[GEM] Kaitzilla vs. The World

Turnset 28 (T193 to T196)

T193 - Julius contacted me in the trade screen to offer Open Borders.
Of course!
After checking all the other AI, one other was willing to offer open borders.
David of Israel
Shut up and take my money!

Now I can send an Axe scout west to contact Egypt+Mali+Ethiopia like I intended on T80.
Can't wait to meet Mansa, just have to get past the Persians and Babylonians to reach Israel.

Bronze City has now reconnected to Fury Road.
My empire once again has Bronze.


A few battle took place elsewhere.
Axe defending Bactra won against Spear at 99.7% odds.
Axe won against Warrior on Gold mine at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior near Fury Road at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior northwest of Invincible City at 100% odds.

T194 - Whipped a 21/22 Warrior in Lahore and chopped 3 forests.
Should give me 250 and let me finish Mysticism.

T195 - After 60 turns of pitched battles, I finally feel like the tide is turning against the barbarians.
The Bronze supply finally looks secure, and all the attempts to take out my Gold and Silver have failed.
Soon all of my border cities will be able to instantly produce an Axe if threatened.

Axe defending Bronze City won against Warrior at 100% odds.
Axe defending Bronze City won against Warrior at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 1S1E of Bronze City at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 2W of Bronze City at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 1E of Gold mine at 100% odds.

The three Lahore Workers have split up to chop a forest in Delhi and cottage Lahore.
Three more Workers have gather around Varanasi to chop 3 forests into a whipped Warrior again.
Should get another 250 on T204.

T196 - Turkish Empire reached 36 population and I received the 500,000 souls message.
This game thinks they have souls.
Weird that the first year I played this game I avoided Slavery cause I thought it was kind of evil.
I was such a newb.

Tashkent produced a scout Axe to travel west through Israel to explore Africa.
Just need to find a way through Babylon/Persia.

Axe defending Bronze City won against Warrior at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior east of Bactra at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior northwest of Invincible City at 100% odds.

Since I will have Mysticism soon, I went ahead and 2-pop whipped Barracks in Lahore and Varanasi.
It really is the fastest way to construct Monuments.

Finally, reveals that Cyrus is 4 turns away from Bronze Working.
Hopefully he doesn't have a source of Bronze.

Turnset 29 (T197 to T199)

T197 - Mysticism discovered!
Now I finally have a way to expand my borders.

I've been looking for ways to quickly get more happiness, and right now that means gems.
A 2nd look shows two new city locations that should pay for themselves in the far north.
Will try to road up to those gems next.

Monument will complete in 1 turn in Lahore and Varanasi.
Barracks was 2-pop whipped in Dhaka.
Scout Axe shows Hammurabi is a close neighbor now.

T198 - Started on Writing as next tech.
Once I have Libraries, my rate should increase a lot!
Open borders and a road to nearby civs will also cause all my +1 internal trade routes to become +2 foreign trade routes.

The barbs have managed to do something interesting again.
I'm trying to chop the forest 1N1E of Samarkand into Bactra for a Monument and they are threatening the 2 Workers.
The Monument is a priority, so I had to pull an Axe from the capital and block both Warriors to protect the Workers and Samarkand.
Even had to move the Worker 2N1E of Invincible City from cottaging out of the way for a turn.

Axe defending Bronze City won against Warrior at 99.8% odds.
Axe defending 1E of Bactra won against Spear at 99.6% odds.

Whipped a Monument in Samarkand.
Monument in Dhaka will complete in 1 turn thanks to overflow hammers.

T199 - David of Israel is the first AI to have Alphabet!

He already has all my techs.
David won't be willing to trade Writing until roughly 20% of the AI he's met also have Writing.
I could tech Meditation (936) AND Polytheism (1170) and try to trade for Writing (1404) later, but that would take way too much gold.
Also, if David gets Meditation or Polytheism while I'm teching them I'm screwed.

