Pre-flight: swap some builds to settlers to get our land covered and unit costs down. Wow Crete was a hornets nest. Mobilize troops in Casa toward the front. Ship Darius 3 luxes and 10gpt for opium and incense (we need WLTKs badly). Diamonds are very costly, but we get them from Media for wines and 15gpt.
IBT: We get very lucky, as one Minoan broadsword takes our first army down to 3 hps, the second takes our second army to 1 p, and an archer takes a heroic pelt to one hp. All live, however.
1100BC: Tarqunii
let->Slave Market, Arretium:Settler->Settler, Orchomenos:temple->settler, Gravisca
elt->pelt, Dendra:temple->spear, Mycenae:temple->spear
Vet pelt kills minoan spear on flat near thebai.
Facing an army of 15 spears on a hill covering 9 broadswordsmen, we decide to abandon Knossos and thank the gods that much slaughter was averted. Not the proudest moment in the annals of Etruscan arms. Our ships accommodate just enough troops to pull a perfect Dunkirk, and Knossos is abandoned let there be no doubt we shall return! Or not not much to gain there. Minos has sweeter targets elsewhere.
Im tired of sitting on this lump o cash, so do a safe steal on Kolchis, netting us masonry. Which opens up exactly nothing for trade (all techs this allows have another prereq). Lets see what Solomon knows hes pretty weak. Yes, a safe steal allows us to master the secrets of Literature. We set our own research to Code of Laws and order the construction of some libraries throughout the land. Hammi will sell us Education and Architeture for 6K a pop. Not just yet, Hammi, lets see what develops.
It was risky, and researching the rest ourselves would have been cheaper, but it also would have taken 11 more turns. Id like to have a better defensive unit with which to assault Babylon, though I may be dreaming.
Interesting Assyria lacks Ed, while Troy lacks Architecture. We do some wheeling and dealing, and at the end of the day, were down about 4000 gold and 50 gpt, but we have tech parity. Getting Architecture is huge, as it allows aqueducts to be constructed, and theyre pretty cheap for us.
IBT: The Huns demand 100 gold, guess theyre not satisfied with the 50gpt and two luxes were already shipping them. To stay with the theme of this game, I tell them to stuff it, and we get our gpt back.
1075BC: A few builds complete, sorry but I dont have the energy to note all builds. Vet pelt kills vet spear on flat. Load up strike force to take Mallia (Minoan city on the tip of the boot) next turn.
1050BC: Three Heroic pelts take Mallia with no losses. Cretian strike force recalled to the home front in anticipation of Hun incursion. Home cities benefit from garrisoning many declaring that they love the king.
1000BC: We take the last Minoan city in the western Med and make peace.
I get too tired to write the rest of the report, as turns are taking forever and it is well into the wee hours. Summary: I was afraid of the Huns, so didnt start any other wars, focusing mostly on infrastructure. We secured all luxes, so any city above 6 pop gets WLTK. Went three for four on steals (getting Astronomy netted us over 10K gold.) and we are now at tech parity, with CoL due in ten turns at monopoly. If we can get CHs built and get a government with a trade bonus, we can win this baby the old-fashioned way. If youd prefer 200 unit on 200 unit warfare, that can be arranged as well.
The big thing we need right now is workers. Once we get CoL, we can dedicate a couple non-core cities to spitting out workers to grow our cities faster and work the land. Something is screwy with the culture, as I rushed several temples, but they are not producing culture. Neither is the Pantheon in Rome.
Oh - we are now at peace with the Huns, we got it straight up without ever seeing a unit.
the save
!
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to gain extra power.
