Oh my. I need a beer. Liz is a tough nut to crack and she aint beat yet. York is in our hands, but Liz made us pay. She threw the contents of London and York at us, including about 9 cats, and we lost more than we could afford. Alex played an unwittingly important part staying at war with her, but now she has chemistry and therefore grens and frigates. We need to think carefully about the next moves. It isn’t all bad though as Liz paid dear as well, but those 8 turns were tough. Here’s my blow by blow description from my notes:
I open the file, it’s T147, 740AD
Stack NW of Washington remains stationary to heal for the most part
Liz’s forces:
London: 1 musket, 3 lbows, 2 maces, 1 xbow, 1 pike, 5 cats, great prophet
York: 2 lbows, 1 pike, 3 cats, great scientist
Athens: 3 lbows, 4 WE, 1 mace, 1 cat
What’s the bet she starts a golden age next turn?

Ask Fred to give us 70 gold. He graciously agrees
Sell Education to Hatty for her map and 50 gold
IBT:
Beijing finishes a canon, starts another
Liz starts a golden age

Monty’s and Saladin’s golden ages finish
T148 760AD
Micromanage Beijing to finish the canon in 1 turn (-2 food)
Liz’s forces:
London: 1 musket, 3 lbows, 2 maces, 1 xbow, 1 pike, 6 cats, same navy
York: 1 musket, 2 lbows, 1 pike, 3 cats
Athens: 3 lbows, 1 mace, 1 pike
She has 1 xbow west of York on iron, 1 mace on elephants 2 south of York, and 4WE’s, 1 mace, 1 cat south west of York!!

What’s she doing now?
Her power is also on the increase.
IBT:
Tokugawa demands we stop trading with Hatty. I refuse
Beijing finishes a canon and starts another
Saladin has military tradition, but no horses
T149 780AD
Micromanage Beijing back to stagnant. Canon in 2 turns
Liz’s forces:
London: 3 lbows, 2 xbows, 2 maces, 1 musket, 1 pike, 6 cats, same navy
Athens: 3 lbows, 4 WE’s, 1 mace, 1 pike, 1 cat (they went back to Athens???)
York: 2 lbows, 1 xbow, 1 pike, 2 cats
She has 1 musket, 1 cat 2 north of Athens (they have left York)
Sell Cyrus uranium for 6gpt
IBT:
We get Replaceable Parts
Tokugawa wants us to DW on Capac. I refuse – I don’t want to distract Asoka!
Caesar takes Karakorum, and Mongolia is wiped out.
T150 800AD
Start studying Rifling and ask Asoka to do the same – it will be 5 turns
Liz’s forces:
London: 3 lbows, 2 xbows, 1 musket, 3 maces, 2 pikes, 6 cats, same navy
Athens: 3 lbows, 1 pike
York: 2 lbows, 1 pike, 2 cats plus 1 xbow on the iron
SE of Athens heading into Greece: 1 musket, 1 mace, 4 WE’s, 2 cats!

2 north of Athens is a xbow
DW on Liz
Move main stack to windmill hill NW of York
Move frigate to 1 north of London, bombard to 54%
IBT:
2 cats attack our stack, 1 dies, 1 withdraws

Entire stack wounded
Asoka offers gift of copper. Accept
Cyrus demands we stop trading with Louis. Refuse
Beijing finishes a canon, starts another
Cyrus adopts free market and free religion
Alex adopts Bureaucracy
Fred now has economics
1 galley leaves London. Not so chicken

Asoka move two separate grens into England from Washington
T151 820AD
There’s an English xbow NW of York where I want to be. I want to go there because it’s a shorter trip to London from there. I attack the xbow with a gren @ 95% and win. Rest of stack moves to the same spot.
Sink the galley that left London.
Move frigate to chinese waters to block caravel headed that way
Cancel insence/Silver deal with Asoka (we lost contact with second silver)
Ask Asoka to give us Incense. He agrees.
IBT:
Oh my.

Liz throws the kitchen sink and everything in it at us. Our stack NW of York is attacked by a motley list of 6 cats, 3 muskets, 2 maces, 1 xbow and 1 pike. That was a concerted effort to wipe our stack out.

