[GEM] Kaitzilla vs. The World

[Kaitzilla]

This is very impressive.
Also, how do you find time for this? Even I don't have that much spare time.

I've a good stretch of free time since Christmas that is ending soon and a lot of it went into this game.
The actual playing is pretty easy for me, just the writing is hard.

I can't match the other stories on this forum in any way with vocabulary or imagination, but I know very well how Civ 4 works.
It is fun to peel back the curtain a bit and show to others.

Hopefully I will win this game because this is the only write-up I plan on doing.

 

[Pollina]

I've a good stretch of free time since Christmas that is ending soon and a lot of it went into this game.

Does that mean that the time with daily updates is about to be over?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Does that mean that the time with daily updates is about to be over?

My enthusiasm for this story is still very high.
Even if I can't update every day, I'll still contribute to it as often as I can.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Time for another Tips and Tricks Lesson!

Some people think that there is no way to tell how many cities an AI has before teching Writing allows you to sign Open Borders treaties with them.
Your only dialog option is "Let's Discuss Something else..." which opens up "Your Head Would Look Good on the End of a Pole (WAR)" and "What do you think of..."

Spoiler :

No way to see how many cities Suryavarmen of the Khmer Empire has on T218 of my game right?
Wrong!

All you have to do is hold down the Control button on the keyboard (Ctrl) and click on Suryavarmen on the scoreboard to open up the trade menu.
Once you open the trade menu, all the cities the AI owns except the capital will be available for trade.
In this screenshot, one can see that Suryavarmen has 9 cities on Turn 218. (8 cities in the trade screen + 1 capital not shown)

Spoiler :

This is useful information!
Why doesn't the BUG mod in Giant Earth Map show # of cities on the scoreboard?
The answer is that Giant Earth Map is using an older version of BUG mod.
The newest version of BUG mod shows the number of AI cities on the scoreboard farthest to the right.

Spoiler :

Giant Earth Map


Newest BUG mod (shows # of cities)

A 2nd nice tip to know is gifting cities and how to (Liberate) cities.
Yes, there is a difference!

When the AI has 3 cities or less, you can use Ctrl to open the Trade Menu at any time and gift the AI any of your cities except your capital.
This is a good way to get +4 "fair trade relations" if you have a Settler to spare, or if you want an AI city close to your capital for purposes.

Once an AI has 4 cities or more, they won't take just any city as a gift.
If the AI isn't in Financial Trouble (expenses > 60% of income generally), they will take any city that is less than 10 tiles from one of their cities.
That means you need to count the tiles from your border city to their border city. (diagonal counts as 1.5 tiles, if the final distance is a fraction like 8.5 tiles or 9.5 tiles round down to 8 or 9 respectively)

You can't gift cities that are close to AI cities if they are on separate landmasses like islands.
That means your island city could be 5 tiles away from an AI city on the main continent and the AI won't take the island city.

And finally, if an AI has ever owned a city at some point in the past, they will always be willing to accept it back as a gift.



Now we get to the famous (Liberate) city option.
Not only does it give you "fair trade relations" diplo bonus, you also get a permanent +1.5 "You Liberated a City to us!" diplo bonus.
It might look like a +1 diplo bonus on the scoreboard, but if you (Liberate) 2 cities to an AI, the bonus will read +3 "You Liberated a City to us!"

What's the range on (Liberate) city?
It isn't less than 10 tiles.
It is less than 36 tiles.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=12954539&postcount=4276
Thanks Kossin!

So what's the catch?
First, to (Liberate) a city, the city must have 0 in it.
As soon as you put a single culture point into a city, you can't (Liberate) it to an AI anymore.

Second, to (Liberate) a city, the city must be closer to the AI capital than to your capital.

***Edit***
EliteTroops pointed out a month after this post that the city must be closer to the AI capital than any other capital, which is completely correct.

In my current game, this results in the amusing reality that Pataliputra, Biskek, and Dhaka are all closer to Suryavarmen's capital than my own.
On Turn 198, when those three cities had 0, I could (Liberate) them all to Suryavarmen.

Spoiler :

The game will remind you of this diplomatic opportunity periodically when it says a city wants to join another empire.

