This is bad. The only good part about this is that Mao has a stack of catapults in this army and cats cannot kill units - thank you BtS v3.13. So, to keep Atlanta, I just need to have enough troops in the city so that the few macemen there cannot kill them all off. Units from around America start rushing to Atlanta. The whip is cracked multiple times and Atlanta survives. I actually steal constuction from Churchill so that I can build cats - the strongest unit I can make (sigh). I even pull back some units that were watching my Barb city back to secure Atlanta. I knew I shouldn't have declared war on Mao and / or teched to LongBows.
Take a look at this barb city, towns and longbows - lucky they are concentrating on keeping their city and not taking mine. Hey - I thought the barbarians couldn't get a tech unless all the players knew it. Oh, unless they researched it themselves.
I said in the post that I was within 3 turns of winning. I bet you are wondering how I got so close from my current situation. Well, here is what I found. Recently CFC HOF expanded the victory conditions by adding a religious victory (Diplomatic based on the Apostolic Palace) and Space Colony (the BtS version of the space victory, separated because of the turns required post launch). So, I spent some time looking in the civopeadia under victory conditions and found the following ...
Well, apparently, I can win a Moral Victory if I survive 10 turns following first bloodshed in a land battle. I had lost an explorer to a Chinese pikeman in 1370AD (turn 197). However, he was exploring the other land and so probably doesn't count towards the Moral Victory. My first loss on the American island was in 1590AD (turn 228). Units keep rushing to the front. Did you know that Archers v Macemen have a 0.0% chance of victory. Yay Archers. I had survived 5 turns and things were starting to look like I might win. However, my unit output requirement just jumped when Mao landed another stack, this time including Cho-Ko-Nu and Longbows - units that can kill my units, not just injure them like Cats. I decided to put aside the 'Mission Accomplished' banner that I had ordered made with this turn of events.
Finally, after 8 turns of battle, China manages to take Atlanta and I am defeated.
