Also during the Golden Age, Caesar joins Napoleon in the war against Alexander. They ask me to join them, but I decline due to my rather thin military. It's not long before Caesar pulls out of the war with a peace agreement with Alexander. Alexander is making great progress in his conquest of the French. He also captures Ragusa, the city state on my southern border.
An unknown civilization on the other continent loses his founding capital. This is significant as to win a Domination victory, it is sufficient for each other civilization to have lost their founding capital.
At this time I run into a slightly annoying bug. One of my pearl luxuries has disappeared. It still appears on my map and can be worked, but I've only got 2 of them to trade. Reloading or re-Work Boating doesn't help, so I'm permanently one luxury short.
I discover Printing Press which allows me to build Theatres for more happiness and the Taj Mahal for a bonus Golden Age. I implement the Reformation social policy in the Piety Tree, triggering an immediate 6 turn Golden Age (boosted to 9 turns for me), and start building the Taj Mahal.
I start researching Astronomy so I can cross the ocean and meet the other 3 civs, and then I learn the Aztec civilization is conquered, leaving just 2 civs to meet. It looks like there's a very strong civ on the other side of the world and I want to meet them soon.
As my Golden Age ends, the French start mounting a bit of a comeback as they reclaim their city of Tours. Napoleon continues his recovery by capturing Genoa, a city state ally of Alexander's. My capital, Persepolis completes Oxford University (national wonder for universities) giving me a free tech.
It's looking good, and I'm feeling ready to expand again as I'm about to enter another Golden Age from accumulated happiness, when suddenly Paris falls.
My fourth Golden Age begins in 1555 AD (to last 22 turns). Surveying the map now, it looks like Napoleon is on the verge of being eliminated, but as Pasargadae completes the Forbidden Palace which reduces unhappiness from number of cities, I settle my fourth city, Ecbatana in the vacant south-east area near my cities.
My Caravel completes and begins its trans-oceanic explorations, meeting up with the two civs on the other continent: Ramkhamaeng of Siam and Harun al-Rashid of Arabia as well as a number of city-states all at war with Ramkhamaeng.
My third city, Susa, completes the Taj Mahal, which would normally give me a free Golden Age, but because I'm already in a Golden Age it merely extends it by the length of the Golden Age. I'm expecting an extra 22 turns, but instead I get an extra 49 turns! Yet another bug I assume; even though it's in my favour, it's still annoying.
And then the last French city falls. I really hope Alexander's eyes look towards his former enemies in Ramasses and Caesar now as my defences are still pretty sparse. I sign a number of deals with him - selling my luxuries for gold each turn, open borders and a research agreement. The nearby city state of Vienna falls to Alexander and his forces look menacing on my southern border. I can not afford a war right now.
In 1680 AD, Alexander declares war on me :( His city state allies join him: Edinburgh, Singapore, Brussels and, most worringly for me, Venice on my north-west border. A swarm of Riflemen enter my territory and I now have to desperately defend.
My entire army is a Warrior, two Chariot Archers, a Pikeman, a Crossbowman, a Longswordman, a Catapult and a Rifleman. That means I have exactly only one unit that is competitive with this invading army. The rest are hopelessly outdated, and do almost nothing in combat. I start desperately building walls in my southern cities and training new units in the north. I take out some loans and rush-buy another Rifleman.
Although I take out a few Rifleman, I lose almost all my units in the process. I'm down to just a Warrior and my new Rifleman when my southern cities of Susa and Ecbatana fall. That Warrior soon falls - my last Rifleman does what he can, earning a promotion and healing back up to full health, but it's not enough as he falls too. Pasargadae falls in 1725 AD.
A newly trained Cavalry in Persepolis is my last line of defence. I am desperately hoping Alexander will negotiate a peace settlement, but he's ruthless. In 1735 AD, his army surrounding Persopolis brings down my capital, leaving the Persian empire as a sparkling little footnote in the pages of history.
So I lost. Beside the annoying bugs, I'm actually glad to see the AI able to successfully pull off full-scale civilization invasions. I've definitely got a new respect for it, and hopefully have learned my lesson to build more military units and keep them up to date. I'm certainly not afraid to tackle King level again.
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