I loved the original stagnation, and this one was similar. Two big changes were no tasty barbarian Worker lying around, and we couldn't whip Workers below population six. On top of that, we are surrounded by a bunch of nuts and the civics/religion restriction almost guarantee conflict. I started the game by noting we were paying 6 gold/turn in unit upkeep. Bye-bye Warriors. Bye-bye about 3 Archers if memory serves. I then set cities with three food tiles (e.g. floodplains) to max growth, and then Workers at size 6. I also send a bunch of Archers out scouting, leaving the home defenses thin (signing Open Borders with everyone in the process). Research stayed on Agriculture, although Alphabet was tempting. Theocracy is a big nut to trade around, but I decided to wait for someone to get there first. All the risky, clever things you would expect in a failure, no?
Monty converted to Hinduism the very next turn; I can't help but feel that was ordained. I rolled Archers to his border. On turn 159, just 9 into the game Hannibal discovers Alphabet. I flip him Monotheism for Priesthood and Mining, then Theology for Alphabet and Bronze Working. Copper shows upnear Kyoto, that's a priority. With the monopoly broken I move Theology around like crazy. It goes to Darius for Iron Working, Animal Husbandry and Sailing. I trade Alphabet to Justinian for Mathematics, and I just generally gift techs around to get +4 trade relation bonus with everyone. Workers start completing and I focus on hooking up resources and connecting cities, then on farms for a lightbulb economy (at least initially). Unfortunately the evil AI bulbed Philosophy just before I got my first GS. That stunk. Then, on turn 172 the inevitable happened. I'd been scanning for WHEOOHRN literally every turn. Every leader, every turn. Predictable it was Monty who went red first. We were incredibly well positioned at Satsuma:
![[Image: satsumatz2.jpg]](http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4664/satsumatz2.jpg)
You can see my defenses aren't exactly the bomb. He went read and declared in about two turns. Usually the AIs decide to declare war, and then spend several turns building troops and moving things to the front. Not good old Monty, of course. Without roads it looks bad, especially when one of my scouting Archers found this nearby:
![[Image: uhohvh4.jpg]](http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3526/uhohvh4.jpg)
That Archer on a forested hill killed a Chariot and a Jaguar before dying, which helped. I was able to roll a couple of more Archers into Satsuma before Monty showed up with anything too scary. A trade of Theology and Alphabet to Ramses for Calendar and Monarchy helped, I immediately revolted to Slavery and Hereditary Rule. Monty finally gets a big stack in place, but I had time to whip an Axe and a Spear. He goes at me and I'm reduced to this:
![[Image: barelydx2.jpg]](http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/429/barelydx2.jpg)
And he is willing to talk peace thank goodness, cause Satsuma was toast. I gave him Monotheism and went back to focusing on my economy. All the other leaders were Pleased with me (even Catherine, she predictable made a resource demand and a tech demand which I of course agreed to) except for Justinian and Ramses, who were too far away to worry me. I decide to go for the Pyramids which hadn't been built yet for some reason. My Workers were sent to chop the forests around Kyoto and my other cities were still building more Workers. On turn 208 Monty comes demanding Currency, which is the first tech I'd researched in a while (I was still well into the tech trading game, and my economy was coming around, so I liked my chances). I told the bozo to take a hike and BAM, he hits me with a war declaration. He takes Satsuma with a big stack just a few turns later and I retire in disgrace.
Moral of the story: don't turn your back on Monty. Duh.
Darrell
Monty converted to Hinduism the very next turn; I can't help but feel that was ordained. I rolled Archers to his border. On turn 159, just 9 into the game Hannibal discovers Alphabet. I flip him Monotheism for Priesthood and Mining, then Theology for Alphabet and Bronze Working. Copper shows upnear Kyoto, that's a priority. With the monopoly broken I move Theology around like crazy. It goes to Darius for Iron Working, Animal Husbandry and Sailing. I trade Alphabet to Justinian for Mathematics, and I just generally gift techs around to get +4 trade relation bonus with everyone. Workers start completing and I focus on hooking up resources and connecting cities, then on farms for a lightbulb economy (at least initially). Unfortunately the evil AI bulbed Philosophy just before I got my first GS. That stunk. Then, on turn 172 the inevitable happened. I'd been scanning for WHEOOHRN literally every turn. Every leader, every turn. Predictable it was Monty who went red first. We were incredibly well positioned at Satsuma:
You can see my defenses aren't exactly the bomb. He went read and declared in about two turns. Usually the AIs decide to declare war, and then spend several turns building troops and moving things to the front. Not good old Monty, of course. Without roads it looks bad, especially when one of my scouting Archers found this nearby:
That Archer on a forested hill killed a Chariot and a Jaguar before dying, which helped. I was able to roll a couple of more Archers into Satsuma before Monty showed up with anything too scary. A trade of Theology and Alphabet to Ramses for Calendar and Monarchy helped, I immediately revolted to Slavery and Hereditary Rule. Monty finally gets a big stack in place, but I had time to whip an Axe and a Spear. He goes at me and I'm reduced to this:
And he is willing to talk peace thank goodness, cause Satsuma was toast. I gave him Monotheism and went back to focusing on my economy. All the other leaders were Pleased with me (even Catherine, she predictable made a resource demand and a tech demand which I of course agreed to) except for Justinian and Ramses, who were too far away to worry me. I decide to go for the Pyramids which hadn't been built yet for some reason. My Workers were sent to chop the forests around Kyoto and my other cities were still building more Workers. On turn 208 Monty comes demanding Currency, which is the first tech I'd researched in a while (I was still well into the tech trading game, and my economy was coming around, so I liked my chances). I told the bozo to take a hike and BAM, he hits me with a war declaration. He takes Satsuma with a big stack just a few turns later and I retire in disgrace.
Moral of the story: don't turn your back on Monty. Duh.
Darrell
I was wondering if this scenario would happen to anyone. Sorry to see it happen to you, darrell.
. Disbanding the Archers was just plain greedy. Sending five Archers scouting on top of that was just plain stupid 
. Still, I survived the war declaration and if I had been more aggressive in repairing the garrison. I just didn't think Monty would attack again so fast. Again, very very stupid.