Popped another one. :)
So my main stack kept fighting eastwards, still catapults and elephants doing the offense, with a handful of utility units tagging along (one spear, a GG medic, and a couple horse archers.)
In the west, I set up shop at the tile labeled "Lookout" in that picture. This was a hill with good visibility over a flatland area to watch for incoming units. Here I kept a stack of about four elephants and a couple helpers (phalanx and a second GG medic), which easily took apart all the incoming catapult stacks from Monty and Mansa.
All this military is coming just from Pink Dot and the ex-Native America cities. Behind the front lines, I have five cities on full economic duty, but even with that, I'm lagging down to 20% research. Well, I got to Currency mostly on building Research, then everybody started marketplaces. And I founded Argos on the island, mostly just so my continental cities could all have an "intercontinental" trade route to it.
Ugh - Monty sent two Triremes while I still didn't have Metal Casting. Whipping out 5 Galleys to save my seafood wasn't fun.
So my stack in Shaka's territory finally made a move towards the Sumerian capital - but a stack from Darius showed up again. Actually - I just let it capture Eridu, who cares about that city. I pressed my offense on Uruk which is the real prize.
Got it! Whoa Great Lighthouse! There's another way to fix an economy! However, that grab used up all my catapults. My advance east would now be halted for quite some time - close to 50 turns - until I could build and bring some more catapults from home. The elephants stayed in Uruk and slayed all comers, but could not venture out.
Popped another one. :)
Mmm, the tech situation here is NOT getting better. I'm five techs behind all that - still no Metal Casting. But I've still seen next to no dangerous units. Only one or two maces, no knights, no pikemen. Elephants are still ruling the world.
late (lat) adj., lat·er, lat·est.
1. Coming, occurring, or remaining after the correct, usual, or expected time; delayed.
2. Beginning after or continuing past the usual or expected hour: a late breakfast; a late meeting.
3. Of or toward the end or more advanced part, as of a period or stage: the late 19th century; a later symptom of the disease.
4. The Hanging Gardens in 1265 AD.
And the AIs just kept pouring loads of weak units at me. Mansa should be hitting me with knights, maces, and pikemen. But it's just more and more loads of elephant fodder.
And another overview. Yes that's a Palace completing at Corinth, both to cut distance expenses a bit and to get a bigger Bureaucracy commerce boost, now that Athens is completing the National Epic and will settle in as a dedicated great person producer.
The Pult & Phant show (man, does anybody realize how lame online shorthand jargon actually sounds?) had managed to take out most of Shaka, losing only one or two units per city, few enough to replace with a trickle of units from home. That was even against defending longbowmen. I didn't think elephants could really work well to conquer longbows, lacking access to both City Raider and Cover. But Combat V seems to work pretty well too.
The build orders in that overview clearly indicate a period of consolidation, which is true. Having weathered the storm from the three Aggressive leaders, now I need to repair my GNP. I'm now at par on economic tech pace, though still behind in position.
Great Person #2 had been a Scientist for Corinth's Academy, and now that National Epic plus a bunch of specialists put out GP #3 as a Scientist. He went for the Golden Age, entirely to save 3 turns of anarchy in adopting Mercantilism, Org Rel, and a religion in Christianity since I'd finally conquered a Christian city from Shaka. (Christianity cannot autospread to me - there is no trade route to the holy city - I must hit every city with missionaries.) Yes, I had zilch for religion until after 1300 AD.
In other economic news, Darius got Liberalism for Astronomy. I didn't even try to compete in that race - still no Paper. Forget arty farty brainy stuff, we need to KILL.
In Great General news, I got 9 of them by 1500 AD. Two of them were GG medics, and the other seven all piled into Pink Dot. Pink had done the Heroic Epic, and was spewing out a unit at 17 XP about every two turns, plus a liberal dose of whips.
Mansa is now turning up the heat -- but it's all knights and catapults. Still elephant fodder!