Spoiler :

All this info is nice, but all I really care about is that Pataliputra is floor(17.5) = 17 tiles from my capital Invincible City.
So Suryavarmen's capital is less than 17 tiles from Pataliputra.

Spoiler :

**Edit**
In case it comes up later, to form a colony you need 2 or more cities on a seperate landmass like an island or continent.
This is done by opening the Domestic Advisor (F1) and clicking on the absurdly tiny fist icon in the bottom right.

Spoiler :

Some fun history:
Tachywaxon (aka. Manco Capac) once famously broke Civ 4 by exploiting (Liberate) city to get an AI to Friendly status in one turn by (Liberating) the same city over and over during the middle of a war.

Spoiler :

 

[Noyyau]

I don't want to derail this thread too much, but I really do not understand how the "infinite city liberation" thing works.

Conditions necessary:
-No City Razing
-War with you target AI
-Units with 2

As far as I understand, you conquer a city, delete your unit that just conquered it, and liberate the city back to the AI you're at war with.
Problem: shouldn't giving anything to the AI automatically enforce a 10-turn Peace Treaty?
How is it possible to attack again the city the same turn?



Different question: do you know how Vassal States work in regards to gifting/liberating cities?
I sometimes find myself wanting to gift a city to a vassal (either conquered or founded myself), but the option is not there in the diplo screen.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I don't want to derail this thread too much, but I really do not understand how the "infinite city liberation" thing works.

Conditions necessary:
-No City Razing
-War with you target AI
-Units with 2

As far as I understand, you conquer a city, delete your unit that just conquered it, and liberate the city back to the AI you're at war with.
Problem: shouldn't giving anything to the AI automatically enforce a 10-turn Peace Treaty?
How is it possible to attack again the city the same turn?

Signing a Peace Treaty, begging/demanding something from an AI successfully, and giving into an AI demand all results in a 10 turns Peace Treaty.
So does "Stop the War against ____" among all AP voters if the Apostolic Palace vote succeeds.

Giving a gift to the AI doesn't trigger a Peace Treaty.

Normally, it is impossible to give a city to an AI during the middle of a war without the war ending.
Especially if the AI won't even talk to you.
That is, unless you use the "Form Colony" button (ALT+F1) in the domestic advisor screen to (Liberate) a city.

Spoiler :

Now here is where things get tricky.
The AI won't accept a (Liberate) city gift if there is an enemy unit inside the Big Fat Cross.
The option simply won't appear.

Spoiler :

That is why 2 units are important.
If you station your units in the corner of the big Fat cross, you can endlessly (Liberate) a city to in AI using the following method.
1) Capture City with 2 unit from 2N2W, 2S2W, 2N2E, 2S2E
2) Delete your unit since you are at war with the AI to clear the Big Fat Cross of enemy units.
3) (Liberate) the city for +1.5 diplo
4) Repeat steps 1 through 3 until the AI is Friendly and then sign a Cease Fire.
A Friendly AI will always be willing to trade their techs and will never make war against you.

Spoiler :

With no city razing enabled, you can send 10 Chariots and 1 Settler to form a city near any AI.
Plant the city, station the 10 Chariots in the corner of the Big Fat Cross, DOW the AI, Liberate the city, capture, Liberate the city , capture, etc. etc.
And every time you delete a Chariot, you can get +1.5 diplo for your efforts until the AI is Friendly.

This is why "Gifting Cities while at War" was banned in HOF and GOTM play.

Different question: do you know how Vassal States work in regards to gifting/liberating cities?
I sometimes find myself wanting to gift a city to a vassal (either conquered or founded myself), but the option is not there in the diplo screen.

I don't know off the top of my head.
Let me go look.

**Edit**
Apparently you can't gift cities or (Liberate) new cities to Vassals.
All you can do is (Liberate) cities that you captured from them back to them.
Sometimes a city I know they used to own just doesn't come up as a (Liberate) option at all, so something is screwy with my understanding here.

If I had to guess why you can't give Vassals cities is so you don't give away your empire piece by piece until your vassal breaks away.
If you did that, you could DOW them and reconquer the empty cities you just gave away and then wipe the former vassal out completely to get all their cities.

