Pong 3: Turns 110 - 128 of Russia

First turn in the new session, Germany is yelling at me for amassing troops on his borders.

He's on the other side of the world, and I have no idea what he's talking about, but I apologize anyway.

Oh.

I'm sorry my two scouts scared you, Freddy.

The War with Brussels

Right at the end of the last session, Japan and Persia declared a joint war on me. As I noted then, both of them are so far away from my cities that I didn't expect any sort of coordinated attack from them. However, Hojo is the suzerain of Brussels and brings them into the war, and they actually have a decent sized force directly on my border.

They move across into Russian territory, and immediately threaten three luxuries. A pretty solid opener, though I don't understand the Swordsmen to the far north. Advancing through the flat terrain further south would likely have been a better move.

Last turn I bought a Crossbowman with faith. I move it behind my city to make room for buying another one, and bombard the only unit still in reach, a warrior on my Citrus plantation.

I also rush another Crossbowman with gold in Tula, bringing me up to three on this front.

An Archer and Spearman slowly make their way back over rough terrain from a Barbarian hunting expedition.

I become genuinely concerned on the second turn of the war. Without walls, those swordsmen are actually doing some damage, and there's enough of them that I won't be able to cut them down very quickly.

I decide to plink at three different Swordsmen to weaken them a bit.

At this point, I notice something interesting. I can get the Naval Tradition civic in one turn, which grants an envoy upon completion, and I'll also be popping two envoys normally next turn as well.

This gives me enough envoys to flip Brussels. I just have to minimize my losses until then.

I'll never understand why the AI embarks so close to cities and enemy lines. It's a death sentence.

I'm churning out enough faith to rush another Crossbowman in Tula. Still, I worry that it's not enough. It's taking 2-3 turns to whittle down Swordsmen with them, and if they throw everything they have at Kazan it's possible that it will fall.

The Brusseloian Swordsmen and Warrior attack two of my Crossbowmen, who hold their own. Kazan doesn't fall.

There's enough damage around for me to start picking stuff off, so I do. I pick up some XP and diminish Brussel's military in the event incase Hojo or Darius flip them back.

I clear the board a bit. My XP claimed, I move to make peace.

Here I dump three envoys into Brussels, tieing Hojo, and making peace with the City-State.

It would take longer for Japan and Persia to accept peace, but Brussels stays neutral for the remainder.

I unlock Diplomatic Service, allowing various Casus Belli choices, which reduce or completely eliminate warmongering penalties when you declare war against an enemy.

Most notably here is the Protectorate War, which allows you to declare war on someone attacking one of your City-State allies. Nate has been at war with Hong Kong for a while now, and this Casus Belli gives me the option to declare war on him with no penalty at all while he continues raiding them. 

I have no intention of doing so at this point, but I'm worried he might be gearing up to attack me. Certainly, he's going to have to at some point if he wants to stop me on my Religious and Cultural path, and I consider for a while starting a pre-emptive war to prevent him from declaring a Joint War or using an Alliance or friendships to trigger the AIs to aid him.

China likes how happy my people are. 

That same turn our Declaration of Friendship expired, and he refused to re-up.

The only negatives I have with them are different government, and that I have more wonders than him.

Russia now has no declared friends in the world, despite our best efforts.

The de-Protestantization of Nubia continues. Debates rage on, and my tough Apostle is able to kill more of Nubia's units, but eventually grows too weak to continue on.

Backup is on the way.

I wish there was a way to tell them I was never going to sell these things.

I think I found a bug! We're playing on Quick speed, which reduces costs of a lot of things, presumably including Embassies.

The button shows it costing 30 gold, but I can't click it because I don't have 50 gold, which is what it costs on normal. Odd!

Also notable: China still doesn't know Persia or Scythia!

I like you too, Tomy!

We're sitting at +12 to our relations, and I'm hopeful that Scythia will prove somewhat useful as at least a distraction in the eventual war with Nate.

Fight them windmills!

Nate is scouting with an Inquisitor. Sort of an odd choice, because they're very weak (and mostly unusable) outside of your own territory.

