Pong 4S: Scotland Turns 91-120

Last week my fledgling Scottish empire swiftly expanded into a science powerhouse, and I was able to take a slight lead in the game. I remained peaceful in order to take advantage of the bonus 15% science provided by being suzerain of Geneva, but now the call of war beckons. Neighboring Rome has nearly conquered the friendly Chinese, and Scottish troops are prepared to launch a counter-attack against this aggression. 

On turn 92 I finish the Mercenaries civic and activate the Professional Army policy card in order to upgrade my units at half price.

I also switch production in Roxburgh to get my first Shrine. I'll need all the extra amenities I can get while I'm at war, so I'd like to get started spreading my religion to take advantage of Zen Meditation (+1 Amenity in cities with 2 specialty districts).

7 knights, a few swordsmen, and an upcoming crossbowman should make short work of Trajan. I'm pretty sure he's still relying on Legions and archers over there.

Saladin offers to swap luxuries before my war. Thanks bud!

Unsurprisingly, Trajan is not pleased when I formally declare war on him. You started the violence on this continent, not me!

Turn 94. My exploration crew finds the Mapuche capital surrounded by Chemamulls pumping out Culture. I also renew my friendship with China as I seek to save him from the Romans.

The first Taoist missionary is trained in Roxburgh, and he's got his work cut out for him. Rome has been actively spreading Zoroastrianism, already having converted almost half of my cities.

Two turns later I take Aquileia with little to no resistance. However, now Trajan is sending a small force of Legions to meet my knights in a feeble attempt to defend his capital city. I noticed his army score had dropped significantly during his fight with China. He possibly suffered further losses at the hands of Taiyuan's Free City units.

I hadn't been able to see Taiyuan until this point, but it's interesting to note that the Chinese were able to flip it back to a Free City despite the fact that it's only 4 tiles from 2 large Roman cities, including their capital! I imagine that this is a case of the Roman AI poorly handling the new Loyalty mechanic.

After passing on a few useless ones, I gladly snag Isaac Newton who is possibly the strongest Great Scientist for a wide empire like mine. This pretty much guarantees that nobody is catching up to my Science anytime soon.

I tried trading with Lautaro upon our first meeting, and he was having none of it. But now he wants to trade? Whatever, I'll take all the luxuries and gold I can get my hands on.

The discovery of Military Engineering reveals Niter near Haddington and Dumbarton. This is a welcome development as I could really use the extra hammers. (I guess technically Production is cogs now, but old Civ 5 habits die hard).

On Turn 100 I reach Exploration and unlock my first tier 2 government, Merchant Republic. The graphic also discretely hides the carnage my knights are inflicting on Rome.

My policy card choices here seem a little scatterbrained, but I have my reasons. Conscription and Merchant Federation are there to keep my gold income high. The economic slots reflect my next projects after defeating Rome: building wonders and filling out the remaining unclaimed land on my continent. Although I've already expanded quite a bit, there are still some decent city spots up for grabs.

Another Great Admiral for me.

Finally I catch a glimpse of the Greek borders! It only took me 101 turns. I probably should have been more vigilant about scouting the ocean east of my capital, but I'll get around to it soon enough.

We greet each other and have some banter about him farming barbarians and the Mapuche's units for extra Culture. This is a real concern for me going forward so I'll have to keep an eye on his Culture score in the future.

Rome falls on the same turn. Although it had fairly strong wall defenses, Trajan's lack of units in the aftermath of his war with China made this an easy capture for me. To the AI's credit, it did at least attempt to defend the city with the few units it had. My tech advantage was just too much in this case.

My first Emergency! It seems that Saladin is aiming for a religious victory. Unfortunately, I'm in no place to meddle in the affairs of far-off lands at this time. I reject the invitation to participate, but this does alert me to the religious threat Saladin could pose later in the game.

I mentioned I needed some wonders, right? Then let's get some overpowered ones. I start production on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in my capital to get those sweet double charges on Great Admirals and Engineers. Spoiler alert: I'm going to get a lot of those this game.

Meanwhile my missionaries have been hard at work spreading the Taoist gospel throughout my empire. They've converted most of my core cities, giving me the extra amenity and increased combat strength inside my borders.

I get the Guilds civic and apply the Town Charters bonus which doubles my Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses. This boosts my gold per turn (and Science per turn, due to my Golden Age dedication) by +16.

I'm rich! Or at least I'm going to be.

With my mind on my money and my money on my mind, I decide to check how Greece's economy is coming along. Not so well apparently, only +1 gpt.

My previous fears of Tony building up a large army to attack me (or the AI) have subsided for the moment. Even if he has adequate Production, he'll need to boost his gold income to afford any new troops.

I decide to send my Great Admiral on a scouting mission since he's been sitting idle for a while. On turn 104 I find Nan Madol directly east of Stirling. The Mapuche are their current suzerain, contributing to their huge Culture score. Controlling Nan Madol could be an interesting way for me to catch up in this area so I send a few envoys their way.

James of St.George joins my civilization. Building free walls isn't super exciting for me right now, but I'll take it.

Turn 107. I reach the shores of Cairo, a city of wonders. There is a lone caravel patrolling, but apart from that it looks fairly undefended...

My settler sets up shop near the northern coast, creating my newest and most delicious sounding city, Scone.

The following turn I capture Rome's last remaining useful city. Trajan is all but eliminated, clinging to life in the 2 population city of Taiyuan which is likely to rebel again in a few turns. I really want to see a civilization die from Loyalty so I don't plan on attacking Taiyuan anytime soon.

I make peace with Trajan and take his lunch money.

More cities! I place Dunfries on Turn 109 and Dundee on Turn 110 with a settler I stole from Rome.

Turn 111. The world enters the Renaissance Age, and I barely scrape together enough Era Score for another Golden Age. Monumentality seems like the clear choice here so I can buy some cheap builders. I still have too many undeveloped tiles, and I need to remove a bunch of bad tile improvements in the cities I took from Rome.

The Mausoleum is complete! Now I can start using some of the Great People I've been saving.

Irene of Athens gives me a free governor title, and I use it to send Pingala to my big Science city, Haddington.

One wonder just wasn't enough. It's not the best Colosseum placement ever, but giving +2 amenities, Culture and Loyalty to 5 cities isn't bad.

Rome's last city flips and Trajan is unceremoniously booted from the game. I love Rise and Fall.

Despite protests from the infamous Scottish "horse skeptics", I start training horsemen in preparation for completing Military Science. Soon I'll have an incredibly mobile and powerful force at least one era ahead of my competitors.

At the end of this session I am pretty much in control of the game. I have the Science lead and I'm tripling everyone else's Science per turn. My Culture has recently increased to respectable levels as well. Hopefully I'll be able to translate this lead into a domination victory, but I still need to worry about Saladin's religious spread. Luckily none of his missionaries have made it to my continent yet.

This week I conquered an aggressive neighbor, spread my religion, built powerful wonders, and earned another Golden Age. Now Industrial Age technologies are on the horizon, and my sights are set toward new lands across the vast ocean. In addition, my unique unit and tile improvement will both be available soon. Get ready to bust out the bagpipes!

Edit:

Unfortunately Basic was unable to continue the game past this point due to scheduling, but it probably wouldn't have mattered considering the massive lead I had. If we had continued, my next steps would have been to pump out a few more horses and crossbows, upgrade them, and send them across the ocean to dominate the remaining civilizations. Considering my tech advantage I'm confident this would have resulted in a victory, but Rise and Fall can be a crazy game so nobody knows for sure. In any case, this was a fun introduction to Ping Pong Civ for me, and I look forward to writing more in the future!