 

[Noyyau]

Tricky! I did not know that the "Give colonies independence" button could also gift cities to other AIs. I thought it was only to form a brand-new AI...and the cities needed to be on a different landmass. I guess I need to tinker more with that.

My question about the vassals stems from the fact that the AI settles cities in really questionable places sometimes, so I'd prefer to settle a territory myself and then gift those cities to a vassal I want to strengthen... only you can't, apparently.
That, or I help the vassal in a war against a neighbour of his, and want the vassal to have the conquered cities.
Will experiment with the "liberate" button, see what happens.

 

[Kaitzilla]

**Note**
The screenshots are starting to become cluttered, so I'm turning off "Tile Yield" after T219 unless taking a screenshot of a city or its resources.


Turnset 35 (T219 to T220)

T219 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Writing discovered!
It is now possible to sign Open Border agreements with the other civs.
This will allow me to establish foreign trade routes to their cities (+2) and explore their empires.

Spoiler :

Once I have unfogged all their cities, I can monitor how much population their empire has and keep tabs on them with passive techniques.
Knowing where their strategic resources are located can also come in handy later.

Far to the north, Gems City was finally founded (14th city), a cold mountain fortress that will supply much needed happiness to my empire.
It will also serve as a staging area to settle and improve the much-more-difficult-to-defend Fur City to the northeast.
To my surprise the city added +2 per turn when the Settler vanished and the Axe+2 Workers got inside borders.
I was foolish to wait 5 turns to create Gems City.

Spoiler :

Monuments were completed in Delhi and Bronze City.

Bronze City will soon have an Axe completed to send west to scout Europe now that supplies have improved and Open Borders will clear the way to England.

Far to the south on the tip of Inda a new barb city has been spotted!
I need to get my Axe there before Cyrus' Archers in case it is a good city spot.

Spoiler :

It is time to get serious about trading and deals with the AI.
The most important things to know are who is important, and who is the Worst Enemy of whom.

The tech leaders appear to be Julius and David since they have alphabet.
The population leaders and Wonder builders tend to be highest on the scoreboard and are Suyavarmen, Isabella, and David.
The civs with the most potential to be giant monsters have the most cities.
This is my favorite measure of whom to build diplo relations with.
The 3-city runt may be good to trade techs with early, but later on you want to be Friendly with the civ that has 100 cities.

Turn 219 City Count:
14 cities - Turkish Empire (me )
10 cities - Babylon, Poland (has Moscow )
9 cities - Khmer
8 cities - Persia, China, Baiyue
7 cities - Hungary
6 cities - Israel, Ethiopia, Scandinavia
5 cities - Carthage
3 cities - Spain, France, Korea, Arabia
2 cities - Mongolia
1 city - Greece

Babylon, Persia, and Khmer are my biggest concerns since they are my immediate neighbors.

The civs that are Worst Enemies to others and attract "We demand you stop trading with _____" headaches are Greece, Korea, and France right now.
I want to avoid trading resources to these civs or having Open Borders with them if they have important enemies.

Spoiler :

Rome hates Greece, Babylon hates France, and Khmer hates Korea, so I won't do Open Borders with these civs unless I have a good reason.
Don't need -1 "You refused to stop trading with _____" penalties with these big boys, so no Open Borders with them.


Signed Open Borders with Hammurabi, Isabella, Stephen, Qin, Mieszko, Goujian, Zara, Hannibal, Ragnar, Saladin, and Genghis.
Immediately jumped from +4 per turn to +12 per turn thanks to foreign trade routes.
Since the route goes through the road with Persia at the moment, I need to build another road to Babylon or the trade routes will be severed if I got to war with Persia.

Tried to sign Open Borders with Cyrus and Suryavarmen, but they say they don't like me enough even though I am at Cautious with them.
I'm not their Worst Enemy and I have good enough relations, so I'm not sure why they won't sign Open Borders.
It's frustrating because they are the 2 civs I want to explore the most.

Spoiler :

T220 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Louis of the French Empire converted to Hinduism.
That religion is really really spreading.

