PDA

View Full Version : Kemal vs anarres *spoiler*


Kemal
07-05-2003, 10:18
I've started a new PBEM game, this time anarres is my opponent.
Game stats and general info etc. can be found in the open thread at CFC, I'll use this thread to keep you posted on how my lone settler hopefully develops in a world superpower. :D

I posted my start in the open thread, but no harm to to that again here as not all is shown on the pic at CFC:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/start2.jpg

As can be seen here, there's also a village on a mountain to the northeast, unfortunately it yielded maps, although that did reveal some cows to the north and west of Moscow. About those villages, we're only at turn 16 yet but there have been surprisingly many of those, so far I've opened 7 huts already, and the resuslts have been shocking!:



- maps - deserted- deserted - ceremonial burial - deserted - maps - deserted. Not exactly great results there...[cry]

I've also met the Carthaginians to the southeast, and managed to trade them pottery for 20 gold and a worker [cool]. They're ahead Alphabet and Masonry in techs, and the 2nd most powerful AI, after the Zulus who already have taken a staggering 40 point lead over the others, so they apparently didn't get a deserted hut.
I'm researching IW at 40 turn research, but my hopes aren't very high to be able to get there first, as Carthage is most likely to be researching IW now, and I still have 24 turns to go.

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures so far, forgot to take them while playing, I'll post more pics in the next update.

ProPain
07-05-2003, 14:23
Great to see you playin Anarres too Kemal. One question: you post that there's a village on a mountain to NE also. I can't see it in this pic. Do you mean the village on the Eastern mountain or another one not to be seen in this screen.

Kemal
07-05-2003, 15:50
It is the village you see on the screen, guess whether that's the north or the norhteast depends on the definition of "the north" on a standard civilization map. To me, going north would be when my settler would walk on the plains above my starting location, and going east would be to traverse the river and enter the bonus grassland.

digger760
07-05-2003, 16:42
quote:Originally posted by Kemal

It is the village you see on the screen, guess whether that's the north or the norhteast depends on the definition of "the north" on a standard civilization map. To me, going north would be when my settler would walk on the plains above my starting location, and going east would be to traverse the river and enter the bonus grassland.



Interesting I would put north as the forest, and south on the wheat.

ProPain
07-05-2003, 16:48
I would do the same as Digger. I feel a new spam poll coming up [lol]

DrAlimentado
07-05-2003, 16:49
To me the plains above your position are NE, East would be to traverse the river onto the plains. But that's just my reading of it :)

And yeah, shitty luck on the huts. I think Meli's been sucking up all the available 'Hut Luck' out of the civ3 universe this week in our game, so I would blame him.

DrAlimentado
07-05-2003, 16:56
[lol] PropPain and Digger beat me to it. Kemal, looks like your in a minority of one ;)

Kemal
02-06-2003, 17:13
The game is at turn 41 now, but lots of things have happened in the meantime, some good and some bad. I know fairly certain that anarres has got either a settler or a hut city fairly early in the game, he is currently 20 points ahead of me in score, and I noticed his score suddenly breaking away from mine after about 15 turns, which strongly suggests that he got a free city/settler.

Since my last update, I have also contacted the Koreans to the east (where "east" means the direction generally associated with east on this board ;)) and the Babylonians to the north. Here's a small overview of the current situation of Russia and its surroundings:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/empireoverviewturn40.jpg

As can be seen, lots and lots of jungles to the north and west will prove to be a problem later in the game, as it will be a difficult task to cultivate these lands for my non-industrious workers. I have so far located 3 types of luxuries on the continent, silks and gems nearby my own empire, and furs with Carthage, not really great but hopefully just sufficient to sustain a Republic later on.

On a bright note, it can be seen on the pic that Carthage has been greatly lacking in expanding their empire. Considering they're so close to my territory, I'm amazed they haven't expanded more, only 5 cities so far! I know Carthage is currently building the pyramids with 19 turns left to finish (due to an embassy, see later for more details), and their other cities apparently either lack productivity (Hippo) or growth (Leptis Magna, before border expansion) to ensure rapid colonization of the nearby lands. There doesn't appear to have been any warring between them and Korea, even though they're already on eachothers lips, but they are at peace now and my foreign advisor makes no mention of betrayals. In other words, they seem to be playing crappy.:)

On the domestic front I can report that I've finished a granary in Moscow, so settlers will be plentiful from now on, and am constructing two others in Kiev and St. Petersburg. This because of a very large piece of unclaimed land to the west, I'm hoping to start settling there real fast now, and depending on the situation I might do my first ever palace jump in a competitive game. However, if Carthage finishes the Pyramids for me I might change my plans.

To further illustrate the situation in Russia at the moment, take a look at the demographics for turn 41, just after I have finished researching my first tech, Iron Working:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Demographsturn40.jpg

I have to note these current statistics do not totally reflect the current situation, the rankings in gnp, mfg. goods and productivity are not giving my true positions because of a change in worker assignments in Moscow, having most of the people there working forest squares, therefore providing more shields and less food and commerce than regularly. I'm in the middle of the pack for most of these.
What I was really surprised about in these statistics is my ranking in land area! I'm currently ranked 7th out of 8th meaning there has to be one civilization with less land than me, and considering we're playing deity it almost certainly has to be anarres, but I almost can't believe that considering his free city. Apparently, the AI is really blundering away in this game, but if it is anarres he must have started on a granary in his capital almost immediately, to allow for a faster expansion.

To complete this summary, some quick words on the Russian Despotism's current scientific and economical progress. I have to say that I do not have any complaints at the moment about this aspect of the game, my current scientific advances (after the discovery of iron Working) are: Bronze Working, Masonry, Alphabet, Warrior Code, The Wheel, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial, Mysticism, Writing, iron Working and (as could be seen from the demographs screen) Literature. This remarkable progress has mainly been due to trading done with Iron Working, and the fact that Babylon doesn't know anyone except me, as I only had my two starting techs plus CB and WC (from huts) before the trade.

The fortunate situation was that the AI didn't seem to have been interested in trading among themselves, with Carthage having Alphabet, Masonry and the Wheel, Korea Alphabet and Writing (even though these two had known eachother for some time, they didn't trade, another reason why I thought they must have been warring), and Babylon (who, as said, know neither Carthage or Korea) mysticism and masonry.

This was how trading went:

After buying Alphabet from Carthage (I didn't want to trade IW for it just yet, as I needed its monopoly price to get Writing from Korea) for 166 gold, I proceeded by trading IW and Alphabet with Babylon for Mysticism and Masonry and 33 gold.
Masonry and monopoly priced IW plus 45 gold then gave me writing from Korea, which I sold to Carthage again with mysticism against their 166 gold (which I gave them for Alphabet), and The Wheel. Finally I gave Korea acces to The Wheel for all their gold, 60-something IIRC.

These trades added resulted in my IW being worth:

- The Wheel
- Masonry
- Alphabet
- Writing
- Mysticism
- Some 50+ gold.

