Civ 4 18 civs Pangaea test Marathon Monarch episode 3

Fighting Cyrus and then Darius. I was then absorbed into the greater world war at last, and on the side I didn't expect.

 ^ Mass building of Theatres, thanks to Slavery Civic. Allowed me to build the Globe Theatre in my capital, which allows it to grow as high as my happiness limit.

 ^ Civics.

 ^ Boo-urns, not even on the list!

 ^ My armies active in Cyrus' Greek lands. My Great Spy I used earlier allowed me to assault him successfully and absorb all his lands into mine.

 ^ He launched a little attack on me in my southern Portuguese lands.

 Hammurabi became my vassal mid-war, I believe after I mass-whipped through Slavery an army of Knights, at least 10-20 of them in a few short turns.

 ^ They didn't vote for me!

 ^ I attacked Darius after killing Cyrus off. I also used a Great Spy prior to the attack.

 ^ This stack of Knights on the left will die, sadly, but also break teh back of Darius' armies, there would be no great offensives by him after that.

 ^ Overall situation and placement of my armies.

 ^ Being able to reach Moscow within a few turns of starting the war was vital, ripping his heart out and consigning him to defeat.

 ^ Successful espionage and attack of Moscow.

 ^ Moscow has fallen. Moving in to close off the east side and create my Sumerian Lake.

 ^ The two forces converge, allowing us to roll westwards.

 ^ He managed to rush up and retake a city! Note the lack of roads in the desert in top right, this is a recurring problem with my roads obviously not linked up to his pre-war.

 ^ Overall situation. Sumerian Lake created.

 ^Managed to get back that town easily enough. He keeps building Pikes to counter my Knights.

 ^ Moving westwards.

 ^ Managed to converge on Yaroslavl' eventually. Note Hammurabi's War Elephants which while utterly useless in offence they provided a major distraction; Darius kept attacking his stack which just kept moving around pointlessly.

 ^ He will capitulate but I want to finish him off.

^Successful spy use here; it would still prove costly but marked the end of his effective resistance.

 ^ Now able to take these last two cities. Spotted a massive stack used by Willem Van Orange - managed to make demands off him to gain a peace treaty in case he decided to intervene.

 ^ The power graph. Mine may be inflated by my vassals but still significant. Charlemagne is also major along with Willem and both have at least one vassal.

 ^ I was pleasantly surprised to find I had the lead in soldiers. Might be mine plus Hamm + Vicky but not sure.

 ^ A brief respite - my Workers are finishing off my Indian acquisitions.

 ^ Spies in place for final attack.

 ^ Probably once again a mistake to go two-prong but feck it.

 My Southern neighbours Louis the vassal of Wang Kon declared war on me; Darius became the vassal of Wang Kon too dragging them in.

 ^ My 5th Great General. Three are settled (including this guy) and two in the field. One died in the Russian war.

 ^ The fall of Russia.

 ^ Victoria's last city, an Incan (Wang Kon) possession. I let it fall so her Indian culture residue in my land becomes 100% Sumerian.

 ^ The end of Darius.

 ^ Vicky dies! I am now sending everything I can to this front.

 ^ Destroyed Louis' pitiful expedition.

 ^ Churchill declared war and took Rostov off me. This rounded out my cultural borders AND brought me into the greater war, Mao-Ragnar-Genghis-Willem vs. Churchill-Louis-Wang-Gandhi, effectively Christians versus Hindus. The latter are vastly inferior overall but Churchill of Spain is the ideal frontier against all these invaders, actually holding them off! I will hold here and exert my main efforts in the south versus Wang-Louis-Gandhi in an attempt to dominate the south-east and therefore become the Master of the East, with Churchill and Willem in the centre and all manner in the West - Mao, Lincoln, Genghis, Charlemagne, Elizabeth... Note Genghis' huge army, green in top left.

^ I managed to seize Vicky's last town and sue for peace. Churchill still at war but he has enough on his plate.