My 1st Library was 3-pop whipped in Varanasi.
Varanasi will spread borders really fast now since it already has a Monument.
After 1000 years, the value of any building will double, so the city will pump out 6 per turn around 300BC instead of 3.

Here is what the budget currently looks like. (+6 per turn)
Things will grow worse every time I whip away cottages to make a Library, but will gradually grow better again over time.
My current strategy is expand a little more, gradually grow above 0 per turn while adding happiness resources, and working 2 Scientists to bulb Math around T280.

Spoiler :

 

[Drakarska]

Interesting that Greece only has 1 city @ T219. IIRC, Greece was always a major threat by this time. Just curious, is he in a bad location?

 

[Pollina]

Tried to sign Open Borders with Cyrus and Suryavarmen, but they say they don't like me enough even though I am at Cautious with them.
I'm not their Worst Enemy and I have good enough relations, so I'm not sure why they won't sign Open Borders.

GEM changes OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold values for some leaders (Cyrus, Darius, Mao, Suleiman, Sury, Wang Kong) to cautious.

Cyrus:

<OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>ATTITUDE_CAUTIOUS</OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>	<!-- GEM 6.0: originally furious -->

Sury:

<OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>ATTITUDE_CAUTIOUS</OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>	<!-- GEM 6.0: originally annoyed -->

This mod is full of surprises.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Interesting that Greece only has 1 city @ T219. IIRC, Greece was always a major threat by this time. Just curious, is he in a bad location?

I'm not sure what happened to Greece.
My European scout will take some time to get over there to take a look, and Pericles might be dead by then being at war with 4 civs.

GEM changes OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold values for some leaders (Cyrus, Darius, Mao, Suleiman, Sury, Wang Kong) to cautious.

Cyrus:

<OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>ATTITUDE_CAUTIOUS</OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>	<!-- GEM 6.0: originally furious -->

Sury:

<OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>ATTITUDE_CAUTIOUS</OpenBordersRefuseAttitudeThreshold>	<!-- GEM 6.0: originally annoyed -->

This mod is full of surprises.

Oh!
I have to get them to Pleased then for Open Borders.

Thanks for looking this up Pollina, it was bugging me.
Will add it to the front page of changes.

I guess the mod maker felt those civs were more closed historically?
Or maybe just a way to set up some roadblocks?
Either way, it will hurt those civs if they need to be Pleased with others to have Open Borders and trade routes and better diplo relations.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 36 (T221 to T224)

T221 - Barbarians: No deaths.

Carthage and Israel switched to Hinduism.
Hinduism is now the dominant religion.

The barb city on the southern tip of India has been identified as Chinook.
It is Pop 5, is defended by 3 Warriors, and has 2 Workers.
Sending a 2nd Axe down from Estruscan should be safe as Estruscan has Cyrus to the north, west, and southwest to keep barbs from spawning and taking the city. (probably )

Spoiler :

Bronze City has finished the European scout Axe to send west.
It should be well worth the gold spent to map Europe and meet England.
Poland is setting itself up to replace Russia, so I should probably take a peek of Miesko's capital also.

Spoiler :

Isabella of Spain has Wine to trade!
She already has Monarchy? Maybe she built the Oracle.
Isabella of Spain is the #1 civ most likely to build Oracle in any Deity game, so it would make sense if that's what happened.
I quickly seized the golden opportunity for a rare happiness resource and traded Rice to Spain for Wine.

Spoiler :

T222 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Isabella of Spain asked me to join her war against Greece.
Unlike France, this time it might be a good idea to join the war.
1) I already have all my Open Border agreements, so the diplo hits don't hurt as much.
2) Pericles has survived a few turns and hasn't been wiped out by the 1st Roman invasion stack.
3) I care about diplo with Spain, unlike Louis.
Spain has Monarchy.
The shared war bonus builds +1 every 8 turns, so I need the war to last 16 turns to get a good benefit.
If the war against Greece lasts less than 8 turns, my DOW will have been a bad decision.

Time for my 4th war!
My Turks DOW'd Greece and took a -1 diplo hit with Poland, Babylon, and Arabia.
Hopefully this action helps me get to Friendly relations with Rome, Carthage, Spain, and maybe France some day in the future.

