Alright, turnset played.
Took a few turns to get in position to take Utrecht. Utrecht's borders continued to press on both Dam and Lagash. In fact, for some reason we lost access to copper, so I had to stop the horse trade with Church for a few turns.
Willie had iron. It popped NE of Hague, which I found with a chariot I rushed in after I had killed an axe. Will made some stupid moves with his axes. I killed them off with chariots and then pillaged his copper.
Utrecht was pretty painful. Lost 3 Vultures to just 1 Sword which is ridiculous, but that is cultural defense for you. Hague went down without a loss. I debated keeping Hague, but decided to keep it simply to block iron from Will. Will has a potential spot to the West to settle, so we may yet extort from him again.
I got Maths and Alpha from Willie (sorry meant to take a screenshot)
I took Rags Iron city a bit earlier, which I kept (good city), but stayed at war with him until I got alpha from Willie. I got IW, Poly and Archery from Rag (see screen below). So overall a good haul.
Church came along and requested something of us that I was hoping either him or Asoka would do. I accepted without question. We are now Buddhists. Both Church and Asoka are Pleased with us, so that offers some opportunities. I hope to beg the important PH off of Church.
Rag peace:
Rag: He has one crap city and will be nerfed for a while. Potential to settle NE in the jungle or dump something off in our SW territory.
I'm thinking EPs on Rag is worthless at this point. We should start focusing on Asoka or Church. We have enough to steal something from Rag later, but it will be a long time before he has anything for us to steal I think.
Great Scientists: We popped one in Eridu which I put on hold for discussion. Another one will pop from Uruk soon. I see 3 options:
1) Bulb Compass and trade for Construction
2) Build an academy in Uruk and settle the next one for some decent residual beakers over time
3) Hold on for better bulbs later. Things like Optics or Astro may be of use here, but we may get more GS's later.
Also note that if we can get a temple or two up soon in Nidaros we may pop a Great Prophet for a shrine later. Something to think about.
Personally, I like the Compass>Construction trade as it makes us militarily viable for some time.
Attacking Asoka/Church in near term, with both having construction, would be painful. We can always settle the next GS or bulb with it. Bulbs may be of more value this game.
Currency is queued up, but we may want t turn or 2 into PH for a beg. PH is a very important tech for us obviously. Neither Asoka or Church currently of Currency, so not sure an immediate attack is worth it, especially without construction.
If we get Construction soon with Compass bulb, we can beg PH off Church and attack Asoka without worry of Asoka bribing in Church, which could be a big concern. (Church has HBR as well).
Lot's to think about, but we are making good progress. We may end up teching most of Currency ourselves.
Also, we might want to get out a few settlers to place in potential spots up North that might get taken by the AI. We don't have to settle yet, but just keep an eye on it. And with IW the jungle is now feasible to settle and we definitely want those gems and Vandal.