On that same turn, I obtained literature from the friendly Gepids, who I had left undisturbed until this time. I also had another barb village to the north left undisturbed for this reason, but due to carelessness the Babylonians grabbed it, and apparently got barbs as my scout had vanished from the map. :(

Kemal
10-06-2003, 16:54
We're now at turn 52, and this is the current situation of the Still-Small-but-bound-to-be-Great Russian Empire:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Overview.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Minimap.jpg

After my succesful dealings with the other civs on the continent, the Warmongerer in me suddenly took over as I figured it would be best to start my first war right then, with King Kon(g) of Korea being the recipient of the Russian Wrath.
Even though my army consisting of only 4 warriors and a few scouts pales with the undoubtedly mighty armies Kong can field, I still believe this was the right move to make, as I also bought myself an ally for literature, a very conveniently placed ally I have to say:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/CarthageKorealands.jpg

With Carthage and Korea warring with eachother they'll both be seriously hampered in their expansion, and they'll hopefully decimate eachothers armies while not reaching any military succes whatsoever. And with Carthage placed directly between me and Korea, and taking into account the idiotic AI attack routines, I have no fear any of the Korean armies will break through to attack my cities.

So that leaves only Babylon as a contender for the quest to grab the great unclaimed Savage Wilderness to the west, and a real contender they are indeed, with already (not visible here) having deployed a settler from Ellipi to venture to the south. There, he'll meet with two of my scouts who will force him to build in a jungle location:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Wilderness.jpg

With the Babylonians rapidly expanding and taking over top-position in scoring from the Zulus, I have now decided to a change of plans, and will leave the larger part of the Wilderness to the Babylonians to fill with corrupt cities, and will myself use my settlers to fill up the lands surrounding Moscow to create a productive city-core, and then proceed to attack Carthage later in the game when Knights arrive. As the Carthaginians are already weak now, and on top of that are wasting resources in a war against Korea, they'll hopefully be an easy target for my Knights, and I'll probably move my Palace to the east instead of to the west later in the game. The FP will still be built in St. Petersburg.

And there's another reason to attack Carthage instead of mighty Babylon, as I have high hopes the Carthaginians will finish the Pyramids first, in Carthage. Due to their war against Korea they'll likely have a GA by now, and with Carthage being the largest city in the world (excepty maybe for an Indian city, I can't see Delhi in the top-5 cities screen), I might be able to capture the Pyramids later too.

Another thing I have done is gift the Babylonians the secret of literature. Even though they'll heavily profit from cheap libraries, this will allow them to switch to the Great Library once Carthage hopefully finishes the Pyramids for me, and if anarres' continent hasn't got access to literature at that point yet, I'll very likely bag the Great Library too. Also, they Babylonians are now suffering heavily in terms of expansion because of the tendancy the AI has to start on Great Wonders immediately after they become available. They are currently building three of them at one time, thus sacrificing the production of their three best cities for a long time.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Wonderbouw.jpg

Finally, there's some bad news too. For some time I have been gaining score on anarres, leaving me wondering whether he had really gotten an advanced tribe, but that is ancient history now. I'm currently ranked eigth in land area, and anarres is once again running away from me in score, he probably has two (or even three!) fully functional settler factories, I just hope he doesn't have much room, or that he's stuck with the Zulus again, who have been unfriendly to him on countless occasions, and maybe can be again.

Kemal
19-06-2003, 13:36
*** Official Announcement of the Leadership of the Glorious Russian Despotism ***

In light of the events that have been evolving in the recent years, Czar Kemal of Russia hereby makes it known to all that General Hannibal of Carthage, due to his outstanding service and contributions to the Russian Empire, has been awarded with the prestigious "Nijvere Nulletje" award, and from now on should be known to all as "Friend of the Russian Empire".

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Hannibal.jpg

Hannibal, Russia salutes you, expect a very close cooperation between Carthaginian and Russian laborers in the future!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Carthagepyramids.jpg

:D

On a further positive note, the Babylonians have changed projects from Pyramids to Great Library in Babylon, and continue to build wonders in two other cities, The Oracle and The Colossus.
And speaking of Babylonians, Russian scouts and settlers have managed to foil an attempted "aggressive settling" move by the Babylonians near the Russian city of St. Petersburg (note that my scouts may still move the turn this pic was taken):

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Babbelblok.jpg

Hopefully, this stack of Babylonians (consisting of a settler, a warrior and a spearman) can be made to enjoy the hospitality of the Russian troops and thus prevented from leaving to settle other lands until the horses and iron to the west have been secured.

The results of the Babylonians wasting resources on wonders and having difficulties with settling, as well as the still ongoing Carthaginian-Korean war are starting to show on the powergraphs, as I'm gaining power on all the other civs present on my continent:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Powerrussen.jpg

Not good, however, is that in the demographics the Russian Empire doesn't seem to be as great as I would wish it were, I'm currently ranked 8th in population, 7th in GNP and 7th in land area,:( with the only positive note being my 2nd place in the productivity category.

ERIKK
19-06-2003, 14:03
[hmm] You are quite lucky with that early war between your neighbours!
And it seems you dont have a shortage of bonus resources.

Take out the Babs or the Carthaginians when the time is right and you get to
be the King of the continent! [king]

Is this a large map with 60% water or did you leave some Ai's out?

Kemal
19-06-2003, 14:50
quote:Originally posted by ERIKK

[hmm] You are quite lucky with that early war between your neighbours!
And it seems you dont have a shortage of bonus resources.

Take out the Babs or the Carthaginians when the time is right and you get to
be the King of the continent! [king]

Is this a large map with 60% water or did you leave some Ai's out?


Actually, luck hasn't got anything to do with the Carthaginian-Korean war, since I was the one who initiated the hostilities between the two, by declaring war on Korea and bribing Carthage in for literature.

As I stated above in an earlier post, I really do not need to fear Korea while the war between them and Carthage continues, because of the way Carthage is placed between me and Korea, and the way the AI wages war (they won't come for me with Carthage so close). And I have to say, even though I'm now at war for almost 20 turns, I have yet to see any Korean appear near my borders.

Dr A made us the map, and yes, I've got plenty of bonus resources for me to use, but I'm assuming the same goes for anarres' location, so I don't think I can profit from them that much, except in these early stages to keep up with the AI.

We're playing a continents map with 6 AI rivals, everything else except difficulty and map size (large) was randomized IIRC. Since I'm one a continent with 3 rivals and 4 luxuries (as I've seen so far) present, I think anarres is up against the 3 other AIs, Zululand, Scandinavia and India, with the 4 remaining luxes located there.

ERIKK
19-06-2003, 15:14
Aha, a stalling war... You and the Babs will profit.

In the next war you and some new AI friends will take
over Carthago or Babylon???

Still looks like an awesome lot of lands (lots of jungles)
to cover. You were unlucky not getting a settler/city IMO.
There must have been plenty of huts with so much land.

