And so here we go. On the inherited turn, I change 1-beaker research to Math. No need for full research until we can afford the deficit the whole way. I also assign the corn to Bombay, we want to bring it up to size in accordance with Rep happiness, and it does not cost a turn on the Pyramids. Delhi switches off the silver and shared corn to two cottages, it also needs to grow. Bombay wants to be at size 6 working cow, farm, and four hills. In the west, I pull two warriors back towards our borders; we are paying supply costs and once Uberfood is founded we can fully barb-bust with only two warriors.
Then I hit enter.
The Oracle completes, and Code of Laws is even recommended by the advisor. Done.
The Confucian holy city is Bombay, as anticipated. I do not adopt the religion right away - no need until a city actually needs the happy.
T105 / 1375 BC: The Uberfood site of Varanasi is founded. Starts a work boat. I check the mod help and find Alt-X to get rid of the dotmap dot underneath it.
Shaggy the easternmost warrior goes exploring into Zara's lands since we have OB.
T107 / 1325 BC: We now own a Huge Triangular Cube. (50 points for that reference.)
Confucianism arrives in Varanasi by missionary, and also random-spreads to Delhi! A turn later it also random-spreads to Vijayanagara! And on T114 Pataliputra! Man I'm good at this game. All our cities have Confucianism. :jive:
And I whip Vijay's work boat. Sorry city, but you are a fringe player. The core of our game is diplomacy and we must have contacts. 8 turns of contacts and exploration are worth more than 1 city size in this fishing village.
I didn't notice that Bombay doesn't have anything to build now after the Pyramids. No Aqueduct until Mathematics. Don't want to build a worker/settler when it wants to be growing instead. I guess I'll just put it on warriors since we'd like to have extras.
T111 / 1225 BC: Great Lighthouse built in a faraway land. Not Zara. But Aksum had 85 hammers last turn and now it doesn't. No other building is visible in the city, so either a settler or he failed the GLH.
I adopt Representation now since Bombay grew into unhappiness and Delhi soon will. But Bombay really has nothing to build now. I don't even want more warriors since unit costs are hurting. I don't want to stop its growth with a worker or settler, since if it builds population now it can whip the aqueduct later. (Also we already have enough workers, and costs from another settled city would be severe.) Library doesn't help in a beakerless city. Ditto for monastery, and enabling missionaries doesn't help either since we'll have Math by the time the monastery finishes and Org Rel shortly thereafter. So this may sound silly, but I put Bombay on a stone-doubled Chichen Itza. We'll get some fail gold in about a millennium.
T113 / 1175 BC: Big news!
Isabella signs Open Borders! She is the Buddhist founder, of course. I put all EP on Isabella since we have plenty on Zara.
T114: Our warrior spots an Ethiopian settler. Let's see where it goes. Yes, next turn it built a city in the river area between our civs.
T118 / 1050 BC: Vijay builds a second work boat to go exploring northwest. (No I didn't whip it.) It finally starts a granary.
Also Varanasi (Uberfood) chopped its work boat (I used a forest in third-ring from the city that will not come within its border anytime soon.) The boat has a few turns to explore before it needs to come back and net the fish. It finds MORE big news!
He also signs OB. He is the Hinduism founder. I leave EP on Isabella until we get her graphs.
T121 / 975 BC: Bombay has hit size 8. If it grows any more, it'll work bad tiles (bare grass or plains forest), and it's still going to be a while until we get Mathematics, so I start it on a worker.
T122 / 950 BC: This seems like a good place to hand over. I went 18 turns which is a bit long for a turnset, but it was pretty quiet and nothing was happening.
Delhi has finished its library. We are in position to knock to max research on Mathematics, which will take 8 turns and almost exactly burn our gold.
Bombay is doing a worker now. When we get Math, it can 2-whip the aqueduct and build the Gardens at size 6 working cow and 4 hills. It has three forests available to go into the wonder, two pre-chopped (the one due south of the city is actually pre-MINED.) We should get it.
Varanasi (Uberfood) just popped its border this turn and is happily working two fish. Pigs pasture is timed to complete just as the city grows. It wants to whip the granary sometime. Probably library next in anticipation for the Nat Epic and Great Library.
With the Hanging Gardens coming in about 20 turns, we want to start planning settlers now to get the growth boost. Delhi can do one, and so can Pataliputra; the timing and whipping is up to the next leader. Varanasi can probably also whip the granary then whip a settler if we want.
The biggest question right now is
what to make our first Great Person. We have many choices.
1. If we do nothing, we'll get a Prophet from the Oracle city in 20 turns.
2. If we can build the Hanging Gardens quickly enough, Bombay will birth an Engineer first. I calculate that we can if we chop all three forests.
2a. If we don't build the HG quickly, we could go Caste and hire a specialist in Bombay for two turns. This would make Bombay pop before the Oracle city, and risk 8% pollution of the other type for 92% Engineer.
3. Delhi could hire two scientists now to birth a Scientist.
4. Varanasi (Uberfood) could pop the first GP as a merchant or scientist, if we go Caste System.