Round8: 455AD - 950AD
"All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence." - Otto von Bismarck
"Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in." - Napoleon Bonaparte
And peace it was, drawn along the lines set by the Treaty of Beshebalik. Orleans had been mandated to the Mongolians while France retained all its other possessions after paying some gold as war reparations.
This round, it's peace. Still. Timbuktu started on a market until it grew by one pop., at which point it started on a worker, completing it in 7 turns before continuing on the market. The courthouses were started and whipped in Turfan and Kumbi Saleh, as planned. Well, there are enough cities now to make it too much of a trouble to give details on what each city built. Generally, all the cities had economic builds at one point or another, with some switching to military towards the end.
Moving on to the more interesting aspects of this episode, take a look at our friend Kublai:
One unpromoted archer in the holy city of his state religion. Seems like he got cozy enough with us to perceive no immediate threat. A good sign that the policy of rapproachement towards Mongolia was working.
Well, it turned out that part of the reason for the momentary show of weakness was this:
I hate it when the AI settles just one or two tiles from a spot that I would like to have a city on. Should we raze it when we eventually capture it?
Anyway, our first great person was finally born in Djenne.
Much later than I would've liked, but with no early wonders and not being Philosophical, I am not surprised. I sent the GS to Timbuktu to build an Academy and appreciated the significant boost it gave to our research. It also provided some much-needed culture to fend off the encroaching borders of Old Sarai (which, sadly, managed to claim the copper).
And Kublai got a good boost to his military strength.
I didn't like the look of this. Indeed our neighbours seemed to be teching to longbows. I was mentally prepared to tech to maces before being able to seriously invade, but I also believe that catapults would allow us to wage one or two limited wars to capture a few strategic cities in the meantime.
Well, at least Napoleon didn't have Feudalism yet. With Kublai's power ratings up, I tried to bribe him to fight the French once we finished researching MC.
He wouldn't have it. Must be the blasted mutual struggle bonus he still has with Napoleon. Hey, the war is over and you LOST. Get over it, man!
I thought that in this case he wouldn't get MC for anything, but several turns later I changed my mind and decided to give him a deal.
Wasn't the best of trades, but I thought he was going to get MC himself soon anyway, and I could do with Organised Religion now that Timbuktu had become Christian.
A few turns later, Napoleon grew hostile again.
I thought that was bad sign. I could only hope he wouldn't declare before we managed to get more military built. I would want to go for it if he declared, and to do that we need a credible invasion force.
And the sneaky general was apparently trying to grab some land in my part of the continent:
For some reason, though, he quickly turned back. But his antics weren't over.
I was going to refuse it flatly, thinking that we were going to war with him soon anyway. But I changed my mind as the cursor was hovering on the reject option. What harm could giving some sheep away for now do? It's better that we had several more turns to prepare for the war, at the declaration of which the one-sided deal would be over anyway, so I agreed. And Napoleon grew a little more amiable.
He's really flattered, huh? I took the chance to do a little bit of recon before the war.
Yes, some of you guessed right - he founded Confucianism.
“All religions have been made by men” - Napoleon Bonaparte
Indeed, he made 3 of those himself. And one of his precious holy cities right at the border was guarded by an archer and a spearmen, no less!
It was too tempting. I decided to move whatever units had gathered in Beshebalik towards his border immediately. I think it would be good to invade before he has more longbows.
This is where I stopped. So what now? I would like to declare war right away (hence the ironic quote by Napoleon
). But CS is a few more turns from being complete, and I plan to try and use it bribe Kublai and get some of his techs at the same time. Should we wait to see if we can bribe him before invading? That would take some pressure off our army, but there's no guarantee Kublai would take the deal. And there's no way I'll give him CS without any techs in exchange.
[continued on the next post]
). But not everyone might like the decision. The warmongers might tell me how unnecessary it is and that I should have razed the city and gone on a pillaging spree to completely ruin Napoleon, maybe razing more cities in the process. That is definitely a viable alternative.
)
