500AD (IT): First I reorganize things a little: optimize Athens to grow back up to size 12 after being hit by disease. Change it to a bank, which I'm a little divided over, since an extra knight would help us out.
I see that 10% luxuries really are necessary now. Several major cities couldn't handle 0% luxuries, and won't be able to until we have cathedrals online.
Now what do we have? 2 knights, 3 horsemen (not counting the one in the nether-nethers up north), an MDI, a swordsman, and 6 warriors, only some of whom are veterans.
Does anyone see any of our cities waiting desperately for the next technology to be discovered so that they can build some vital improvement? No? I didn't think so. I cut science off completely, which will give us 209 gold per turn, something we need for two purposes: (1) upgrading units (Renata:
), (2) investigating Aztec cities.
I shuffle troops around. Recalling a horseman and some warriors from the north. One horseman upgrade to a knight.
Ok, we're going to need more than 5 knights, so painfully I switch Athens back to a knight.
510AD (1): After growth, Athens is allowed to swipe an irrigated grassland off Delphi, so it can grow to size 12 in just 3 turns. Athens is our most valuable asset, we have to manage it wisely.
Upgrades taking place.
Too many of our workers are too far north. I start moving them back to our core, where there's still lots of work to be done. Among other things, Sparta is about to hit size 12, and will need to be reoptimized for shields.
520AD (2): Athens completes knight. Now it is set to build a bank. That's right, we're going to keep building and building even as we prepare for war! Thermopylae builds a cathedral. I'm going to get one MDI out of it before getting it to build another bank.
Thessalonica worker -> courthouse. Our northern lands need lots of courthouses to become productive.
I investigate our targets. Tlacopan is size 6, guarded by a spearman and a pikeman, both regular. It's building a cathedral, and is due to grow in 7 turns. They have pikemen. We must strike fast and hard. Tlacopan is the must-take city in this war. Four knights would have a high chance of taking it, but I want to be certain, so I will send five.
Malinalco is a secondary target, and we will attack it with an infantry force. It is guarded by two regular spearmen, and unlike Tlacopan it does NOT have a barracks, so upgrades are less likely. It's just size 2, and no walls, so no defensive bonuses.
530AD (3): Marathon library -> courthouse.
lots more of our workers diverted south. This little sub-kingdom we have up north is cute and all, but our core has a much higher priority over it. Sparta and Thermopylae could have substantially increased shield production with appropriate reoptimization of the surrounding terrain.
More upgrades as we gear up for war.
540AD (4) Corinth temple -> MDI. They're not going to be growing too soon with that jungle around, so I get them to build military instead of a cathedral. However, we really need our workers doing things like making Corinth stronger, instead of making some fishing village in the boonies have a mine that's production is lost to corruption anyhow.
Ok we're cashed up, so I turn research back up, Astronomy in 3 turns @+7 gold, and we have 347 in our coffers.
Athens and Delphi both reach size 12, and Delphi is *extremely* shield-poor for a size 12 city, with 9 shields. We need more workers in our core!
550AD (5) Sparta Cathedral -> Bank. Thermopylae MDI -> Bank.
Here is a picture of the graphic front:
The red stack consists of 5 knights and 1 hoplite. It will be able to reach Tlacopan on this turn. The green stack consists of one knight, a hoplite three MDIs, and a swordsman (upgrading the swordsman would have delayed our attack by a turn). The stack will hold in the forest outside of Malinaco, before attacking the city.
The eastern front will be a defensive one. We have enough hoplites and MDIs over there to defend it. The Aztecs have no road network over there (and we have updated maps), so we know they won't be able to attack us fast.
If the red stack captures Malinaco with ease, some of the unused knights might go north and attack Tzinzuntzen. A priority in this war will be to get our golden age going, as well as deny the Aztecs of theirs.
War declared. Our knight stack moves in:
vet knight vs regular pike: victory 3-1.
They have another regular pike in there now.
vet knight vs regular pike: loss 2-4. They promote
vet knight vs veteran pike (2): win 2-2.
Infantry stack moved as planned.
I make sure that the civil disorder popup is on, so that if war weariness strikes, I can use scroll ahead to stop disorder in every city after the first.
560AD (6): Even though I had several hoplites next to Aztec archers, they are all too scared to attack. We may have to end up generating a golden age with an offensive hoplite.
We take Malinalco for the loss of one MDI and one hoplite. Yes, I got a hoplite to try attacking a one-hitpoint spearman. He died.
I leave a veteran hoplite defending two captured Aztec workers in the west, near some archers. Hopefully this will bait them into attacking.
570AD (7): Hammurabi has the nerve. The nerve I tell you to threaten us for Feudalism. We tell him to go jump. He does.
We discover Astronomy -> Navigation, so we can discover other civs asap. 5 turns @ -25. Athens is switched to Copernicus.
The Aztecs have shown up with an MDI. Their archers are cowards and didn't attack our hoplite.
Tzintunzen is captured by two knights.
580AD (8): An Aztec MDI shows up outside outside Tlacopan. Maybe these MDIs are made of slightly sterner stuff than the cowardly archers, and we will actually get a golden age!
590AD (9): An Aztec MDI attacks us in Malinalco, across a river no less, but our hoplite loses 3-3! Argh!
Then an archer finally decides to attack us at Tlacopan, and our hoplite wins. We enter a golden age!
Corinth MDI -> Cathedral. Knossos worker -> Marketplace. Mycenae Marketplace -> Temple. Miletos Worker -> Worker.
Tlaxcala captured from the Aztecs. But uhh...I misclick when defending Malinalco and leave the city with one defender two few. It has a 2-hitpoint MDI in there, and there is an Aztec 2 hitpoint MDI across a river from it. It may fall next turn, although should be easily retaken.
600AD (10): the Aztec MDI attacks Malincalo but we win, 2-0! Whew. An Aztec MDI outside Tlacopan attacks, and kills our hoplite, but is redlined. On our turn, I attack him with a knight, trying to sieze the mountain. We lose 4-0, and he promotes. Grrrrrr. I decide not to attack again.
Contacting Montezuma, I notice that an important development has occurred! He has contacted the Ottomans, and will trade contact, and Engineering, which he now has, for peace!
Rather than do anything myself, I will leave these decisions to Renata however
My turn would feel incomplete if I didn't leave her with something tough to handle.
Remember to optimize cities for shields or food appropriately. We're in our golden age and want lots of civic improvements built. Thermopylae could go for a Wonder after its bank is finished, maybe a Bach's or Smith prebuild. Either of those wonders would be very valuable.
The Game
(note: on my personal webspace since upload server wasn't working, so might be removed later).
Good luck Renata!
-Sirp.
EDIT: PS: Matt, did you play a shadow? I didn't get an email from you....
) for very little cost in units or production; I can't see that pace continuing without a lot more offense than we currently have. 