Kemal
01-07-2003, 15:08
We're now at turn 89, but there are many new things to report, and I'm happy to say that the past 20 turns have brought the Russian empire almost exlusively good news, on the subjects of techs, empire productivity, game score and wonders.

To start of with (arguably) the best news, it appears the Babylonians have become so jealous of the titles Czar Kemal has granted the Carthaginian leader for his efforts in constructing the Pyramids in Carthage, that they've tried to get those titles themselves too by finishing a Great Project in the Babylonian city of Ur:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/GreatLibUr.jpg

Great news, it appears sharing (and getting it, thanks to the Gepids!) literature as fast as possible has paid off, only two wonders have been completed so far, but they are among the best the ancient age has to offer, with the exception of the Great Lighthouse perhaps, on this given map.

But there's more news to report..

In 1050 BC, When I was 2 turns away from Polytheism, I noticed that the Babylonians, who still hadn't made contact with Carthage or Korea, had discovered Code of Laws, while Hannibal, probably due to his GA, was at that point the most advanced on the continent, having already learned Mathematics, Philosophy, Horseback Riding and Mapmaking (but all three civs already had this tech). But the one tech they were lacking, was Code Of Laws! [yeah]
I was still, together with Hannibal, at war with Korea at that point of the game, who had access to philosophy, mapmaking and horseback riding themselves, thus were still lacking Mathematics, as well as Code of Laws, and furthermore still hadn't got literature.
So, some great trading opportunities there, I started out with 1092 gold in the bank and no techs available to trade except literature with Korea. This is what happened:

1. I made peace with Korea (after cancelling the alliance with Carthage), giving them literature in exchange for philosophy and 42g

2. Contact Babylon, buy Code of Laws for Philosophy and 396g (ouch!)

3. Contact Hannibal, giving him Code of laws for Mathematics, WM and 25g (all he had)

4. Contact Korea, giving him Mathematics and Code of laws for Horseback Riding, TM and 199g

5 Contact Babylon, giving him Horseback Riding and Mathematics for Mapmaking and 257g

This resulted in me ending with all available techs at the moment, and 1218g, making a net result of trading nothing (well, except literature to Korea) for Code of Laws, Mapmaking, Mathematics, Horseback Riding, Philosophy, Korean territory map, and 126g! Thanks guys, been nice trading with you!:D
And better still, in 1000 BC I invented polytheism, making me the tech leader, and probably giving me some heavy trading equipment to get currency/construction later on.

Next up in the line of good news is the cuurent scores. Even though I realize that score has very little meaning regarding how well one is doing (demographics say a lot more IMO, but I'll address these later), I have overtaken anarres in score on about turn 70, and have continued to increase and expand this lead since that turn. Here are the current scores, turn 89:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/scoreturn90.jpg

I've noticed the Indians are making tremendous progress in score, they were among the weakest civs early on, Í have no idea what might be happening on anarres' continent, maybe they are succesfully waging a war..? (against anarres, please!) [mwaha]
What is, of course, not so great is the tremendous score (and corresponding empire) of the Babylonians, my next-door-neighbours. Even though I've been stalling their settlers on two occasions, they're currently the leader, having a 124 point lead over no2 India. [eek]
Well, they really are powerful, check out their empire at this minimap from the latest turn:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/minimapturn90.jpg

Finally, there's good news about the current standings of Russia in the world on the economic and productive front. This pic shows the latest standings of world demographics, and I'm currently ranked 1st and 2nd in GNP and Mfg. goods respectively! And my mfg goods are only one ton less than the current leader, so it's very close, while my gnp lead over no2 is quite solid at the moment.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/demographsturn90.jpg

As a final note for this update, there has been one tiny disappointment in the last 20 turns. As I'm situated in the middle of the continent, I have some troubles building galleys to explore the seas, and need to walk vast distances with my settlers to get them to the coast. On the southern coasts there was only one place suited for a city to rush a galley, but Carhage got their first just a few turns before me with a very aggresively build city, forcing me to walk even further to the west to create a galley.:(

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/bootjebouwen.jpg

This incident has been the start of a degrading diplomatic relationship between Carthage and Russia, the world holds it's breath as to what might happen between the two nations if the Russian Military High Command could get a more advanced mounted unit, preferrably clad in an armor and equipped with sword and shield... ;)

Skyfish
01-07-2003, 15:34
Few questions for our viewers:

quote:I made peace with Korea (after cancelling the alliance with Carthage),

First, how do you actually do this in the F4 screen ?
Second, do you really believe it makes a difference to the impact on your reputation ?

quote:And my mfg goods are only one ton less than the current leader, so it's very close, while my gnp lead over no2 is quite solid at the moment

How do you know how much your opponents are actually producing ?

Kemal
01-07-2003, 16:07
quote:Originally posted by Skyfish

Few questions for our viewers:

quote:I made peace with Korea (after cancelling the alliance with Carthage),

First, how do you actually do this in the F4 screen ?
Second, do you really believe it makes a difference to the impact on your reputation ?

quote:And my mfg goods are only one ton less than the current leader, so it's very close, while my gnp lead over no2 is quite solid at the moment

How do you know how much your opponents are actually producing ?



A few answers for the viewers ;):

Ad 1.
You can cancel the alliance on the F4 screen by contacting Carthage and then selecting active deals, renegotiate the alliance and remove it from the bargaining table. As far as the rep. hit is concerned, no, I have never ever had any problems with my reputation when I made peace with an AI while having an alliance active against it with another civ, as long as the initial 20 turns of the alliance had already passed. However, I tend do these kind of negotiations step by step anyways, as to minimize the possibility of me making an error.

Ad 2.
You don't actually see the GNP and Mfg goods of your opponents, but you can find out a lot about them by reassigning your worker positions in your cities, thus slightly in-/decreasing your demographs every time. In this case, if I reassign one of my workers from an irrigated plain to a forest, my mfg goods increases by 1 (if the extra shield is not lost due to waste, of course), and if I check my position again on the F11 screen, it reveals me suddenly being ranked first, thus leading to the valid conclusion that the current mfg leader produces 55 megatons.
Same goes for GNP, of course, just remove workers from your tiles until your ranking changes to find out what the other players' GNPs are.

Skyfish
01-07-2003, 16:12
Thanks a lot for the detailed answers.
Of course I had missed on the fact that the first 20 turns of your Alliance were already over.

As to the F11 screen, [hmm] I got only thing to say .... WOW !

:D

Kemal
07-07-2003, 11:13
***BREAKING NEWS*** - RUSSIAN EXPLORERS REPORT DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD AFTER DAUNTING VOYAGE OVER THE SEAS OF TERROR - ***BREAKING NEWS***

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/discoverynewworld.jpg

In the year 590 BC Russia makes contact with the natives of a vast and until so far completely unknown continent, after surviving years of terrible storms and weather conditions.

Vast amounts of new knowledge about world geography and Russia's standing on the world stage make for important and difficult decisions to be made for years to come!

