Sorry for delays, I had to take care of some RL obligations. Anyway, here's the war log:
T209
I traded Communism + 110 gold for Artillery with Liz to get the war started.
I started researching Railroad, 8 turns of combined research. Rails are very important, and the plan was to get that coal from Fred asap!
Accumulating cash for upgrades:
Monty paid 220
, Alex 110
and Toku what he had, 30
for our good will and protection.
Plans for the attack:
A) Forrest approach, relying on JC to move soldiers from Madrid to Antium for protection.
B) Waiting for Fred to attack first, defending Antium with our stack.
I considered leaving a soldier in the city, but that was nothing. Fred had a lot of soldiers nearby.
It was possible to move to the forest from Antium so I just moved the stack in the city and fortified it. That was a good move for both plans.
I calculated the needed gold for the upgrades, it was possible to get one more upgrade with 2 merchants. 0% science wouldn't bring more cannons so I didn't change the slider.
T210
Liz declared on Toku! She used the "exploring stack". That odd stack was moving around very strangely, those 2 LB and one artillery moved in immediately. Main stack was approaching too.
Liz asked for help! I couldn't let JC send his soldiers in the wrong direction! I declined.
Toku asked for help too! Well, that 30
wasn't enough.
I spend all money and upgraded 7 out of 10 cannons. Ready to move! Only waiting for JC to send some defenders to Antium! 2 JC's soldiers were moving towards the city!
JC lowered his research rate to 80%, I decided to take another 10 gpt. At that point, lowering the science rate was enough for one more cannon so I dropped it to 0%.
Madrid was getting out of rebellion on the next turn, everything was looking great. Fred even moved some soldiers away from Antium! Still, there were many units in Berlin. It was possible for him to attack with 3 cannons and say 7 rifleman. JC only had 2 infantry soldiers and 2 cannons for defense, I wasn't comfortable with that.
T211
Asoka offered 270
for Biology and Liz offered Democracy + 200
for Medicine. Not going to happen!
JC's 2 soldiers were just moving around!
No need to reinforce Antium for Caesar. Madrid was out of revolt, I was hopping for some unit movement on the next turn. I decided to wait for one more turn and upgraded the 8th cannon.
Kublai decided to trade again! Memory decay at work, he forgot about some trades! More options to consider. I was constantly checking the trading status and WHEOOHRN too, no danger detected.
Anyway, turns were passing, JC didn't send anything and I got a bit nervous with the whole situation. Kublai - Capac PA on the door!
I re-evaluated the war with
Kublai-Capac again. Should we declare on Kublai asap? Attack on Kublai would leave free hands to Capac and cause grave problems. I scouted his capitol, he had lot of units there. On the other hand, attacking Capac would cause grave problems on the Kublai-Caesar line. Besides, Antium was still undefended. No, attacking Fred was the right plan.
It was very frustrating for me at that point that we were almost Friendly with Capac and Kublai but JC messed everything with Buddhism! Hopefully, capturing Bombay later on and some Jewish missionary spamming would bring JC back...
The good thing was that
Madrid kicked in! Izzy was really diligent with the religion. It is a bit ironic that JC build the shrine.
I decided to take another 30 gpt from JC. That didn't drop his research rate, he was still at solid 80%.
T212
JC didn't send anything from Madrid! That's it, enough is enough,
plan B! Total mess everywhere! Waiting for Fred to attack first!
Liz captured Kyoto! Madrid started looking better, culture pressure from Kyoto disappeared.
Discussions with Liz revealed that
Monty was her "bitter enemy" now! That's very important to know, she might leave Alex alone. Who knows, maybe her Redcoats will board ships and set sail to visit Monty ?!
Discussions with other civs revealed other things:
Li is Kublai's bitter enemy! Maybe he'll dogpile when we attack her with tanks?! That would be great!
Fred hates Alex. Oh, well. Not for long.
Louis also hates Liz!
Asoka discovered Biology! Time for selling! Plan was to sell Biology to Cyrus for partially researched Railroad and to Kublai for Democracy while Biology still had some trading value. Helping Kublai was not a good thing? I thought about it and concluded that we should trade. Trades were possible only with Cyrus, Liz and Kublai and acceptable trades don't come often anymore.
Only one thing left to do.
War declared, fingers crossed! Stack fortified in Antium, waiting for Fred to attack!
I asked JC to attack Berlin to point him in the right direction.
T213
Ok, here it goes. Fred moves first, JC second. I was watching unit movement at the end of the turn, I turned on the options to show movements.
Fred moved a lot of soldiers on the hill next to Antium, he didn't attack the city directly. JC moved the soldiers from Rome and some soldiers entered Fred's lands near Hamburg.
