The Next Section said:
The Talented advances seemed to have slowed for a couple months, mystifying the Intelligent. Yet they soon came bounding over the trenches with a vengeance.
Yet before they've reached our lines, diplomats come to the Prime Minister informing him of yet another trade embargo, this time between the Frisky and Talented. The Prime Minster assures the diplomats that he did believe them when they had earlier told him that these civilizations were evil.
Less than a day later, news of more Talented-Frisky developments come: more war.
That cements the Honest as our allies. Probably unfortunately for the Frisky, who I would conquer myself if it weren't for a couple dozen Talented units already on my borders.
But when the Talented finally do arrive, it's a bloodbath. They attack blitzkrieg-style, first with waves upon waves of bombers...
The Talented have not defeated the Intelligent, but neither has more than one AI turn passed since May - and that one only tonight. Between work, trying a couple Civ mods for the first time, and (indeed) a new game,
Diplomacy, I haven't played my own scenario in a few months. Tonight I started it up again, let the Talented advance, began debating what to do, and realized a great moral dilemma about what to do about J.S. Bach's Cathedral. As a result, I spent most of the last hour reading about the implications of a scorched earth policy on Wikipedia, and have not yet determined the fate of the city of Bright Future. Here's the situation:
*5% chance of defending the city successfully for this turn, which would give about 60% chance of defending it the next turn and about 5% the turn after that.
*J.S. Bach's Cathedral in the city
*Attempting to defend it may cause the loss of two other cities that can be defended with 99% certainty this turn
*Abandoning it means the permanent loss of the Cathedral
*Letting it be captured means the use of the Cathedral by the Talented
Multiple political parties have already formed in the Intelligent Empire regarding the situation. I'm leaning towards a certain course of action, but if anyone has a particular insight on the situation, please do advise. Were I to lose the city, I may be able to retake it before their hordes of infantry arrive to defend it (3-4 turns; 1725-ish), but keeping it long enough for peace would require a miracle, and attempting to may cost me The Fens (and with it, Smith's Trading Company) as well, which I have a better chance of successfully defending.
I've decided to go ahead with uploading the scenario even though I haven't completed modifying it; the version you see here is the one I started this game with, without any of the fixes I've spotted along the way. The attached file is in 7z format to keep within the space limit; you can also download it
here in ZIP format.