Pong 3: Turns 90-109 of Norway (Nate)

The game picks up in the Medieval Era in the year 470 AD. 

In our last session, we built a strong navy and successfully used it to take Tokyo from our nearest neighbor, Japan. In this session, we process through the Middle Ages and begin to fix our science deficit while having a little bit of fun going viking.

Turn 92-The Viking Fleet heads east.

The plan is to go viking on the soft targets on the foreign "Far-Shore." While I could have easily used it to hammer the Scythians, they are more valuable to me as a trading ally than as an enemy right now. The window for this attack is small as most of my ships are still Longships which will only be useful against ancient defenses.

Turn 95 - Busy year in the world.

96- Policies update.

97- Japan asks for a joint war v. Joe (Russia)

It is far too soon for me to engage Joe in violence, and frankly Japan is in no position to be waging wars against anyone. It's interesting because this means that he probably likes me more than Joe at this point, despite the War of Kyoto Bay. Interesting.

97- Joe's Russia is a Theocracy

I have been keeping an eye on Joe's Russia, and they are clearly focusing on culture and religion at this point. Checking to see how dedicated he was to it, I discovered that he was, in fact, a theocracy. This meant that he was unique in the world, which is probably why people started liking me a bit more overall. It also means that stopping his missionaries would basically be impossible. 

99- Germany catches up with my number of envoys in Toronto and I lose suzerainty. I decide not to contest it (like Armagh) at this point because the normal benefits are good enough. I'm not using either of the CS's special powers so it just doesn't seem worth it, and I'd like to have a few envoys on reserve.

100-Unlock Monarchy, update policies.

Turn 100: Empire Update (770 AD)

Rankings and Score

Heartland: Scandinavia and surrounding

Farshore: The vikings reach Hong Kong

The Battle For Hong Kong (770 - 920 AD) 

As the ships began crossing the eastern sea, I decided to attack Hong Kong instead of China first. This seemed like a better plan because Hong Kong is a much more desirable city (size 7, resources, better location) than anything China has to offer, and HK is not right on Joe's border, unlike China. I may be able to raid some coastal tiles of China's on the way home, but if I only get one thing, I'd like it to be Hong Kong, and now is the time to strike before they get proper, medieval defenses.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work out. Although I sink their navy in almost a single round, the city withdraws its ground defenses to the capital. First it goes from strength 34 to 44 when the chariot arrives. Then the chariot is upgraded to knights and the strength goes all the way up to 64!! My caravels have a mere 50 (longships 30), and with no means to break down the walls guarding the city, I don't see any way to conquer it. I have to settle for raiding all their tiles and retreating. The raids net me about 150 gold and 33 culture, not to mention the experience I gained from the attacks, but it's much less than I hoped to gain.

100- Viking fleet reaches Hong Kong

100- I accept egregious warmongering penalties

This is pretty harsh, especially considering that I wasn't able to take the city, but I have more than enough amenities to weather a long term war at this stage, especially if I'm careful and don't lose any ships. I plan to make raiding HK a semi-regular sport now, so long after the 25 turns of this warmongering penalty have passed, I hope to still benefit from it, but we'll see.

100- Sea battles

100- Tomyris is pissed

Tomy hates traitors and attacking a city-state counts as a "sneak attack." Alas. We're still tight, but the extra 10 warmonger penalty is going to last a long time.

102-Chariot in the palace

103-Update religion with Gurdwara for food

104-HK upgrades chariot to Knight; defenses up to 64.

104-I'm a warmonger

104-Policies: Take Serfdom and Feudal Contract

Better builders for the price and i already have walls everywhere.

104- A missionary investigates Russia

Lo and behold, St. Petersburg is located on the coast but I couldn't see it because of their borders! This is wonderful because it means they are within reach of a navy. While not especially relevant right away, this makes their coast much more interesting to me. Navies will still be important this game.

105- Catapults finally begin to shoot!

The First Battle for Hong Kong ends as we retreat, for now.

107- Trinkenhalle is founded on wine beside the Great Barrier Reef

An amusing chat the next day - we'll see!

Our first overseas colony is established on the Chinese peninsula. This spot was selected for several reasons, but chief among them is that it can easily be protected by renaissance-era ships. A land force will have a nearly impossible time besieging it, and the wine, whales, and Reef provide a lot of benefits for a single colony. Best of all, this gives us a strong forward position to harass and maraud the Farshore of Greater China.  

Turn 109: End of Session

So here's how things look at the end of the session:

109- Heartland: Scandinavia

109- Farshore: Greater China and Hong Kong

109- Our religions (Norwegian Orthodoxy & Russian Moo)

109- Score

The world

We've made great progress in catching up in, even getting ahead in some areas of, science. We still lag in culture, but our navy is strong and our gold and faith generation is very strong. Our investment in great scientist points recently paid off and Galileo Galilei was born. Deliciously, there is a major mountain range in Scythia, near Scandinavia, that is going to generate a tremendous amount of science (~1250 on standard speed, but we're quick speed), that should more than equalize any weaknesses I have in science.

Plan: Looking ahead, I'm going to continue improving my navy while I build up Trinkenhalle and raid Hong Kong. I've been building berserkers and crossbows, and once a decent land force is ready, they'll move on Kyoto to finish what we started in the War of Kyoto Bay. I am likely to take a big warmonger hit for this no matter how I proceed, so the sooner I get it over with and weather the consequences, the sooner I'll be able to prepare for the later game.

I'm still hurting in culture, and that's going to be the avenue that Joe is most likely to win. In contrast, I'm likely to have a nearly unstoppable navy for most of the game if I keep this up, so I should have a decent shot at taking St. Peterburg should it come to war. A lot is going to depend on what happens in the midlands and the nations between us though, so time will tell. Till next time...