There Were Other Civs...?

The Aztec Front, 1804

Cavalry backed by infantry immediately ran over all the reachable resources, which were quite a few, actually: Monty's only coal, aluminum, and rubber, along with some of his iron and some ivory. The isthmus with Rome was all but sealed off, trapping the large part of the Aztec army. A stack of 10 infantry/20 arty moved in on Teotihuacan and the world's oil supply, and another 10/20 stack went for Tula. The next turn Tula was massively hurt and Teotihuacan went down, albeit at the loss of 3 or 4 infantry (easily made up by production, but I should have maybe thought about the river).

And the sight that greeted me in Teotihuacan:

Folks, we're in business. Panzers begin appearing in 1808. Using rush-bought and newly produced panzers, Aztec infantry incursions were obliterated with ease, and Hlobane fell immediately, while Malinalco was left with a single 2hp infantry defender.

In 1810, Xochichalco goes down to arty and infantry. Malincalco goes down to a determined panzer assault which kills off the leader Monty got. :) German infantry begins moving in on Tugela and Monty's silk supplies.

Tugela falls to shelling in 1812, followed by a Mpondo stuffed with workers. The Ever Victorious Armies begin marching on Texcoco. The Aztecs, sensing that something is Not Right in the World, declare peace on the Iroquois.

In 1814, the Ever Victorious Armies on Texcoco and Atzcapotzalco (I'd hated to have been an Aztec with names like that), and the Panzer Brigade strikes:

Over the Aztec turn, whatever idiot is now running the place random has a couple of suicide infantry attack Tugela for no apparent reason.

In 1816, Texcoco falls to an infantry stack, the Panzer Brigade goes up against Tlacopan and gets owned, and Atzca falls to infantry and is razed, making me an even more evil dastardly bastard.

In 1818, fighting against random Aztec infantry, I finally get a leader, Barbarossa. He rushes back to Teotihuacan, where the First Panzer Army is formed. Said army rushes back into action before Tlacopan, defeating more random Aztec infantry. Barbarossa quickly scribbles down some notes on warfighting, which are sent to Zimbabwe to be published.

In 1820, the Panzers move in on Tlacopan, where the same conscript infantry kills two elites in a single turn. Nevertheless, Tlacopan falls, along with the Aztec capitol at Swazi, and Calixtlahuaca almost dies to a massive panzer attack.

As this is going on...

Upon that revelation, the people happily complete the palace.

In 1822, Tlateloco fell to mech infantry, while Calixtlahuaca died to every panzer I could scrape up:

That's the end of the Az...er, wait a sec. What's THIS?

<sigh>

In any case, this map shows the progress of the war:

The Aztec War

Caesar, losing all control of his mind, decides that 1822 is the PERFECT turn to demand that I give him incense. How about, uh, no? He rather predictably declares war. Oh no, I'm frightened. He doesn't bother to attack, however, which makes one wonder where all the troops are. And thus ends any Roman chance to surprise me, as the isthmus suddenly garrisons with stacks and stacks of mech inf and arty. A good 20 more surplus arty are disbanded to fund the mass transit systems of various cities, and my last 3 cav suffer the same fate. Other than watching Caesar play with Marines for a bit, I just sit around for 4 turns or so. Why, you ask?

That's why.

And Caesar suddenly starts having a bad day.

And just to be mean, and because I'm supposed to be going for conquest victory, Neapolis becomes a hole in the ground. Seconds later, Ravenna becomes a crater.

In 1836, Cumae dies, followed by Rome.

1838 sees the death of Antium to a legion of M1 tanks blaring bagpipe music (Bagpipes make GREAT war music, I'm finding... Though the image of Germans with bagpipes is somewhat, uh, yeah... ;). My second leader comes this turn, to a 1 hp elite modern armor I couldn't protect with a mech inf, who fought off 4 Roman infantry before expiring.

In 1840, Pisae, Veii, Delphi, St. Regis, and Knossos die to armored invasion. Modern Armor and railroad networks are wonderful things.

In 1842, Pompeii dies, and there's lots of moving troops around.

1844 is all about the bravest barbarian to walk the planet:

That same turn, during the death of Niagra Falls, I pull my third leader. Who I of course have absolutely no use for whatsoever. Then Grand River died, and the world very suddenly ran out of Romans. Just for something to do after that, I took Salamanca away from the Aztecs and torched it and Magellen's Voyage.

And this would be the map of how things went:

The Roman War

Plus the inevitable other campaigns, of course.

1846, Mauch Chunk is obliterated, and the world is suddenly very short on Aztecs to go around. And just to keep things going...

This of course triggers the MPP with the Iroquois that I had forgotten that Alex had, but who cares? Alleghany immediately died.

In 1848, Corinth is left with a single 1 hp infantry defender, and Thermopylae, Hispalis, and Centralia randomly die. Just for kicks, I go run over Cattaraugus, and...pikemen? Who uses PIKEMEN in 1848? Oh dear.

1850, Corinth falls, Tonawanda falls, Tzintzuntzin falls, Athens falls, Pharsalos falls, and there's a whole 3 cities on the entire planet that aren't mine.

In 1852, Oil Springs and Sparta go down, Athens respawns with 8 riflemen and 3 longbowmen and goes down, and the only place left on the planet that isn't mine is that bloody little island off the Iroquois coastline.

The Spearmen of Akwesasne die in 1860 AD.

I end up as RBCiv-18A the Lion-Hearted, 2690 points, and number 4 in my HoF.

In watching the replay, I noted a few things. Namely, I was deeply impressed with the Aztecs. They managed to fight off the entire world, and were even taking territory (albeit Iroquois territory) in the Age of Infantry. They were very much the hardest civ for me to steamroll. Part of that was their starting location, which had a number of resources in it. They were also very much helped by the demise of the Zulu. I'm betting not a lot of people will do badly with these guys.

The Iroquois were completely underwhelming, and I'm somewhat unsure why. They didn't have a lot of resources, but they sure did have a ton of land. Crippled in the massive warring, perhaps? They certainly were later, but they looked strong at the beginning. Dunno. That whole side of the map spent a lot of time sucking in various ways, although Rome was frightening the early game and recovered nicely from the world coalition against them. The Greeks had absolutely nothing going for them except their research, and that failed them after I got up and going.

And Shaka, well... Poor Shaka. Good land, but boy did he pick a bad spot to be.

And me, well... everything went right for me this game. Wet/Rugged Pangeas are about as good as it's ever going to get - I had the infrastructure and industrial output of gods. I picked up all kinds of resources to trade, and borged more. I was massively helped by the comp warring on itself a ton, which allowed me to get culture, catch up in tech, and trade like mad. With the exception of the end, I feel I played a pretty good game. The war, well, the only thing that would have helped that is masses of bombers all over the place, and keeping the wonder cities. But it worked well enough as is, so I'll live with it. As a source of further amazement, this was my first emperor game and my first emperor win, after a 2-1 record on Monarch. And it was certainly challenging in the early part of the game, but mid-industrial, it just fell apart for compy. After that was supremely boring, which is most likely why this is also my first ever Conquest win.

But the first part was definitely great.

And now for Game B, wherein Germany tries for the stars...