Need a tech trade thread to help figure this out.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=496586
I'm not sure I understand that linked thread, but adjusting your slider causing your trade screen results to change is weird as hell when the AI thinks you are in Financial Crisis. @_@

**Edit**
All of this info I put in quotes needs to be double checked and verified later.
Don't take it as gospel just yet.

AI value their own techs at 75% of the beaker cost in gold is about the only thing I understood.

I think I calculated that Deity AI value human techs at 77% of the value of the Deity tech.
So a 1000 Deity AI tech will cost me 750 or one of my 1300 techs roughly. (Higher if the AI has a monopoly on that tech)
To get David's Writing, I'd need 1404/0.77 = 1830 worth of techs to trade.

Click to expand...

Can't trade gold yet.
Way easier to just research it myself with the +40% research bonus from know Pottery+Animal Husbandry.

I need to switch to David until I know what my power ratio with him is before I can calculate how much I can beg.
Also need to get him to Pleased so I can beg for a tech and not get a -1 diplo penalty for demanding a tech at Cautious.

A few battles happened elsewhere in the empire as I pondered how Israel could be so far ahead in tech.
I know he didn't Oracle Alphabet. (costs 4500 for me the human)
Axe won against Warrior 1N1W of Horse tile at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 2N1E of Invincible City at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 1E of Bronze City at 100% odds.
Axe won against Warrior 1S1W of Bronze City at 100% odds.

I am declaring the barbarian state of emergency over.
That means no more in-depth barb battle results unless they accomplish something notable.
Otherwise, their deaths will be mere footnotes.

Losers don't matter in the history books.

Turnset 30 (T200 to T202)


T200 (1500BC) - Barbs: 1 Spear and 1 Warrior died.

Whoa, I got a trade route connection with Israel now. (The 3 arrow swirl on the scoreboard)
Nothing good for me, but I went ahead and gifted David Rice+Sheep since I had extra.

I'll get +1 "We Appreciate the Years You've Supplied us Resources" diplo bonus after 25 turns and +2 after 50 turns.
Trading one resource with an AI takes 50/100 turns to reach +1/+2 diplo bonus, and three resources would take 17/34 turns.
This should help me beg and keep war dec chances down when David becomes Pleased with me later.

Just how David formed a trade route with me is worth a look.
He must have obtained Sailing in a tech trade and signed open borders with both Hammurabi and Cyrus.
(Press ALT+I to remove the user interface to take this kind of screenshot)

In more good news, the Silver mine up next to Bronze City completed.
My positive + per turn is now in the double digits!

Pataliputra 3-pop whipped a Settler.
I'll used to settle a Gems City north of Bronze City if everything goes according to plan.

T201 - Barbs: 2 Spears and 3 Warriors died.

A chart popped up listing the most powerful civs in the world.
Even though I'm 60% more powerful than Cyrus, I didn't make the top 8.
Suryavarmen of Khmer and Qin of China are the top two which is no surprise.
Those eastern empires are going to get huge.

Decided my Silver mine was secure enough to trade David my extra silver.
It should speed up how fast I can get to Pleased, but if the barbs pillage a silver mine I have to go without until I can cancel the trade in 10 turns.

David also converted to Islam.

My (expensive) scouting efforts ran into a dead end.
Hammurabi has completely blocked access to the Middle East and I can't get open borders with him.
Going to send my current Axe scout southeast to scout Cyrus, inspect the barb city southwest of Dhaka, and then head east to scout Surya along the coast until he reaches Korea.
A 2nd Axe scout will be created and sent northwest until it passes the Caspian Sea (World's largest lake!) and can head southwest into Israel and on into Africa.

Here are some current empire screenshots.
Pataliputra has a nice 1-turn Monument overflow from the Settler whip.

And here are some other screenshots of interest.
I have 30 out of the 686 population on Earth according to the voting screen.
That doesn't count barbs though, so the victory screen is necessary to calculate the true World Population.
30/0.0413 = 726 pop, so the barbs have 726 - 686 = 40 population in their various cities.

Demographics say I have the 3rd most land area and 16th most population.
The tangled web of relations shows a lot of green lines where Julius and David have open border agreements.
Top 5 cities just reminds me I have no idea where the Wonders got built.

