Round 7: 500AD - 800AD
An even shorter round this time. I'm going slow because this part of the game is rather tricky. The rough plan for this round was to continue developing, get Monarchy and then head towards Construction (for cats) in preparation for another war with HC.
To start, we researched Hunting first. It would only take 1 turn
I adjusted Memphis' tiles to let it grow (one of you mentioned the pigs and I realised I could grow the city quickly with it and the corn in one turn):
Growing the city was useful as it allowed us to run even more priests without ceasing work on that delicious flood plain cottage:
Yes, Memphis was starving a little, but it could last for a long time like that and the extra GPP would go a long way.
Anyway, I hadn't planted the GG in Huamanga yet, thinking that I might yet decide to put the GMI in another city. But with Huamanga one turn away from finishing its axeman and having no other visible alternative, the GG went to that city after all.
Our next GP was soon born in Thebes:
He was used to lightbulb Theology. We could make use of Theocracy soon, and it's good to have the option of lightbulbing DR immediately just in case.
After that GP was born, Thebes stopped running priests and focused on commerce and production. And as some of you advised, I set its build to research after it completed the spearman on the following turn:
With the Bureaucracy bonus to help, it cut our research down by one turn. Not a bad deal considering there wasn't anything very useful to build at the capital.
When Monarchy had been researched, I made a civics switch:
In time for the spearman being built in Huamanga to receive the xp bonus on the next turn. Besides this (as well as the obvious happiness bonus from HR), the civics change also had the benefit of cutting our civic upkeep a little. In our situation, a few gold pieces a turn made some difference.
A few turns later, after Madrid built its granary, I put two priests up to prepare the city for the generation of the following GP after Memphis:
I think one of you recommended putting three priests there, but with the HR-induced happiness, Madrid could afford to grow. So I let it grow slowly by working all the cottaged tiles it had. The only restraining factor was upkeep, and that will be dealt with over the time it takes to grow.
Shortly after, word was received that Huayna had built the Colossus:
That was both a bad thing and a potential boon. Bad because that would help his Financial trait, potential boon because it might become ours soon enough. Another incentive or pressure to go to war?
That pretty much summed up the round, which ended as Mathematics was completed. What's next? Construction (12 turns) for war? Currency (13 turns) for economy? Paper takes only 18 turns to research now, so we could get it soon. I'm thinking of Construction -> Paper (start on Sankore in Thebes immediately) -> Currency -> DR (partly lightbulbed, the rest should take fewer than 20 turns to research by then). Should Thebes continue helping by building research? I'm thinking of doing so until it could build catapults.
A look at our current GP generator:
Still a long way. I think we need to save this one for DR. After the GP, I'm thinking of whipping some troops in Memphis as Madrid takes over the main task of being the GP farm.
The graphs:
HC's sharp rise in GNP is probably due to his completing the Colossus. It was rather drastic, and then fell a little shortly afterwards - change of tiles being worked? Nevertheless, he has shown himself to have a lot economic power. I think we should launch the war soon to prevent him from capitalizing on this.
We are slowly closing up the gap in power, though it's likely that we'll still be far below when we fight him. IMO it's quite normal to be below the AI in power on Emperor. With cats we should be able to crush HC. Preferably before he gets longbows
And as for the actual preparation for the war, I think Huamanga should building CRII swords and axes while a few other cities are building cats.
The overhead map:
IMO we should invade the city NW of Madrid with our main force, while a smaller force based at Huamanga will either defend against a counterattack or cut off Inca attempts at reinforcements. If we are successful, we can advance as far up as the Colossus city. Any other ideas?
PS: I didn't switch back to OR even though we weren't building units in the last few turns because I wanted lower upkeep to research Maths quickly. Before saving the game (but after taking the screenshots), however, I switched back to OR to help with building improvements before we start amassing units for the war.