CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic ThirtyThree

Well, now I have produced my two immortals. And instead of consolidating their gains at Antioch to make sure I cannot retake the city, the AI has marched on Arbela and taken it, spreading its forces too thin.

Message dispatched to Babylon: "You have chosen unwisely."

The Babs have already had their golden age, spent entirely on bowmen. Now I get to spend my entire golden age training immortals.

"And then it was my turn."

Babs have expanded borders at Edrine? Good. That means the city cannot be autorazed when I take it from them.

With my iron back online, I upgrade a warrior and I begin training more immortals. My entire civ will now be bent to war, except my southernmost city, Susa, which will build a granary and continue to train settlers to fill in the lands in my back lines.

My first priority is to fully secure Antioch and the iron supply. My second priority is to retake Arbela. Both are achieved within the next half-dozen turns.

Yep, training regular immortals at Tarsus and Gordium. I decide to start the Colossus in Pasargadae.

Then contact is made with Spain while I am marching on Istanbul. I establish embassy with Izzy. Then it's time to put the hammer down on the Hammer.

I check F7 and note York is building the Colossus. (The AI used to neglect the Colossus, but as of recent patches, they are more alert about building it as soon as they can). I decide to investigate.

Uh, not good. My 58 shield partial Colossus build is turned into a granary with no shields lost.

My forces march on Edrine. I've had about five elite victories by now. No leaders yet. The Turks are up to five cities now, too.

That's about as far as I can usefully go. The next closest targets would likely be autorazed, being too new. I decide to consolidate my gains.

Ellipi and Ninevah are both on the ass end of civilization, on the far side of Babylon, but the other Bab cities must all have resources near them, as Hammi will not part with them. I take the two cities more to trash his growth curve than to do anything with them. They will sit up there and build some regular warriors, since they start defenseless. I may whip some regular spears, or walls, or maybe a library some day.

This war was not as time consuming as it may appear (if you couldn't tell by the early blunders). Yet I already realized I was probably out of the running for best time, since anybody who turtles up, never goes for the Antioch location (I wonder if it's got saltpeter and oil in range, too, since the AI was SO HARD UP to come after it), could ride a peaceful 5CC-style game all the way to a Diplo win in three or four hours. I am already past three hours, I think. On the other hand, this is a heck of a game. I can't remember losing my fourth and fifth cities in an ancient war in eons.

So... looking forward to a period of peace and prosperity? Ha! Think again.

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