******

An important event indeed, but first things first though, several other things are worth to be mentioned that happened during the turns since the last update and the year 1 AC (After Contact).

Even though my previous spoiler had been of a moderately positive note, in the year 710 BC, only 3 turns after the previous spoiler's cut off date, I noticed some disturbing news in the game's F11 and F7 screen:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Shakanieuweage710BC.jpg

Anarres' continent had already entered the medieval age (at least the Zulu had), even though my continent contains 3 scientific civs, and 2 commercial! I still needed construction at that time, with only Carthage having currency, and nobody having The Republic or Monarchy, which could possibly have already been invented at the other continent. This worried me because that would mean anarres would have earlier access to a more advanced government form or military units, making for faster and easier conquest. Also, a possible succesful suicide run of anarres to my lands would have been a disaster, as he could then have easily bribed my opponents with his techs, assuming he had the same tech level as his opponents.

But only a few turns later, my own continent made it to the new age too, with suddenly both Korea and Carthage having access to construction and currency. Babylon still lacked currency, and as I had a monopoly on polytheism a great trade was possible.
After trading polytheism with Carthage for currency and gold, an important point in history was reached as both me and Babylon would reach the next age with the upcoming trade of polytheism and currency for construction and more gold, and both would recieve their free tech now, and with some luck they would both be different and allow for even more trading.

Babylon got Monotheism and I got Feudalism! That was of course good news, as not having to research monotheism myself was a giant leap towards chivalry, but the bad news was Hammu wanted an additional 800 gold to go with my feudalism before he wanted to trade it for monotheism! Bah!
As I had research on polytheism nearly complete at that time (4 turns), I decided to wait to be able to trade feudalism with the Republic for Monotheism instead of paying hammu a large sum of gold. As a consequence of this, I decided to stall helping Korea into the new age as it would have been disastrous if they had recieved feudalism themselves as their free tech, bringing its price down even more.

Next turn, with The Republic on 3 turns, Korea had somehow managed to buy polytheism from someone, and his free tech was... feudalism! :(

Very disappointing as that brought Hammu's evaluation of the Monotheism-Feudalism deal to being insulting to him, and making me doubt whether a succesful trade (with the Republic thrown in as an extra) was a possibility now.

2 turns later now, these problems were suddenly all degraded to minor issues as my 2nd suicide galley reported something in the distance:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/590BCcontact1.jpg

As I got the turn back, my prayers for the brave and valiant crew of this lone galley appeared not to have been in vain, as they had survived the ocean's bad weather conditions. Progress of their fantastic voyage resulted in:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/590BCcontact2.jpg

At this point, we were playing a session in the middle of the night and as I was pretty tired at that point, I made the decision not to contact the Indians yet at that turn, and get some rest instead for the undoubtedly heavy negotiations that were about to get underway.
I knew, since the Indians could only contact me until after anarres had played his turn, that there was only a very slight change he'd figure out I had found his continent.
Also, an important factor in this decison was that I needed something to trade with the other continent, and as I knw they had already entered the next age, I figured that the Republic was probably my best option. (I could also have traded feudalism, of course, but I like to keep that tech away from anarres' continent unitl I have more knowledge of his situation).

So a one turn wait it was, and it was in the year 570 BC that contact was established, with now also the Zulu visible on the F4 screen, the Indians apparently had sold my contact to them.

It is in this turn that I would make one of my greatest errors ever in a civilization game.

As I had gotten quite some time to decide what my approach would be towards anarres and the civs on the other continent, I had figured that if buying alliances was possible, I would do that unless anarres paid me heavily not to. But first, of course, I needed to have access to the map and contacts before I could make an exact decision on this, so I started the turn by doing some trading. As mentioned before, I had invented the Republic this turn, but it appeared the civs on the other continent also still lacked literature, so trading was easy.

I traded the Zulu literature for contact with the Vikings and anarres, and India the Republic for their staggering treasury of 869 gold and the world map. Here's how anarres is currently doing, my military at that time compared to his, and the minimap:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/overviewanarres103.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/militaryadvisor103.jpg

So, anarres is locked in between the Vikings, who he has already started to conquer, and his arch-enemies the Zulus. This situation definitely called for an attack on anarres by the Zulu!

First, however, I need to report that, as I had developed the Republic that turn, a revolution had been started in Russia, with the general opinion being that government control could be reinstalled in 5 turns:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/anarchy5turns.jpg

At that point, I had already made the crucial error. After finishing my upkeep for that turn , and closely investigating anarres' situation, I reached a decision that the only logical thing to do was to have Zululand declare war on him, as his armies would be stationed near the Viking borders at the moment.
But to my absolute horror, that was no longer a possibility for the next 5 turns, as anarchy prevents the establishment of an embassy with other civilizations, which is necessary for creating alliances! AAARRGHH!!!:(

After swallowing this enormous disappointment, I decided the best thing to do would be to wait for anarres to get online and try to negotiate with him before he could see my turn and current situation, as he would see that I was in anarchy.

These negotiations can be found in the open thread at CFC, the result of it was that he paid me 30 gold for a 1 turn period of peace. I'm happy with this result as in the position at that time, I posed absolutely no threat to him for the next 5 turns, so getting 30 is better than nothing. If he had refused to pay anything, nothing would have happened.

The latest turn that has been played is 2 turns after the formation of a Republican government in Russia. In the meantime, India has completed the Great Lighthouse so they'll probably contact Babylon soon. I tried to negotiate a temporary ban on MA's with anarres, which would have eliminated the threat of him setting up Babylon against me if India contact them soon, but he soon made it clear that both of our views on what the deal should consist of had way too much room between them for an agreement to be reachable, so I have now bribed Zululand and India against anarres after declaring war on him myself.
The costs of these alliances were very low, I had expected to be needing to fall back on my free techs to get a deal, but India only wanted 13 gpt and Zululand 5 gpt, making for 18gpt in total, which I may not be needing to pay fully as I expect anarres to make peace before these deals run out.
I don't expect Zululand or India to do any substantial damage, but I do hope this will severly slow down anarres' conquest of his continent.

I myself am currently researching Chivalry (I traded Monotheism for feudalism, Republic and the New World's map with Babylon) which will be finished in 9 turns, after which I'll upgrade horsemen to Knights and start my assault on Carthage and the Pyramids.

To conclude this rather long spoiler post, here are the standing in score, power and culture respectively in turn 103, just after my period of anarchy:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/score103.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/power103.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/culture103.jpg

Skyfish
07-07-2003, 11:41
Very nice game Kemal, the anarchy mistake is an understandable oversight and I myself would have not thought about it.
I dont believe there was any consequence ot it though so its cool [cool]
As a neutral witness I can say you definitely outplayed him in your negotiations and played your cards really well.
My money is on you to win this game :D
Thanks a lot for producing such detailed and exciting spoilers.

One word of advice : according to anarres the F3 screen does NOT give you the real standing of your Military position against him but against the average of all your opponents ! Beware !