T202 - Barbs: 1 Spear died.

Qin of the Chinese Empire captured Kashgar from the barbs!
Hey jerk, that was my city! x_X
Guess he had extra Axes laying around from his war buildup.
On Deity you snooze, you lose.

Met Isabella of the Spanish Empire.
Also met Zara Yaqob of the Ethiopian Empire.
Two civilizations that are very religious.
Just like Hannibal, I met them as they sailed a workboat past Dhaka.

Cyrus has Bronze in his capital!
I was hoping my closest neighbor would be stuck with only Archers.
Also, Cyrus just finished Bronze Working this turn according to my espionage.
At least he started teching Sailing next and is staying well away from Alphabet.

My closest neighbor won't be nearly the pushover my previous closest neighbors were.

I'm going to switch Espionage over to David now that I can see what Cyrus is teching next.
David's power ratio is important to know if I'm going to be begging for partially completed techs.
Monument finally got chopped for Bactra, so it should be able to start growing in 30 turns.

Kaitzilla said:

Thanks

Yes, there is bronze 2N1W of Kashgar.
I didn't want to settle it because cities can't be placed within 2 tiles of another city (unless it's an island), so putting one there would mean that I couldn't settle the Kashgar spot.

Spoiler :

Click to expand...

Ah, I see now. And they are on the same line. And to settle 1N1E is pretty uncomfortable. From present turns it looks like settling on horse to 1S of Kashgar and settling on Bronze could be better and easier to defend both them. But who knew? It looks like tactics of city-fortresses (far from main borders) settled on resourses could work againts barbs. One need take care only about roads. Probably Russia in the same way conqured Sibera. Anyway, now your positions looks much better. It was so painful to read how barbs destoyed your cities and pillaged the wheat and gold...I will not wonder if dealing with barb find out the most difficult part of the game

BtW, I can assume why they changed archers to spears as barbs. You showed that archers and horse archers have some ranged attack. Probably it could be really disaster from barbarian archers.

Kaitzilla said:

Just how David formed a trade route with me is worth a look.
He must have obtained Sailing in a tech trade and signed open borders with both Hammurabi and Cyrus.

Click to expand...

The game always has absurd ways of finding trade routes for your cities. Even if they make no economic sense.

clanky4 said:

Losers don't matter in the history books.

Click to expand...

Exactly

RedKirrHelper said:

Ah, I see now. And they are on the same line. And to settle 1N1E is pretty uncomfortable. From present turns it looks like settling on horse to 1S of Kashgar and settling on Bronze could be better and easier to defend both them. But who knew? It looks like tactics of city-fortresses (far from main borders) settled on resourses could work againts barbs. One need take care only about roads. Probably Russia in the same way conqured Sibera. Anyway, now your positions looks much better. It was so painful to read how barbs destoyed your cities and pillaged the wheat and gold...I will not wonder if dealing with barb find out the most difficult part of the game

BtW, I can assume why they changed archers to spears as barbs. You showed that archers and horse archers have some ranged attack. Probably it could be really disaster from barbarian archers.

Click to expand...

City fortresses are the best plan right now ya.
If the resource isn't one tile from the city, it is dead and pillaged in no time.

Oh! You're a genius.
Yes, barb Archers would probably do ranged attacks all over the place in this mod.
Spears are a logical replacement upgrade.

Maybe barbarian Archers have not appeared yet simply because not enough civilizations have researched Archery?

Noyyau said:

Maybe barbarian Archers have not appeared yet simply because not enough civilizations have researched Archery?

Click to expand...

The only point of reference I have is BTS civ 4 where the first real barbs are a mix of Warrior and then mostly Archers since all AI start with Archery.
Eventually the barbs move on to Axes and a sprinkling of Spears.
And if you play long enough, they replace Archers with Longbows.

The mod certainly changed something to get 50% Warriors and 50% Spears.
It makes barb cities really easy to capture without Archers protecting them, but almost impossible for the human to defend against pillaging without access to Axes.

Basically, your guess is as good as mine.

