Part Twenty-Two: The Age of Exploration
With the Incan war all but over, it's time to look at the bigger picture once more, and see how we are doing. The Victory Status Screen provides a good overview.
In addition, the Power, Culture, and Demographics charts are worth a look.
Finally, a look at the map:
We are doing pretty well, and are clearly ascendant. But the Iroquois are still, in many respects, slightly ahead of us, including in technology. The undiscovered Zulu are ahead, as well, but since we can't do anything about that, we'll ignore them for now.
The Iroquois have Musketmen, and have bested our predecessor as the second-most-powerful civ on the continent - America - in an extended war. Their cities are developed, and the few that are below size 7 benefit from the Great Wall. Our one key advantage over them is diplomatically - Lincoln and Montezuma are both gracious towards us, and the Iroquois themselves are Polite. If the Diplomatic vote were coming up on our continent, we'd be in a good position.
Still, over the long term, we aren't sure that sitting back peacefully will work - the Zulu or Iroquois may win by Space Race, or may be more diplomatically favored once the other continent is factored in.
But we also aren't ready for war with the Iroquois right now. Our Mayan-Iroquois frontier is poorly defended, with our Pikemen heading south. Twenty Incan citizens are resisting, meaning we must devote troops to avoiding revolts. And if we were to fight the Iroquois by ourselves, it would be a slugfest with high costs for both sides, and victory would not be assured. We would need at least one of America or the Aztecs to help us in order to have a good chance of victory, and for now they are still pursuing the Inca.
Thus the Ottoman Empire will have a period of de facto peace, and while we will keep building Knights - we currently have 17, and our unit total is at 111, out of 120 supported - we also switch several additional cities to building libraries, cathedrals, and other civilian buildings.
We manage to squealch the resistance in Corihuayrachina by 1505, although the civil disorder in Tiwanaku intensifies. We also build a new university in Urfa. This increases science by 2, while also increasing maintenance by 2 - illustrative of our core economic challenge. Corruption is at 28% - not too bad considering our recent expansion - but almost 40% of our post-corruption income is going to building maintenance. We hope that as our core cities, many still in the 7-to-9 size range, grow, this problem will be lessened.
Navigation finishes up in 1510.
We will begin sending out Caravels right away, as well as working on Magellan's Voyage, but first we ask the Slide-Rule of Success for guidance, and it tasks us with researching tech three - the Printing Press! Though we'd hoped for something like Banking, communication trading could become lucrative in the not-too-distant future.
Our first Caravel of Exploration starts out due east from the northern city of Kafa.
It will soon head southeast, charting a course across the largest patch of unknown map, and almost surely finding the other continent. What will be there, nobody knows.
By 1515, America has conquered Chuito, the last Incan city on the mainland - until a revolt happens!
Huamanga revolts from America! I have quelled my resistance the same turn, and move all three of my Armies towards Huamanga, to take it should America not act to do so quickly.
We find another civilization more quickly than anticipated, before even turning southeast.
We buy the Persian territory map for 120 gold, and find that they have a vast land area, including many formerly Hittite territories.
Armed with this knowledge, I direct my Caravel south to meet their neighbors; another will be ready in a few turns to go to the eastern part of the continent.
Team America shows up at Huamanga in 1520, clearly intent on retaking the city.
We decide that the best course of action is to help our allies, but not to seize the city ourselves. Thus Orhan takes out the best defender, and leaves the remaining one for the Americans. Lincoln is gracious and will be a great help should war with the Iroquois occur; much better that his wrath be directed towards the Inca than towards us.
Speaking of the Iroquois, Hiawatha contacts us in 1522.
Well how about that! We exist because the Iroquois allow us to exist! And the same must surely be true of the Americans and Aztecs, by that logic?
We tell Hiawatha to come and make a map of our territory if he wants one. And in response...
We earn respect!
We fare less well againt the Inca in 1522.
Three Catapults and a few Trebuchets are lost. I'd intentionally left them outside the city to help in the event that it flipped, but forgot there was still one Spearman running around, and that he could use the roads by Huamanga. The Spearman is defeated by the Aztecs shortly after that, and Montezuma takes possession of the Catapults (the Trebuchets having been destroyed by the Engineering-less Inca), but the next turn I make a point of guarding my remaining 10 artillery pieces.
The following turn, Persia informs of us their glorious military conquests.
We will never meet the Hittites, but find it quite interesting that Persia has been actively campaigning. The other continent is also a place of war, and with six of the ten civilizations on our continent, we wonder if there are three strong civilizations on the other continent, or only two.
With the last Incan troops defeated on the mainland, the Aztecs start returning home, a process that will take many turns. The Inca are not finished, however; they have regained Caxamaica on the island where they are battling America.
The next decade proceeds uneventfully, but in 1540 we discover Mongolia. We can already trade by sea, so I decide to make friends and give them Silks in exchange for their World Map. Their knowledge is not great, but it does give us a broad picture of their continent.
Mongolia got the short end of the stick with starting location - some steppe, but more Jungle and Mountain. Perhaps not as short of a stick as the mostly-tundra start of the Hittites, but not a very good draw. I decide to establish an Embassy with them to gain more knowledge.
As I suspected, Karakorum is a relatively poor city. They appear to have only recently started building Pikemen, and the Horseman instead of a Keshik does not bode well. They'd best maintain good relations with both the expansive Persia Empire and the Zulu to their south - not an easy task!
The Printing Press is invented in 1550, a hundred years behind schedule. This will give us the ability to fully connect the world - not a bad thing, as we know Persia is already sending ships out across seas, and perhaps across oceans. We ask the TI-83 what to research next, from a limited slate of choices.
This time it answers that we should research Invention, despite the lack of any necessity for it at this time.
The Mayan cities are starting to develop by now, and in Palenque, a Courthouse is built. Corruption proves to be moderate in this area of our empire - not enough to go all-scientists-and-taxmen, but not great.
Right around 50%. In a wealthy city such as Palenque, development is justified; in poorer cities it may not be. But by the mid-1600s, I expect the Mayan core to be more or less productive.
We also finish Magellan's Voyage in 1550, the first Wonder of the World we have built ourselves.
Unexpectedly, this triggers our Golden Age.
I'm not sure how this happened; Magellan's Voyage is Commercial, Expansionist, and Seafaring, whereas we are Scientific and Industrious. Perhaps it's because we have captured Scientific and Industrious wonders, even though we did not build them? The Civilopedia states that a civilization must
build wonders corresponding to both of its traits, but in practice it appears that whether existing wonders were actually built by the civ that owns them is not enforced.
Nonetheless, this is not a bad time for a Golden Age. We are immediately propelled into the top spots for both GNP and Manufacturing as a result.
We'll also be able to 4-turn Invention while running a surplus of over 100 GPT. The Mayan core's development will be accelerated, and our coastal cities that are struggling to build Cathedrals and Marketplaces will get a shot in the arm. It may be just what we need to propel us to the next stage of development.
. I destroy three Horsemen by Chichen Itza, however, and one Knight and one Medieval Infantry reach the gates of Quirigua - the Inca are likely realizing their strategic mistakes right about now.
Realizing that the wind now has been taken out of the sails of this front, I order the Trebuchets which I had planned to sent towards Tiwanaku this turn to attack Atico instead, and with their help the city is finally taken. Though ordinarily such rebellion would be insufferable and the field would be sown with salt, keeping Atico will speed up our approach to Cuzco, so we grudgingly keep the city. But we also start training a Settler, just in case.
Hope all is well
