500AD     Forcefully Separating the Warring Civs

As the title of this section suggests, my next goal was to drive a wedge between the AI civs and carve out some safe ground in the middle of the continent. By separating the AI civs I could ensure that they could only come at me from two directions, which would make containing their attacks much easier. In 500AD, I had not quite reached that point and was actually in a rather exposed position with a large front to defend:

With so much going on in this picture, I decided to present it in uncropped format. Since the last picture, I had pushed the front forwards a small bit with the founding of Kaifeng and Ningpo in addition to the capture of Allegheny. That presented a large front to defend, so capturing Seattle and Tyendenaga to cut down on the territory I had to defend was a major priority at this point. Note also how my cities have continued to increase in size at a rapid rate, thanks to the free granaries the Pyramids have provided and the bang-up job that my workers have done laying down tile improvements. It's rather interesting that I have no gold at the moment, since I used all of it to rush a temple in Allegheny and get its borders to expand. And of course finally there are the enemy units wandering around outside my borders as always; just in this picture I can see about 15 of them on the screen. They would never go away until I conquered the world; frankly I wouldn't know what to do if they stopped showing up!

Well with all of the fighting I was doing, I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise to grab another leader. Qianlong #2 (leader #8 overall) appeared in 510AD and was used for the Sistine Chapel:

That was a light turn on the northern front, with only a handful of enemies moving into my territory. I spent the next few turns building up my forces for a push forward to capture Tyendenaga and secure the central part of the map. Control of that city would push my borders almost all of the way north to the sea, cutting the continent into two pieces. In 550AD I discovered Invention and sent my Riders forward. The outcome was never in doubt:

Since I had expected the city to be auto-razed I had another settler on hand ready to go, and Paoting was founded in the city's place on the next turn in 560AD. Of course on the same turn leader #9 popped in the fighting and was used to rush Leo's right there in Paoting (free culture expansion!) Paoting gave me a foothold in the center of the continent, next it was time to secure that by pushing west and removing the American blight of Seattle from the map. It became the first non-Iroquois city I captured in 610AD:

It may be a little hard to see from these screenshots, but capturing Seattle has now given me complete control over the narrow part of the continent. The northern civs were now isolated from the western ones, and while they could continue to trade with one another over the sea, they could no longer coordinate attacks by land. Also notice the workers accompanying my armies in the right side of the above picture, laying down roads on every tile to facilitate easier movement. Those little guys are just so critical to military operations, I can't overstate their importance. Workers are even more important when rails come along, but that's a story for later...

While clearing out the big stack around Seattle, I popped another leader (#10). I didn't even write down what I used him on, so it must not have been too important; probably a university or cathedral back in one of my core cities. With so many battles going on, there is no reason not to use the leaders right away so that you can get more of them. Also of importance in 630AD was the hooking up of the spices luxury you can see in the above picture. That was my third luxury and it finally allowed me to drop the lux rate from 20% to 10%. This sounds trivial, but it was almost like doubling my income since so much of it had to go into research. The lack of luxuries around the starting position was one of the more challenging aspects of this game; neither the silks or ivory were particularly close to the starting position. Those players who weren't able to reach luxuries and get them hooked up quickly will likely have major happiness problems, as I had before finally reaching this third one.

I discovered Education in 660AD but was still playing catchup at this point to the AI civs, who were a tech or two ahead of me for the most part. I also noted that this was the turn that I first saw and killed an Indian unit; kind of late, wouldn't you say? Most importantly though, I managed to push forward in the west and raze Niagra Falls:

Taking this city was critical, since when I refounded another city in its place on the next turn I gained control of several wines luxuries. That allowed me to drop the luxury rate to 0% and I finally could start to research on an even footing with the AI civs. In retrospect, there was no reason to raze this city instead of capturing it, but since I had a settler on hand and could use some more workers, I guess there was no reason NOT to raze it. By this point I had put some major hurting on the Iroquois, having captured or razed a number of their core cities. They would still remain a threat, but their forces were definitely beginning to slacken as more and more of their territory was gobbled up. Also note the catapults in the above picture; in most of the previous ones they've been holed up in cities and thus invisible, but you can see them in that one. Trust me - the cats were everywhere doing their magic.

I popped another leader (#11) in 680AD *yawn*. I sent K'uang-yin #3 to go rush a university in Canton. To show that I wasn't advancing just in the west, I snapped a picture of the capture of Hovd, the first Mongol city to fall, on the same date:

From the next several turns, I would have to pushing through jungle in the north. This was a bad thing, as jungle terrain negated the speed of my Riders - one of their strongest assets. I resolved to push forward rapidly in the north, accepting higher losses, in order to clear the jungles and get free to the plains and grasslands to the north where my Riders would again have the edge over the slower opposing Keshiks. In that spirit, I pushed forward and took Dalandzadgad from the Mongols in 720AD, which secured a common line of defense as I began to push into the northern part of the continent. I kept getting leaders too, with #12 appearing in 710AD and #13 in 730AD. They were coming so fast and furious I stopped keeping track of what I used them on; those close to my core cities produced universities, otherwise I used them on libraries in front cities to expand cultural borders without spending the money to rush the building. By 750AD I had carved out a serious chunk of land in the center of the continent and divided the two groups of AI civs permanently. The next goal would be to begin driving deeply into the core territory of several of the AI civs to deprive them of resources and their most productive lands.

This table continues to show the increasing number of units I was facing from the AI civs, as they have almost all significantly increased the number of units coming my way. One exception is the Iroquois, who have been hit so hard that their production has begun to decline. From this point on, I would be seeing relatively few of their units due to their decreased size and production. America, Persia, Mongolia, and the Ottomans have more than made up for the decrease in Iroquois units, however. I enjoyed an outstanding kill ratio in this 25-turn period, with 20 of my own losses compared to 205 AI losses, a ratio of better than 10:1. This was due to the fact that the AI civs were mostly sending MDI against my cities, which were easy bait for my Riders due to their low defense (2). When my Riders got in trouble they tended to retreat instead of dying, which also helped to cut down on losses. As you'll see in the next table, when the AI civs began to show up with knights instead of MDIs, my losses significantly increased due to the higher defense and inability to retreat when losing.