Spoiler :

Next, I want to showcase whipping a Granary in Estruscan.
Everyone always wonders, when is the best time to whip a Granary?
The answer is generally when the food bank is half full.

Spoiler :

One super advanced Granary technique is the "avoid city growth" method invented by Doshin, but it's only useful when the Granary is constructed when the food bin is past half full.
A more general Granary teaching method was invented by Kossin in the form of 7 micro challenges set up as a mini game.
Follow along with a few of those and you will know how to maximize your production!
Someone even made a Youtube video illustrating the solution to Micro Challenge #2.

Spoiler :

Link to video.

Additional scouting of Chinook reveals a flood plains Rice and Clams, so I'm definitely going to keep the city once I capture it.

Spoiler :

T223 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Library whipped in Invincible City.
Barracks completed in Samarkand.

Two new Pop 1 barb cities have been discovered!
Ainu to the west of Bronze City and Uzbek to the east of Bactra are both mediocre cities.
Even if I capture them, they won't give much money.
I'll kill some Warriors in Ainu to get a free promotion and let the barb cities live since they spawnbust other barbs from forming.
Will probably wait until they grow to Size 2 so I can capture them without autorazing and then gift them to AI with 3 cities or less for +4 diplo relations.

Spoiler :

T224 - Barbarians: 5 Warriors died.

Chinook has been captured by my 2 Axes!
My 15th city gave 4 population, 97, and 2 Workers.

Spoiler :

My African scout traveled through Israel and met Ramesses of the Egyptian Empire.
After signing Open Borders my path to Mansa should be clear.
Ramesses has 2 cities and is the founder of Hinduism.
This is great news since his UB is the Obelisk, a Monument that allows him to run 2 Priest specialists.
It is almost 100% certain that he will produce a Great Prophet at some point and build the Hindu Shrine.

Spoiler :

Poland has Fur to trade!
Mieszko taking over Moscow from the barbs obviously has yielded benefits for me.
Now I don't have to found Fur City until much later and can use my Settler to make a cottage city near my capital instead.
Traded Rice to Poland for Fur!

Spoiler :

Libraries whipped in Pataliputra and Lahore.
The loss of 6 population working cottages is very noticeable financially.

Stephen of Hungary is in war prep mode! (We have enough on our hands right now)
That makes 4 AI currently plotting war against others. (Rome, Ethiopia, Israel, and Hungary)

Canceled Silver to David and gifted him Cows.
Gifted Silver to Hammurabi for diplo bonuses later.

Varanasi just popped its borders thanks to a Library + Monument.
I am now a Land Target to Cyrus, so my odds of Persia declaring war on me just went up greatly.
Need to produce a Settler and gift him a crappy city near his capital so I can get to Pleased with +4 fair trade and +1.5 (Liberate) bonuses.

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 37 (T225 to T228)

T225 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Spain has both Pyramids and The Oracle in her capital Madrid.
She also has The Great Wall built in another city.
Can't think of any reason why this information has appeared in the top 5 city list.
Maybe it happened when I formed a trade route with Spain somehow?

Wang Kon built Stonehenge in his capital Kaesong.

Wish Isabella's 3-city empire wasn't so far away!
I don't have 1800 to send 20 Axes across the entire map for 30 turns.
Maybe when more roads get built towards Europe and I acquire Construction for bridges and Catapults and I can manage the diplo hit.

Spoiler :

Poland converted to Hinduism.

Qin's nearest city spotted 14 tiles east of Bactra.

Spoiler :

Poland will get quite large with all that Russian land later in the game.
Israel has Copper to build Vultures, but none were spotted in his capital.
Combined with Alphabet, I feel sorry for whomever Israel DOWs in the future.

Spoiler :

Wang Kon is no longer the worst enemy of Suryavarmen, but he won't sign Open Borders with me just as Pollina foretold.

Spoiler :

My city Varanasi is going to be enormous.
+18 per turn at Size 4

Spoiler :

T226 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors killed.

