The assault has begun in earnest. The slimey Portuguese used a spy against us to burn down a plantation, and attacked our axeman with their horse archers, leaving themselves exposed to counter-attack. Idiots. We rained down rocks upon their stupid heads and, for the loss of one trebuchet, killed something like nine battalions of their troops. We should take the city next turn with little trouble even if they reinforce. Meanwhile our galleon sunk their trireme but suffered heavily and is limping back to port.

Death to the enemy!!!!

Adit:

Sun Tzu - I'm keeping him near the battlefront in case of dire upgrade emergency. I'll probably settle him somewhere eventually, but then again we will need a level six(?) unit to build West Point eventually so I'm undecided.

This is the position as sent to Alpha:

Yup. If Alpha goes for Education next we'll know what they're up to. We have an ace up our sleeve with the G Artist. Timed correctly, a golden age will ensure we beat them either to Liberalism or Economics (even if they pull the same stunt)

Won't be long until we can investigate their cities, then we set off the espionage bomb, heh heh heh, and they'll never catch up. If all goes to plan they'll be a wreck by the time Sid's Sushi comes around so we probably won't even need it

Now we have the Hagia Sofia (whatever that does). Very soon we shall have the Forbidden Palace completed and after that, the University of Sankore. I must say, I'm really quite brilliant, but I must go and get some sleep now

News from the warzone: we are consolidating our position and moving to start bombarding Minoan. When our troops have recovered, the march on Evora will begin and end with a two-pronged assault. The bulk of Portuguese military might has already been destroyed. They are suckers for falling for baited traps and being decimated by counter-attack a tactic which, alas, won't work with Alpha. Still, that's another day, another battle. I now have enough knights to control their remaining mounted forces. Our tactics at sea have convinced them to build another trireme (the fools) I recalled a caravel to our waters at the beginning of my reign, and this will soon ferry a scout and a spy to Japan. A second is still exploring and a third has also been recalled to our western seaboard for lookout duties.

Frustratingly, our espionage keeps falling short of being able to "investigate" all Alphan cities so I have cunningly boosted espionage for a bit whilst we wait to see what the devious swine research next. I have also been starving our population mercilessly to push through some vital buildings and we should see some of the fruits of that next year. Four turns will see us building the University of Sankore and I can't imagine how on earth Alpha could beat us to it (all that extra research will be yummy!)