Challenge 1 Walkthrough (19) Showdown Countdown

236. Alexander's army expanded rapidly during the brief peace period. But Persia also rose to the No. 2 spot after pushing Ottoman back to Africa.

237. Alexander already possess two units of Uranium, and soon will complete the Manhattan project. The showdown between the nemesis seems inevitable!

238. I loaded the save to burn an extra Great General (before selling the city to Catherine) to get 10 more turns of extra movement points.

239. The second Great People from City States is a... Mongolian Khan! I would gladly take it in a conquest game, but I only need a Great Engineer to complete the UN. So I again loaded the Autosave of the previous turn.

240. It took me 16 attempts to finally get a Great Engineer. Should be a lot easier than that...

241. Egypt had only one city left! But I can toy with Suleiman a bit to delay his progress to buy me more time to get back to Persia.

242. While not at war, Alexander's units have been marching too dangerously close to Persia. He also popped a new city Samos just outside Rio de Janeiro. That city has to go!

243. Just one more step towards Globalization! Countdown 19 turns!

244. Recaptured Giza!... Then I will give it back to Egypt. Suleiman has a lot of units gathered in Cape Town, but he will find Egypt very hard to conquer.

245. More and more Persian troops arrived at the frontline. I already built a circular highway connecting Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, and Pasargardae. This makes my defense a lot easier.

246. I have been waiting for the right moment to declare war on Alexander - the right monent is the expiry and renewal of Open Border treaty with Russia!

I learned that I can quickly dump any city I conquered to Catherine (with whom I have Open Border). Since Catherine is extremely unlikely to ever declare war on me to forfeit the Open Border, I will be able to conquer cities without worrying about happiness at all.

250. Normally Alexander does not agree to declare war on City States, but I guess he has ruled out Diplomatic Victory due to his low income. Bribed him to war all City States he knows - then the showdown begins!