Preflight (50AD) A quick look at the world that scout has entrusted to me. Well then. For one, this is an exceptionally brightly lit map. No fog of warishness right up to the Spanish borders. The jungles and marshes were really our friends in this game -- Spain and England didn't have too many chances to expand before. Now, of course, they have none. Spain is down to five cities, none over size 6. Liz has three. A quick peek at F7 tells me that ToA is building in Madrid, and also in London. Dunno how long it's going to take either of these gals to finish it for us. I suppose that if we run out of patience sitting outside of Madrid's gates, we could just finish off Spain and let Liz do the work for us in London. Oh, and Barcelona, Spain's only other productive city, is hard at work on the Mausoleum. Good wartime mobilization, Bella!
Our cash reserves are plenty healthy, despite a touch of rushing in the last turnset. I could crank up research to 40% and pick up Engineering lot faster than the minimum, but without prior instructions, I'll leave it be for the time being. In fact, I turn it all the way down to zero for a few more pennies and let our lone scientist earn his paycheck. Can always blast away at deficit research later to catch up. Turn the beer and dancers fund down to 10% as well, with no-one ready to riot. Income, after a bit more fiddling, is now 54gpt.
Just for fun, I dial Liz's digits. She's not so happy to hear from me. Nothing on hand to trade. With 3 cities she's not gonna be a research monster in this game. Then I call up Bella. "I tire of these brutal, senseless wars," I say. "Can we not find a way to live together in harmony and brotherhood? Smoke the pipe of peace with me, Bella." I offer her a peace treaty and 20gpt to make up her losses.
Not.
Time to hit enter.
IBT A barb galley drifts away. That's all. Tamarac spits out a worker, and I set it to build a galley. Must make some friends. We will soon have no-one here on this continent to play with.
Turn 1 (70AD) We have catapults in Entremont that are going to be rusty buckets before they have time to cross to Spain. I fortify them in place. Rush the spearman in Santiago to free up that MP to do something more useful than play with his warpaint. Switch Murcia's build from a worker to a warrior, as Murcia won't grow for 10 more turns and the worker would be complete in 5. Short rush the warrior for 20, and then switch to a spear and rush that. This frees up another MW for more useful things. Move troops eastward very carefully, trying to keep the map as brightly lit as possible. Our wounded troops heal up in Seville and I consolidate some.
IBT Santiago gets its spear, and I set it to build a harbor. Can easily be switched to something else later. Murcia gets its spear as well, and gets to work on a worker to (eventually) hook up those furs.
Turn 2 (90AD) Our settler by the sea gives us Silver Birch, whose first build will be a worker, timed right for growth. Other troops move east. Still trying to keep every inch of this map in the spotlight.
IBT One Spanish archer emerges from Salamanca. Unfortuneately for him, that puts him in range of two MWs, hungry for scalps. Wonder how this one is going to turn out.
Turn 3 (110AD) Fortify the two MWs just to see if the archer will take the bait. Continue to move Appaloosas east. Freshly healed troops are ready to move on Valencia in another turn or two.
IBT The archer tries his luck. Retreats our MW and gets yellowlined for his trouble. Build some more MWs and micromanage for gold and food in most places, production in others. (Our capital is now a perfect 10 shield MW machine.) The Arabs build the Hanging Gardens in Mecca. And, unfortunately, the Maya build ToA in Chichen Itza, a little bit out of our reach for now.
They also build the Pyramids in Palenque. Maya with Pyramids is not a good thing, I tell you what.
Spain and England cascade to nothing, apparently.
Turn 4 (130AD) Pick off the offending archer, revealing another one nearby. (1-0) Troops continue to move gently through the jungle and swamps. We lost our lone scientist when we built our settler, so I have to retrain a tax collector to work in our forest laboratories.
IBT Spanish archers do their best against our MWs. We retreat and they get yellowlined. Madrid finishes the Mausoleum, and Babylon gets the SoZ. Barcelona and London are now hard at work on the GLib. We shall see.
Turn 5 (150AD) First order of business is Valencia -- size 1 and in our way. A vet MW kills a spear and get redlined ... wait, does anybody really care about the details? Here's all you need to know.
Score is now 4-0.
Troops are only moving at infantryman speed.
Otherwise I'd have more progress to report. More or less we have two task forces, one to converge on Salamanca in the north, one on Madrid in the south. After that it's mopping up time, but I might not be the one to do it. We shall see.
IBT Entremont gets a library and starts to work on an aquaduct. It actually has enough food around it to get a decent size someday. We'll also have to tend to pillaging the Celts' old improvements sooner or later.
Turn 6 (170AD Kill more Spanish archers. (7-0) Not enough healthy troops in position to take any cities yet.
IBT Kill another archer on defense. (8-0)
Turn 7 (190AD) A touch of the war weariness is setting in. Must either spend money on a kegger for our two size 6 cities, or disrupt their nice micromanagement. I splurge on beer. Entertainment is now at 20%.
Troops heal, and healthy ones move inch by freaking inch eastward.
IBT I didn't think she had it in her. Bella actually lands an archer right next to completely undefended Entremont. Some other pesky archers pop out of the fog.
Turn 8 (210AD) I panic for approximately 8 seconds, then see that I can divert a replacement MW to cover Entremont. Ping the invading archer with those catapults that were doing not much of anything, and then finish him off with the MW, who promotes to elite. (9-0) I now note that Madrid is size 7, a bit harder nut to crack. We shall see.
IBT 
Turn 9 (230AD) Kill an archer and consolidate troops. (10-0) What, you were expecting nukes? Move our slower troops on the mountain outside of Madrid down to where they can do some good next turn.
IBT Liz parks a galley offshore of Entremont. Either she's going to declare, or she's going to land a settler for our swampland.
Turn 10 (250AD) I peevishly move our Irish catapults to block an immediate landing by the English, whatever they plan on doing. A more generous player can move them back if he or she likes.
Let's see just how many defenders Bella has in her capital.
Turns out to be six. Our MW kill 4, and two swords die yellowlining the remaining two reg spears. (14-2) :cringe So close, but not this time. Other troops are making their way to Salamanca for some fun for the next better player.
We have a settler waiting on top of some marshes at the other purple dot. Workers there should have the marsh cleared next turn. Other workers are ready to start an irrigation chain to Entremont. Other troops are positioned where they can keep an eye out for barbs. I rushed a couple of harbors on our west coast, and we have a galley coming out of the docks to try again for that mystery coast that has sunk so many of our brave sailors. I left research at minimum, but we have a fairly decent bankroll (851g and +38gpt after entertainment and cash-rushing), should anyone care to melt down our credit cards in the next turnset. Here's a picture of our Spanish front.
And here's the
>>SAVE<<
It's a bit late for me to give this the proper consideration, but I will apply all appropriate cerebral and martial skills to this one in the requisite 72.
