1000AD-1600AD

That Sistine's embarrassment aside, things are going fairly well. The events that unfold over the next few hundred years are all fairly beneficial. The Russians get in on the Mongolian war against Rome in 1025, I get a great scientist in Washington (my 5^th great person, the first 4 all being great artists, 2 joined Boston and 2 joined Philly), and I finish Notre Dame in Philadelphia. Also I found Seattle up in the north, taking advantage of Spain’s troubles and resulting inability to settle up there very well. The biggest enemy I face right now is lack of health resources – happiness is readily available, but I will suffer health problems throughout the entire game. Hopefully Seattle will help out by getting to those bananas. Here’s what my territory looks like at this time

I’m determined to boost relations with my more aggressive neighbours, so when Monty asks me to join in on the war against Spain, this time I agree – Spain being obviously on the ropes in this particular struggle. Alex and Fred get their war back on in 1160, which gives me a huge sigh of relief. Given that Saladin is happy with my religion, and everyone else around me is busy fighting other wars, my only real concern is if Peter decides to let up on Caesar and go after me, because he is very strong.

Looks like I picked the right horse in the Spanish/Aztec war!

I want to continue expanding, and the spot I have my heart set on is west of Seattle…but I notice that the Incans are sending a settler there! I decide to take decisive action to try and secure this spot.

Hah, hah.

The Incans pillage the road and iron mine around Chicago, but don’t do a ton of damage. But it might have precipitated a much larger conflict…apparently Saladin and Capac were friends…

Yikes! I scramble to upgrade my defenses by selling a tech or two for the necessary cash. Saladin brings a stack of swords, cats, and a longbow at Chicago in the south, so I scrape together enough money to turn the archers there into longbows. I lose some chariots and horse archers, but manage to retain Chicago and prevent much more than some pillaging. But then, a few turns later….

War on two opposite fronts! And my good defenders all are in the south. I order up another round of whipping of units, plus rush-finishing the Hanging Gardens in New York (to get some more health to go around).

Then to add injury to insult to injury, Peter declares on me as well in 1262. He brings even more heat, a horde of war elephants (another mistake of mine: I never hook up the ivory in my borders to get some of my own). These following turns were the longest and most painful for me to slog through. Exciting though.

 I can’t find any other civs willing to help me out in my war – no amount of tech will consider even long time Russian-hater Genghis to help take him on.

Here’s some of the Russian units coming after Chicago

I had had a fantasy about punishing Saladin’s betrayal by taking Mecca and its great starting location, and thus I had a maceman and horse scouting out his units there on that hill, and also trying to draw out some foolish and overeager units. But the difficulty of defending Chicago had precluded me getting requisite catapults and additional offensive force there.

But then, the nail was pounded in the coffin of my hopes of going on the offensive –

I am now on war with my neighbors on all 4 sides. Real great planning. I had been reveling in how the AIs had been going to war with each other, and being lazy on both defense and picking and choosing my diplomatic battles. Now the reverse was true, and everyone was ganging up against me. Check out the diplomatic relations:

I do a decent job of pumping and whipping out macemen, but I couldn’t be everywhere at all times, and predictably, I ended up losing a city.

Well, there goes Seattle.

Fortunately Saladin signs for peace, and gives me a ton of helpful, upgrading gold in the process. I build the Heroic Epic in Philly to help pump out more units, because it was my highest production city after Washington. The Greek front had been quiet, and the Aztecs calmed down after razing Seattle, so I was mainly fending off Peter’s armies during this period. The onslaught had seriously eroded my research, city development (cities that were at size 13 and 11 were whipped down to 10 and 8 in short order, I think I had about 50+ turns of slavery unhappiness in Boston at one point – fortunately happiness was NEVER a problem in this game). But I had just finished Education, and was on the inside track to getting Liberalism first.

I think my reaction at this point was more amused than anything. “Sure, why not? Pile it on!!”

Peter had given up on trying to take Chicago after I rushed walls there and snuck in enough longbows and macemen to hold off against his attacks, and had just resorted to pillaging that and Philly (I had to re-build the rice farm there like 5 times in this game). He gives me lots of gold for peace in 1358, and the Aztecs follow suit in 1382. This allows me to concentrate forces in Atlanta…my plans to take Mecca had been thwarted, but I would be damned if I wasn’t going to get one decent city out of this whole mess…and my eyes were now set on Sparta. Tokugawa’s one stack he sends does nothing but level up my units to prepare them for their war. Here is my marauding stack:

I had gotten a Great Scientist from Washington, and used him to start a golden age. Liberalism’s free tech was used on Nationalism to get Taj and another GA.

I don’t bring enough Macemen, and have to use longbows as attackers to get the pikeman out of the way so my horse archers can finish the job

This gives me the leverage to end the war against Greece. The Mongols declare aginst me, but that doesn’t really go anywhere. Japan grants peace…and I celebrate the end of that war period by trying to resurrect Seattle with San Francisco created it its ruins.

On the side front, finish Gunpowder in 1484, and start pumping out Muskets. 1496 is a warlike turn, as Peter declares against Egypt, and the Aztecs decide to pick on me yet again. I am busy trying to get universities finished/rushed. By 1502 I have 5 universities, but only 2 academies.

Again, I’m not deluding myself that I’m going to be competitive on the score front here. I haven’t been able to go a lot on infrastructure due to the never-ending fighting that has been going on for the past 3 centuries…nothing dramatic occurs, but I keep having to replenish my units. Muskets really help me turn the tide against the Keshiks and Elephants raiding Philly.

And more war:

If Caesar had used his Praetorians against me before I was Muskets and Maces aplenty, this might have been a problem. As it was…not so much. I was resolved to try and fix my earlier mistakes by making friends with my neighbors, especially the always-strong Peter! So when he asked me to join his war against Egypt, I gladly go in on it. (Later I do the same thing when Saladin dog piles in against Hatty). Ditto when Alex asks me to help him against Germany. Here’s Sparta and Atlanta around the tail end of my Taj golden age.

I’m able to fend off the Aztecs near San Fran, and they sign peace in 1565. Peace with Caesar follows in 1580, and I find myself completely at peace with the world again for a big change. Finally I can get back to improving my economy and culture, and I build banks, courthouses, and more missionaries, while FINALLY switching to Free Speech, Serfdom, and Free Religion.

On to Act 4