ERIKK
07-07-2003, 12:06
Thanks Kemal, looking good but anarres is not in any problem at all I think...

Skyfish
07-07-2003, 13:59
Erikk, nobody said he was....

You have to admit that having 2 fronts is not as good as only one ! He is in a sandwich and as Kemal said it will *slow* his progression vs the AIs, that's for sure.

Kemal
15-07-2003, 13:38
OPERATION KING'S VALLEY FINALLY GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT

We're at turn 115 now, and it's time to fill you readers in on a top secret military campaign on which the Russian leadership has started its planning some 1000+ years ago already, and bears the name of operation "King's Valley".

As stated in earlier spoilers, in 1575 BC Russia was pleased to report the construction of the Great Wonder the Pyramids in Carthage, and with the completion of the wonder there it was decided that Carthage was going to be the first target of any future Russian military campaign.
Even though Carthage is very close by, it was decided by the Russian military high command that no attack would be made until the advent of knights on the battlefield, since the risks of attacking Carthaginian Numidian mercenaries with inferior equipment were deemed to be too great to justify any earlier attempt. So, for 1500 years everything in the Russian empire has focused on reaching the pinnacle of early medieval militaristic based research, Chivalry.

After the Republican government was installed in 490 BC it became clear that Chivalry was only a short period away and the training of horsemen in newly constructed barracks was started in most core cities, to be upgraded to knights as soon as research was completed, and iron was connected.

In turn 112, Russian scientists discovered the secrets of Chivalry and a large military upgrade was made, In one turn earning Russia, who had been the military laughing stock of the world so far, a place between the big boys concerning military power.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/militaryadvisorvooraanval.jpg

In turn 115, all troops were in place to begin the first stage of the attack on the Carthaginians:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/vooraanval.jpg

The cities of Hadrumetum and Rusicade will be the first to fall, Rusicade faces a stack of 8 knights, while the other 7 will launch the assault on Hadrumetum. 2 Knights will be held back to assist the defenders of Vladivostok and Sevastopol, who i suspect will have to face the brunt of the Carthaginian counterattack.

After the capture of these two cities, both stacks of knights will team up and start the attack on Carthage, which, from the latest intelligence reports (investigation in turn 114) has an impressive 6 mercs defending, but one is accompanying a settler, and all are regulars. Here is an overview of the Carthage in turn 115, start of the turn:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/overviewcarthage.jpg

Even though they do not seem to be particularly powerful, they were, together with India, the last of the civs I reached an average comparison to in army strength, so I expect tons of mercs defending their cities, and especially Hippo could be a tough nut to crack. Due to this, I've let go of my original plan to launch an attack on two fronts, and have left the northern luxuries for what they are at the moment, and run a 30% luxury tax now. Pyramids are just a bit more important to me at this point than a luxury.

As said, in turn 115 the attack commenced, and so far the results coming from the battlefield have been positive. Carthaginian defences near Hadremetum and Rusicade were much weaker than expected, only 1 and 2 mercs respectively available to present any opposition. No Knights have so far been lost, 3 have been wounded while the Carthaginians have lost a settler and 4 mercs so far.
If the counterattack isn't too fierce, Russian armies are expected to begin their march to Carthage soon.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/aanvalsucces.jpg

Finally, an entirely differen thing has come to Russia's attention:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/anarresanarachy.jpg

Started in turn 113, America has been in a state of anarchy, even though still at war with all three civs on the continent. It is expected that a Republican government will form, I've noticed he invented\extorted that some time ago, and despite an apparently massive force of horsemen/swords, army costs will probably be manageable for him due to the low worker support costs of an industrious civ. Hopefully, some cities will flip back in this period of anarchy, so far anarres hasn't managed to make any progress at all, he still hasn't captured Trondheim, which is located on a hill.
It could be those alliances I made are paying off, as anarres conquest of the Vikings has bogged down considerably.

ERIKK
15-07-2003, 13:54
Will be a walk over IMO but I still think you have a very small military: only 4 pikes and 2
spears and 16/17 knights. Much troops (the much needed knights) will be stuck as garrison
troops to prevent the cities from flipping...

EDIT:
What about the Babylonians? You have an allience with them against
the Americans but if anarres bribes them but and your knight are in
Carthage you might have a problem...

Kemal
15-07-2003, 14:11
Yes, you're right that indeed the military is still small at the moment, but core cities continue to produce horsemen-to-knights via resource disconnection.
I don't worry to much about the culture flips. My culture is higher than Carthage's culture, and only a flip of Carthage is problematic. If any of the other cities flip, I'll just send 2 knights back and retake it. Once Carthage is finished, there'll be no flips at all, so that has priority over preventing flips.

As far as Babylon is concerned, yes they could pose a threat if they declare war, but I have to say they were among the first that I compared average to, so even though they're the score and culture leader by far, they seem to have neglected their military. Also, they'll probably send bowmen who will have to walk a long way through the jungles, and I have 13 warriors standing by to be upgraded to Med. Infs in case of a direct emergency.

And as far as alliances are concerned, at the moment I don not have any alliance at all with the Babs, if I'd sign one against Carthage that would lead to large stacks entering my lands as they try to engage the Carthaginians to the east, and that situation would be much more riskier and difficult to control, since they'll be right in my lands if they'd declare war on me. Concerning the danger of anarres bribing them, he hasn't found my continent yet, and has no contacts with the Babbels (nor with Carthage or Korea for that matter), so before he poses a threat he first has to find them, and be able to sign the alliance, which currently he can't as he's anarchy.

Kemal
31-07-2003, 13:37
Finally gotten around to updating the spoilers again, lots of things have happened since the last spoiler info was posted, we're now in turn 128.

It has been mostly warfare for the past 20 turns. As I stated in the last spoiler, Russia had started executing its plans to relieve its great friend Hannibal of the daily stress of maintaining and defending the prized Pyramids, with a decent amount of knights opening the attack on Rusicade and Hadrumetum. After this first successful assault, barracks were rushed in Rusicade to allow for fast healing, speeding up a possible attack on Carthage itself.

However, due to heavy Carthaginian resistance, it took until 150 BC for the inevitable to occur, as Russian armies marched into Carthage, securing the already 1500 years old Pyramids for Russian use:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Pyramidsbinnen.jpg

Still, even though the Carthaginians had now lost their best city, the war was far from over yet. While I had spared my knights for them to participate in the attack on Carthage in a healthy state, a large Carthaginian army group had been heading north to the Russian city of Sevastopol:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Carthageveellegers.jpg

As a less pleasant side effect of the earlier fought Korean-Carthaginian war, Russian soldiers were facing some of the best defenders the world presently knew off, as the apparently brutal battles against the Koreans had hardened some groups of Numidians employed by Hannibal, leading to veteran and even a few elite mercs passing through my territory.

