I didn't think he was going to be this annoyed about it, though. Uh, hrm. War right now would be BAD. At least against Monty. Hey, Monty. How about I join the World Beatdown On Babylon if you give me 170 gold. You like that idea? Good.

Next on the Agenda: Building a LOT of battleships.

Well, ok. I THOUGHT that would work.

Hey, Hannibal. How about you give me Rocketry, 2200 gold, and I'll give you Miniaturization? Oh, and while we're at it, how about an alliance against the Aztecs?

Joanie! Here, have some coal! And how about an alliance against the Aztecs?

Alex! Here, have Steel for a bunch of pointless techs! And how about an alliance against the Aztecs?

Caesar! Here, have 400 gold! And how about an alliance against the Aztecs?

Toku! How about an alliance against the Aztecs straight up?

Shaka! How about an alliance against the Aztecs straight up?

You need to learn how to play nice with the other children, Monty.

(You know, this sort of annoys me. Not only were Monty and I trading, we were best friends the entire game. I mean, he was never ever less than Polite to me. And then he stabs me in the back for no reason whatsoever. WTF.)

I, incidentally, have 4 aluminums.

In 1752, Shaka jumps ship for the Aztecs. Loser.

On the upside of this, Babylon pays me 200 gold for peace. Heh.

And lo, it's 1764, Genetics comes in, and I suddenly realize that I totally forgot to fix my modern era tech screen from back in the day when I was running mods. Which means I really have no idea how the tree goes anymore. Hrm. Ah.

Graph paper. The choice of a new generation.

And now, on to Ecology, because although that line is almost totally unimportant, Mass Transit is nice, and I might even get to use Recycling in a real game. Wow.

And the joy of watching your jet fighters shoot down people's bombers is vast.

Al Gore did not, in fact, invent the Internet.

I did.

I think that's the first time I've built that, too.

No free Golden Age, sadly. But it cuts an entire turn off of Ecology from the free research labs.

"Hi, Hannibal? Yeah. You've got Space Flight. I want it. Here's Genetics and 200 gold."

"My words are backed by NUCLEAR SUBMARINES!"

Or something.

Also, there's an awful lot of carrier warfare going on. That's pretty sweet.

Nuke subs, incidentally, are the death gods of ironclads. Aztecs in the hands of an angry God, as it were.

Our God is a wrathful God.

The amusing thing here is that I'm fighting a modern war, with units I hardly ever use, building things I hardly ever build, and my land units are...riflemen.

And lo, Ecology comes in. Recycling started. Mass transi...whoops. MT requires rubber? Huh. Who knew?

Don't see that much.

And we make peace with the Aztecs. Also, everybody got Nuke Power while we weren't looking. That won't do. Hey, Carthage. Give me 10,900 gold for Ecology. Good boy. Hey, Monty. Give me Nuke Power. Here's Genetics and 400 gold. Good boy.

Also:

Space, here we come! Oh wait...

Look, ma, a wonder!

It's maybe the second or third time I've built that.

Clean sweep of all the Modern wonders.

Our God is a wonderful God.

And the next turn, 1798, we pull Recycling. On to the Laser.

Monty, we really need to work on this. Go ahead, declare war. You know what that gets you, right? Yup. Aztec Wars, Episode II: The World Strikes Back.

Hrm. Hannibal! You haven't got Recycling! But we can fix this, for the all time low price of Superconductor and 3600 gold.

(We note, incidentally, that these people are all, to quote the song, fake plastic people. The heads move, the eyes move, but the mouths...no. Plastic surgeons must make a killing off of them.)

In 1832, I trade Carthage the Laser for Synth Fibers. Yes, it's useless. Yes, it's that much closer to Stealth.

In 1838, we snag Robotics and start on Satellites. It's been a LONG time since I researched Robotics.

Oooo...

Yay resource flippage. To the ass end of my entire country.

In 1850, we declare peace on the Aztecs because we can.

Don't build a lot of these, really.

Oh, come on, Monty. Don't you want a rematch?

In 1870, Smart Weapons comes in, and we start on Integrated Defense. And, as it happens, Carthage is following me straight up the tech tree. In 1890, we have Integrated Defense, and start in on Stealth.

Upon watching Aztec bombers versus Carthaginian AEGIS cruisers in 1898... you know, the air combat model in this game is pretty well screwed up a lot. Unlimited rebase range. And planes can't sink ships. WTF. Much less no jet bomber unit. Ah well.

A short time ago, in a computer not so far away...

Ronald Reagan, eat your heart out.

Incidentally, with the amount of pollution running around, I'm surprised the world hasn't fallen into the ocean yet.

1904 - Oh look, Carthage got Stealth instead of IntDef. Too bad I get it in one turn. Which I do. And just to be fair, I should probably get Advanced Flight.

Hey, Caesar. Here's the Laser and 100 gold. Gimme Advanced Flight and Amphibious Warfare. Good boy.

Pause. Ask yourself. Why does the Stealth Fighter exist?

In 1924, I finally finish modernizing the military as I upgrade my last spear to a rifle.

Boldly going where no Dwip has gone before:

I was beginning to think they'd never get it done.