Founded my 16th city Bukhara, a mysterious cottage suburb just outside the capital.
Fur City will be delayed indefinitely as long as I get Fur in trade from Poland.
Since I pay 0.15 per city in "# of Cities Maintenance" costs, all of my cities now pay 16*0.15 = 2.4 per turn plus a bit more for every population above 2.

Spoiler :

Isabella converted to Hinduism bringing the total up to 9 civs practicing it.
Lahore expanded borders.

Qin has 11 Axes, 3 Spears, and 1 Chariot around his border city Chengdu!
This is a hint of the power the Deity AI will wield in later wars.
I hope those weren't meant for me when Qin finally stopped plotting war against somebody on T166 to T191.
The Spears and Chariot appear to be heading northwest to deal with the barb city Uzbek.

Spoiler :

Something terrible happened to Egypt.
The capital is guarded by 1 Warrior, and his neighbors Zara and David are both plotting war against someone.
Notice Thebes is owned by Zara, but there is no indication that Zara ever DOWd Ramesses according to the diplo screen.
Perhaps barbs from the Sahara Desert captured Ramesses' good cities and Zara took them from the barbs?

Spoiler :

T227 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 2 Warriors died.

Met Shaka of the Zulu Empire.
He is Islamic, has 11 cities, and is plotting war against someone. (Egypt?)
Shaka will likely be the most dangerous pure warmonger in this game.
Since he is the Worst Enemy of Ramesses, I will avoid signing Open Borders for now.

Spoiler :

Connected Gems to empire near Gems City!
My unbelievable collection of happiness resources has now reached 6 (Wine, Fur, Ivory, Gold, Silver, Gems)

T228 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Israel is researching Code of Laws in 18 turns. (That will really complicate the religious situation in the Middle East later )
Switching espionage back over to Cyrus to see what he's teching next.

Pataliputra expanded borders.
Library 3-pop whipped in Tashkent. Will overflow into a Scout for money.

Estruscan has 4 Workers approaching to improve the flood plains Wheat, wet Rice, and flood_plains plains.
After that, the Workers will go improve the 3 Rice between Dhaka and Biskek.

Spoiler :

Egypt's 2 cities are defended by a Warrior each and I have an Axe.
The Blood God cries out to strike , but 8 civs are Pleased with Ramesses, and all I will gain is a city that won't pay for itself and a Hindu capital without a Shrine.
Gnnnn, will have to let this one slide.

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 38 (T229 to T232)

T229 - Barbarians: No Deaths.

Qin of China captured the barb city Uzbek!
Not sure if it was captured at 2 pop or was autorazed at 1 population.

Dhaka + Samarkand both popped borders.
Settler was 3-pop whipped in Dhaka to go settle 4 tiles to the east. Overflow will go into Scout for money.

Spoiler :

x2 Scientist specialists are now permanently working in Pataliputra.
Should get a Great Scientist to bulb Mathematics on T279.

Traded Rice to Hungary for Marble.

Chinook is costing me a lot of gold right now without a connection for trade routes + happiness resources.
Will take a long time to hook a road up unless I can push my borders north and road directly into Cyrus' city.
Also, notice that I'm getting "We want to join the motherland" anger in a barb city.
92% barbarian on the city tile.
I doubt the barbs put much culture into the city, so the problem should start going away quickly once I build a Library and overwhelm the lingering barb city tile culture.

Spoiler :

Axe scout reveals Qin has average land so far.

Spoiler :

Thanks to -2 border tensions, Cyrus is now Annoyed with me.
Combine that with being his Land Target, and I'm 90% sure Cyrus' next "We have enough on our hands right now" message will mean he is preparing for war with me.

Need to pick a tech out now that I'm working scientists.
Aesthetics seems like a good choice.
I could spend 1000 researching Alphabet so I can trade Math for it, but I'd rather spend 3000 and just trade Aesthetics + Math for Alphabet.

**Edit**
Zomg, scientists got buffed!
I was wondering why I was teching +10 per turn instead of 7.
Each scientist specialist now gives +4 and +1

Spoiler :

T230 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Great Prophet born in a faraway land!
It probably came from Isabella's Madrid with Pyramids+Oracle, but what if it's Ramesses using an Obelisk?
Mmm, will keep scouting south into Africa for now.
If Ramesses founds the Kashi Vishwanath and keeps guarding Elephantine with a Warrior, I might have to turn around and go take it.
+1 per turn in every Hindu city will probably become a giant sum later in this game.

