1080 BC to 725 BC (turns 73 to 86):
I start exploring Cathy's and Sury's land with my first horses to get a lay of the city grid and where the metal is.
My scouts retrieve the following info:
(i) Sury has only 1 source of metal. Unfortunately he's sitting on it...
(ii) Sury has a decent military force and is on his way to Construction...
(iii) Cathy has
loads of
metal (at least 2 Copper and 2 Iron), some of them are way out of reach:
(iv) Cathy has a
lot of hilled cities...
(v) Cathy is
very weak militarily (no SoD, nor anything resembling a decent defense). She has 1 source of Elephants however, but she's a bit backwards. Her most defended city:
I decide to go for Cathy because she's the only
non-Buddhist (
nota bene: I haven't converted yet), the most in my face
culturally and the
weakest militarily. Good arguments I think.
Some good international news:
Montezuma who was WHEOOHRN
declared on
Genghis in around 925 BC.
By 875 BC, all ma' forests are gone
I start improving
Cottages around Mutal and
whip some more HAs (with Granaries), but it's hard with just 3 cities...
I then realize that
no one is Pleased with me. I figure that since I don't really care about diplo with Cathy it's about time I switch to
Buddhism (even though I'll need to do some spreading...):
And guess what happens next turn???
Obviously I'm the target and I don't want her to build up her military
soooooo I declare the crap out of her on the same turn
(750 BC)
Her first city falls with 1 casualty on my side:
725 BC to 275 BC (turns 86 to 104):
I reach
Currency in 675 BC and start tech'ing
Code of Laws.
The war is not going fast and I'm not feeling very at ease with
no metal so I bribe this deal to keep Cathy
occupied to the
East:
I also do a bit of
brokering:
Leading to a
double civic change: HR + OR.
Militarily, a bit of semi-fork maneuvering gets Cathy to move her
Spearmen in the open (which still don't give good odds against C2 HAs, but it's a lot better than in cities nonetheless) and leave a
city very badly defended:
That leaves her
city up North vulnerable, I get it a couple of turns later.
I reach
Code of Laws in 450 BC.
I've made a mistake and left Cathy's
1st fallen city too
lightly defended ; and unfortunately she gathered a small yet suffisiant force to threaten my lonely Archer:
Not that I value this city, but I really don't want her getting war success on me and start getting cocky. Anyway I judge that my HA attack is really getting out of breath and that it might be time to take a break (maybe a mistake,
what do you think?).
So I try to get the most from her for a PT. Aaaaand it's not much
:
Then again she didn't have a lot to offer anyway...
A (-)15 turn war and 3 cities captured: hmm yeah not great but it's somethin'... At least I've relieved my core cities from some culture pressure. I've got 6 now, plus the soon-to-be 2 coastal spots (that I need to get fast) that will be 8.
I have also narrowed my front with Cathy to the South [but I've gained border tension (or soon to be) with Genghis
]
Everyone makes peace a few turns later, it's depressing...
I weakly give in to this
outrageous demand...
But get some back just after (you douche!):
I also get this final tech deal: