After SamE and his next-of-kin are traumatized by a freak ostrich stampede, lowly village idiot Mike Lemmer sees an opportunity and ascends to the throne, speaking of things like "public opinion" and "counsel".

"I will declare the State of the Horde and give my fellow ruffians 24 hours to suggest actions. I will then scribe their actions and announce public polls in our new Alphabet to determine our next actions. These polls will last 24 hours as well. I will use the results to determine my actions for the next 10 turns and the cycle will repeat anew.

"Proposals and polls will be separated into categories:
Research
Infrastructure
Relations
"To keep extraneous thinking to a minimum."

"I shall begin."

-Our port city of Beshbalik is causing trouble. Unhappiness is rampant, its almost unhealthy, and it's draining as much coin from our coffers as the other cities combined.

-Happiness is lagging behind health. We must increase it soon.

-Beshbalik's borders will expand into our 2nd Iron in 7 turns.

-Karakorum will pop a Great Person in 5 turns, either a Prophet or a Scientist.

-We have 3 workers serving 4 cities.

-Hatty has iron within her borders but hasn't researched or hooked it up yet.

-Karakorum will build a settler in 1 turn.

In which the honorable Mike L. pretends to be equal to the other ruffians (if he actually was, would he be Khan?) and propose his own actions:

Research
Rush to Monarchy (13 turns) to revolt to Hereditary Rule, increasing happiness.

Infrastructure
Build 2 more workers, a few more archers to build up the Hereditary happy bonus, then concentrate on axemen, spearmen and keshiks for our upcoming rampage.

Build our new settlement to the SE, between the Rice, Gems and Gold.

Relations
Prepare to attack Saladin to take advantage of his weakened state.

Does anyone else have other suggested courses of action?

The last save, for reference:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Early_Bird_BC-0640.Civ4SavedGame

Research
Rush to Monarchy (13 turns) to revolt to Hereditary Rule, increasing happiness.

I disagree. There are other ways to increase happiness, which will work out cheaper. Besides, if war is coming then Construction (catapults, war elephants) will bring greater benefit. Calendar will be essential to exploit our new-conquered lands. And Currency will bring us at least four, possibly five, extra trade routes worth about 10 gpt between them.

Infrastructure
Build 2 more workers, a few more archers to build up the Hereditary happy bonus, then concentrate on axemen, spearmen and keshiks for our upcoming rampage.

More workers are essential. If we halt growth and rely on luxuries for happiness we can also move right on to producing offensive units.

Build our new settlement to the SE, between the Rice, Gems and Gold.

The Chariot's current location would be perfect. That way, we grab all three resources within the radius of a high-performance coastal city. As Hatty doesn't have any coastal cities yet (and as Saladin should soon be rotting in our royal dungeons meh) then rule Mongolia, Mongolia rules the waves.

Relations
Prepare to attack Saladin to take advantage of his weakened state.


The happiness problem can be alleviated simply by hooking up the gold next to Ning-Hsia. In the future, we can get access to Gems (SE of Karakorum) and Silver (far North). Plus, if we rape Saladin hard enough, we'll gain Dyes and Sugar.

So I say bugger hereditary rule. It'll cost us an extra 1 gold/turn and force us to devote military units to keeping the peace. Until we seriously improve our infrastructure there's little value to a population increase anyway.

I recommend we halt growth in Beshbalik. Working the 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 squares (due west, due east, NW, due north and NE will achieve this. In the meantime, let's get Slave Gang 2 busy on that gold.

Hinduism will probably start appearing in our cities soonish, which is bound to be good for both happiness and relations with Hatty.

As I see it, we need to obtain strong consensus on at least one issue: whether or not to attack Saladin. I say go for it; let's do some damage!

I agree with *Satis on all accounts. Regarding War on Arabia, we need to decide on a specific time and what kind of troop we need to build before declaring War. I doubt we'd be ready within Mike's turns.

I in general agree with what's above... Just that my thoughts also include :

Research

Go for Construction. Catapults early will help us in our conquests. Calendar is not required, yet. We do want to still benefit from the Stonehenge, yes? 10gpt from Currency? Not yet. The world is still young.

Infrastructure

Start on Archers to defend our cities and our offensive force. As cities fall to our troops, archers can stay back to guard the cities.

Relations

Quoting System of a Down, "ATTACK! Attack all the homes and villages! Attack all the schools and hospitals! We shall attack!"

And with respect to Hatty, if Hinduism spreads to us; she can be part of the xenophobic OM alliance against the heathens. Or not, and we militarily usurp the home of Hinduism after we take care of that weak Salad-dinner ;)

Definitely construction. The benefits of Calendar aren't required yet, by any means. Only if Beshbalik remains a nest of atheistic degeneracy - or if we wish to greatly expand our cities - will the extra luxuries bring any great benefits.

Most of our military is only one or two techs (albeit expensive ones) away from a decent upgrade. This is worth bearing in mind after the war. Currency will bring greater benefits then, when we have comething to spend the moolah on.

If Hatty gets shirty, well, we'll probably be able to switch to Hinduism soon enough. As for Saladin, who cares?

Any other relations that pop up have a better-than-average chance of being initiated by ourselves. Hatty has no coastal cities, Saladin probably has no naval techs, and we're on the verge of being able to create a haven of industry right on the coastline.

So all in all, a rather good day.