Zara is no longer plotting war.

Granary whipped in Chinook.

Been at war for 8 turns now, so +1 shared war has now been permanently achieved with Spain, Rome, France, and Carthage.
If the war ends now it would be so-so for me with the -1 I got with Poland, Babylon, and Arabia.
Just need it to last 8 more turns so I can get +2 with my four allies.

Spoiler :

T231 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Axe scouts show that Qin has a very nice capital named Louyang, Zara has 2 fat Egyptian cities, and Poland is rapidly spreading.

Spoiler :

T232 - Barbarians: 3 Warriors died.

Mieszko of Poland captured the barb city Ainu!
Not sure if it autorazed or grew to Size 2 and was captured.

Spoiler :

Monument completed in Gems City.

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

I swear you're a little energizer bunny. How do you update so fast? Tell me your secrets? All of them... I'll do anything!
...Actually I won't but hey, hyperbole is the best thing ever.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 39 (T233 to T235)

T233 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 1 Warrior died.

Founded my 17th city Khotan, a distant fishing community collecting hordes of rice.
2 or 3 Axes on Khotans hilltop will make a great tripwire if Khmer ever attacks me, giving me time to reinforce my core Indian metropolises.
Note that Suryavarmen's Workers 2 tiles west of Nagara Jayasri are chopping jungle, which means he has Iron Working.

Spoiler :

Khotan is my final empire expansion planned besides Fur City (if needed).
From now on Settlers will be founded close to neighbor's capitals and then (Liberate)'d for +5 diplo.
Can never have too many Pleased neighbors to help cut down on nasty 2 front wars.

Bactra popped borders.
As soon as Pig is pastured, will grow to Size 2 for 11 turns and then work Gold mine again at Size 2.

The Yue Empire (Kublai Khan) appears to be the other half of China historically.
Just look at all that good land near the capital Huiji!

Spoiler :

My African scout is a bit lost.
Was Mansa of the Mali Empire in south Africa or west Africa?
I can't remember!

Spoiler :

There's no reason to delay preparing for a Deity DOW right now.
I just went cash positive.
That means I can afford to station Chariot scouts to my southwest and northwest to keep an eye out for a giant stack of units sent by Israel/Zulu/Hungary/Scandinavia.
Will create 2 new Chariots and have them kill 2 barb Warriors up north, promote to Sentry, then deploy to my western checkpoints where they can patrol back and forth.
If 10 Axes are coming, I can't afford to let the 2 units get right up to my borders before I start whipping and moving reinforcements.
They will DOW the second they step into my borders and capture 2 or 3 cities before I can reply.

Spoiler :

I'll do the same thing out east if China/Yue/Khmer starts plotting war.
Check out the Demographics on T233.
I have 18 Axes, 3 Chariots, 17 Cities, and 14 Workers.
My troops combined with my Barrack and Population yield 181k Soldiers. (13th most in world)
1st place AI has 389k Soldiers.
To match their Power Rating, I'd have to create and maintain 35 additional Axes!

Spoiler :

I'm not sure who this #1 military freak of nature is.

T234 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Islam spread to Samarkand.
I can now take 1 turn to convert to Islam if I wanted.

Spoiler :

The Greek civilization has been annihilated.
My shared war with Rome, Spain, France, and Hannibal is over.
Couldn't wait 4 more turns to capture Athens, could you guys?

Spoiler :

Elephantine has been captured by Barbarians!
Of course...
Well, it didn't have the shrine, but if I can get the city before Zara or Ramesses, I can switch to Hindu and then give the city back to Ramesses.
Sharing Hinduism with 9 other civs would be a diplomatic godsend since the stupid religion won't spread to my empire for some reason.
Forget Mansa, turn back north immediately!
Will be sending a Chariot to help map Africa too.

Spoiler :

T235 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

The AI get some really unfair diplo bonuses.
Qin is Pleased with his neighbor Goujian of the Yue Empire at -2 relations.

