IT, 1375AD:
- Switch to Caste System for awesome workshops.
- Upgrade the archer in Verlamion to a grenadier for 359g (ouch).
- Send out a small force out of the main stack to join up with the southern stack.
- GG sent to the front to hook up to a maceman in the main stack - next turn.
- Replace the theatre in Umma with a courthouse cause it's got enough culture from the Stonehenge monument and the religion.
- Shift some tiles around.
1380AD:
There is some war weariness in our cities so I give Gandhi copper for dye (I know, I know) and put some theatres in the queues. Forgot to cancel the rally point for Verlamion so our trireme headed straight for the fort, giving the galley at least one more turn in this world.
I give Ragnar MS and Lib for Nationalism, Optics and 45g.
1385AD:
Alex declares war on us but was probably bribed as I don't see any units. Good luck getting through Gandhi's land, though. If he goes the other way he'll just meet our stack waltzing through Sumeria so whatever. I'll beef up defences in coastal cities just in case.
And our Medic 3:
1390AD:
Ragnar asks us to stop trading with Gandhi and I agree. I then notice that we already had a dye resource of our own in Durnovaria. I don't know why it disappeared - but now in our resources we have 2 dyes. Very strange. So it disappeared for 2 turns and then came back mysteriously. Whatever the reason, we once again have one source of dye since the one from Gandhi obviously is gone.
We take Zimbir this turn, losing four cannons and a maceman (that's Protective):
And I spend some time promoting macemen to City Raider II, then upgrading them to grenadiers in the main stack. Hopefully next turn we can roll out.
1395AD:
Northern stack rolls out
:
And now I notice we are actually still getting dye from Gandhi for copper because that deal couldn't be automatically canceled because of the 10 Turn clause for resource deals.
1400AD:
Ugh, volcano event in Vienne:
We lost the two grassland cottages (actually village and a town) plus the winery. I had some workers chopping to lay down more cottages on the plains but instead I'll have them put new ones on the rubble, since obviously working grassland cottages is better than working plains cottages.
Gilgamesh has a mini-stack here:
He can attack across the river if he wants, I'm not retreating our stack because of four units (that elephant is protecting a worker so it won't attack). Onwards to Ur.
1405AD:
Our stack takes some damage but no casualties. And Gilgamesh has a pretty decent force stationed in Ur, actually:
Might have to wait for the southern stack to join up before tackling this, dunno. I have to start putting some aqueducts in our cities because unhealthiness has started to lead to starvation at this point.
1410AD:
More soldiers pour into Ur.
1415AD:
We lose two soldiers outside of Ur. Actually I am getting a little worried as now his stack is bigger than ours, but there's nothing to do about it. I can't retreat back to our territory in one turn and if I leave the hill he'll just kill us in the field. I suicide one cannon on the city, hopefully that'll soften up his troops a bit in case he attacks next turn.
1420AD:
We kill two knights and a catapult outside Ur. Southern stack is finally healed up and heads out of Zimbir. Damn 1-move stacks are so slow, I wish we had horses to begin with so we could just blitz through this with cavalry.
Um, also just noticed this:
Tolosa is defended by one warrior and I just spent all of our money upgrading a bunch of macemen to grenadiers in the front. :\ And Alex won't talk to us. If we lost Tolosa to a chariot that would just be hugely embarassing.
Fortunately we are Spiritual and have Nationalism, so I make the switch and draft a musket in Tolosa. And I am forced to wonder where the stupid enemy forces warning was.
Oh here it was:
Good thing I happened to swing by north or I would've missed this entirely.
1425AD:
Everyone please welcome Charlemagne to the party:
Our musketman kills Alexander's chariot, cuing his exit for a symbolic tribute of 55g (that is, from us to him).
I think we've upgraded most of our troops by now so let's turn research back on. Gilga's sporting cuirassers now so we could use some rifles to defend against them.
1430AD:
Gilga does the wise thing and suicides some troops into our southern stack (by now positioned outside Ur). This is not going to save him:
We don't have enough troops to safely hold the city next turn if we take it so I decide to leave one cuirasser in there and take it next turn.
1435AD:
Gilga stuffs some more units in there inbetween turns but that doesn't help much:
Oh yeah, we got a GG last turn and I settle him in Gergovia now.
1440AD:
Joao offers Replaceable Parts and 200g for Military Science and I agree. Straight into Rifling.
1445AD:
Vienne's water is poisoned sending the city into so much unhealthiness that any attemps I have been making in the last couple of turns to prevent it from shrinking in size are rendered completely worthless.
Gilgamesh attacks our stack with a cuirasser. Go away already.
1450AD:
Stack is sufficiently healed and heads out of Ur towards Eridu.
1455AD:
Really running out of things to do with our workers. I don't want them to get too close to Sumerian borders but there's nothing to do in Celtia.
1460AD:
Bombarding down Eridu's defenses.
1465AD:
Another slaughterfest:
Confucian holy city with a market, grocer and bank intact. No shrine. Gilga, you are useless. Also just remembered that I haven't switched back into Bureaucracy, so I do that and we're promptly hit with lots of unhappiness having lost the +2
from Nationalism. This is not my best SG set ever, it's so easy to get tunnel vision during war. I guess I'll set the culture slider to 10% for now.
Also, I wish Charlemagne would send a stray unit that we can kill to get peace with him already. I keep dreading a massive SoD coming along and messing up our war with Sumeria.
1470AD:
Aha. Well well:
Pause to think. I think we'll do better on the offensive here. All of our cannons are two moves away, so I can't soften up any of his units this turn. I can hide in the city, but it's still in revolt so we don't get any city defense bonuses plus with seven trebuchets and four catapults he can still cause quite a bit of damage to our already-injured units.
We can retreat both parts of our stack to the windmill this turn. This seems like the best move to me. He can still attack us next turn on the hill as he can move freely through Gilga's territory, but more likely he'll take Eridu, allowing us to take it back in a couple of turns when we go on the offensive. On the hill our GG medic can also heal our units faster as it's outside Sumerian culture.
Sounds good to me... at the very least I can't think of any better idea. If all goes according to plan we will have eliminated Charley's stack making the future war against Holy Rome easier.
Meanwhile we have a mini-stack closing in on Bad-Tibira:
1475AD:
Yes, Eridu is such a great prize, how can you resist?
I don't think we need to wait a turn to heal:
Yeah I got cocky with the axeman at 90%, oh well. Only casualty. We get another GG so I send him to Gergovia again.
By the way, Gilgamesh is willing to give us a city called Girsu for peace. I can't find it on the map - this is worrying because I wouldn't want to chase this one city all over the world just to get rid of motherland unhappiness. I guess we'll see, we're not even halfway through conquering this guy.
1480AD:
Enter Greece. Again.
Eridu. Again.
By now the grocer and bank are gone.
Bad-Tibira:
And some buildings destroyed at Ur to top it off:
Seems like a good time to end this set. Some notes:
- The GG is in Gergovia waiting to either be settled or build a Military Academy. What do we prefer?
- There are four cannons on the way from Zimbir to Ur.
- There are two Holy Roman units outside Ur but they are very unlikely to kill the three musketmen stationed there.
- I put some signs to note what I think some of the new cities should specialize in. Not that it really matters at this point.
- Next GP in a couple of turns if I remember correctly, maybe we can use him to build the Confucian shrine? I didn't check how well-spread that religion is, but might be worth it.
![[pimp]](/images/smilies/pimp.gif "Pimp [pimp]")
Added a sign that we need Grocer & Bank there.
