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Diplomatic Maneuvering I had
begun filling in cities to the east. There
was another opportunity to take one from the Barbarians at Angle, and this
turned into a race against Caesar, Mao and Saladin.
By the time my stacks approached, they all had stacks headed there.
But they didn’t bring cats, so I parked my cats and units next to the
city, let them throw themselves at it for a couple turns, weakening the
defenders (and killed off one of the archers) before making my assault. Just as I thought I had secured my eastern lands, however,
Saladin sails up the inland sea and plunks Yamama down in the middle of the
tundra!
More
building and teching, a pretty quiet period after that.
I swapped to Emancipation and Free Market after trading for Economics in
1595AD. I got my other GP in 1630 (Lavoisier),
and used him and the artist to start my Golden
Age, speeding up Oxford University in my capital and giving my research a
boost. I discovered Steam Power in 1660AD, only to discover I had no coal.
Also, Saladin’s
squeezed-in city was becoming a thorn in my side, as his borders now took my
only horses! This was a cultural
battle that I eventually won, though, with libraries and theaters in all the
nearby cities. In 1745AD
I discovered Railroad.
I had already traded Steam Power to Rome, so he could trade me coal, and
so I now swapped to Serfdom to boost my rail building.
I continued focusing on tech, discovering Astronomy
in 1765, and with the help of Michael Faraday, discovered Scientific Method two turns later.
I finally had a true tech lead, as I held monopolies on Democracy and
Astronomy, and the only tech I lacked was Vicky’s Biology (which of course she
wouldn’t trade! My plan
now was to go for a Diplo victory, since I hadn’t tried it in Civ IV, and
everyone but Vicky liked me. I
completed Physics in 1816 with
Darwin’s help, and started heading for Mass Media. With Physics came the discovery of my precarious hold on
Uranium:
Another
cultural battle with Saladin! My borders had only recently expanded to
poach that tile from Khurasan, and I would eventually see that tile change hands
a couple times. I turned Texcoco to
culture for a while, hiring artists, and even building Broadway there in 1870,
to keep putting the pressure on. I
discovered Radio in 1856, entering
the Modern Era, and then Mass Media
in 1864. Time to start the UN up in
Khoisan (my Iron Works city). Vicky
swapped to Vassalage and Theocracy in 1874, but I didn’t realize that was
significant for a couple turns…
Vicky
declared war in 1882AD (after all these years… I was hoping for a peaceful
game). There were another 2 cav and
a cannon in the stack behind this one. So
now I had to swap to Theocracy and Vassalage and build an offensive army.
I had Machine Guns in my border cities, so I wasn’t too worried, but I
had nothing to stop pillaging stacks except a handful of cavalry and a couple
cannons (I didn’t have artillery yet, and no one would trade it).
So I had to stall for a few turns, as I hurried to build a few more
cannons, and upgraded a couple of high-XP maces to riflemen.
I also bought Caesar into the action, which effectively cut Vicky off, I
never saw any other forces after this first incursion.
I basically had to let her pillage around the city for 4-5 turns, until I
was able to get all my cannons there. By
then, she had bombarded the city a couple times, but never attacked, and in fact
she pulled about half of that stack back south into Rome (easier targets?).
Anyway, all she left was 2 infantry, 2 cannons, and a cav.
So, after suiciding my 4 cannons (one retreated), and throwing a rifleman
against the top infantry, I was able to use my rifles and cav to finish off the
stack. She wouldn’t negotiate for
a while. I finally got peace by
giving her Liberalism, and then was able to sell her Democracy for 1500g.
While the
war was wrapping up, I completed the United
Nations in 1892AD. I was
elected Secretary General pretty easily, but I could see I wouldn’t have the
votes to win. (I apologize, I lost most of my notes during the first round of
elections, so I’m going on memory) Mao was by now the largest in
population, and while I had Saladin and Caesar firmly in my corner (Caesar had
fought Mao before), Alex alternated abstaining and voting for Mao, and I
couldn't see any way to draw him closer. Vicky of course wasn’t voting
for anyone! I was able to get some
resolutions passed, especially the non-proliferation treaty (I wanted to keep this a peaceful ending if
I could). I was able to retain the
Secretariat in 1924, (and have the voting written down!): Me-155,
Caesar-178, Mansa-10, Saladin-133 for 476 (386 required of 965) Mao-197,
Alex 147 (344) Vicky-145
Abstain. Seeing a
stalemate on the diplomatic front, I decided to go for a Space Race instead.
And did it ever turn into a race!!!
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In
other news, Mao was making some progress against Mansa Musa in a long-running
war, and was starting to climb back up the standings.
)
