OH CRAP. Caesar and Louis both declared war together, five turns before I was going to be ready! And they still don't even have contact with each other -- this was two completely independent AI war decisions. And I just gave up Slavery so I can't whip longbows!!
Lakamha was a lost cause. One holkan on defense against a stack of ten invading units from Caesar. Mutal is going to be a very close fight. It has two holkans and two warriors, and will have a third holkan by the time Louis's stack gets there....
AND IT HELD! With NO losses! Thanks to the cultural defense from Stonehenge, I even had two Shock-promoted Holkans defeat two incoming axemen!
With annoyance, I ate another turn of anarchy to return to Slavery. I need units NOW like freakin NOW like YESTERDAY like about 100 YEARS AGO.
That's usually an annoying get-out-of-my-way popup message, but I've never been nearly so happy to see it before. Hooray! And right after that Louis took peace straight up, so I could focus on Caesar.
Mutal whipped longbows every other turn for five consecutive rounds. That hurt, but was absolutely necessary to recapture Lakamha. They came out with 5 XP and two critical promotions to get the edge over enemy swordsmen. They fended off Caesar's chariots and axes, and started advancing to recapture my lost city.
But then Alexander joined in! This was as my troops were two turns away from Lakamha which was defended by a single archer. I sent a detachment of three units towards it and retreated the rest to my capital. It took a couple extra turns of skirmishing after Lakamha whipped an archer, but I captured it and then Caesar signed for peace straight-up.
Alexander's stack got to Mutal as it whipped a third longbow (plus several holkans and two police warriors). They could only meekly cower in fear of the CG3 longbow, though.
Now with a healthy roster of longbowmen, I finally started rushin' Russian territory with them. I captured an ex-barb city, then pushed on a core Russian city.
That's a lot of defenders...
... and it took an extra turn, and my Medic III GG had to get in on the action, but I won! And NOTICE THAT GRASSLAND MINE there sticking out of place like the mole on Cindy Crawford's face. That's IRON.
And also look where that enemy sword is, ready to recapture the city. I must make peace this instant. Nice haul though, Iron Working AND Mathematics.
And for the second time in a day, I stopped and grinned at a popup that usually gets shoved aside like a New Yorker elbowing into a subway car. Metal resourceless game? Not anymore. 