I kill it with an Apostle, taking only 4 damage.

The Holy City of Protestantism has been converted to Moo.

There is still some pressure for Protestantism in nearby cities, but the tide has turned. Nubia will be unable to build new Apostles or Inquisitors, and they are officially marked as "Converted" in the Religious Victory screen. A few more Apostles will put a nail in that coffin.

No. Stahp.

Kazan is still working on Mont St. Michel, and I'm doing everything I can to boost production.

A trading post in China lengthens the trade route distance, and allows me to connect back to my heartland! ... which still doesn't have any Industrial Zones.

This Chinese settler has been there for what seems like 10-15 turns. Not sure what they're waiting for.

Nate never made peace with Hong Kong, and comes by to pillage every so often.

I assume he's using the Raid policy card, in true Viking fashion. I wonder how much it's paying off, but note there really aren't any downsides for him.

I add the final belief to Moo, and elect for Scripture, which helps push out the religion further through the passive pressure mechanic.

I'm hoping that as I flip more and more AI cities to Moo, the effect snowballs a bit and speeds things up.

Another surprise war. Nubia and Scythia band together to fight me.

Nubia I understand. She hated me for converting her cities and having more wonders.

But Tomy loved me! I really don't understand what turned her against me. Maybe a bribe from Nubia, or as Nate pointed out, a desire to curry favor with Cyrus based on his "sneak attack people" agenda.

In either case, I'm more than a little frustrated. I've gone out of my way to cultivate positive relationships with the AIs this game, which is something I don't normally do in my war-focused single player games.

To me, it doesn't seem like it did anything. Both Hojo and Tomy had double-digit net positive relations with me for a long time, but both decided to declare war against me.

The old war has just reached the point where peace was possible, so I decided to go for it.

Japan had killed two of my scouts on auto-explore, and apparently that was enough to think they deserved something in the deal. I threw a luxury at them.

Persia did literally nothing the entire war, and seemed fine with a flat deal.

Nate piles on, because why not. No war, but he denounces me. I assume this is to make the AIs like him even more, but it also opens the window for several Casus Belli.

Nate becomes Suzerain of Zanzibar, which irks me greatly.

None of Nubia or Scythia's city states are in any position to hurt or annoy me, but if Nate decides to go to war I'm going to have a lot of Zanzibarbarians in my heartland.

My army is growing through faith purchases and upgrades, but I don't have a whole lot here to deflect the harassment should Nate pull Zanzibar into a war with me.

More glorious words for the Russian Empire! We attract the finest artists from around the world!

I unknowingly complete a quest for La Venta, become suzerain, and get access to their Colossal Heads again. There's not a whole lot of good spots for these in my empire, but I decide to build at least one.

I am very quickly replaced as suzerain and lose the ability to make more, but the existing one continues to work.

I'm devoting a lot of my faith to buying units, and as a result I'm not fighting a lot of Theological Combat. I swap out Religious Orders (+5 STR bonus in that) for Triangular Trade (+4 gold and +1 faith from trade routes.)

Nubia was hiding Knights in the tundras to the north. They harass me a bit, and their mobility allowed them to survive for a while and poke at my Crossbowmen, but they're never a real threat.

To ensure I have things well in hand, I rush a Pikeman with faith in Tula.

Falling back with my Crossbowman and moving in with the Pikeman. They will not escape to the South.

The northern detachment boxes them in, and I believe I have things well in hand.

Stupid quick, zone-of-control-ignoring Knight! I lose a Crossbowman as they run around my line, but easily pick him off. 

I lose a Scout on auto-explore somewhere, but I mop of the last Knight near my cities. 

Total trade: 1 Crossbowman for 4 Knights.

During the various war declarations I forgot to shop around my luxuries for a few turns. Turns out China is really into my pearls.

Turn 121: The World as we Know It

Hojo has close to a +20 relationship with me. Even while we were at war, we had a +10 or +12. I still have no idea why he declared war on me, but I accept his friendship now.

