So, the detailed version of what happened in this turnset...
- I bought Banking from the Koreans, giving Wang Metallurgy. He can't make hwacha with it because he doesn't have any saltpeter. Even if he imports some of the stuff from someone else, enhanced artillery in the hands of the AI doesn't sound like the most worrying thing we could come across.
- I gave Watha ROP, so that we have the option of marshalling troops in Quois territory before attacking the Inca. I considered sending the eastern army to mop up the Inca before heading to Mongolia, because I'm a bit frightened of the Mongols, but decided against it, especially as it is me that has been pushing for a fast strike to capture Leonardo.
- I started cutting iron and saltpeter sources across the empire, ready for some upgrade action. We currently have 2 iron and 2 saltpeter hooked. The irons are the two we have underneath towns (Bunker Hill and the Gardens of Istanbul), so we will have to trade those away. The best options seem to be Watha, who will give us 2gpt for iron, and Osman will give us 17g, but can't come up with gpt. One of the saltpeter sources is next to Veii, and cutting it will make the road network there a bit less efficient, but that's not a huge problem. The other is at Camp Elite and I delayed cutting it because Camp Elite uses that tile to keep up 20spt. I have diverted a lot of slaves (er.. too many actually, a bit of overkill there) back to the core to replace the mines on unroaded iron and saltpeter sources. Flamboro could also do with having some of those plains mined while the slaves are over there, as it makes too much food in its current state.
Under the upgrading regime, somewhere like Camp Elite probably wants to keep building 4-turn cavs, while 10 or 15spt towns make horses for upgrade, unless we actually find our income is outpacing our supply of horses for upgrade.
- A suitable tile at which to do the disconnect/reconnect would seem to be the saltpeter at Cantigny. There is an explorer and 6 slaves waiting patiently there for the fun to begin.
- I finished the campaign on the Celtic mainland without any trouble. We are still at war with the Celts, just because I was feeling vindictive. Here they are, next door to Russia's future prison...
I pillaged their roads, although those two workers are building a road which will soon in be in Celtic territory. Oops, better stop that nonsense - don't give these clowns anything for free! There's a cannon underneath that army, which I used to count defenders, before killing one with the army (of course I should have used a cav, trying for a promotion). The remaining damaged spear is presumably the only unit left in there right now. Perhaps the cannon could also amuse itself trying to bomb Badajoz's grassland for -1fpt damage.
- We got dowed by Ham again, at Temu's request. Our 20 turn peace deal with Greece also ended, and I decided against renewing it, as I think we will want to attack Alex soon. He already has his hands full with the Mongols anyway. In fact if we get really lucky, Temu might capture his own future prison from the Greeks. That would be neat. Of course any Mongolian towns we keep will be huge flip risks, but that's no problem as long as we stay at war with them.
- I founded a new town at the eastern end of the Quois lake, to speed the journey of our eastern fleet, stationed at Niagara, over to the mountains on the north coast of Mongolia, where I wanted to land. I also used a couple of cannon disbands to rush more carracks in the area, so as to allow a larger simultaneous landing party. Cannon can't unload onto mountains anyway, so they weren't going to feature in the initial assault.
The theory was sound, and I was ready to have 7 carracks unloading into Mongolia in 690ad. They even left the tile I wanted, the mountain next to Tabriz, free. And then the Idiot of Macedon dumps a hoplite/archer combo on that spot in 680ad! Well as the old saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is
JUST GETTING IN THE DAMN WAY!" So I had to settle for a mountain further east, from which fast units could still strike Tabriz. Unfortunately, only 4 carracks could reach it, so we have a smaller force to start off with. I haven't made any moves with the Mongolian contingent yet, but they are all intact - the AI didn't dare touch those armies. Good call Whomp.
Now we have the choice of going straight inland to Leonardo in Tatu, or striking back north at Tabriz. The advantage of going back for Tabriz would be that it is coastal, so if we take it, we could bring the remaining 3 carrackloads of troops straight into action. Also, it might be less well defended, as (unlike
all their other cities) there are no wonders there. The disadvantage of Tabriz is that it surrounded by mountains which are covered in Mongolian muskets. Trying to kill them would get very painful, and while they are there, they would stop us from intercepting Mongolian maces trying to attack Tabriz. From what we can see here, it looks like a lot of the Mongolian troops have been drawn north into the Tabriz area by last turn's Greek incursion (which was 1NW of Tabriz). There's not many actual maces among the visible units, it's mostly muskets.
- I founded a town in Mongolian Germany, in case we wanted an easy route into Germany. Mind you, I'm not sure Germany is actually a very interesting place for us to conquer; there is lots of marsh there, so claiming its territory would need culture rather than settlers.
I thought Otto might take offense and raze Heligoland, but so far he has tolerated the place. However, the Mongols have sent a caravel-load of troops over there to deal with it, so we will need to give it away immediately. In fact it would be ideal as someone's prison city. It needs to be someone not at war with Mongolia or Germany, or other nearby civs, and presumably someone we plan to attack? The Koreans or Inca seem like good options. Japan not so good, as they are at war with Greece.
- I gave Julius one of our core prison cities, before attacking Rome with the western army.
Then I realised that wasn't necessary as he has built an island city. I think if we try to attack that town, it will autoraze, as it is only size 1, and neither we nor they built any culture there. So I suggest we leave it alone until the Roman mainland is conquered; their capital will jump to Pisae island, which will be larger than Roman Prison. Then we can surely get Roman Prison back in a peace settlement, and use it for someone else.
- After finishing the Celtic campaign, the western army loaded up and sailed south. My choice of Rome over Japan was pretty arbitrary. I liked the look of the mountain landing spot next to Cumae better than the flatlands of Japan, and I also had an idea to do one of my combat settles in the Roman territory on the Aztec mainland. But then we are at war with the Aztecs anyway, so I scrapped that idea, and prioritised shipping the military into Rome. The landing was in 690ad, and the Romans didn't try any counterattack; our top defender was an elite musket on a mountain. Cumae fell easily, and then Veii fell with some difficulty.
We seem in a pretty strong position, although that stack west of Veii will probably get attacked by the Roman foot units to the south. I hope the new army makes it out alive. I should have been more careful when mopping up the strays after taking Veii; as Julius has no fast units, there is no excuse for giving him the opportunity to fight on the offensive.
Anyway, once we pick off the Roman foot units, the remaining towns should fall easily, as they are unusually close together.
- On this turn, I have moved the units in the Roman campaign, and most of the slaves on Alpha. I have not made any moves in the Mongolian campaign, and this turn's fresh cavalry builds are still unmoved. I did have a quick scan through the towns, so the micro situation shouldn't be too bad.
Still, we got there in the end. Apart from that kind of SOUR, Rome doesn't seem capable of offering us any resistance.
