>>3152588Thing were looking bad, as Core's advancement rate likewise had the unintended side effect of advancing the barbarians as well, who were now technobarbarians that were spawning Gunboats (Str .32) and freaking Stealth Destroyers (Str. 70) en-masse from random events which made any venture to the sea costly, and dangerous to the point few civs bothered with a navy. What ultimately saved everyone's butts was the fact that Core suffered from having advanced too quicky for its infrastructure: they had no police to fight off crime, which swelled to the point their cities were spawning criminals every turn that caused revolts in all but their major cities which later led to a separatist movement: the Byzantine Empire, or as was called in game due to their origins, the Byzantroinic Empire.
Byzantron stalled Core in a drawn out civil war while I stocked up on ships to sacrifice in order to make the trip to the labyrinth, taking my strongest units (A few knights which had upgrade to Str. 32 due to clever mechanics manipulations involving the slaughter of literally hundreds of animals and multiple great generals) to the fore and dropping them off in the city bordering the closest maze entrance as the battered remains of my first expeditionary force were slaughtered to a man.
Their sacrifice would not be in vain, for while most of the time my units were just sitting ducks for the opposition, eventually an opening occurred where Core's last city was vulnerable and my knights stood a chance at tacking out the last defender. After a risky gambit, we beat Core, removing the single most dangerous civ from the game, or so it seemed.
