Part 3: the Age of Cossacks

1420: You have just discovered Military Tradition! (everyone ph34r the might of Cossacks!) I'm blood-thirsty now .
By the way, my stack at Orleans loses the key battles again, but then the longbows inside the city attack me!!! Of course, this can only lead to one solution, and it's not a good solution for France.

Note how my stack was reduced: I only had one cat and one pike at the end.

As I see that Roosevelt is quickly recovering from his technological disadvantage, I decide to use some techs to "assure that no civ will grow too strong and everybody gets his share of wealth". Pay Toku to attack Alex, and Hatty to attack Roosevelt, paying 8 techs in total. I don't expect this will last much, but hopefully it will keep Roos away from wonders for a bit. In fact, the war has considerable ripercussions on the American GNP:

When Hatty comes asking to join her, I accept, because my cossacks will have the potential to reach even the other side of the continent. France is almost gone as I raze Tours, in the south, and my next target is Gandhi. He has run away in score, so we must keep him "balanced" . Except that I start to lose consistently battles at 80% odds, so my offensive stalls for a bit. While I bring more Cossacks into action, I stop the war between Toku and Alex, since they're both quite behind, and make Alex fight Roosevelt instead. The only one that nobody wants to fight is Gandhi. So I declare on him in 1615 AD. I'm starting to suffer WW (up to 6), so why declaring to more civs? Because I make peace with Roosevelt with him paying 130g, but above all I end the suffering of Napoleon by razing his last city, Burgundese. Poor Nappy, but poor Gandhi too .

India is colonized

When that pacifist beats me to Liberalism by one single turn I get really mad. I had picked Steel with that! I want revenge... And revenge it is. In 1670 I take the first Indian major city: Bombay. It has Notre Dame and is the Taoist Holy City, but I decide to raze it.

More slaughter will come soon! In 1700 I take the Indian capital, Delhi, And this time I keep it. Why? because it has two shrines, which total 32 cities paying 1gpt to Delhi, and it has three (useless) wonders, and it's in a lovely spot, and it's my biggest city etc. etc.

When I conquer Lahore, in the south, there's no such thing, so you can imagine how warm I made those people feel . In the meanwhile, Roosevelt is desperately trying to gain Delhi, and suicides about 10 units against my cossacks, who can never heal fully, because of the collateral damage. In fact, most of the units I'm fighting are American, even if I'm in the middle of India. This is due to the fact that Hatty and Roosevelt have just made peace, and although I bought Alex into the war, Roosevelt is sending me many troops. Alex has a suicidal tendence: he has just tried to backstab Toku, who is stronger than him, wasting his GA. It's not good, we Russians want that everybody is equally strong, and the wealth distribution is balanced. So we're killing everyone who's trying to ruin this beautiful project (did I already say I'd have loved to play Stalin in this one? Too bad it's not warlords).

After 9 turns 9 of disorder, the city of Delhi starts to work for Russia, and pushes the State's economy from 70% sci @ -28gpt to +27gpt. Who said we were Atheists? We believe in everything that makes us richer, err, I mean, more balanced than the others!
1755 AD: Gandhi just completed Versailles. Wow, thank you! He built it in Calcutta, too... [dang, the screenshot didn't take] 1755 AD: I take Calcutta, and lose one Cossack at 94%. I keep fighting and in 1785 I take Madras, which is the last major city of Gandhi. I also pay Hatty to declare Roosevelt and the Mahatma. I also discover Steam Power, on my way to railroads. Now look at this shot of Mother Russia and tell me if it's possible that I have NO COAL!

The nearest resource is, er, Bangalore. OK, then it's fine . Bangalore is taken with few problems, and in 1806 I take New York too! I don't keep the city, but give it to Hatty: the maintenance is hurting me bad, the Egyptian culture could make the city useless, and I want to go diplo with My friend Hatty. Queen's power! Cathy and Hatty will rule the world!


... well, sort of. However, In the same turn I conquer Seattle, the last Indian city on the main continent (surely that wasn't Indian because of a war!), and since we need to cut off WW, I sign peace with Gandhi, for the moderate price of two techs, the map, 40g and the adoption of decentralization instead of bureaucracy. Since I see he's furious, I sign OB with him, so maybe he won't be so mad at me in some time . Fortunately, this only happens with Gandhi.

I turn all of my cities to maximize food, because they have enough happiness now. I expect to reach several size 20 cities... I hope that at least. Once my GL and Colossus are expired, I'll have an economical hit, so I have to prepare my cities well.