Return of the Mohawk-guy - Iroquois 1v1v1v4 Deity Marathon Americas

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Spoiler :

068. Since my research will be slower than the Empire team, and that there is no RA to save me, I want to get into the Patronage tree and make good use of the Scholasticism policy to greatly improve my research rate.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

069. Now fast-foward a bit - the Panama Canel city has been founded! It is called... ironically, "Grand River". There is no Grand River here! Just two grand oceans. Ha!

I'd like to buy Workboats to get Pearl trading started, but I noticed a lot of pirate activities in the oceans. So I rushed out a Trireme instead. I hope to get 2 of them ASAP to start cleaning up those barbarian galleys nearby.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

070. Here comes the babarian Gallies and their land counterpart. I have also started moving my 4 Long-swordsman units across Central America - and leave 2 more defending the home. Eager to see my Trireme's performance!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

071. Triremes are actually 33% more powerful than barbarian Gallies in terms of Ranged strength. So every turn, I can fire two rounds and sink a barbarian Galley. And my land unit can make short work of that Archer unit easily, too. But it will require some healing afterwards.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

072. After taking care of the Gallies, my Triremes explored south in an attempt to find some City States or Civilizations in South America. Immediately, I was greeted by Pachacuti, leader of Inca. Pretty nice background he has there, but as low resolution as Isabella's palace garden. At the time I already saw the news that an "unmet Civilization has denounced America". There is no other candidate for the unmet civilization! I easily bribed the chief to war America (and the rest of the Empire team), and got some cash from trading away my extra resources. Inca wasn't so rich here.

I find AIs on Marathon accumulate their wealth a lot more slowly than on Standard, even if 3 Marathon gold is roughly 1 Standard gold. I guess the fast rate of unit depletion (due to AI's brilliant tactics) on Marathon lead them to rush purchase units more often.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

073. I expected the Empire team to have populated pretty much all of South America at this point, but the scores suggest that they are all softies! I was easily the score leader! What are they thinking?

Anyway, I want to explore more with my Scouts so I know where to attack next. At the time I already finished Optics, but I forgot to take my Scout to the sea to avoid the barbarians blocking the way. (My early-game exploration was so close to the target!)

It seems that Inca's territory controls the gateway to South America. Does Iroquois have to turn on another of their brothers before kicking the Empire team out of their home?

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

074. Now I have accumulated some gold again, and I can rush out a Work Boat in "Grand Ocean" to harvest the Pearl tiles.

Along with the Settler to Grand River, I brought along a Worker unit so I can purchase the 6-unit Iron tile and work on it right away.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

075. Sold my Pearl to Washington, and I can use these gold to buy the second Workboat, and to sell the second Pearl to get all the investment back again. While I am at a net loss of (409-540 =) -131 gold, I will be able to resale the Pearls later. So it is defeinitely a good investment.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

076. Thanks to the hardwork of my Triremes, the Pacific Ocean is now a safe pathway for my landunits. I embark them on to the ocean from "Grand Ocean", and they can sail peacefully all the way to South America, where they will hopefully take down some poor guys' cities and give me a foothold on the continent.

I dare not to take the Caribbean route because it must be populated by Pirates of Caribbean (fanfare starts)!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

077. I tried to find a few more City States in South America's west coast but failed. There is a nice 6-unit Iron tile and some satisfactory City-founding sites. I guess the AI scouts haven't crossed the Andes mountains yet as the barbarian actiities here are pretty bad.

I expected a lot of Navel fighting between me and the Empire team, so I promoted my Trireme through the Naval Fighting bonus route.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

078. The Pirates of Caribbean showed up! They could have run me over three times! Luckily I am on the other side.

But I did send up a Long-swordsman to bust the Barbarian camp that used to block my Scouts. This Long-swordsman unit was seriously wounded by pirates in the end turn. But managed to survive since he too escaped to the "safe side". I am now moving my Triremes to the Atlantic Ocean to take care of these pirates for good.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

079. I like many things in civilization, one of them is city planning and route design - although sometimes the choice is obvious. Now I have linked up Iroquois' capital Onondaga all the way to sthe Spanish Madrid. My trade route gives me a net profit of 4 gold per turn, and it will only get better.

In the future, I will expand the coverage to include the two smaller cities on both sides.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

080. My Long-swordsman have landed on South America, and my Scout is freely exploring the interior of the continent. Two cultural City States, Kuala Lumpur and Lhasa, form a barrier between Inca and the Empire team. England has quite a large city York (population 13) to the south. So France and the USA seems to be to be further east.

I also noticed that Kuala Lumpur has declared permanant war on the Empire team, while Lhasa was an ally of France. I want to accelerate my policies for Scholasticism... so I con-ed a lot of cash from the Empire team, bought both City States over, and declared war on the Empire team!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

081. Napoleon sent a Trireme out to explore. I happen to have a Trireme nearby (I have 3 of them now). And along with the defense of "Grand Ocean", I sank the French ship in one turn.

 

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Spoiler :

082. My Long-Swordsman were all healed up and ready to rock! There was no close Empire-team city, so I have to turn on the Incan cities! Just before the war, I sold all my leftover strategic resources to Pachacuti...

Spoiler :

083. Then I declared war! Pachacuti was so angry that he stood up from his chair. Be careful, don't fall down the stairs!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

084. While Inca has two luxurious resources that I don't have, the reason that I really want to take down Inca is that it has record-breaking miserable city defenses. And even better, Inca also does not have Iron. There is a 2-unit iron tile within harvest range of Cusco the capital, but somehow the city's natural expansion isn't going that way yet.

Spoiler :

085. I can't let the chance slip! Just to be absolutely safe, before the war breaks out, I smashed 1000 gold on CS Stockholm just to the north, hoping it will help me distract Incan soldiers a bit.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

086. The Empire team came for peace faithfully after 7 turns of war. Gladly agreed so I can again sell resources to them.

Spoiler :

087. But Washington was so low on cash that he can't even afford the discounted price.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

088. The Iroquois army quickly surrounded the Incan capital and brought it down to its knees! The Iroquois did nothing to stop it. They either stood and watch, or goes north to fight Stockholm.

Note: This seems to be a side effect of "improved AI". I heard that before the AI units simply threw themselves at any units they see, but later patching has smartened them up, so they will not attack unless they know they can kill the target in one turn. But here comes the blindspot - if they cannot kill the target in one turn, they will not attack. So they just sit and watch...

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

089. The Incan capital has a very welcomed wonder - the Stonehenge! I am even closer to Scholasticism.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

090. I have delayed Catapults long enough! It will take them quite a while to travel from Rockies to Andes. Fortunately I am on Marathon.