Turnset 31 (T203 to T207)

T203 - Barbs: 1 Warrior died.

The Russian Civilization has been destroyed.
GAH! Those evil, evil barbs have killed off another Deity civ.
Catherine was Imperialistic and Creative and should have had no trouble fighting off the barbs with Deity combat bonuses.

Bactra is once again being threatened by barbs.
A lucky Spear hurt my Axe down to half hp, and now another Spear is coming giving me no time to heal.
Bactra should be safe since I'm building a Warrior and bringing another Axe eastward, but the Gold mine might very well be pillaged.

Another huge chunk of money is coming from Varanasi.
x3 chops combined with a 21/22 Warrior whip should yield another 250
That just about does it for chopping gold until I can expand my borders.
I am almost out of forests.

Zara is preparing for war against somebody, but he is so far away it really doesn't concern me. (probably )

T204 - Barbs: 1 Spear and 2 Warriors died.

Woot, my Bactra Gold is safe.
Injured Axe won against Spear at 86.8% odds.

Barbs are finally attacking barely defended Delhi (tight budget), but so far none of the attackers are Spears.

Action around Bronze City remains tense.
I'm trying to road northwards towards the gems in a way that won't get my roads constantly pillaged.
That means I have to defend Bronze City from razing (until it reaches Size 2), road 1S1E, road 1N, and Silver mine 1W against barbs.
Will have to use 3 Axes since they keep getting injured attacking into forests to save the road 1N of Bronze City.

Cyrus scout Axe shows a Worker already improving the Bronze.
The AdvancedAImod doesn't mess around.

Zara converted to Hinduism, but since he doesn't have the Hindu capital I assume it originated somewhere else in Africa.
Mansa discovered it maybe?

T205 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 2 Warriors died.

David now has Meditation, so I'm glad I didn't try to research it to attempt a tech trade.

My brand new Indian city Biskek deserves a brief spotlight.
I had the choice to whip a Monument or Granary this turn and I chose Monument.
Check out how much food this city has when it pops its borders in 30 turns!

Two of those Rice are floodplain/grassland tiles and will give +9 when farmed.
The other three Rice are covered in jungle and will give +7 when farmed.
All combined, Biskek will produce a +42 surplus at Population 11.
It will be an incredible Great Person farm some day.

T206 - Barbarians: 3 Warriors killed.

Hammurabi converted to Islam.
Islam is becoming a very popular religion to the west.

The western scouting results are coming in as expected.
Desert all the way to the Caspian Sea.

Deleted the last Warrior in my empire and replaced with an Axe.
All units spawnbust in a 5x5 square centered on the unit, so that means no new barbs can be born in that square.
It is why barbs haven't been attacking northern India from that direction.

T207 - Barbarians: None

Hah! A Spear is now threatening underdefended Delhi.
I spent a few turns delaying my Monument there to build an Axe up to 1T from completion.
Now it is time to use it.

Whip Anger is quickly wearing off in my cities, so I should be able to whip some more Warriors soon for .
I'm currently about half way to the 900 I need to tech Writing.
20 turns of whip anger per whip has me using it constantly in this mod!

Moved an Axe to protect my Gems Settler, and I'm sending another Axe south to conquer the barb city. (It's in a good spot)
Qin stealing my city Kashgar from the barbs shows me I need to grab cities before ideal conditions are in place.

Kaitzilla said:

Turnset 31 (T203 to ???)

The Russian Civilization has been destroyed.
GAH! Those evil, evil barbs have killed off another Deity civ.
Catherine was Imperialistic and Creative and should have had no trouble fighting off the barbs with Deity combat bonuses.

Click to expand...

May be Catty or Stalin could survive. But the leader is Peter as I remember)) It would be interesting to see how a humen can play as Russian. They are isolated and have a lot of barbs around. May be forest and metal could help however.

RedKirrHelper said:

May be Catty or Stalin could survive. But the leader is Peter as I remember)) It would be interesting to see how a humen can play as Russian. They are isolated and have a lot of barbs around. May be forest and metal could help however.

Click to expand...

Peter!
This game is giving me brain damage.

