Round 4: 275 BC to 190 AD (31 turns), Part 2
Shaka showed up on the very turn before I was about to convert back to Buddhism myself, demanding I do so.
Well, that was easy--like I said, I was about to do so myself, but now in the bargain I earned a +1 diplomacy bonus with one of the neighbours. Excellent.
Now that Huayna was done like dinner, I marched my stack over to that barb city to my south.
I earned a few more XPs and got myself another city and some more resources. The wheat and pigs will be welcome; In this game, many of my cities are in danger of hitting their health caps before their happiness caps. I think that's a function of Charismatic, of having several civs on the map to trade resources with, and HR. The horses will be welcome, too--normally I wouldn't trade them, but I have very few surplus resources right now, so I will. They'll be very valuable and will probably bring in a couple of resources and some GPT too. Hammurabi doesn't have horses but has several surplus resources, so I may end up trading them to him.
Speaking of my friends, Hatty continues to be a living doll. Now that I'm a Buddhist again, look what she gave me just 'cause I asked:
However, not all is sweetness and light between me and my androgynous gal. She plunked down a city right on my borders, which will inevitably steal one of my calendar resources from me:
Oh, well, I suppose that's a gimme, given how generous she's been otherwise. If I load up Cuzco with culture--a shrine there would definitely help--then I may get the tile back. As it is, I stopped building a plantation there. Why make things easier for her?
I researched currency on my own, as well as my next tech:
Now, I actually ended the round on this turn, but as you'll see, several things now occurred.
For starters, I'd generated my next Great Person, another Great Scientist, this time in Washington, just a few turns before. I'd set him aside pending the arrival of CoL. So now I used him to lightbulb...
And I was the first one to it, which means I got to found a religion. I had my choice of Hinduism or this one, and given that I'm playing as America, I couldn't resist the irony.
I then went around to see what I could get for Code of Laws.
It was less empowering to trade CoL to Gilgamesh, seeing as how he's already able to build his courthouse-based Ziggurats because he has Priesthood. So now I have another military tech in preparation for hostilities with Monty.
And that ended the round. So let's have a look at the state of the world. First of all, the map. Starting with the Aztec west...
And here's a look at the east:
I probably should have gotten more of this area explored, but I still only have the one Scout and I got kind of anal and sent him to reveal all those tundra/ice coastal tiles south of Egpyt. You can see that Sumer has expanded into the far southeast. I'll swing the Scout due north in the next round to hopefully reveal Babylonian territory and maybe find out where Shaka is.
Domestic Advisor:
So, a mix of domestic and civilian builds at the moment. Once Washington and NY get those missionaries out of the way, I want them both to focus on military units, especially NY, which has that settled GG for +2 XP. But you can see only two of my cities have Buddhism, so I need to spread it around a little.
Civics:
As many of you have been facetiously pointing out, we're overdue for a civics change. There's been only one in this game, to Slavery early on. What I'm thinking of doing is adopting Hereditary Rule and Organized Religion at the start of the next round. OR will accrue diplomatic bonuses with Hatty, HR with Gilgamesh. Caste System is tempting, but I think I need to use the whip some more to get a bigger army built up before I can afford to adopt it. In fact, I may not switch to it until I feel that the upcoming war with Monty has tipped in my favour.
Foreign Advisor, Glance:
The good news here is how happy my two triangle diplomacy partners are with one another. Hatty and Hammy are both "Friendly" with one another, and that's good; nothing messes up triangle diplomacy quite like having one of your partners as the worst enemy of the other. Gilgamesh and Shaka will also probably end up in pleased to friendly territory before long, thanks to the shared religion.
Resources:
I don't have a lot of surplus resources in this game, which makes Montezuma's land all the more appetizing. I'm not hurting too badly yet, and indeed I have some additional resources (fish, pigs, wheat, deer, spices) that I should be easily able to claim in the next round if I found a couple more cities. But it's surplus resources that allow you to trade for what you don't have but need, and I'm not able to do that much yet.
Technology:
I felt pretty good about my teching skills in this round. I beelined to Construction, which I was able to trade for several techs I needed, and I researched some trade-worthy techs on my own, too, now that the SE is kicking in. So I'm not too far behind, all things considered. Remember that I also have Philosophy in my back pocket; I just can't trade it until the next turn. I was thinking of trading it to Gilgamesh for Feudalism, assuming he's willing to part with it. The AI highly values Fedualism, so it's a tough call, but it would be great to be able to field Longbowmen against Montezuma.
What should my tech path be in the next round? I've chosen Metal Casting--also a good tech for trading--and I was thinking of Civil Service and Machinery after that, though not necessarily in that order. If my next Great Scientist appears before CS is done, I'll probably just save him to lightbulb Paper.
Power:
You can see why I think I should stay in Slavery for a few more turns at least, as well as why I'd love to get my hands on Feudalism. Monty has, surprise surprise, been building units, so when he declares war I'll face an onslaught. The AI loves military units, so I'm producing several Spearmen. The War Elephants will be trouble, the Horse Archers less so. I want to be ready.
In the war, I was thinking of grabbing Xochicalco, that little desert hillside city Monty plunked down next to Washington. If Monty declares war anytime soon, it's not well defended, and since it's on a hill, it's relatively easy to defend. It's also perfectly placed, claiming the clams, wine, and two or three flood plains. I expect the brunt of Monty's attack will come against Boston, especially if I capture Xochicalco; Boston now has a wall and is where I'm focusing my forces. I haven't built many Catapults yet, because I think I'll first need defensive units like Spears and Archers or, if I'm lucky on the next turn, Longbowmen.
Demographics:
I'm very low--at the bottom, in fact--in production and--yikes!--military. But as I said, I aim to fix that very early in the next round. Production is low because I'm still expecting to whip so I'm working high-food tiles. The military situation, though, has to be addressed.
Espionage:
As you may have noticed, I'm lacking demographic information on most of the other civs. Now that I have CoL for courthouses I hope to begin addressing that. Of course, military will take precedence for awhile.
So that's the round. I give myself high scores on the tech front, but low on military--I was in 3rd and let myself fall to last, and with Monty on my doorstep, that's a very bad place to be. Let's hope I can get Feudalism for Longbows by trading away Philosophy (hey, I really didn't expect to win the Liberalism race on my first outing at Immortal level). And the whip shall sing its song of desperation and pain...
I noticed a bit of lime green on your border. I still don't believe it..
lol: You're not Obsolete yet). 
).
/turn for your horses. Now that you've got another resource to pasteurize, I strongly advise you to take that bonanza deal. Unfortunately he doesn't like you enough to give you ivory for horse yet, but you may be able to renegotiate that once you've accumulated more bonuses with him.
on normal, 150 on epic) is useful because of the way culture mechanics work in CIV. You get a "free" 20
