After the turn of the Millennium, my enemies swept onto German soil in the first (of many...) attack waves.
The newly conquered city of Madras was the focal point for 70% of the attacks whilst the coastal city of Cologne received the remainder. My plans to try to sneak in a city in the SW area were duly put on hold. I had to keep all focus on defeating the incomers. One thing I learnt in this game was the power of correct promotions. I must admit that I have not spent a great deal of thinking before, on how to use my units promotions. This game however, was a real eye-opener for me.
This guy for instance, was a real killer against Tokugawa's Chariots. Later on in the game I created some truly wonderful units by using the promotions in wise ways. Another lesson I learnt to heart in this game was to have balanced stacks. A Spear would have been even better in the above picture and I did create some quite powerful defending stacks later on.
In the above picture you can see two more items of interest. First, one of my workers is desperately trying to cut down the forest surrounding Madras to prevent the incomers from the luxury of 50% extra defence. Second, Tokugawa have settled pretty close to my lands.
The above picture from 95 AD, shows the location of Tokugawa's settlement. The location of his city made the SW area I had planned to settle, somewhat less attractive. Let me assure you though, that the city Tokugawa settled would experience it's fair share of skirmishes. You can also see that I have finally, managed to send a scouti out to the areas NW of Cologne.
My Warrior on Sentry duty reported some disturbing news. My enemies (at least Saladin) had access to ships While I was yet to build my first Galley.. Even more disturbing was that my coastal cities were in condition to start to crank out Galleys. Cologne's production was pitiful even if I exaggerate and Munich was trying to build the Colossus. To top it off, I had not yet discovered Sailing..
Iron Working was discovered in 185 AD (quite late for a game which is completely centred around the concept of war) and an Iron resource was found next to Berlin.
This is not something I am used to see. A Warrior with 16 xp without fighting a single barbarian. I decided to honour him with a fitting name from the Rocky saga. The tragic situation for poor Cologne is also painfully visible. It has only two improved tiles, one cottage and one mine, and i have still not been able to remove that patch of jungle next to the city. Yes, the stone quarry was pillaged so many times I almost decided to leave it unimproved.
Without endangering the defences in Madras, I had slowly accumulated an army outside the Japanese city of Satsuma and in 350 AD I attacked with full force. After the capture, I spent a long time pondering about whether to keep the city or raze it. Since it had three good resources within the fat cross, and Gold and Iron just outside, I decided to keep it. It would also move the front line even further away from my core cities. If I managed to keep it......
Munich is finally on Galley manufacturing duty. However, Munich is a long way from Cologne the way a Galley travels.
A nice little picture of the day-to-day life in the German outskirts. I have a Russian archer stack at the gates of Madras, while an impressive Japanese stack is advancing on the heels of Peter's archers. At the same time, Saladin have just dropped of a Chariot and an Archer outside Cologne while another Arabian archer is taking the land route to Cologne. Oh, another thing, Cologne's defenders are healing up after successfully defeating a stack of Axemen from Isabella. You can see that my research is set for Construction. It had become painfully obvious that I would need Catapults to be able to defend against the multitude of invaders, which stack's only became larger for every attack wave.
Te battle at Satsuma had generated my first level 5 unit (which is cleaning up the neighbourhood in the above picture). I realized that if I lived long enough in this game, I would end up with quite a lot of elite units. I decided hence, to name every level 5 and above to make it easier to know their whereabouts. Remember this guy, he would become quite extraordinary.
A crucial wonder to the German task was concluded as the towers of the Chichen Itza towered above the Berlin skyline in 590 AD.
I got another Great Prophet in 700 AD and decided to merge him in Munich. Munich was the Confucian holy city, and I had planned to build Wall Street there eventually, so I figured that every source of income would be handy in that city.
I settled the last German city in the starting area in 725 on the peninsula north of Berlin. At this time I had a navy consisting of two Galleys, which had secured the area somewhat, to make it safer to send out work boats.
Brothers in arms!!
Another rare sighting. A stack of three consisting of three different nationalities have finally turned my cottage (which was a hamlet just a turn ago) outside Cologne into nothingness.
At the same time in Satsuma, my First Elite passes the next threshold as he reaches 26 xp.
Except for the hostile takeover of Satsuma, I had done nothing but defend since year 1 AD. In 935 however, I decided to end Gandhi's rule over the hills of Bombay. The future enemy attacks against this city would be the most intense I have ever experienced in CIV. Madras had one thing in its favour though, it was placed on a hill.
In 965 AD, the enemies attacks had worn down my faithful defenders and no hope remained to keep the city. I decided to save the lives of my three last defenders (of which my First Elite was one) and moved them out of the city onto the hilltop to the east for further transport to my core cities. Tokugawa moved in with all his forces the next turn and reclaimed Satsuma. I swore to come back and raze Satsuma when my army was strong enough.