I certainly sympathize with what Russia probably went through at the end.

Turnset 32 (T208 to T210)

T208 - Barbarians: 2 Spears died.

The only other civ with Open Borders just got Alphabet!
Julius my friend, I really really need that Hunting you've got.

I don't really need Fishing, so I went ahead and traded The Wheel for Hunting.
No reason not to hold onto Bronze Working and see if something else (like Writing!) becomes available next turn.

Hunting discovered!
If I'm the luckiest person in the world, Julius will trade Writing to me next turn for Bronze Working + Pottery.
Time to improve my pillaged Ivory in Varanasi and get +3 happiness in all my cities.
Once Gems City is online, there is also no reason to delay Fur City farther to the north now that I have Hunting.

Elsewhere that barb Spear down by Delhi pillaged my farm.
I was going to cottage that tile anyway *sniff*
Nothing but desert to the west.

T209 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

Ack, this game!
All my nearly complete Warrior builds turned into Spears!
I forgot that Warriors vanish as a build choice when you have bronze+Bronze Working+Hunting.
Going to start building Scouts (22 hammers just like Warriors) where I want whip overflow to turn into gold.

Julius still won't trade Writing.
Too few of the civs he knows have it.
I've decided to go ahead and trade Pottery for Fishing and hopefully grab Sailing next turn.

Now, I know you Deity lurkers out there are screaming, "Don't do it! Bulb Engineering you noob!"
Being in the middle of Asia, I can see why that is usually a good idea.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140952
All I would have to do is avoid teching Fishing+Meditation+Civil Service, and then tech Aesthetics+Alphabet+Machinery+Construction.
Once I do all that, use 2 Great Scientists to bulb Engineering and then go insane with Trebuchets and Levees.

The main reason I want Fishing and Sailing is so I can easily have trade routes with the whole world.
And the other main reason is so I can get Calendar (requires Sailing) sooner since I have every Calendar resource already in my borders.
And finally, the mod maker changed all Longbows to have 5 instead of 6.

Elepult is going to be so much fun!

And the results:

Fishing discovered!


Elsewhere, the barbs recaptured Kashgar from Qin.
Met Wang Kon of the Korean Empire, my 21st civ.
There are now only 13 left to meet since Monty died already.
Mieszko of the Polish Empire converted to Islam which is also the religion of Rome, Israel, and Arabia.
Gems City will have to wait until the Workers road the tundra/forest/hilltop/gems tile to settle if I want the trade route right away.
I might even delay settling the city until the Workers mostly chop the forest if it looks like it might hurt my economy or attract to many barbs.

Scouts found some interesting things.
The barb city south of India is 3 pop, defended by 2 Warriors, and has an injured Cyrus Archer healing up to make another attack.
I will check around Estruscan for any additional attackers and then take the city myself if I think I'll succeed.
No fun killing one barb defender only to have a hidden army steamroll the other one and steal my conquest.

Up north, to the west of Bronze City, my Axe found another Barb City.
I'd like it to be high population since those give the most , but I'm going to be razing it no matter what.
I don't need a Wheat/Horse city that far away.

Cyrus' lands are purely to my south with only the capital a bit to the west.
We are going to fight for ownership of Greater India someday, I swear it.

T210 - Barbarians: 2 Spears and 3 Warriors died. ^_^

Easily won the fight for Polynesia, the barb city west of Bronze City.
Since it was Size 1, it auto razed and gave a paltry 23

Down south there was no foreign army surrounding Estruscan except that injured Cyrus Archer.
If I kill one barb Warrior, will Cyrus kill the other and steal my city?
Combat II with 2.3/3 hp, and it will heal 5% per turn in enemy territory.

Julius got Bronze Working from somebody else, so there are no more trade possibilities until another AI gets Alphabet.

Going to start 100% on Writing since I have more gold coming soon hopefully.

Silly Chinese, did they not wonder why Kashgar had been conquered by barbs in the first place?

About Etruscan: I would not attack right now, instead wait for the Persian Archer to attack again: either it wins and kills one of the warriors, and then you can attack and get the city (to raze it for the money I guess?), or it dies, rendering the problem of not getting the city moot.

