I played 6 turns, you'll see why below.
Inherited turn (1610 AD): Micromanage some cities a bit.
Turn 1 (1613 AD): Preparing the attack on Yaroslavl’ and surrounding Nubian.
Turn 2 (1616 AD): Capture and raze Nubian at the cost of 1 Maceman (at like 90% odds again, what is it with me and barbarians?)
Turn 3 (1619 AD): Start bombarding Yaroslavl’.
IBT: Refuse Caesar’s request to join in his war against Persia (which he starts this turn)
Turn 4 (1622 AD): Yaroslavl’ is captured and burned down at the cost of two Cats.
In order to counter War Weariness, I switch most cities from building military to building Theatres. I also increase the luxury slider to 10%. We need bigger cities and Theatres will allow them to grow 1 to 2 sizes larger at 10% luxury, and of course larger as we move up the culture slide when we have the funds for it.
Turn 5 (1625 AD): Most of our units start on their way to Moscow while some remain to heal.
IBT: Peter sends a Longbowman and no less than 4 Catapults at 1 Knight, while there were some (small) stacks that he could have attacked.
Turn 6 (1628 AD): Well, it turns out Peter could afford to lose some units....
With our lack of Catapults (only 1 at the front and about 2 in the homeland) this will be a VERY tough nut to crack. We could of course try bringing Peter down for good, but we do have the option of making peace with Peter and turning towards our other rivals (preferably Cyrus)
The advantages:
- Peter is willing to offer everything he's got for peace.
- we are easily capable of defending our homes when the enemy can reach us
- if we declare on Cyrus, we will stay on Julius' good side until we are ready to take him on
As long as we declare on someone the same turn we make peace with the Czar, it's okay by the rules. It could be considered an 'exploit', since we can't reach the others for a while and vice versa. On the other hand, if we finish off Russia, we probably won't be able to reach the others yet either and the war will be equally 'phony'.
Give me your opinions on this please.