So, finally yet another update, several things have taken place in the past couple of turns, and I suspect some of you might have read something about it in other spoiler threads (Iirc Darkness's spoiler was updated shortly after some major events).
As a recap, the last things talked about here were some musings on how to effectively use the army of cavs built during the GA, and how well the other continent would be able to set up a defense against the coming wave of attacks (via grenadiers and/or cats?).
So, here will be my take on describing recent turns, seen from the viewpoint of Mali... but to be honest I really don't know where to start, so I'll just post some pics first (after all, a picture says more than a 1000 words), and we'll just go from there:
1130 AD: Attack on Cuzco:
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1200 AD: Attack on Philadelphia:
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1200 AD: Attack on Thebes:
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In short, BCLG turned out to be the intended target of the attack, and it has been really brutal. First of all, in 1130 Malinese troops landed near Cuzco and found in severly undermanned, and despite some last gasp troop upgrades it never really stood a chance to survive. One cavalry was lost and 4 more severely injured, but the city was put to the torch.
This probably was the decisive blow to the Incan empire, and as my wounded cavs simply headed back to the medical frigates to heal somewhere at sea there wasn't even a chance to counterattack, meaning the would live to fight another day.
That other day was only 7 turns later.
As BCLG had indeed joined the war vs Roosevelt, and tried to gain extra territory by invading them with a stack of cats and grenadiers/maces near Philadelphia instead of buckling up and waiting for an invasion of mine (a logical decision even though they probably knew I was coming, as really they needed more territory to be able to compete in the long run). He managed to capture Philadelphia but was held to somewhat of a standstill because of my gang of 2 maces and the horse archer who patrolled through American borders, plus some formidable defenses Roosevelt put up.
This also meant he had to stretch his forces out and leave his eastern side of the empire vulnerable. In 1200 AD, 6 new cavs had landed in New York and made their way to an attack position near Philadelphia, while the remaining 8 vets of the Cuzco campaign disembarked near Thebes (containing Stonehenge, Pyramids, Chichen Itza and a religious shrine). Both fell uncontested, but you might have observed that Philadelphia is now actually an American city again rather than a pile of rubble.
I decided to return control to the American empire when capturing Philadelphia, mostly because I had barely reached "friendly" status with Roosevelt (+10) and I wanted to maintain positive relations to prevent him from declaring on me via some random fluke roll or via bribery by Darkness/BCLG. At the moment, it is actually impossible for him to declare on me IIRC meaning I will have continued usage of his roads and territory to heal/strike and return on the enemy. Razing the city would have angered Roosevelt for a permanent "you razed one of our cities" modifier.
Also, but somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, I think you can use the defensive bonus of the city you are in if it is a city of your ally. I know healing is sped up for sure, not a 100% positive on defense though. And since the city is actually next to Washington I'm positive the Americans will garrison it soon anyway.
I contemplated doing the same with Thebes since the massive cultural influence would have been useful for my cavs there, but since Egypt can't possibly send forces to defend the city, I would have been forced to assign some cavs to do so, and that wasn;t worth it for me, as I only have 8 of them anyway.
So as it stands, I still have 14 cavs active in the area while having taken out a large chunk of BCLG's forces already. The following 2 pics actually show his entire empire as it exists at this date:
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Yep, that's all there is and Memphis looks like a goner as well... to be honest, unless Darkness intervenes (he has made peace with both Roosevelt and Egypt some time ago) I think that BCLG might not survive these 14 cavs for very long... They are simply too good to be defended by macemen/axes even in the most mature cities.
And with BCLG gone, what hope is there for Darkness?
Basicly, I'm kinda expecting a resignation soon now, if it is to come at all. They might continue to fight though as I can imagine that surrendering the game even before you have met one of the other players in the game (Matrix is still isolated and has no idea what is going on except seeing BCLG's score dwindle down, I assume) feels somewhat stange. We'll just wait and see.
So, that's the current standing with regard to military matters. For the sake of completeness, I still would like to give some insights on Malinese domestic issues, though (yeah you may skip reading if that's beginning to bore you
).
Contrary to what I think most would have expected, after the expeditionary forces were built during the GA, Mali starting focusing on domestic builds again and switched civics again:
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A lot of extra costs due to maintenance but the goal was twofold: the newer cities founded mainly in the east had good food potential and could profit from slavery by rapidly building up key improvements such as granaries, lighthouses and libs, while on the other hand the mature cities collectively embarked on a mission to get the Newton University in Timbuktu. This required 5 more universities in different cities, as Timbuktu already had one. In short, hammers were needed, and lots of them, so theocracy was swapped for organized religion speeding up construction. All military builds were abandoned again.
But science is still making good progress as well, in part due to the money coming in from the military campaign, and good progress has been made on the tech tree:
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Since the last update, Mali has taken the Guilds -> Banking -> Economics path, and a great merchant was born in Timbuktu (plus the free market civic, which is a good assett to the economy as well), who is now en route to New York to perform a trade mission there:
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Speaking of which, another great scientist just appeared in Rome, and he will be finally constructing an academy in Timbuktu, which will increase science there by over 80 beaker/turn, making it the superior choice over popping part of scientific method (which would obsolete my precious monasteries in Timbuktu anyway):
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No demographics to conclude with this time, but there is some news on Matrix, who has finally sent a couple of scouts north to map my lands. A few post ago, I made mention that it worried me since he could sell my map to the other continent, but as it stands it looks like Matrix is actually becoming my biggest rival for the win. He has overcome his economic problems by cottaging and wisely halting his advance on Monty, and is now no longer facing bankruptcy.
With the universities finishing in most major cities, new cavalries are being ordered again, but this time I'm not too sure whether they'll be making a long ocean voyage before seeing some action...