Realy interesting plays Kaitzilla.
I especialy like how you are taking advantage of only 20 turns from and choop+whip for .
However i wonderig how this play out for you in mid game, or i rather say how this will affect your mid game economy.
I dont know how carefully you check tech tree so dont want to spoiler.
But from what we know i can (put?) thesis that map/mod maker put a lot of value on bulding buldings, not only reserching thechs
( witch is v good change for this map imo).
For example Currency, it is still milestone beocuse with that many ais, tradeing techs for is absolutly insane, but for +1 you need to bulid a Market.
Allso theres Levee after you reserch Engi, Forges, Courthouses on such a large map and large empire + you are Org are definetly bulding what you want to get.
Monasteries + Temples are worth to consider bulding especialy if you get somekind of bunus from SC or UoS or AP.
What i want to say is that in this mid game theres a lot of stuff to bulid, and chopping now all forest for makeing me think.
I know that early game affect game at moust, and later on you can whip much more ezy but still...
Later on turns are "longer", theres lot of expensive stuff to bulid in short period of time, witch normally you woudnt eg. Market,Levve ...
Like i said i rly like that you are taking adv from only 20T whip , but isnt it overkill ?

Noyyau said:

Silly Chinese, did they not wonder why Kashgar had been conquered by barbs in the first place?

About Etruscan: I would not attack right now, instead wait for the Persian Archer to attack again: either it wins and kills one of the warriors, and then you can attack and get the city (to raze it for the money I guess?), or it dies, rendering the problem of not getting the city moot.

Click to expand...

I figured Qin sent an Axe and would hold that city forever.
It must have been a Chariot. (Or an Axe that got overwhelmed by a horde of Spears + Warriors)


Waiting is usually the best move in a situation like this since the fully healed Archer will likely attack at full hp since it will have slightly better than 50% odds with 3.6 + First strike vs. 3.7 Combat I hilltop Warrior defender.

I'm really torn because of the 2 units.
It would be really easy for a 2nd Archer to join the healing one from the northwest and a 3rd Archer to suddenly appear from the west ready to strike the city through the Wheat.

If I attack Estruscan next turn, the following turn the injured Archer will have 2.6hp and the fight would be 3.15? vs. 3.5 barb Warrior, so the barb would have about 66% odds to win.
The Archer might even decide to heal one more turn.

This mod has changed things.
It really makes decisions harder.

If I succeed, I want the and the city to keep for my empire.
Estruscan is in a great spot.

yyeah said:

Realy interesting plays Kaitzilla.
I especialy like how you are taking advantage of only 20 turns from and choop+whip for .
However i wonderig how this play out for you in mid game, or i rather say how this will affect your mid game economy.
I dont know how carefully you check tech tree so dont want to spoiler.
But from what we know i can (put?) thesis that map/mod maker put a lot of value on bulding buldings, not only reserching thechs
( witch is v good change for this map imo).
For example Currency, it is still milestone beocuse with that many ais, tradeing techs for is absolutly insane, but for +1 you need to bulid a Market.
Allso theres Levee after you reserch Engi, Forges, Courthouses on such a large map and large empire + you are Org are definetly bulding what you want to get.
Monasteries + Temples are worth to consider bulding especialy if you get somekind of bunus from SC or UoS or AP.
What i want to say is that in this mid game theres a lot of stuff to bulid, and chopping now all forest for makeing me think.
I know that early game affect game at moust, and later on you can whip much more ezy but still...
Later on turns are "longer", theres lot of expensive stuff to bulid in short period of time, witch normally you woudnt eg. Market,Levve ...
Like i said i rly like that you are taking adv from only 20T whip , but isnt it overkill ?

Click to expand...