So even though I wanted to finish off the Carthaginans (at least East-Carthage, they have a few jungle cities in the west I'm not really interested in), I had to postpone sending my knights further away until this Carthaginian group could be contained or dealt with. So here the attack was halted a bit, but I'm pleased to report that eventually most of the Carthaginian mercs ended up stuck on poles as their Great Trek ended with a bloody battle as they tried to liberate Rusicade, facing Russian pikes on the quickly constructed walls. Those few who survived and tried to flee were taken care off by a sortie of nearby stationed Russian Knights.

Now, in turn 128, the Carthaginian army has been decimated, and much progress has been made.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Carthagebijnaexit.jpg

However, they still haven't been wiped out yet, mostly due to a very unfortunate surprise some turns after the fall of Carthage...

This because in BC 50, war was beginning.
Czar Kemal: What happen!
Foreign Advisor: Somebody set up us the Babs!
FA: They got signal
CK: What!?
FA: It's from anarres!
CK: None our base will belong to them, take off every knight, for great justice...
;)

Yes, very unfortunately the Indians decided exactly at the worst moment (though for things like this, every date is the worst moment...) to cross the small ocean between our continent utilizing their Great Lighthouse, and Hammu e.a. immediately seized this opportunity to buy contact with anarres from the Indians, and it took just a few turns for Hammu and his new friend to join forces against the Russians:(

As Erikk stated already, A war with the Babbels is tricky stuff as most of my armies were busy hunting down Carthaginians in the east. The next couple of turns will make clear whether my confidence in fending of the babbels is justified, but as it stands now I don't see any problems yet:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Babbelsaanval.jpg

It seems the Babylonians haven't opted for diversity in their armies, with the bulk of their army consisting of slow-moving, offensively weak bowmen. With the more mobile Knights able to run from city to city, I think I can manage to keep them running until my Carthaginian expeditionary force returns to Russia. To further illustrate this possibility, take a look at this fine example of Babylonian warfare:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Kurskleeg.jpg

This city has been built to deny the Babylonians the last reamining free source of iron, in the far west. Contrary to what I had expected, it's still a Russian city, and the only Babbel in sight is a worker! I had that it would have been necessary to give the city away to Korea, as I obviously have no way to defend it, but as it stands now it might even make it through this war unschathed.

The only bad thing is that I've already triggered the Babylonians' GA, due to an unfortunate loss against a bowman who was nearing my iron resource (he can be seen on the pic displaying the Babylonian attack), even though he was standing on grass, he still managed to take my knight out with ease. This has resulted in me dropping to 3rd place in mfg. goods on the demographs, but I won't despair over that as I suspect anarres is ranked even lower, since both Babylon and India are going through their GA at the moment, and are most likely ranked 1 and 2. On a positive note, I'm still ranked 1st in GNP though. [yeah]

However, I'm forced to end this spoiler on a sad note, as it appears anarres has been lucky with the RNG:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/anarresmazzelaar.jpg

Bah, I'm pretty sure Babylon or Korea had it nearly completed, they had been working on it for ages already.
Can't have them all I guess...:(

Kemal
06-08-2003, 15:22
CARTHAGINIAN-RUSSIAN WAR HAS COME TO AN END

** Czar Kemal and General Hannibal sign treay of Cirta to end hostilities, Russia comes out as victor as Carthage cedes cities ** Russian government installed in the former Carthaginian capital ** Czar Kemal unveils memorial tablet for killed Russian war heroes in "Hippo's Disaster" ** War against Babylon continues **

We're now at turn 139, and Czar Kemal is happy to announce that the first major Russian war, against Carthago, has ended and resulted in almost total victory. In the previous update, the Russian military had already broken most of the active Carthaginian military, and managed to split the Carthaginian empire in two by occupying the lands between Rusicade and Cadiz, seperating Carthago's only remaining major city and new capital, Hippo, from the rest of the empire in the south.

With a considerable portion of the Russian army now forced to patrol near the Russian-Babylonian borders, it was decided that the conquest of Hippo was to be the last objective in the the war, to make time for reinforcements to be be created in the Russian core while Russia's campaign focused on capturing the southern parts of the Carthaginian empire. A few elite knights were stationed near Hippo as Russian Generals had noticed fresh groups of archers leaving Hippo, and the settlement of Leptis Minor to the north of it, frequently.

During one of these skirmishes with Carthaginian archers, news came forward about an event causing the Russian leadership and population to do the happy dance:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Bingo!!!!.jpg

It did not take long for Russia to announce what Ivan the Terrible's destiny was going to be, as the decision was made he, protected by a large group of knights against a culture flip, was to create a new palace in the former Carthaginian capital for Russia's government to relocate to, to fight the rampant corruption and waste in the newly conquered lands around it. With the FP located in Minsk, just outside Moscow, the negative effects of moving the capital on corruption in the old core would be minimal.

After the new capital was created, Russian forces continued to press forward, and not much later the entire southern part of Carthage was conquered. The entire southern part? No, one small settlement in the south, Sabratha, built on a hill, succesfully continued the fight against the surrounding Russian armies, (making Russia wonder whether they had some druid creating magic potions for them ;)) and attempts to capture it by force were abandoned, it would be taken over from Carthage in the peace treaty following the fall of Hippo.

So, now came the time for the final assault, on the Carthaginian stronghold of Hippo. No less than 23(!) knights were put into positions to attack the city in 150 AD, 6 elites, and 17 veterans, 2 of them with light combat wounds:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Hippoaanval.jpg

A large amount indeed, considering this was what the total Russian military consisted of in this period:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/voorhippo.jpg

This final battle turned out to be a memorable one, but unfortunately for totally the wrong reasons. Even though their 5 mercs were defending at 5.5 against my knights' 4 attack, nobody in Russia had expected that it would lose more than 25% of it's entire army(!) in this attack, that became known as Hippo's Disaster. :(
It turned out the RNG for one turn changed in the RDG, the Russian Death Generator, as 9 of my knights found their graves in the valiant attack to bring the city under Russian control, and another 6 were heavily wounded. Also, 2 of those who were among the casualties turned out to be elites.

Here is the situation the turn after the attack:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/hippobinnen.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/nahippo.jpg

(Note that the total amount of knights is 28, not 26, because of the upgrade of 2 horsemen during that turn.)

After this disaster, I also immediately went to average again compared to anarres' army.

But let's also stress the positive, Hippo had been conquered, and after the signing of Treaty of Cirta, involving the deal that Sabratha and another western city were to be ruled by the Russians from now on, Carthaginian lands in the east were know totally under Russian control, and due to the new palace and Pyramids, and the almost unbelievably well placed Carthaginian cities surrounding Carthage, growth in this new core and in the empire as a whole was tremendous:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/NewRussia.jpg

Notice the RCP of the Carthaginian cities at 5.5 distance, almost too good to be true. Another ring has been created at distance 3.

