CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Eight

Because I no longer want the Great Library, I have my pick of the middle age wonders. Do I want Sistine? Leo's? Nope. Pangaea map, it's got to be SunTzu. With Pyramids and SunTzu in hand on pangaea, just BEGS for military action. I decide I'm going to go for conquest, and that I will beeline up the south branch of the tree to Military Tradition for rapid cavalry blitz potential. As such, I build libraries (or rushbuy them) in ALL my cities and set out to do my own research. Being the largest civ, then even with my 25% research penalty, I should still be able to run a tech lead. How much of one, I don't know, but I'm going for it. MY OWN RESEARCH. Let's see what this new patch is made of!

After the Engineering tech came in, I was the only one who had it. The AI's were marching up the north side of the tree. I let them. I went for Invention at my best break-even rate, then started training longbows in my capital every other turn while I waited for gunpowder and SunTzu's.

In 440AD, I deemed myself ready to attack Babylon. I had a force of four cata's, a couple of upgraded muskets, half a dozen vet longbows and eight or ten horsemen. No chivalry yet, but it's coming soon. (I'm waiting on the AI's to research it for me). Here we go!

Ur fell on the first round. Well, the second round, actually. The first round, my units moved into position. Only one round of combat, though. The Bab counterattack was light, but they did bring their sword-and-bowman army down from Ninevah. As I pressed my attack to Ashur, I thought I'd take a screenshot of the heroic struggle vs the Bab army unit (I lost a lot of troops, three horse and two bows) but for some reason the army didn't show in the screenshot. Oh well, here it is anyway, the death of the Babylonian army at the hands of my longbows.

I pressed the attack hard, losing yet more horsemen. Those were future wannabe knights that died prematurely, but the only cost lost was the 30 shields to train them, and I was done waiting around. The Babs must pay for their ancient treachery. They must pay NOW.

Ashur was burned to the ground and replaced with an American settlement, Buffalo.

The next turn, the AI's got chivalry finally and I used the SunTzu-provided barracks in my new town to upgrade all my surviving horse units.

Then the next turn, my knights charged into Babylon. (I sent the cata's in, but they missed all four shots, firing uphill). I lost three knights (ouch) in the assault, but then I won and they had one city left. It fell two turns later, eliminating Babylon from the game.

My cash got all used up, upgrading horse units and rushing some key buildings in the new cities. I took a couple of turns to delay to rebuild cash. And the most annoying part, the AI's were not falling as far behind as I expected, even with me pulling nonstop research down a single path. They stayed at most two to three techs behind. Some of them got gunpowder as I got metallurgy, and that was a problem. I wanted cav vs pike and wasn't going to get it.

So did I pause? Heck no! I've got to hurry this war effort along before they can upgrade and build lots of new muskets. The zulus are up next and my knights are racing to get into attack position.

And... believe it or not, the attack on the Zulu city finally produced my FIRST elite unit of the game:

You're not going to believe this, but I lost two more knights and another longbow attack impis in this city. Sheesh.

After capturing the town, between turns I got my second elite, a knight, from an attack by Zulu reinforcements (a longbow of theirs attacked and lost, finally some good luck for me!) Keep an eye on this unit: he's going to be important in the future:

Seeing the pace of the AI research following me up the bottom branch, I realized that I could not prosecute a nonstop war here. I decided to pause, build banks and universities and Wall Street instead of producing nothing but knights. I WOULD prosecute my war and continue onward, but only to crush the Zulus. Once the Chinese had gotten chivalry, and their Riders, and sparked their golden age, things went south for the Zulus in a hurry, so my attack on them was my effort to grab Zulu lands without having to take them from the Chinese. I didn't want to face their Riders until had cavs online, too.

Well, Egypt had other plans. At 600AD, she invaded MY lands and provoked a war. Well, that answers that. Cleo's just going to have to get some, too.

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