And I close yet another game.
Inherited Turn 373, 1726 AD
Truly, I'm surprised we haven't dominated the game yet, even with the Vassal penalty to land area. Anyway, I too shall eschew with build orders an non-essential play-by-play narration. That is, until war is declared. I'm just going to spend this round figuring out where all of our troops are.
-End Turn-
Turn 374, 1728 AD
OK, so I want our mounted units to mass in Pusan in order to strike Larsa first turn (well, rally outside Pusan, anyway) and slower units south of Lagas, hit that a couple turns in, mostly likely with support from the cavalry. After that, I'd plan to head east, grab Nibru, turn due south for Kish, and then south east to nab Uruk, the capital. If he hasn't capitulated by then, well . . . I'm sure I can manage.
We'll get Corporation from the Sumerians soon. Saladin will have Astronomy in a few turns, but we're not interested in that. We hear that it allows for navigation upon the ocean, but what is an "ocean?"
Here's a picture of Pataliputra. No reason, really, I just like the terrain. Very defensive.
There's a Great Artist in Bombay. I'm guess we're culture bombing to end the resistance. So I do. I've actually never had a chance to do that in a game before.
Also, we have two worst enemies: Monty and Alex. Alex I can understand, but Monty? He's Friendly with us! How odd.
-End Turn-
Turn 375m 1730 AD
Saladin offers horses for our pigs. We already have horses! Well, I feel bad for him, lacking pigs, so I take some of his cows. More cows for the empire!
Oh, and here comes Monty. Offering sheep for sugar. I take some of his cows.
I think I'll declare in a couple of turns, when a few divisions of Cuirassiers heal in Pusan. So many units . . . .
-End Turn-
Turn 376, 1732 AD
One of our spies in Sumeria was caught. Will try to replace him.
Now a picture of Khurasan. It also looks snug, except the "corners" of the mountains can be passed through. Too bad there isn't a defense bonus for it anyway, because that really seems like it would be a defensible city in real life.
Ugh, finally all units moved. War next turn.
-End Turn-
Turn 377, 1734 AD
Alex also wants some sugar from us, offering corn. But do you have any cows . . . ? He does have a cow! Hmm, but he has furs, which we lack. Oh, I take furs. Then I trade dyes for his only source of cows. His people may go hungry, but at least they will be well-dressed.
An Indian revolt has taken place in Pataliputra! Didn't I tell you they were conspiring against us?
Meanwhile, I activate the Cattle Rancher side-quest and attempt to trade for every cow resource available.
. . . And the diplomacy window takes 10 minutes to open. *sigh*
After making several deals, I am now proud to announce that we control 15 sources of Cattle! Yet, what is this? Gilgamesh! You won't give us your cows? Well, then there is only one recourse left to the noble people of Germany:
And the trumpets go off the world 'round.
Let's kick things off. I Spy has a 99% chance of throwing Larsa into chaos. I should hope so, after all the practice we've had. I think most of the Sumerian's army is in Larsa, so let's see what we can do. Many War Elephants and Pikemen will make this tricky. Lose two to war elephants, take out a pike in the first wave. 3 losses to Elephants. Rrrrr. All with odds around 75%. Lose at 78% to a longbowman, among other losses. At least we beat a maceman at 98%. We WITHDRAW from a wounded elephant we had 98% odds against. What the heck?
I figure I owe you guys a picture, so here's one. The town still has several defenders in it, including a stack of catapults. The good news is that it's nowhere near as scary as it was before and Gilgamesh's relative power dropped by 0.3 points. Might have been more if we didn't lose so many troops ourselves. But at least the town will fall easily next turn.
Move our other army north.
-End Turn-
Tujrn 378, 1736 AD
BUG informs me that Gilgy will sign peace and even capitulate (haven't even taken a city yet!) but I don't think he's ready to talk yet.
Anyway, Larsa's defenses are back up, but if we can blast past the CG III Longbowman, the rest of the troops are wounded. Oh, wait, all of our troops are wounded, too. Well, 3 turns to heal, even with the super-medic . . . . But I have another spy nearby, so we can collapse defenses again.
Oh, wait, I find a healthy, unpromoted Cuirassier nearby and give him Combat IV. He wipes out the longbowman. I then use some lower-ranked troops to kill those nasty elephants.
And I capture the city while I'm at it. Because even wounded Cuirassiers can beat catapults easily.
Lagash will be ours next turn if Gilgy is still being resistant.
-End Turn-
Turn 379, 1738 AD
Our spies do what they do best in Lagash.
It looks like Gandhi has stomped Gilgamesh's border guards on those forts. Good for him.
Now, this division has siege support, which will probably make a huge difference for our casuality rates. Now, about our causality rates, I'm not sure. Only 5 troops here, so it's kind of a let-down.
CR III trep is flawlessly defeated by the CG III Longbowman. Second one actually retreats at the same odds (18%) while smacking the longbowman silly. Third does well.
We lose an unpromoted musketman to a wounded pikeman at 80% odds.
The next batch is more successful and we take the city with no more losses. It comes with a forge, market, courthouse, and a settled great artist. Whoopie.
Wow, some unnamed spy screws up the revolt in the backwater of Khurasan. Well, Ms. Wednesday can handle it, can't she?
Yes. A lone musketman then takes the town from a pikeman. (I did this in part for fun, and because Saladin would have taken it next turn. I suppose I should have, it was near his territory.)
Finally, all the unit moving is done. Three new cities for us, maybe Gilgamesh will talk. Hope he doesn't take too long.
-End Turn-
Turn 380, 1740 AD
Saladin will trade Astronomy, but we can just take it from him.
We get an event as an exploring party finds knowledge of steam power in the ruins of an Indian city neary Haithabu . . . OK.
It appears that Gilgamesh will talk, so I'll wrap this up. Saving game, too.
Humbled, Gilgamesh enters the Palace at Cologne, flanked by bodyguards (not that they would do him much good because our assassins could kill the whole party three times over before they knew what hit them). Despite his situation, he attempts to maintain his bravado.
"Germany has committed war crimes against Sumeria!" he declares angrily.
We regard him cooly. "You know full well that no crime has been committed, Mr. Gilgamesh," we neglect to include his royal title, "We Germans have
written the international law, and we can rewrite it if we so wish. Now, let us get down to business . . . ."
We gesture, and Gilgamesh haltingly, hatefully, bends to one knee. "Sumeria . . . asks for peace . . . and mercy from . . . mighty Germany. We offer ourselves to you as one of your . . . Vassals." Gilgamesh's anger is barely contained as he bites off his words. We affect not to notice and remain silent for a moment, letting him squirm. Finally we say: "So it is done. Sumeria shall be made part of the World Coalition. At last, all nations of the world are united under one rule! Henceforth, this day shall be remembered and celebrated as the Day of Unification!"
"Now, give us your cows."
And there was much joyous celebration.
I mash end turn because there is little reason to play out the rest of the turn.
We collectively play 39 hours and 31 minutes, and got a fairly respectable score, if I do say so myself (not that I have any idea what the median scores are).
Or Herr? 
), and re-read RB9 - Cottage Cheese - succession game (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152787&highlight=cottage+cheese). So another variant that might be nice to try:
. That is provided pottery is on the queue to future tech 
. I haven't had those before so I'm guessing it might have something to do with the new patch. But I ended up saving at the end of every turn, just to avoid a total moral failure!
