis

 

[Arathorn]

I am making another attempt at this.

Build defensive troops.
WLTKD in corrupt cities (just build temples, right? ZZZAAAPPPP!!!)
Build defensive troops.

Those are my primary, secondary, and tertiary goals, right?

Anyway, am downloading and will do a quick review of the rules and then play.

Arathorn

 

[Arathorn]

It's way past my bedtime, but there's an 8-hour rule on this game.

Save file attached.

Short story:
- Attacked Russia a lot, mostly unsuccessfully
- Built a lot of musketmen
- Expecting a sneak attack from India imminently
- SE now ready for war with whoever requires it
- Settled lots of land
- Cut down lots of very young trees

I'll give a more comprehensive (and interesting) account tomorrow.

Arathorn

Edit: Save game deleted.

 

[Arathorn]

After Sirian the Glorious departs from Crete, leaving behind a legacy of three great leaders, Arathorn the Disgraced slinks into Knossus.

"You?" asks the palace guard disgustedly. "YOU want to rule again? Why should we Cretans allow someone such as you to lead us again?"

"Because", replied Arathorn timidly, "I have changed. I have grown. And the other choice is to be led by this lemur."

Thus it came to pass that a lemur led Crete. Most records indicate that Arathorn tried to be the power behind the lemur, but the truth is that the local generals ran nearly everything.

The NW: Old China

Three new cities were built here, in an effort to cover the land with Cretan civilization. They were not weedy-positioned and filled a full line but more are needed. The presence of a single (with another probably on the way) Egyptian city is a great nuisance.

Mao continues to be Furious with the Minoans, despite the signing of a Right of Passage agreement in 1070. The rampaging Indians captured Beijing and then made peace with the Chinese. War elephants have been spotted in Cretan lands, searching, it appears, for an undefended city.

Not much gold was spent in this region, as the cities are hopelessly corrupt. The people rejoiced in the lemur's leadership, however, many hiring entertainers to keep the people partying [WLTKD decreases corruption, eventually].

The workers in this area received many conflicting orders -- plant forests, chop down forests, irrigate, road. Very confusing time. No grassland/plains mines were built and if one stands, it is highly unlikely a forest ever stood there....

A number of defenders were built in the area but some cities are still defenseless.

The only military action was fragging a barb camp (WOOHOO!) and crushing the German invasion force (one lone horseman, who died ignominiously to an attacking musketman).

The SE: Roman Front

Unit build-up. A 4 knight army built and dispatched alone toward the Russian cities in the area. A couple of small Russian offensives were crushed.

Bored workers here also planted and chopped a number of forests, in rather random locations. The lemur was apparently directing the general by throwing darts (at least, everybody HOPED they were darts!) at a map.

Egyptian knights again forged into Cretan lands. Plugging the passage to the rest of the Cretan civilization convinced them to stop and turn around. The musketmen were then fortified into position on these gaps, to discourage further adventurism by Cleo.

Overall, pretty quiet.

The N: Russian front

It is believed Arathorn was most active -- and unsuccessful -- in his efforts here. The early reports were good. Odessa was razed in 1080 and Kiev followed 10 years later. Worried about the people joining the Russian cause, Arathorn set out to attack Moscow itself.

By 1110, the forces were arrayed. Two catapults protected by musketmen were in position across the river to bombard the city. No less than 4 armies were arrayed in a position to attack. And another handful of knights stood by, ready to lend support.

For 10 years, the catapults reigned down on Moscow. Thousands of pounds of rocks came crashing into the city, filling potholes, destroying condemned buildings, and paving streets. It is believed that one individual received a slight cut as a result of the bombardment, but this report is unconfirmed.

Next came the large knight army -- 18 hps worth. They attacked Moscow, and attacked, and attacked. Finally, the last knight retreated with only one hp left -- having down one whole point of damage to the defending musketman.

The lemur orders another charge. The second knight army attacked -- 12 hps worth. And died.

Pause, reassess. Check for rivers, nope, not attacking across one. Moscow on a hill? Nope. Hmmm... ONWARD!

Big bull army -- again ~18 hps. Finally, a Russian casualty, but the bull army had 3 hps remaining. Another bull army, no damage and retreat with 1 hp. 8 knights do one total damage and have 3 casualties. Apparently, this is a no- zone.

Only the strength of the lemur's presence kept the people from declaring for a new ruler then and there.

Retreat for healing. UGLY stuff. Battle continued to swirl around Moscow for the next 40 years but no progress was made. Forces are currently not well arranged, to try to mutually protect and get organized again.

The success at Moscow galvanized the other Russian defenders and no other cities were razed, another knight army nearly perishing in the attempt.

A new city or two was formed in the gaps left by razings. A barbarian camp appeared and was fragged, netting 50 gold. More settlers are on the way/in the region. This general failed mightily.

The Rest

Popped a goodie hut on our island and got 50 gold. Two more cities built there but a fourth is needed to culture lock the land.

The only tech available for the lemur to buy was democracy. As he enjoyed his power as king, no purchase was made.

The Aztecs gems "only" cost 1940 gold, but they were not purchased.

The treasury is up over 6000, as our income is >600 gpt and nothing urgently needed buying. If/when the lemur droppings hit the fan, having some purchase power will be nice.

Eventually, the lemur tired of his trade, leaving a vacancy on the throne. Who will step up to fill it????

Certainly not
Arathorn