Yes, this mod puts much more importance on buildings.
Barracks are great for power rating that doesn't cost to maintain, and promoted units are even more important since I can't afford to maintain many, so they need to be good!
Plus, units are so easy to build I often have plenty of time to indulge in buildings since the AIs build all the Wonders.
And vertical cities have the huge reward of reducing horrifying unit maintenance costs.
I gain 0.66 per turn with every population increase for sure.
How does one get 20 pop cities? Buildings!
Even Walls and Castles look very appealing to boost the single border garrison unit and to help protect cities threatened by 2 units so quickly.

Oh!
Good catch on Currency.
Yes, I see now that Currency no longer gives +1 Trade Routes.
Only building a Market gives +1 Trade Route in the city.

I'm only slightly concerned about chopping my forests away for
I really really need the gold now, and with Levees from Engineering and the lack of Wonders for me to build I don't see a huge need to keep forests around.
Will leave the 2 near my capital alone, but the rest could be chopped at any time!
Maybe Pataliputra can keep some forests since I will probably move my capital there later.

If I really need forests, there are plenty of spots to the north where I can settle and have 17 or 18 forests to chop.


I appreciate the "overboard with whipping" praise.
Yes, I'm definitely using whips a bit more than I should, but I have 2 happiness resources with 3 more coming (Ivory very soon!) so whip whip whip!

The plan right now is to get Writing, whip a Library somewhere, and try to get a Great Scientist in 50 turns working 2 Scientist Specialists, then bulb Mathematics.
Don't forget my Unique Building!
Mathematics unlocks the Hammam which is an Aqueduct that gives +2 and +2, and once I have Math I can try for the Hanging Gardens too.
I will be putting them in all my cities, and my capital with Hamman+Gold+Gems+Silver+Fur+Ivory will be able to grow to 12 population.
Also, I can try and trade Math for Alphabet somehow.

Turnset 33 (T211 to T213)

T211 - Barbarians: 3 Warriors died.

Estruscan now has another Cyrus Settler+Archer to the north.
If I wait one more turn, the Archer might move south (unlikely, it'll probably protect the city) to join the injured Archer or another might appear from the west.

It's the west that really bugs me.
What if 2 archers come from the west?

Oh hell, let's just attack!
66% chance I get the city next turn if the injured Archer attacks, and 100% if it doesn't and heals instead.
Since I got 5 vs. 2.7, I will get 2 xp from a successful attack and a promotion next turn that will heal half my missing hp.
5.5 vs. 2.7 would only give 1 xp, so I must be careful not to promote before the fight.

**Edit**
My Axe won against the barb Warrior easily.
Now we wait for next turn.

Up north near Bronze City, barbs are threatening to pillage 3 vital roads. (1S1E, 1N, and 2N1E)
I can sweep them away easily but need to defend that 2N1E forest better before a Spear walks onto it.

T212 - Barbarians: 1 Warrior died.

All across my empire the crack of the whip was heard turning blood into cash!
Scout whipped in Tashkent (70)
Scout whipped in Invincible City (70)
Scout whipped and chopped in Delhi (130, Monument will just have to wait)

YES!
Estruscan got attacked by the injured 2.6?hp C2 Cyrus Archer and survived.

Estruscan was captured with 2 population and yielded a hefty 113.
It became my 12th city.

Ivory improved in Varanasi!
I now have Gold, Silver, and Ivory giving +3 to all my cities except newly conquered Estruscan.

Scouting reveals a Cyrus Settler moving to settle north of Pataliputra.
That is great news, as it frees up my expensive Axe to stop fogbusting up north and go explore China.
Scouts also reveal that Persia is quickly filling up the south and the Polish Empire is gradually replacing Russia to the northwest.

T213 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

David is plotting war against somebody!
Whomever they are is in for a world of hurt.
The Israeli Empire has the same power as mine, probably has 6 Vultures, and will likely use Alphabet to bribe other AI to attack their target once they DOW. (declaration of war)

I'm moving 2 Axes up to recapture Kashgar from the barbarians before Qin does.
Not gonna let that city slip away again.

Decided to delay settling Gems City until T219 when I need to chop the gems hilltop.
For one reason, I'm not sure if settling a 13th city will help or hurt me economically.
There aren't any good tiles to work up there.
For another reason, I don't feel secure up north.
If I settle Gems City and the barbs attack it in strength, I will be pulled away from defending roads against being pillaged.
As it stands right now, any trouble and everyone can stack up on the forested gems hilltop and defend while the Workers keep chopping.

