Blood and Empire

[Theben]

Anyway, time for an update. That RL stuff, y'know. I'll try to post more promptly in the future. Otherwise this could take months...

As expected, Joao continues to push in my direction, and has a small force near my capital. I'm still trying for the Oracle, and want to make my capital my GP farm, so it's lightly defended. Poverty Point is building barracks, and my vets from the Mongol campaign are heading back south to the capital.

[Theben]

I complete the Oracle. Usually I pick Metalcasting for the boost, but with essentially 2 separate empires far from each other, I pick CoL to lower costs and allow for more expansion. Of course, it comes with a nice bonus.



p.s.: I sent a missionary to William and he is now "one with the true faith". Hopefully that'll keep him off my back for awhile. And in case you forgot and are wondering, I chose the "choose religions" option.

[Theben]

A few turns later...



That new religion of mine didn't help by speading to his lands.

[Theben]

My veterans are still rushing towards the defense of the capital.

[Theben]

Meanwhile, the capital's defenses remain thin. A Dog Soldier from Poverty Point has been rushed north to come the the city's aid, leaving Poverty Point defenseless for the moment. The people stop trying to build the Temple of Artemis and 1st attempt to erect a wall, but then abandon that in favor of raising troops capable of killing enemies at a distance with mass volleys of small projectiles.

[Theben]

Things aren't well in the south either, as an unseen Portuguese force has entered from the southeast, towards a defenseless city.

[Theben]

The people of Poverty Point and Cahokia are raising armies as fast as possible, but unfortunately, Joao timed his attack well. We are unable to build slave armies at the moment.

[Theben]

As the enemy closes in, a desperate attack is launched by our veterans on the invaders:



With dubious results.



Little remains between Joao's forces and a fallen empire, except hope.

[Sarco]

o noes!

[Theben]

Joao's forces close in on the city. With only Dog Soldiers to defend, the chariots rush forward, aiming to secure victory with minimal losses for the Portuguese. As they near the front lines, a hail of feathered shafts rain from the skies to greet them. The 1st group finds itself devastated by the withering fire, but the 2nd is able to skirt around the front warriors to inflict retribution on the brand new forces pressed into service by the Native Americans. Still, they suffered heavy losses of their own, and fell back beyond the now advancing foot soldiers.
Seeing as their advantage had been lost, the remaining forces charged headlong. But even the seasoned sword-wielding Portuguese warriors found themselves unable to pierce the lines of the howling Dogs of the natives. Swords, axes, arrows... none survived the bloody rampage of the native soldiers. Only the remnants of the chariot force escaped back into the woods, their army in disarray.



Victory in the south was also secured, thanks to a similar last-minute recruitment of archer forces.



As the last of the Portuguese forces prepared to withdraw to a safer position, they found themselves ambushed by a superior foe.



The capital at last secure, the enemy driven from all native territory, it was time to prepare for an advance into enemy lands.

[Stewie0416]

oh wow, that was pretty kwl! If i had faced that situation i would've quit

Kudos!

[fani]

i have always wondered, whenever i had joao in my game...how the #@$% can he manage to build so many cities so fast while covering the maintenance costs AND keep up in reaserch AND maintain a fairly decent army...

My best game was when i caught him with his pants down...as my neighbor with me playing the sumerians and throwing a hell of a lot of vultures at him...

Anyway...glad you survived the onslaught...waiting anxiously for the continuation of this game!

[Theben]

After that I switched back to Slavery and built some war footing. Joao sent another small force against my capital but it was even smaller than the 1st and my defenses much stronger. It died quickly. Then this guy showed up:



I know from past experience that if Zara has a lot of cities and is a different religion than you he'll be a major pain at some point in the game. Well, he had a lot of cities.

[Theben]

I got one o' these things:



I used him to scout out the Netherlands and China. I knew the Chinese were southwest but not exactly where.

Soon after that I killed another wandering Portuguese troop, which earned me this feller:



Which, of course, gave me level 3 units like a CR II swordsman (once I found iron).

[Theben]

I ran into Hannibal earlier but didn't mention him b/c he wasn't a major player in my area of the world. Still he was amicable enough to trade to me Alphabet, although he wanted 5 techs for it(!). I gave him 4, giving him basic religious concepts and iron.



I found iron in the BFC of Cahokia and Turfan, as well as 2 more to the east of Poverty Point. Joao sent another force, slightly larger than the last but still weaker than the 1st, towards my capital which succeeded mainly in scaring my workers off the iron plot. Other than that, it fared worst of all, being completely destroyed w/o registering any kills.