Nate denounces him the same turn. I'm not sure if he's just posturing diplomatically, or setting up to finish the war he lost early in the game.

I was saving up faith to recruit Isidore of Miletus, a medieval-era Great Engineer. There are a lot of fun wonders coming up, and I wanted to be able to toss in some production and ensure I get one of them. He was cheap too, around ~900 faith.

Nubia nabs him the turn before I could afford him! And the next one costs 2,950!

I did the math and figure out it'd take 15 more turns of me saving faith to buy Gustave Eiffel, and decide against it. I just completed Mont St. Michel all of my Apostles get the Martyr promotion for free, so I buy three with the Faith I have saved up. I'll send them to Scythia or Persia, and try to get into some fights to generate Relics to boost my culture even more, and hopefully flip some cities along the way.

Nate has Frigates. Again, not surprising considering the naval focus of the Vikings and how many ships he's shown in the past, but still terrifying. I'm easily 12 turns away from them myself, having focused on Printing to boost my culture and religious pressure.

I do have Privateers, though.

They're weaker than Frigates by 5 in both melee and ranged attacks, but act like Submarines do in most Civ games in that you can only see them if you're adjacent to them.

In a head-to-head fight, Frigates will win. His ships also have more experience than the ones I'd build, and I know he's recruited a Great Admiral to further tilt things his way.

Privateers are expensive to buy at 745 gp, which is roughly 7.5 turns of my economy. I'll need to start building them in several cities to have any chance if he decides to push his advantage.

The war with Nubia and Scythia ends. 

Tomy accepts a flat deal (forgot to screenshot it), and Nubia pays me a pittance.

I still don't understand what anyone hoped to gain from these wars, but if nothing else my army grew a good deal.

End of Session: Turn 128

Score breakdown.

I'm crushing it in Civics, Great People, and Wonders.

Nubia is right on my ass, and strong in a lot of the same areas.

Nate has started to out tech me. I haven't build a single Campus yet.

Techs and Civics.

Science comparison of Nubia, Nate, and me.

Cultural comparison of Nubia, Nate, and me.

Army comparison of Nubia, Nate, Germany and me.

I'm definitely lagging behind here, and my war with the Nubian Knights has proven that I can't rely on a batch of Crossbowmen to be able to fend off an attack. 

Nate has obviously been building a lot of units. If he comes with Berserkers and boats, I'm going to need more to defend myself with.

Faith comparison of Nubia, Nate, Japan, and me.

As expected, I'm tripling any of them. Faith is my primary resource at this point, but that doesn't really help me with the naval problems I'm going to be having soon.

I'm shitting out Great Writers, Artists, and even a Musician I can't use yet, and it's paying off in Tourism.

It's still a long way to go, but I have a very solid position to build off of.

As noted before, Nubia has officially been converted to Moo. 

The Western world all worships the Cow, and now that the pointless wars have settled down our Apostles have set their sights on the East.

Trade screen with Nate. He's still short on luxuries, and hasn't discovered or hooked up any Niter.

Loads of Iron though!

Nate is friendly with the majority of the world, despite being something of a warmonger. 

Again, I don't really understand the mechanics at play here. Why do the AIs like him more than me? I've actively tried to meet agenda items and keep from making the AIs mad, but they keep coming to attack me.

Maybe they're afraid or respectful of his army?

City state status. Not much has changed since the last session, as I had to use most of my envoys to keep Brussels from pillaging / taking Kazan.

The Heartlands of Moo.

Protestantism is all but stamped out. It would be already, but the war with Nubia had my Apostles seek other targets, and consumed a good deal of my faith.

Great People.

I want to pay more attention to this. After losing that Great Engineer to Nubia I've got a bad taste in my mouth, and I feel like I've neglected the Faith-based recruitment abilities for too long.

Sadly, I've got a lot of other things to use my Faith on, and most of these people are too expensive for me.

Domestic screens.

My people are still insanely happy, giving me bonus growth and yields, but I'm butting up against the Housing cap practically everywhere.

More farms! More aqueducts!