Synopsis (What's Going On In General)
1. We are still at War with Merlot (and Mavericks). Merlot and Mavericks briefly formed an (M&M) alliance, but shortly after, Mavericks quit and the administrators have given Merlot complete control of the Mavericks' civ, so now Merlot controls 2 Civs
2. Our first Holy Crusade (code-named "Operation Salamander") against Merlot failed when a Royal Crossbow force ambushed our Invasion stack of Immortals as they were camping on the coast of Southeast Marthaton, awaiting transport to MHI (Merlot Home Island)
3. A huge Maverick force and a equally huge Merlot force are marching towards Nabaxica (Our canal City in the center of the Star-mainland)
4. CDZ and Quatronia almost went to war over Hoag (the land between them), but we negotiated a quasi-truce, whereby both teams agreed to stop settling Hoag and settle towards M&M instead, while a settlement agreement can be negotiated
5. We are still in a tech Alliance with Sirius, Quatronia and CDZ, called the ETTT
6. We have a Comprehensive Alliance with Sirius, called the SAP, which includes a NAP until 1000AD. CDZ knows about the NAP with Sirius
7. We have a Comprehensive Alliance with CDZ called the Klepto-MAZON, which includes a permanent NAP and obligates us to share captured Merlot land. Sirius knows about the NAP with CDZ
8. We are third in score Overall
9. The Map consists of a Star-shaped Mainland, with each team having a small Home Island with Tons of Resources. We have Sheep, Silver, Deer, Fur, and Iron on Our Home Island. The Spokes of the star alternate between a spoke with Marble, Ivory, Horse, Banana and a spoke with Stone, Copper, Incense, Cow
10. We accepted Sirius's proposal to share Anjennida (the land between us), and added terms that require them to wait for us to build Libraries there before they can build any cultural buildings. So now there is a settlement agreement, and Anjennida can be settled
Religion Strategy
1. We have our own religion from getting Theology first(Christianity).
2. Our religion has spread it to all of our Home Island (DI) cities. We plan to spread it abroad as the war permits, giving priority to the cities on Anjennida/Jennilund (the land between us and Sirius)
3. We plan to use temples to run priests in order to get a Great Priest and build our Christian shrine (Church of the Nativity)
Tech Strategy
1. Sirius finished Astronomy, so now we have it and have built Galleons. We are currently teching Feudalism, and Quatronia is after Printing Press. However, most allies are stocking Gold for Military upgrades.
2. Overall, as the non-FIN team, we tech the slowest, so we let our allies take the lead in determining tech goals while we tech things that they are not after.
Overall Goals / Objectives (Besides Having Fun
)
1. We built Nabaxica, a Canal/Fortress city near the center of the Map. Now we need to pop the borders, so that we can build Forts to use as Canals to quickly reach all the different landmasses.
2. We want to help Quatronia and CDZ reach an amicable settlement agreement on the settlement of Hoag (the land between them).
3. We want to exploit our IMP trait and get as many cities, as quickly as possible, while relying on our FIN Allies to provide most of the tech.
4. We want to keep creating Mis-matches (4 on 1, then 3 on 1, then 2 on 1) through our alliances and Diplomacy to keep ourselves in the game.
5. We built the Great Wall and we want to establish dominance in espionage. We got our 1st Great Spy and settled him, giving our capital 22
/turn, and the second will build Scotland Yard. We should get the second Great Spy soon (unless we get an Engineer) We are considering running a hybrid Specialist or Commerce Economy as the backbone, while establishing the ability to convert to an Espionage Economy if necessary.
War Goals/Objectives
1. We want to beat Merlot off of Marthaton (the land between us and Merlot) and try to take the whole landmass for ourselves
2. We want to isolate Merlot from any Maverick reinforcements by blocking the appraoch by land with Nabaxica, our Canal/Fortress City in the Center of the Map
3. We want to capture Vandal, the barbarian city on Marthaton, and use it as a forward base against Merlot
War Victories & Accomplishments / Defeats & Failures
The Good 
1. We captured and razed the Circus (Merlot's largest City on Marthaton)
2. We captured the Library (Merlot's city on the landmass shared with CDZ), however, as per the Klepto-MAZON, we must surrender this city to CDZ
3. We have clogged the Canal beween Marthaton and the Merlot/CDZ landmass with our ships and acheived Naval superiority there
4. We have recently used an amphibious raid to capture 3 Merlot workers in one fell swoop
The Bad 
1. Merlot destroyed our Invasion stack before it could leave Marthaton, we lost over 10 units
2. Mavericks are Marching towards Nabaxica from the Western desert with a large mixed stack, in tandem with the Merlot stack approaching from the Eastern jungle. Both stacks represent a threat to capture Nabaxica, as well as a threat to capture our Anjennida cities.
3. We planned to suprise-road to destroy the Maverick stack, but a miscalculation on Worker laziness (movement penalty in desert) necessitated the disbanding of the workers.
Diplomacy / Foreign Relations / Conflicts
Sirius
We have two treaties with them, the ETTT and the SAP. Through the SAP, we are allied with them until at least 1000AD.
They seem to want the role of Tech leader, and they have been trying to maximize their tech rate. They want to build the Great Library. They have their own religion through getting Code of Laws first (Confucianism). They have been reluctant to build armies in the past, but have recently entered the fray, capturing a Maverick city.
We have reached an agreement to share the penninsula between us. This agreement requires us to settle a city on Anjennida quickly on the Northeast coast
Quatronia
We were placed in a military alliance with them and against Merlot by administrative decision of the the game admin, as a result of Quatronia attacking Merlot and Merlot attacking us. Quatronia has re-engaged in the war by building an invasion force to attack Mavericks.
Quatronia is competing with Sirius in score, and they alternate between first and second place each turn.
CDZ
We have a treaty with them called the Klepto-MAZON. After signing the treaty, or at least asserting that they already signed the treaty, they declared War on Merlot. They now have access to their powerful Unique Unit, the Berserk (Mace). They loaded Berzerks into Galleons and approached MHI as part of Operation Salamander, but when our stack was destroyed, they halted their advance. We are currently asking them to use their forces to join the fight on Marthaton to support Nabaxica, or capture the Marthaton Merlot cities
Merlot
We are at War with Merlot. Merlot has been given complete control of Mavericks, and the Maverick players have been allowed to join Merlot if they wish.
Merlot has made great advances in military tech and is almost on par with us now. They have a stack of Crossbows on Marthaton that forced our stack to retreat to Nabaxica. We are currently watching them approach Nabaxica
Overall, we are not winning the war with Merlot, but hopefully our newly appointed General, 2metraninja, will remedy this.
Mavericks
Mavericks have quit (obsolete announced their resignation). Merlot now controls their civ. Mavericks have passed CDZ in score and are very close to passing us as well.
)? 
, and slaughtered without a shred of mercy 
