Round 4: 1640 BC to 1120 BC [14 Turns] - This Crowd is Tough to Appease
At the start of the round, I realized that I neglected to open borders with Hannibal, who had a Jewish missionary in Hadrumetum. I also sent a worker to road the tile south of the corn, so that I could set early trade routes with Hannibal. Unfortunately, as I would find out, Hannibal neglected to connect Hadrumetum to the rest of his cities, so for a couple of turns I only got one foreign trade route.
I planned on fighting the barbarian spearmen that came from the north out "in the open" which means outside of a city. I was successfully able to lure it to attack my archer in the forest and killed it. Even if the barbarian spearman had won with low health, I had a warrior next to the archer who could have cleaned him up if necessary. This is why archers were so important. That barbarian spearmen was not headed to a city, he was headed to the road network between Angkor Thom and Yasodharapura.
Here's the evidence:
You can also tell in the above screenshot that Hariharalaya is building a worker. I already have 4 workers, so this would be my fifth of the game.
As expected, Hannibal spreads Judaism to me!
I will convert next turn, because I want to wait until the workboat in Yasodharapura is finished, because that workboat can move while the anarchy happens, so I save a turn.
Here's where Angkor Wat, the fourth city, was founded. I had it build a granary. I decided to let it have one of the capital's clams, so that it would grow fast. Yasodharapura (the capital) was going to build a settler the next turn, so there wasn't any point in having it grow. My plan is to build a fifth settler, then build a libary after the settler in Yasodharapura is finished. Notice how I have a one turn granary in the capital?
Edit: I founded it here rather than the east, because it saved on maintenance costs, and there didn't seem to be a danger of Hannibal taking the place over (no settlers in sight).
Angkor Wat's borders would take control of the third clams soon enough. And I've already got a workboat ready. The plan here is Granary -> Library, with perhaps a chop to facilitate production.
Since we have a production bonus on granaries, I decided to have these workers chop into a granary while holding the archer for later. I have two workers here, and both of them will cottage their respective grasslands. Naturally, the granary was completed in one turn. A side note: I like how this mod stops my workers a turn before they chop, so I don't risk losing forests.
Also, a funny thing to notice is that the forest I stole from hannibal to the south had a forest RE-GROW on the same tile. Hannibal has 76% control over that tile, so I'm hoping to get a libary quickly to further culturally pressure him.
I met some more civilizations this round. If I win this game, I'll consider it my best game yet. Look at the foes I've got! Virtually all are militaristic, powerful, excellent leaders (including myself, Sury!) ... what happend to those Sitting Bulls or Hatshepsuts or any of the 3 Americans I could count on to divert those AI's away from me?
That last AI better be one of those peaceful people.
Once I researched
Writing (1200 BC, turn 70) I began
Sailing which would be followed by
Aesthetics. Mao Zedong offered to open borders with me, but I'm going to wait until I get Sailing, since I don't want him to benefit from getting trade routes from me. I know he has trade route access to me because his workboat was exploring by my cities earlier. I did, however, open borders with Willem and Gilgamesh, because both had a -2 in diplomacy towards me, and one more -1 would mean they were annoyed (and they both have different religions than me). I wanted to get the +2 open borders diplomatic benefit.
On this same turn, I also created another settler, aiming to found my fifth city to the west.
*On turn 71, both Catherine and Cyrus go in WHEOOHRN mode. I'm not bordering them so I hope their target isn't me.
I concluded the round on turn 72, where I have an impotant settling decision to make. Plus, I'm very busy today.
Do I go up for my original spot which was 2 north of the cow (on the desert hill, very close to the barbarian city) or do I risk settling a little more south? Hannibal should be getting his 5th city very soon, though I don't think a settler is in sight. You can see China nearby. Mao should convert to Judaism soon thanks to Hannibal's missionaries. I am very tempted to settle 1SE of the copper and then with the 6th city, back to the desert hill. Then, my seventh city can claim a spot south of my capital.
Here are my four cities.
Angkor Thom already has 2 cottages. I am tempted to whip the libary for 2 population points this turn (at the start of the next round). It will grow back to size 3 soon enough and it will keep protecting the corn tile from Hannibal. I plan to cottage at least 3-4 more tiles in this city. I won't run scientists.
Hariharalaya is still stuck on worker duty. Should I stick a libary after this worker? I'm tempted to produce yet another worker after this worker! We do have the forests.
Yasodharapura is the best city here. It's at a good size and will finish the libary soon. I will run 2 scientsts from this city as soon as possible, and build an academy.
Angkor Wat will build a libary next turn. I would have liked this city to run specialists, but it will be slower than the capital which is already at a good size to run scientists. I think I'll let this city grow, and build a mine on that hill tile. I'm not sure what to do with those grassland tiles yet. Cottaging without rivers seems lame, but I can't irrigate without Civil Service. Most likely, I'll just ignore them and use them as chop fodder.
The current map. I've got signs cluttering the map but it should still be somewhat readable. I still have to get a settler down to the banana, dye, and clam site to the south, but maybe the capital's borders could expand before that hapens and cover that site for me anyway.
Plan for next round.
1. Finish Sailing, research Aesthetics. I could stick Masonry to connect the marble.
2. Found my 5th and possibly 6th city (where??).
3. Get Mao and Hannibal pleased, while keeping all other leaders cautious or better.
4. Open borders with Mao once Sailing is researched.
5. Try to send a unit or two to the barbarian city and see if I can capture it.
6. Run 2 scientists in a city (which one, though?).
7. I will build 2-3 more cotages.
8. I will build 1 more worker not counting the one just about to be finished from Hariharalaya. Perhaps this isn't needed as I seem to have plenty of workers, but I will need them for the new cities.
9. I will explore more with the workboat north and to the west. Eventually, the east.
What do you think?
Here's the save, if you want to take a look.
2
coast tiles, it can help research BW faster. It only takes 5 turns to build a workboat working that plain hill mine + 2 center tile 
. So you will have your 2 boats out before BW is even researched. This order gives faster commerce.
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