Part 35: Can we deal with the devil!?

Piety it is!

Remember how two different guys wanted us to declare war on Monty last session?



Siam wants us to declare war too! Jeez, everyone hates him. Everyone.

I tell the king to wait just ten more turns for me to finish one of my other projects. Then the king and I will go to war.



…wow, what the hell did he do to piss off absolutely everyone? He's on the opposite side of the continent as you! Hahahahahaha. Well, the bright side is this means absolutely none of these people will call me a warmonger for attacking Monty.



Scouting out more of Montezuma's captured American lands. I can barely see any soldiers worth talking about, he has spread himself super-thin or else lost all his soldiers in a war recently. All this population means his science is skyrocketing, however.



And with this, our growth in Addis Ababa gets a big boost, thanks to all those river-farms. I now have proper melee soldiers to produce as well. (Can't build swordsmen, don't have any iron.)



I had one last wonder I really, really needed to build before focusing solely on military improvement. Since we're going for the culture victory, getting this is crucial, it'll shave off anywhere from ten to thirty turns of culture time. And it gives us the policy that will give us more culture in turn!



I love this policy. With it selected, we are only ten turns away from the next policy in Piety, Hoo-yeah!



Austria and the Huns simultaneously declare war on Montezuma, they must have also made a deal. Friggin' everyone is ganging up on the Aztecs. Next turn, the Celts and Siam simultaneously declare war too. He is gonna get hammered.



Let's do this thang! This time tomorrow we'll all be eating Floating Maize!



Right now I don't have the numbers to actually take this city, but I do have a proper harassment force, and oh, look, an unprotected worker for me to snatch! This'll piss him off but good!



Montezuma rolls forth his secret weapon: Trebuchets! …and that's it! Just two of them that I can see here. My bowmen should be able to cut them down easily. In fact, one of them does blow away one trebuchet.

My military advisor is freaking out that the Aztecs will annihilate me with their so-far unseen army. Either they're all off blasting at the Huns or…I dunno. Does the AI also factor in landmass?



This will give us even more faith than we already have! Or it would, if I had even built any shrines yet! Tee hee. We're getting so much faith off the desert and our Steles that it has not yet proven necessary to build shrines. Due to a policy down the tree, though, I will want to build Temples, though. There's a policy that makes Temples magnify gold output by 10%, nothing to sneeze at.



Time to start researching trebuchets of our own. I do plan on killing him as much as possible, and restoring Washington if I can.



Oh, no, a pikeman. ONE pikeman. Our bow guys aren't doing so hot against him individually (need to upgrade them to crossbows soon as possible) but together they can pick him to shreds.



Holy crap, how did Maria Theresa build so many wonders? She's definitely going for a cultural win, like we are. We may need to eliminate and/or absorb her if she becomes a problem. And who is our Mystery Player?



Another lone pikeman, and I get notified Monty has entered the Renaissance! Yeek. Definitely all those cities giving him science points. C'mon, catapults, get online already!



Captured another worker up by Washington. Teehee! Yoink!



Against an enemy this big I don't think I have any choice but to go for the guns, or gunpowder, as the case may be. I still have no iron so musketeers, who don't need iron, will be very handy in the wars to come.



Hrrm, he's got more military coming online to meet mine. Need more crossbowmen too! If only I had a great scientist to just bam out the next parts!

If I get a lull in combat I should probably dedicate time to researching Education instead, to get universities.



Here I've got a Great Prophet and a Great Engineer. I'm going to do something I've never done with a Prophet in this LP, make a Holy Site. When we max out Piety the Holy Site will produce gold and culture as well as faith. The Engie will also be used to make a manufactory, to help us pump out soldiers better--right now there's no wonders available for us to build, Maria Theresa has snapped them all up. Including Notre Dame, which I wanted, dammit!



Dream on, pal!



Over here we can see Attila has mobilized some forces too. Rams are pretty deadly until at least the middle ages.



Here he's starting his attack run on Tenochtitlan and I really hope that he (a) helps me weaken it but (b) does not actually take it, because the last thing I want is for the Scourge of God to be within striking distance of my capital.



Holy shit look at all those rams.

New policy time!



This will greatly zap our culture up and also give us another sweet, sweet Golden Age. With this, our next policy will be here in only 16 turns.



Oh, perfect. Our plan has gone off just right. Attila has weakened Tenochtitlan just enough for me to be able to finish it off and take it for myself.

Yoink!



Statue of Zeus for more city-attacking, Stonehenge for more faith. Perfect! You will make an excellent puppet! Especially since you've got two more luxuries in the area to offset the happiness penalty.

Now I just need to pray to God that Attila doesn't immediately turn on me. I know he will eventually but I want just a little build-up time first.



Looks like I captured Monty's Islamic Great Prophet too. DELETE! Only Rastas allowed!



Next order of business is building the Heroic Epic, which will strengthen our troops by default when they are built. Very important for fending off the hordes, making each individual soldier stronger.

State of the World:



Hmm, looks like Attila put out a shit city right next to Tenochtitlan, and sometime during the war he conquered and razed Harar to the ground. A pity we'll never get Harar back. Perhaps sometime in the future we can colonize there again. Boston has also been burned down.

The more shit cities Attila puts out, the more he ensures our defensive bonus remains active against him. On the other hand, our defensive bonus against Montezuma just disappeared because we now both control exactly three cities.

Strategy: The hard counter to rams is melee units. Building horsemen and knights will be key for fending off Attila, because you can bet your ass he'll betray us as soon as it suits him.