I think we're now officially set up for the stretch run.
I started the round by getting what gold I could from the dupes on the Diplomacy screen:
Here's hoping old Sury can leave his heathen ways behind and become a productive member of the international community. I somehow doubt it, but I did my part for world peace and harmony.
I also rebuilt my resource trade network:
I'm also trading Gems to Willem for Pigs. I think this setup, overall, gets me more bang for my buck.
And with that, I was ready to begin the round. I dithered between 100% Culture and less throughout the round, and finally settled on running it like I would the Science slider in a Cottage Economy: With as small a surplus or deficit as I could in terms of straight cash. I figure I'll pump it to full once all of the Cathedrals are in play.
The good people of Thebes granted me a Great Artist. He was quickly sent to Memphis to settle and help them play catch-up.
In terms of the great war against Charlemagne and Stalin, the Holy Roman Empire lost their second city and quickly buckled, joining the evil Chinese empire. Stalin, meanwhile, held out. He even demanded tribute in order to call off hostilities with me.
Thankfully, our good buddy Saladin put a quick end to that particular brand of nonsense:
Was it necessary? No. But it was a nice gesture.
In 1405, our greatness was recognized by the world community:
We would have topped out Culture, too. But probably not any of the other lists. Well, land is power, after all...
After the pope demanded that I go home and read a book, I was on the sidelines watching as the war continued to unfold between the world and Stalin. Needless to say, the world was winning:
Uncle Joe ended up the vassal of Suleiman, of all people. Ah, well. Maybe that'll help to keep the Chinese in check. At least a little bit.
In 1445, Mark Twain was born in Thebes. He, too, went off to Memphis to settle down and write books about Tom uMgungundlovu and Huckleberry Finn:
See? I told you that Thebes could function as a nice little GP Farm, even with all those cottages!
It was on Saladin's next Apostolic initiative that I made a major diplomatic misstep:
I figured that nobody really liked Germany, and that by making Otto at least semi-strong, he would serve to keep some other European powers in check. Indeed, the measure passed, and Berlin was once again a German city. What I hadn't counted on was Willem seeing my ballot and holding a grudge. It took nearly a century to get him back to Pleased. I guess I should have figured that there would be diplomatic consequences to that sort of thing. Ah, well. Live and learn.
I founded a semi-useless city in south-central Africa:
My chances of getting Islam are slim, but slim is better than none. You can also see that the mid-second-millennium Americas blowup is right on schedule. I'll keep you posted.
In 1480, a beautiful lady popped up in the middle of the desert:
Yay! Needless to say, my Culture cities got Artists. Everyone else got Scientists.
Of course, it wasn't all good news out of Memphis:
Freakin' random events. At least Mark Twain survived.
Once Replacable Parts was finally online (My science situation is getting better now that I've got Farms popping up and a good number of Scientists running throughout the empire), I made another quick flurry of trades:
And I started heading toward Rifling.
We earned one more Great Artist in this round. I think he'll be the last one to settle:
From here on out, they're pure Culture Bombs. As you can see, Minoan might just get eaten by Zulu culture. Again, we don't
need Islam. But it would be awfully nice.
Utica is also considering the Zulu lifestyle:
If Utica revolts, should we take it? Or burn it?
In 1545, I sent some intrepid, unarmed colonists to South America:
Trusting in the protection of the Great Wall, they sneered at the Barbarians and the Workers set out to tame the landscape.
The Barbarians were not impressed:
Should've called that city Roanoke. Okay, so what went wrong there? Was it that the Great Wall only works on its native continent? Or were the Barbarians exempt from the Wall since I built my borders around them? Not that it's a huge deal. I got 60 Gold out of it, and the Workers managed to flag down the ship and make an escape back to Africa. Just more a matter of curiosity.
Speaking of Africa, I made a swap with our good buddies, the Koreans:
And I upgraded a good chunk of our Thebes garrison:
Given the Suez bottleneck, I think we're once again safe from incursion. Though our treasury took a hefty hit.
It was there that I decided to call the round.
Here's a look at our hemisphere:
And the Americas:
Australia seems more crowded than it usually is. I guess even crappy land is at a premium with this many Civs on the map.
The Domestic Advisor:
Memphis is 100 turns from achieving Legendary status, and each of the Culture cities is working on its third Cathedral. So I'd estimate we probably have about 75 or so turns left. Not bad.
If you look at the Tech situation:
You'll see that we're slowly but surely clawing our way back into it. Nobody has more than three techs on us. I think next round is going to start with another technological fire sale, though, to refloat the economy. Once we get those final Cathedrals in place, I'd like at least a couple turns' worth of 100% culture.
Why I'm including the Diplomacy web, I have no clue:
It's... impressive, I'll give it that. But it's hard to get any useful information out of.
Here's a screenshot of the Power Graph:
Our Rifling upgrades aren't represented on there. We're still a middle-of-the-road Civ, though. I don't think we have too much to worry about. Maybe we can sign a Defensive Pact with Korea, just to be sure.
And we'll wrap it up with a peek at the Victory Screen:
I don't think we have to worry about anyone sneaking a victory out from under us in the next 75 turns. If they do, I'll be very impressed. So I think the win is ours. It's just a matter of pressing Enter a bunch of times. I think I'll wrap up with one final, long round and then we can move on. Assuming the unexpected doesn't happen, of course.
Thoughts?
The save:
If you manage to get Islam feel free to spread it around... more cathedrals will help speed things up and you won't really have much else to do.
Just... just demand it. I would've given it to you. Offering me five gold is demeaning to the both of us. Whatever. Run along and play in your Siberian hell. I've got a game to win.