This is what's left of Carthage now, I haven't decided yet whether I'll kill them off completely, as this has both advantages and disadvantages, but for now we have peace again.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/NeoCarthage.jpg

Now that the Carthaginian threat is extinct, Russia can start to concentrate almost completely on Babylon, with Carthaginian war vets being relocated to northern positions. And this fresh military injection is very much needed, as the GA Babylonians are fielding an impressive display of bowmen on the northern borders, and worse still due to some unlucky battles we're currently running 1 on 1 on lost bowmen vs lost knights. However, the tactic as described in my previous post turns out to work perfectly, as the bulk of the Babylonian army has done nothing more than trying to make its way through the deep jungles seperating our empires, and the mobility of the Knight shines in this tactical battle, as they can easily manoeuvre along the borders via Russian roads, reinforcing cities where it is most needed:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Babylonjunglehop.jpg

This greatly reduces the amount of knights needed for defensive purposes, and already plans of a task force of 8 knights are being made to attack Babylon in the west, where they seem to have little units present. I can't commit more knights to this at the moment, as I have held back a force of 7 knights along the Russian-Korean border to act as an emergency defence force if they should declare war. As I keep the amount of defensive knights numbered around 10, due to Hippo's Disaster I don't have a very alrge offensive force at the moment. However, the old core still produces large amounts of horsemen, which can be upgraded to knights using resource (dis)connection.
And talking about upgrading, the Babylonian war has resulted in another extremely happy moment in the Russian Empire, as Peter the Great has emerged:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/bingo2.jpg

As the renaming already hints at, he is currently stationed in Minsk impressing the local population there with tales of his great deeds, while waiting for the world to obtain the knowledge of invention, making it possible for him to rush a great wonder, Leonardo's workshop. If I can get this wonder in place, my military prowess will increase significantly as then I can get even more upgrades per turn done. With both India and Babylon in their GA, I expect the AI to invent it soon, but I might also try and invent it myself, haven't decided on that yet.

To finish up this spoiler, take a look at the current demographics, (and I'd like to remind you that both Babylon and India are in their GA ;)), and the current minimap:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/demographs210AD.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/minimap210AD.jpg

Eldakkar
06-08-2003, 18:03
Nice amount of workers [eek]

51!!

Skyfish
06-08-2003, 21:38
Well done Kemal !
This looks really good and yes this is the amount of workers one needs with non-industrious civs and this much jungle, beautiful ! [thumbsup]

Plux
17-08-2003, 06:06
Very nicely written and played, Kemal! I'm anxious to see how this continues [goodjob]

Kemal
18-08-2003, 19:49
Though I'm hopelessly behind on spoilers (it will get better, major update soon to come), I really wanted to let you know about a major event in our game that is scheduled to take place tonight, when anarres and I will start another session. As a short recap, the current situation (turn 167/510 AD) is that I've almost destroyed Babylon, and have had wars with Korea, holding them off without gaining any terrain. Meanwhile, anarres has swept the Vikings off his continent, and is now 90% done with the destruction of India.

But take a look at what he will see between his (at the moment undefended (!)) core cities once he opens the next turn:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Aanvalluh.jpg

This stack consists of 16 knights, 8 elites and 8 vets. He doesn't know I already have navigation (got it 3 turns ago), and is currently at war with all other civs, so hopefully his knights are all battling in distant lands.

What is more, to prevent annoying (for me) use of the change city arrows in his upkeep, I've turned off most pop-up windows in the options menu. [evil]

He doesn't know anything of this yet, will keep you informed as the action takes place tonight!

Aggie
18-08-2003, 20:16
wow, great move :D

Plux
18-08-2003, 20:30
Exciting stuff :). BTW, has someone already managed to beat anarres, or is this the first game which will have a chance at it?

Skyfish
18-08-2003, 20:46
Just a great, great move Kemal, see thats the danger of spoilers in a way : from his other games'spoilers you just know almost for certain his core will be undefended which makes the gamble worthwhile :D

Plux : ProPain has already beaten him but that was his only defeat in 7 or 8 games.
Read the spoiler in anarres and PP thread, its a good one !

anarres
18-08-2003, 21:06
Shit. Outclassed again! Congrats Kemal! [drunk]


BTW - disabling popups is naughty! [nono] I will have to agree that before we start next time. ;)

yndy
19-08-2003, 15:46
Good idea with those pop-ups, I might use it as well against annares. ;)

anarres
19-08-2003, 16:04
Yndy - you agree here and now that turning off pop-ups is not allowed, or our game ends now!!

In my game vs ERIKK I we have 'always build previous unit' turned on, but only because we are industrial and I am building about 30 units/turn, and they do not change. In all my other games I have it on and use it!

digger760
19-08-2003, 16:27
quote:Originally posted by Kemal
What is more, to prevent annoying (for me) use of the change city arrows in his upkeep, I've turned off most pop-up windows in the options menu. [evil]


What does this do? I am guessing it prevents your oppenent from scrolling through cities at the start of the turn to get extra sheilds??? please tell me if i am wrong or what your intent was?

anarres
19-08-2003, 16:56
Well I don't do that since extra food and shields from multiple tiles is too exploitative even for me. If fact, I would probably consider it a 'true' exploit - in that it cheats the game mechanics (using 1 tile for more than 1 city in 1 turn). Maybe this should be classified as such for my running/future games.

I do however cycle though if a city riots, and occasionally when I have pre-builds for something that I have just discovered (when the pre-build would complete the same turn the tech is finished). This I consider OK, and not a 'true' exploit. Making this impossible for me is not fair play, especially when you only get to control the other user's settings and not your own (since they can choose whatever they want before they finish the turn, and so can you).

Kemal
19-08-2003, 17:43
I agree with you anarres that turning off the pop-ups was a bit on the edge, but as we hadn't made any agreement on it, and since your usual opinion on such things (at least I thought it was) is that "when it's not disallowed, it must be allowed", I decided that it wouldn't be unfair play. I'm ok with making it a general (or in my games at least) rule that game options can only be changed if both parties agree to change them.

I agree that cycling between cities to get extra/double commerce and shields is an exploit and should not be used. However, as anarres points out, cycling between cities is very valuable to prevent city disorder, for example when you've lost a luxury due to a military alliance formed against you. Also, and that's why I turned it off, you can rush units/improvements in your upkeep by using the arrows to cycle to cities which haven't built anything yet this upkeep.

Kemal
20-08-2003, 14:04
EPILOGUE

Even though the game has now finished, Russia still wants to disclose the information about the events prior to and eventually leading to the game-ending attack on America in turn 167, by revealing the (promised) spoiler info on turns 139 - 167, consisting of the succesful war against the Babylonian empire, the moment when the plan to attack America was first created, and the mainly defensive containment strategy against the Koreans.