15th Worker was produced in Pataliputra.
Canceled Silver gift to Hammurabi, but ended up gifting it right back to him because Julius wanted 2 resources for stone.

 

[RedKirrHelper]

My African scout is a bit lost.
Was Mansa of the Mali Empire in south Africa or west Africa?
I can't remember!

I wanted to remind when I saw that the scout was going to South...
Mali is in the West (around South of the current Algeria). If you are in Egypt then you need go about 3 steps to the West and 1 step to the South (around this direction). But anyway, the plans were changed

 

[Kaitzilla]

I wanted to remind when I saw that the scout was going to South...
Mali is in the West (around South of the current Algeria). If you are in Egypt then you need go about 3 steps to the West and 1 step to the South (around this direction). But anyway, the plans were changed

South of Algeria, thanks RedkirrHelper

 

[Kaitzilla]

Turnset 40 (T236 to T238)

T236 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Got my 1st random event, the Waters of Life near Samarkand.
Also got the "1 million souls in my empire" message.
A goody hut (tribal village) was spotted on the island southeast of India's southern tip near Chinook.

Spoiler :

Scouts revealed the Yue Empire has very good land, Poland shares a long border with Hungary (which is plotting war against someone), and Cyrus is sending units into the area west of my empire.

Spoiler :

Khmer built another city to the east of Biskek.
Bactra will stop working the Gold mine for 11 turns and grow to Size 2 on pigs.
Will hurt financially in the short term, but it absolutely must be done.

Spoiler :

T237 - Barbarians: No deaths.

My African Axe is 2 turns away from capturing the Hindu capital Elephantine from the barbs. Gogo!

Spoiler :

My close neighbor Suryavarmen of the Khmer Empire, the most powerful civ in the world according to the scoreboard, is now plotting war.

**Cracks neck**
Well, that's bad...

The only civ in the world that has Open Borders with Khmer is David of Israel, so if Khmer is plotting war against someone else besides me or the Yue, he will stay stuck in war prep mode for a long time, unable to reach his true target.

His immediate neighbors are me and the Yue Empire.
Suryavarmen is Cautious with me, and thus has a 50% no war probability from diplomacy according to the DanF spreadsheet.
Suryavarmen is Pleased with Yue, and thus has a 90% no war probability.
(no_war_prob means that if Khmer picks Yue for war, there is 90% chance the selection is discarded due to Pleased diplomatic relations)
However, the Yue are likely a Land Target to Suryavarmen of Khmer, so that vastly increases their odds of being a war victim.

I feel almost certain he is targeting either me or the Yue.
I wish I knew how strongly Land Target affected war odds, or if the AdvancedAIMod calculates war differently than regular BTS.

Spoiler :

There is no choice.
If I wait until a stack of doom shows up on Khotan's doorstep, I'll get steamrolled.
I must mobilize enough to slow down Surya if he attacks.
Pataliputra absolutely must not be captured or my Great Scientist that all my tech trades rely upon will never be born.

Will finish 5 Axes in my empire, switch places with a bunch of 10xp Axes, and send them down to Biskek and Khotan.
Will recall Combat II Shock Chariot from Babylon/Africa.
Will switch to Suryavarmen of Khmer.
My per turn will have to go negative again.

T238 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

Signed Open Borders with Shaka.
I no longer care that Shaka is Worst Enemy of Egypt because Ramesses is dead eventually with all neighbors plotting war and barbs taking his 2nd city.

Moved 2 Axes into chokepoints down near Suryavarmen.
The jungle 1S of Khotan is a great place to put units since Surya would have to attack across a river to invade.
Between the mountains 2S2E of Biskek is also good because it is a jungle hilltop, and if Khmer DOWs from there, his stack will be teleported backwards 1 tile because I'm standing there too.
Most 2 northern units will take between 2 to 5 turns to reach Lahore.
From there it is 2.5 turns to Pataliputra and then 3 turns to Biskek and 4 to Khotan.

Spoiler :

 

[Noyyau]

Hopefully Suryavarman will decide that China is a juicier target than you...

How's your Power rating compared to Yue? Suryavarmen will choose the weaker target I presume.