(0) 250AD Looking over the initial save, I think Dantski's done a really good job with the unexciting role of playing the last spot in order. He picked up Hunting tech, dialed up a nice bankroll for deficit research, and managed to pop out a
Great Scientist on the final turn, which wasn't even mentioned in the turn report! The only minor mistake is whipping the temple a turn late in Ondini; those shields are unfortunately going to disappear on the crossover. But on the whole, very little to nitpick, and a great job!
Much of what I do next will depend on which civ/leader I roll. I start with the civ, and get... the Khmer. Interesting. It's a shame we don't have any ivory, so we won't get to use their unique unit elephants, but we CAN build their nifty aqueduct unique building, which comes at a cheaper rate and adds extra food. That dovetails nicely with a plan to build the Hanging Gardens too!
Next, it's time to roll the civ. We get... Frederick (Philosophical/Organized). Not an Aggressive civ, too bad, but once again I think we can get some use out of this. Philosophical works well with our specialist economy right now, especially with the Great Person points getting reset on each crossover. In fact, we should pop another Great Person out of Madrid before the end of my turnset! And Organized actually comes at a good time as well, right when we'd like to whip some courthouses. Honestly, I'm not rigging these swaps - I would have chosen someone else if I were picking!
Once again, we exchange our green Portugese banner for the dark blue of the Khmer:
Organized has done wonders for our finances, pulling us from 40% to 50% science all on its own. Everything else gets reset, so I go through our cities and make new changes to reflect the changed circumstances. Like most cities, Madrid will go to max food (to refill its wiped-out food box) while working on an axeman. That means that I'm temporarily dropping the scientist specialists here (which drops our tech rate considerably!) Barcelona and kwaDuzka will similarly also carry the military load, since all of them have a barracks/Ilkhanda combination. Our smaller cities can continue to work on infrastructure.
The question remains, what to do with our Great Scientist? Operating on the assumption that we'll be getting a LOT of Great People in this game (due to the wacky crossover rules), I decide to use him right away rather than waste turns waiting for a decision. There's no great tech to lightbulb at the moment (our option is Mathematics) and the math favors an Academy over a super-specialist at this point in time. So, after some careful thought, I burn our Scientist on an Academy in Madrid:
Please let me know if you think this was weed.
We should have either a Great Scientist or a Great Engineer by the middle of the next round, so hopefully this won't feel like a waste!
Note: the Academy plus bumping science rate takes us from 34 beakers/turn to 50/turn. That's an increase of almost 50%!
(1) 265AD Whip the Islamic monastery in Ondini. The overflow will go into a (cheap Organized) courthouse.
(4) 310AD The continent to the south is looking larger and larger, plus Toku already has a lot of cities down there. He's got at least NINE cities so far - wow! We only have four workers, and two of them are down on the little southern island where Lisbon is situated? That was a mistake... There's no galley anywhere even remotely close to ferry them back to the mainland. I'll have to get Barcelona to build a second galley soon.
(5) 325AD Here's a shot of Madrid, now that it's refilled the food box and reached size 8:
It's also a fair (if imperfect) example of a specialist economy in action. We're researching rather nicely right now thanks to those Representation-enhanced scientist specialists. In fact, if we feel safe from attack, we could probably fund more expansion by founding the red dot city soon. We're also due to produce a Great Person shortly after sunrise's turn begins.
(8) 370AD Ha ha!
I did say things would get silly, didn't I?
Barcelona and kwaDuzka both finish military builds. I swap both to courthouses, which will be whipped next turn, then back onto military again. Madrid, on the other hand, will be going to work on the Hanging Gardens after it finishes the current axeman.
(9) 385AD We discover Mathematics, and I select Construction next. Since this is the next-to-last turn, this decision can be vetoed if desired. Alternate paths include heading straight for Civil Service (would be nice in the capital), looking to Currency for our economy, Calendar to hook up some of our many jungle resources, or going to Alphabet and trying to trade something to Toku for Construction. This is something we should probably discuss a little!
(10) 400AD Nothing eventful on the last turn. I'm bringing our galley back to the mainland to ferry back those workers, as well as stand on hold to bring another settler to red dot if desired. There is one warrior on goto order heading to Oporto in the northwest corner (just wanted to avoid any surprises). I have things set up for us to finish the axe in Madrid next turn, then we should whip the baray (aqueduct) and start in on Hanging Gardens. The other cities (Barcelona and kwaDuzka) can remain on military. We definitely have enough now to hold off a Toku attack. But we probably want more than that, so *WE* can go on the offensive!
Obviously we'll need about a half dozen cats on hand too before we can do anything...
Rather than show our territory, I thought I'd show our Japanese rivals:
Toku's getting a little too big for his britches. It sure would be nice if we could cut him down to size a little! Remember, the turn order will be a little different this time around:
Sullla
sunrise089 <<< UP NOW
Swiss Pauli <<< on deck
Dantski
TheArchduke
http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ4/SG/RBTS5/RBTS5-AD-400.zip
Good luck and have fun!
Sounds like Toku will not leave you place for more than 5 cities for a long time. 