As I stated in my previous large spoiler post, after the war against Carthage Czar Kemal had decided not to recall all of the Russian knights to help out along the Russian-Babylonian border, but left 7 of them along the Korean border, and as it turned out they became very much needed there as the Koreans were bribed by anarres only a few turns later, and immediately large Korean army groups entered my still weakly defended border there:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/aanvalkorea.jpg

The initial defense plan was to heavily fortify the cities of Uralsk and Cadiz, while leaving Leptis Magna almost undefended, hoping to lure Korean troops onto the "killing fields" just before this city, where my knights could pick them off one by one easily. However, as I could not leave Uralsk and Cadiz lightly defended, lots of cash was spent to rush additional defenders, with even some regular knights being called upon to assist in defending Mother Russia in the east.

Meanwhile, the Babylonians were still happily getting nowhere in the jungle between me and Babylon, but as they were in their GA, more and more of them started to appear:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/babylontrektocht.jpg

Fortunately, with the help of Leonardo's Workshop, horsemen were very rapidly trained and upgraded in the cities just south of the border, so they never really managed to pose a real threat, and it wasn't long before Russia made it's first conquest on the Babylonian empire:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/eersteoverwinning.jpg

Even though this victory meant that the citizens in Kursk (the iron city far west) could safely go to sleep once again, now falling under the protection of Russian Knights, it was apparent that more knights were needed to succesfully mount an attack on Babylon, as their culture was much too large for slow-progressing warfare:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/babylonculture.jpg

Meanwhile, my defensive tactic against Korea had decimated their armies (though they were still average compared to me, with their initial wave consisting mostly of obsolete archers, swords and med infs.), and it took only four turns for them to be willing to talk to me again. As peace became a possibility, I decided to do an all-out assault on Nam'po, a city that would be vital in setting up a real defense against Korea, namely to take over control of the mountain which diveded our two empires. It was currently defended by a Korean pikeman, and still fell under the Korean sphere of influence, but my plan was to rush a library in nam'po, and then demand the Koreans to leave my territory once the mountain was under my cultural territory.

Indeed peace was agreed, and the library was rushed, and 4 turns later I made my demands to Wan Kong to leave my territory:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Koreawaragain.jpg

Bah, not what I had hoped for! Though the good thing was that this resulted in some free happiness around my empire, it would mean the mountain was going to have to be taken over by force. It seemed to be not a very big problem at that time though, as my military had grown quite a bit in the past 10 turns, as most of the core cities were producing 2 turn horsemen -> knights now:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/military149.jpg

And another pleasant thing had happened on the western front against Babylon, as a large part of their stacks finally made their way out of the jungle, only to be greeted by Russian welcoming parties:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Babylonhakken.jpg

And this was also the moment, with about 40 knights being operational near the Babylonian borders, to let the operation to conquer the Babylonian empire commence. Here's Babylon after the first move in that war, the capture of Kish by Russia:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Babylonoverview.jpg

2 stacks of knights were to be formed, each consisting of about 20 knights, of which one would capture Kish and the second enter Babylonian territory near Lagash. Then, after capturing Lagash, the western stack, which would probably face less resistance, would continue it's way to the western parts of the Babylonian empire, capturing Nimrud, Sippar, and Akkad. The Eastern stack would wipe out as much of the Babylonian army as possible, and then march to the very centrally located cultural powerhouse of Ellipi. As I couldn't hope to hold on to that city due to the cultural influence of Babylon and Ur, as well as the nearby presence of their capital, and the amount of cultural pressure Ellipi would mount on the captured cities in the west, it was decided by the Russian leadership that this city had to be burned to the ground.

This approach paid off, as this was the situation only 6 turns later:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/Babylonprakpartij.jpg

And on the minimap:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/minimap155.jpg

My knights encountered much fewer Babylonian armies than expected, making progress through their empire fast and clean. Already though flips had started to occur, but as reinforcements continued to arrive from the south, they were taken care off easily. With so little resistance encountered, Babylon and Ur (with the Great Library) became the next targets, and only two turns later, Russia celebrated as scholars found valuable scientific treasures between the endless scroll racks in Ur's Great Library, teaching them techs all the way up to Astronomy and Banking!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/BabylonUrbinnen.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/gratistechs.jpg

This meant that suddenly navigation came in reach for the Russian empire, and it was at this moment that Czar Kemal and his military and scientific staff started to investigate whether there were any possibilities to inflict (serious) damage on the mortal enemy of the Russian Republic, America.

And it became apparent that an attack, although it would be a daring one, was indeed a serious possibility. Careful study of the world maps revealed that with the 3-move galleys and caravels available for transport of Russian troops, and a daring passage through Korean coastal waters, the great ocean seperating both our continents could be bridged in exactly 6 turns from the rendez-vous point near Murmansk. Examination of the possible production of these transports revealed that 6 boats (2 galley, 4 caravel) could make it to Murmansk in the next 3 turns, resulting in a transport capacity of 16 slots. To fill up these slots, Czar Kemal immediately ordered his generals near babylon to withdraw 10 of the most fresh and experienced troops near Ur back to Murmansk, and along with a few knights that could be missed from the Korean borders, they made up the strike force of 8 elite and 8 veteran knights.

So, in 460 AD, only 3 turns after capturing the Great Library, the fleet was able to leave Murmansk, scheduled to arrive near America at 510 AD.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/verzamelplaats.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/murmanksminimap.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/oceancrossing.jpg

As ocean needed to be traversed to reach America, Czar Kemal had started a great research project immediately after getting astronomy from the GL, and with a large gpt deficit, scientists assured that Russian sailors would be able to safely navigate the ocean in 480 AD, which would be the first time the fleet would need to leave the shallow seas and venture into the open oceans.

For this operation to have a maximum chance of succes, the Russians decided that it would be imperative that America would not learn of the progress Russian scientist made in navigating rough waters, so after the research on Navigation was completed, Russia did not intent to share the knowledge with any other civ, regardless of how many gpt they were willing to offer, and even though a new leader, Stalin, had been spawned in the continuing battle against the rapidly crumbling Babylonian Empire, Magellan's Voyage would not be created until America was within reach.
However, in 490 AD, one turn after learning Navigation, I had noticed a significant drop in the price offered by Korea, which Russia was still at war with at that time, for Navigation, currently doing only 62 gpt. Fearing that the Koreans would be able to invent it themselves, peace was made with Korea and navigation was sold, not for gpt, but rather for a military alliance vs America, and their wines. That way the Americans would probably still not know whether navigation had already been researched, since they would not be able to talk to eachother for some time. But selling Navigation meant that Korea was now too able to sell of the tech to others, with both Zululand and Babylon having large gpt sums at their disposal. To avoid that the Americans would still be able to possibly learn of the knowledge of Navigation via other civs, I made peace with Babylon and sold Navigation for alliances to both Babylon and Zululand too. Babylon only had 5 cities left at that moment, and the plan was to sign a ROP with them once the invasion fleet had landed, to take them out in a single blow, as they needed to be dead to prevent the annoying flips.

With the end result of the attack now already known, to finish off the spoilers for these game, here are some of the statistics of the Russian Empire in the final turn, 167:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/minimap167f.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/domestic167.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/power167.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/demographs167.jpg

END