We lost 4 grens (ouch – and we were unlucky on a couple of them, I’m sure) and 1 canon. We killed all 6 cats, the pike and the two maces.
Asoka has 4 grens and 1 canon in England
Louis adopts slavery and mercantilism
T152 840AD
Sink the caravel north of London (which had turned around after heading for Beijing) so the frigate can retake position north of London.
Bombard York with 2 acc canons and medic cat
Asoka has 3 units within reach of York so if I can kill 2 of the current 5 units, it is capturable by Asoka.
Attack lbow in York with wounded CR3 canon @ 89%. Barely win. Ouch.

Can’t get a second battle on York better than 23% so I give up the idea of making it capturable by Asoka this turn

Attack wounded musket on marble hill @ 92% and win
Attack wounded xbow on marble hill @ 96% and win
Our stack NW of York is in big trouble.

Everything is badly wounded. Very vulnerable. Hope Liz doesn’t go after it with everything again.
Bombard York to 3% with remaining canon
Ask Asoka for 250 gold. He gives it.
Upgrade archer in Beijing to gren
Sell divine right to Caesar for 120 gold
Upgrade another archer in Beijing to gren.
IBT:
1 musket attacks stack and we lose a gren. She’s picking us off. Need to get York now!

Caesar adopts mercantilism and serfdom
Peace treaty with Alex expires
Beijing finishes canon, starts another
Damn it, Asoka is plundering in England east of York!
T153 860AD
Weakest canon bombards York to 0%
Frigate bombards London to 54% (again)
Asoka has 4 units in range of York, so…
Attack across the river from the NE of York with new canon – the only one with any chance of winning a battle at 86%. We win it! Now only 3 units left in York, and Asoka can take it this turn. He damn well better!

Rest of stack NW of York sits to heal
Move 2 grens and canon from Beijing to Silver Hill
Move 1 lbow from silver hill to Beijing
WW at 3 +1 for fighting B+S in the faith. Beijing @ 23 happy, 22 unhappy
IBT:
Liz is a b****
1 mace and 1 cat attack our stack NW of York and we lose two more canons, and a musket attacks the wounded canon NE of York and we lose a third canon in the one turn. Ouch!

Asoka takes York though, but has only 2 grens in there. That will do!
T154 880AD
Attack musket NE of York with gren from silver hill and win. Gren goes on into York
Move gren and canon from silver hill to York
Move remains of wounded, decimated stack into York
WW now at 4 but no negatives for B+S in the faith. Beijing at 23 happy, 22 unhappy
Cancel copper deal with Cathy now that we can
We get second silver back from capturing York
Cancel Whale for Dye deal with Cyrus
Trade copper to Cyrus for dye. Beijing now 24 happy, 22 unhappy
Bombard London to 48% with frigate
Trade spare silver to Caesar for 3gpt
IBT:
Alex wants open borders even though he’s annoyed. I accept since that will allow us to scout his area
Saladin and Cyrus both have constitution
Capac asks for a gift of astonomy. I refuse
We get rifling, start on artillery
Beijing finishes a canon, starts another
Liz’s golden age ends
Asoka upgrades all his lbows to rifles
Liz has chemistry!

Cathy has Military tradition, but no horses.
T155 900AD
Asoka wants to study steam power, but I ask him to study Artillery. He agrees. It’s 8 turns away.
Sell divine right to Capac for 190 gold
Asoka’s fleet set sail a few turns ago by the way – it’s now near Susa again.

I presume it’s heading for the English coast. It would be good to arrive with our units as it lands but I don’t know if we can do that.
WW now at 6. Beijing 24 happy, 24 unhappy
Some comments about tiles near Beijing – I didn’t know how to mark this in the save:
1 north of Beijing has 1 turn to a workshop
2 west of Beijing has 1 turn to a workshop
1 east of Beijing has 2 turns to a workshop
1 southwest of Beijing has 2 turns to a workshop
1 north of silver hill has 4 turns to a workshop
That’s it from me. My turnset is done. I’ll put a copy of the file here for you, and I’ll upload it to the progress page as well.
View attachment SGOTM07 AD-0900.Civ4SavedGame
Edit: It's pretty much near the beginning of the turn