Man, can't I ever catch a break? This game is trying as hard as it can to take me out...
Of course Hannibal is serious. But he's also dumb enough to let me pay him 80 gold/turn for Military Tradition before I demand he withdraw to which he declares war.
By the way, when an invasion like this happens, you don't gain anything by waiting until the AI's turn for him to declare war. Better to demand withdrawal on your turn, so you get first shot at counterattacking his invaders.
Unfortunately, I don't HAVE any counterattackers within range of those two Carthaginian units. So I sell the temple in Pompeii, since I'm going to lose the city anyway. At least Rome and Veii can swap to knights and rush them this turn, and they'll be able to retake Pompeii next turn. (I'd LIKE to build Cavalry, but I don't have any Saltpeter and nobody has any for sale.)
But, miraculously, my pikeman beats both attackers, losing only one hit point and even promoting twice! Yay RNG!
Man, can't I ever catch a break? This game is trying as hard as it can to take me out...
Sheesh.
That's the best Stack of Doom that Carthage can muster, though; and it beats itself to death on my fortified hilltop city.
Well, a couple turns later I find out it isn't the best. At least a dozen cavalry would charge at that city over time, beating a few pikemen, but the stronghold was never in danger of falling.
Somehow in here I brokered Theory of Gravity for Magnetism between the two civs that don't hate me, and I enter the Industrial Age. At this point, I would very much like to gift Germany up to the Industrial Age to see if they can pull Nationalism for free for me to buy, but I can't since they DECLARED WAR ON ME! The Ottomans got Medicine for free, which doesn't help me.
And I'm also quite worried about my long, long coastline facing Scandinavia. Berserks are a terror, but all I can do against them is put a few pikemen into each city and hope for the best, while keeping several knights a bit inland to play "zone defense" and recapture any cities that I might lose. I'd REALLY like to get Nationalism for some fortified rifles to end the Berserk threat, but there's no way I can. But at least the Ottomans complete Magellan's in here to keep it away from the Vikings.
In 860 AD, I finally push my stack from Lutetia into Carthaginian territory. His outrageous demands for peace drop to 200 gold, and I think it's in my best interest to take it - except that he gets it per-turn because there's no way I'm going to trust him.
After doing that, Japan will pay me 31 gold for peace for some reason. They were demanding at least 100 before. Heh.
Then in 890 AD, Germany will talk. He concedes me 12 gold for peace, and then I give him five techs to get him into the Industrial Age. He pulls Nationalism for free, and the next turn some other civs have bought it, but Scandinavia will talk now; I can make peace with them and not worry about it. Ragnar never sent a boat full of berserks my way; I wonder why he didn't, but I'll take it.
Actually, I guess Ragnar never sent a boat my way because he was busy going berserk on Japan, who got eliminated:
Also sometime in here (a while ago actually), there was a war that involved Zulu capturing much of Arabia. Germany isn't doing very well either.
I started a minimum-science run on Nationalism a while back, too. Steam Power eventually appears, has to be bought without a brokerage, and costs 154/turn in 990 AD. Gloria dominae, we have coal, though only one - but it's in a spot that grants me an Iron Works! Unbelievable - I saw it once in my first twenty or so games of Civ 3, and this is now the SIXTH CONSECUTIVE game in which I've gotten that wonder. Unreal. And now it's also three consecutive games in which the rare wonder has been in a subpar city location.
Yet another brokerage sees me pay 198 gold/turn to Carthage for Electricity @3rd-civ, resell it to Germany for Medicine @5th, and trade both techs plus 500 gold to Scandinavia to get uber-tech Nationalism @5th.
I never got to set up a worker factory early, but now with rails Ravenna can make a worker every turn (the hard way, even - pulling TWENTY food and 10 shields per turn at size 11), which I'd use to build rails faster and merge into the cities after hospitals.
The next turn, there's another brokerage available, between Industrialization and Sanitation. The only problem is that I haven't the cash to afford Industrialization!
But that picture shows factories being built. There's a way, of course...
