Previous Chapters in the History of Carthage:
The Ancient Age
The Age of Exploration
The Five Musketeers (Expedition to Mt. Faka)
After launching the Musketeer expedition toward the Barb Island, the Carthaginian Democracy was prepared for a nice peaceful period of expansion. I was building up my workforce, preparing to criss-cross my lands with Rails once my scientists finished their research on Steam Power. However, when they finished, we noticed one MAJOR problem. There was no coal to be found to run our trains on!! The year was 1180AD, and I knew I faced some critical decisions. I had to decide where to secure coal from, how to do it, and what to research in the mean time. Looking around the world, it appeared that there were at least six locations that had coal: Greece, Rome, America, Zulu, Aztecs,
and an uninhabited island in the middle of the 'donut'. Trading wasn't an option, as even the most advanced AI (Greek/Rome/England/Persia) didn't even have Chemistry yet, and no one had Navigation, and I didn't want to fast forward them that far. None of the locations could be reached without a war, even the 'donut' island would require seizing a city to rush a harbor in. This thought process was complicated by the fact that I had already sent my whole military (5 muskets and a knight) SE to rescue Cracker and friends. (Since no one had Navigation, what was the point of paying maintenance on garrison troops??).
So, I began to look at my options, evaluating each nation in terms of their tech level, other luxuries available, etc. Aztecs, although the most backward (still wanted Polytheism), were so far away, and had no luxuries to offer. Zulus had fur, but the barb island would give me those anyway, and was also far away. America, Rome and Greece all had gunpowder and education, and each had at least one luxury I could secure in the process. However, a couple of other factors tilted my decision to Greece. First, in looking at luxuries available, I realized that Greece had no Saltpeter, and therefore would still have hoplites, no muskets.
Also, they were the closest, in fact Athens would be about the same distance as Thebes was, and so corruption should be manageable with courthouses (since I had already built the FP). Athens also had the Pyramids and had just completed Sun Tzu, neither critical wonders on this map, but a nice bonus on an island with 4-5 cities.
Now, my decision was how to go about destroying them. As I said, I had no military whatsoever, except for 2 elite swords who had been my 'palace guards' since the Egyptian war. In fact I only had one barracks (Sabratha) that I used to upgrade the musketeers. I had skipped Military Tradition, so Cavalry would require going back for it. Nationalism would give me Riflemen, a slight improvement on Musketeers. While I was thinking this through, I was also realizing that it would take several turns to put together a force, and I decided to go for a more ambitious approach. I would research Electricity and then Replaceable Parts, while building up lots of muskets and cannons, then do the double upgrade and invade with Infantry and Artillery. After all, it would be an island hopping invasion, so the extra speed of Cav wouldn't be as helpful. It actually took a few turns longer than that, because I detoured to pick up Economics on the way to give me more time to get muskets done. I also rushed two more barracks right off the bat, so at least some of them would be vets. Meanwhile, I cranked out more galleons both to collect units and bring them to Sabratha for the upgrade and to carry the invasion across. 12 turns later, 1275AD, was the turn of upgrades. I upgraded 21 Muskets and 12 Cannons at Sabratha (for 2220 gold), and loaded them onto 8 galleons. I also had two 'special forces' teams put together, a galleon with a settler, worker, explorer (to be disbanded), and an infantry). These would land on Greece's south island, one to secure coal, the other to secure the incense. Looking at the border with Rome, I figured that if I landed and took the greek city first (Pharsallos), Roman culture would expand to fill the gap and I would end up fighting Rome too.
While this was going on, my other concern was to insure that Greece did not somehow acquire saltpeter. With Sun Tzu, he could quickly upgrade, and I didn't want to face muskets with my infantry. Rome only had one source, so they were safe, but I had to make sure that England or Persia didn't meet up with them, since they had Astronomy, and it would be a matter of time before they got Navigation. Thus I made my first real use of privateers, enforcing a "communications embargo" between the England/Persia island and Greece/Rome. It was effective, I sank 2 English galleys and 3-4 Persian caravels, they never did contact Rome until I sold it to them in 1375AD (well after the war).
I landed with two task forces, the bigger one with 8 infantry and 8 artillery near Athens, and the second, with 8 infantry and 4 artillery near Corinth, on the east end of the same island. I also had two my two elite swords with the Athens group. By now, I had a galleon bringing 4 of my elite musketeers back from Mt. Faka, but they wouldn't land until after I had taken Corinth. The attacks went well at first, Athens fell in 1300AD, then Corinth the next turn. 1315 saw the fall of Sparta, near Athens, with the harbor intact! Also that year I founded 'lol', my coal city on the southern island, and noticed that Athens also had a coal source. Back home, Thebes also finished Smith's trading company, while my other cities were each popping out a worker to start the great railroad project. 1320 Thermopylae fell, after two turns of assault, costing me an infantry. Then I moved to the other islands, taking Delphi in 1330. 1335 one of my elite swords produced Hamilcar in taking Argos to the north, and my infantry finished with Pharsalos in the south, completing the desruction of Greece. I think I lost 2 infantry in the whole process. I disbanded the explorers in the new towns to rush libraries, since they were on the border with Rome. From there I just kept rushing libraries, temples, courthouses, etc in my new greek possesions. Athens with a courthouse was 50% productive, (7/14), and my newly captured workers began building rails all around. Hamilcar moved to Athens to enact Universal Suffrage, both for the culture boost and in case I ran into a similar situation for oil.
The NeoGreek Islands, 1400AD
I thought about rushing TOE (I was researching scientific method), and using it to push for Hoovers, but it didn't seem as critical at this time. I am still working towards it, but I can build it manually in plenty of time. I plan to build Hoovers on my home island, I have 6 power cities there that can benefit from factories (and a couple smaller ones). TOE will be done in like 7 turns, and Hoovers 5 turns after that (Utica is prebuilding), most other cities should finish their factories by then also, hospitals are done in all cities that need them. I have built a couple stock exchanges, and working on a few others, to make sure I can build Wall Street, basically just gives me something to build when I finish the hospital. Havent gotten to Ports of Entry yet, but # of harbors shouldn't be a problem. I researched my way to refining, had one source of oil on island east of egypt, another on Barb Island, although Persia and America each had caravels headed for it (it was just outside my culture border), I moved a worker and musket onto it to secure it, there is nowhere else for them to land but mountains.
My biggest decision now is where to go from here. I had been thinking about a space victory again, or possibly UN, everyone is polite except the Aztecs. It is fairly late to start on a conquest mission, besides I am pretty happy with the territory I have now, minimal corruption. Although it would be fun to conduct a modern amphibious campaign, haven't really done that too often. We will have to see what the future brings . . .
Greece declares on Zulu in 1752, while I settle last city on se barb isle, and land troops at London, York, Nottingham, and Canterbury. Take London in 1754 to massive loss of infantry, Canterbury in 1758 killing a LEADER!!
. Gifted 10 techs to the Aztecs, then traded for one of theirs, Traded for Military Tradition