I sneaked in The Hanging Gardens in Berlin in 995 AD.
With Satsuma once again under Japanese control, the enemy stacks swooped in to lay havoc on the German cities. I noticed after awhile, that the attacks came in waves. Even if it looked grim (like in the above picture) I knew that if I managed to survive the attack, I would be granted a couple of "peaceful" turns to not only rebuild my defenders but make my own stacks larger. This cyclical war-fare chiselled out a strategy for me: Defence followed by a successive build-up of an army, big enough to go on a future offensive of my own. I also decided at this time, to wipe out Gandhi first (except for avenging my dead defenders in Satsuma). I figured that if I could gain control over Gandhi's lands, I would move the front line far enough to really allow my core cities time to create some kick-butt German Stacks of Doom. I also decided that once India was conquered and all cities captured, I would not keep any more cities, but rather raze them.
But first things first. Active defence and a slow build-up of an offensive force.
One, of many, critical moments for Bombay. Isabella has a stack consisting of 2 Swordsmen, 1 Axe man, 2 Chariots and 1 Spearman on Bombay's doorstep. At the same time, Alexander has another stack ready. I am really low on defenders. I have got reinforcements coming in from SE to help against Alexander's stack, but Bombay's own defenders will have to deal with Isabella. It is in moments like this heroes are born. I send out my lone catapult to do some collateral damage and hopefully withdraw and:
He wins over the Swordsman at 31,9% odds!!
Catapults are awesome when you are in an active defence mode like this and I used them a lot. Send out a Catapult against the enemy stack next to your city. If the catapult survives, it will still be in your city since the plot it attacked is occupied by the remaining enemies. If it dies, it will still have damaged the top attacker and inflicted collateral damage on the remainder.
Civil Service was discovered in 1142 and I immediately switched to Bureaucracy to further improve Berlin's production. I had also placed cottages on all flood plains at Berlin, so the commercial effects of Bureaucracy were noticeable. After the swap I was running 60% science at +4 gpt.
In 1178, First Elite (now placed beyond the walls of Madras) reached the next threshold. A level 7 Axe man! How common is that??
In 1190 AD, I was about to avenge my poor Satsuman's. My intention this time was to raze the city to the ground since I knew from hard earned experience that I was in no position to successfully defend this city. This campaign was more a matter of honour and to remove an enemy launching pad into my lands. Boy, was I in for a nasty surprise...
The city fell easily on the same turn but.... I did not get to choose whether to capture or raze the city!! It was automatically captured!!!
Sigh.....
Is this a bug or is it intended to work this way?
I loaded defenders into Satsuma as best I could, but I did not dare remove too many from Madras and Bombay.
Notice the blue colours of America SE of Satsuma. FDR managed to sneak a settler past the invaders and settle Chicago in the middle of a raging war!
The end to my regime in Satsuma was now only a matter of time. In 1250 AD, Satsuma was once again surrounded by an overwhelming force. I had no other options but to (again) abandon ship. I removed all units from Satsuma and watched the following occurrence:
Lol!!! Alexander beat Tokugawa to the city and promptly razed it!
I only smiled for awhile though, since that massive stack quickly moved on to threaten the German heart land. I had to play cat and mouse for a couple of turns to try to break up the pack in smaller groups, whilst luring the bulk of the stack away from the southernmost areas and towards Madras and Bombay instead (which both were nearly impossible to beat at the time). The enemy had a couple of elephants though, and since I had not yet access to Pikemen they presented a real threat.
Hamburg completed Heroic Epic in 1274, before continuing it's never ending quest of building more soldiers.
I dispersed of the smaller stacks in the southwest part of Germany. At Bombay though, things really started to get tricky. In an attempt to improve my defences, I upgraded my First Elite to a Maceman. I was unsure about what would happen when such a high level unit was upgraded, and the result was both positive and negative. The unit kept it's promotions and level 7, but it's 40 xp was reduced to 10. In other words it would need another 40 xp to reach level 8.
My foes noticed the difference though... If he was a tough soldier to meet as an Axeman, he became almost scary as a Maceman.
A typical day at the office for my freshly upgraded First Elite!
I took this snapshot of the military power comparison between the different nations in the early 1300's. I was clearly pulling ahead with the discovery of Civil Service and Machinery and the subsequent construction of Macemen and Crossbowmen. I was at the time researching Feudalism to put more oomph into my defences with Longbowmen. If I was the clear leader of the pack, poor Gandhi was the clear looser. Being my nearest neighbour did not exactly improve his situation either.
I had just beaten off a major stack of opponents and gotten statistical proof that my military was in good shape. For the first time ever during the course of this game, I felt that I was in control and that I even had a chance to pull of a victory!
With that bold sentence ends Part II.