Cathy completed the
Apollo program! The race is on.
Closer examination of the battlefield revealed 7 Fred's rifles on the hill next to Antium. Then I almost had a nervous brake down: JC moved too many soldiers from Madrid,¨he only left two soldiers there! There were many soldiers near Hamburg, Fred had an option to attack with say 6-7 rifles on the next turn!
Time for a break.
For the
next war we need city garrison troops, defense stacks and rails to coordinate things. We can't rely on JC to defend himself properly!
I decided to move 2 soldiers towards Madrid. Hopefully, Fred won't try a desperate rush on Madrid. There were some JC's soldiers near Hamburg to distract him. Berlin was also seriously low on defense, those soldiers were not needed for the attack. I used one artillery to soften the attacking stack a bit. JC had already done some collateral damage himself. He also upgraded the cannons, he also had artillery. First win at ~80% chance and no damage for our unit as well! Stack remained fortified in Antium. I also started moving reinforcements from Beijing. 3 infantry soldiers and 1 arti. 1 arti, 1 inf, 3 rifles and a gren stayed home. I wasn't willing to risk too much.
JC's research dropped to 70%, I gave him back some gpt. That didn't help so I took the gold back... That trading screen started looking very messy too.
Fingers crossed, Madrid screaming, hit end turn.
T214
Antium under attack, defenses hold! 3 rifles move near Madrid! Luckily, only pillaging expedition. JC moves some soldiers to Berlin! That's too fast, our attacking stack was still in Antium. JC moped up the remaining soldiers near Antium and his main attacking stack reached Antium.
Time for movement!
Berlin was really low on defense. We should try to attack from two different directions if possible in future wars, AI is very vulnerable to that.
I left a soldier in Antium and finally moved 3 soldiers, artillery and cannons to Berlin! I was forced to use the tile on the other side of the river, there was no time for the forest approach. JC was getting ready for the attack.
The battle for Antium unlocked
Heroic Epic! One soldiers got a third promotion and reached level 4 needed for HE. I mixed things up before when I said we need a level 3 unit. 3 promotions, level 4. Anyway, HE in the queue!
Cyrus researched assembly line!
I missed that he was researching that. AI wants so much for techs at the end of the game, didn't notice tech value degradation. Cathy discovered Biology too. The planned trades were finally possible:
Democracy + some cash from Kublai for Biology and
Railroad, cash and WM from Cyrus. I made the deal with Kublai first, trade with Cyrus could have pushed Kublai to the WFYABTA limit. It didn't happen, Kublai is willing to trade!
After some considerations, I decided to go for
Combustion. Other option was Electricity first, Electricity - Industrialism - Combustion for earlier Marines. However, destroyers could be useful too.
I upgraded home defenders, there was enough cash to do it. I played around with JC with gpt giving and taking again, that trading screen got really messy.
Reinforcements were approaching Hamburg. I decided to fortify them on a hill next to Hamburg and start with the bombardment asap. Things were looking very good!
T215
Liz asked for help, Assembly line. Let me think about it a bit... No, sorry. That dropped her to cautious. Btw, many civs didn't like the attack on Fred.
JC adopted emancipation! Still, those
resources were very useful to him. There were no trading partners except Monty anyway and I don't plan to trade with him at all.
JC moved more soldiers near Berlin, he had enough for the attack! I bombarded the defense to 0% using 2 cannons and 3 arties. I decided to help JC and attack crossing the river! Didn't want him to lose soldiers.
I lost two arties but others won and
Berlin was down to one defender!
T216
Fred moved a nearby soldier into the city and one rifle left Hamburg too. Of course, that was nothing for JC, he
captured the city!
Everything was great but at that point I got worried about Liz. She had many soldiers near Hamburg, dogpiling and taking Hamburg would be a real PITA!
Btw, Capac asked for Assembly line too. Yeah right, I'm giving that to you.
Saladin completed the
Pentagon, JC stopped building it. Oh, well. Can't have everything.
Shame we don't have horses for pillaging, there were some tiles in neutral terrain for pillaging before Capac could take them with culture. There was no time for that, Hamburg next! Reinforcements from the north moved to the hill, bombardment time!
T217
JC got a lot of cash from the Pentagon, he had 633
! I took 400 and gave back some gpt to help him with his research.
Sal discovered Electricity!
Cathy has destroyers!
Unit production moved up to
1 unit per turn due to HE!
....
Oh, well. I sacked the artillery from Beijing and softened the garrison a bit. 
overflow to 
If he culture bombs, he deserves to get our GA too.