Turnset 34 (T214 to T218)

T214 - Barbarians: 1 Spear and 3 Warriors died.

Whoa!
My injured Axe up near gems lost a fight to a barb Warrior at 98.5% odds.
Thank goodness that didn't happened to an Axe defending a city.
Retribution was swift!

Khmer the world's strongest empire to my southeast converted to Islam.
There is a very good chance that will be my religion someday soon.

Scouts continue to make progress though I fear I won't get around Babylon until I can sign open borders.
Mansa, my favorite AI in Civ 4, will just have to wait longer to meet me.

T215 - Barbarians: 2 Spears died.

Kashgar has been violently retaken from the Barbarians!
The two Spears guarding it were no match for my Axes.

Julius of the Roman Empire is now in War Prep mode.
Whomever is being targeted is in for a world of pain because Julius has Alphabet, just like Israel.
The victim can expect another civ to be bribed into war against them with this many AI in the world.

Ragnar of the Viking Empire also went into war mode.
This one isn't a big deal.
He is only getting 1 from each water tile until Harbors, and his score is very low, so his victim won't have too much trouble unless Ragnar has Galleys.

Stephen of Hungary converted to Hinduism.
This will cause him problems if all his neighbors become Islamic.

T216 - Barbarians: No deaths.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR JUST STARTED
Louis of France contacted me to see if I would please join the war against Pericles of Greece.
Before deciding, I checked the Foreign adviser tab before giving Louis his answer. (Refusal is -1 relations permanently)

Good lord
Julius of Rome, Isabella of Spain, Louis of France, and Hannibal of Carthage all declared war against the 2nd weakest civ Pericles of Greece.
It makes sense that Rome would attack a weak neighbor and bribe 3 others to do the same with techs.
Now the question is, do I want to join in and declare war on Greece?

Pros
I can build up "shared war" diplo bonuses with Rome, Spain, France, and Hannibal.
I avoid a -1 diplo penalty with Louis.

Cons
Saladin, Mieszko, and Hammurabi will all give me -1 for declaring war on someone they are Pleased with.
This will hurt my chances of getting open borders and having good relations with them later.
I will ruin relations with Greece, but they are going to get wiped out so not a big deal.


Mmm, it looks like a good idea on paper.
I just hate getting extra -1 diplo hits before Open Borders.
If Rome was asking, things would be different.
I could care less if Louis gives me -1 diplo.

If this was a normal speed game where diplo bonuses take forever to build, I'd tell Louis yes.
But this is Marathon and I want to play things safe and my gut says refuse.

Sorry Louis, no war!

Cyrus settled a city north of Pataliputra freeing up my sentry Axe to go explore towards China.
Cyrus also has another Settler down west of Estruscan.
Soon, all of the land down south will be claimed and improved by Deity AI almost twice as fast as any Human Player can do so.

Tashkent produced my 12th Worker to go help improve Kashgar.

T217 - Barbarians: 2 Warriors died.

Pericles of Greece asked me to declare war on France.
Hah!
Not a chance dead man.

Julius of the Roman Empire converted to Hinduism.
I wonder where it is coming from and which unmet civ founded it.

Scout whipped in Samarkand (+70)
Settler 3-pop whipped in Pataliputra.
It will hopefully settle Fur City in the far north around T230.
The overflow will go into a Scout next turn and generate another 80 roughly on T219.
Should give me some breathing room to whip away cottages for Libraries.

Connected a road 1S1W of Varanasi to the Persian Empire which instantly formed a trading route to Stephen of Hungary, Cyrus, Hammurabi, and Saladin.
None of them had any resources for me that I was interested in trading, but it is good to have the connection before Writing is complete so I can get +2 foreign trade routes immediately.

T218 - Barbarians: 1 Spear died.

One turn away from Writing.
Cyrus has his 1st Axeman and Kashgar looks clear for improvement.

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