Sound advice except for the part where they already know Drama. : P
D'oh!
I could steal Sailing from Zara with a small investment into EP's. The only thing I don't like about not trading with Shaka is that he might demand Currency anyways and then I'd get nothing for it. I wonder, how much more it would take to bribe him against Zara?
You'll need another tech, I don't think saving gold will get him to war in any reasonable timeframe. The cheap techs you have available (Sail Priest Poly) he already knows, the other techs would take even longer than waiting for enough gold.
Poly Mono? That seems like the fastest tech you can get that Shaka doesn't have. Mono is otherwise useless to you though, and he'll have demanded Curr by then anyways, as you point out. I think it's just not gonna happen.
AFAIK there is only 1 Marble on the continent, unclaimed at the moment, between Shaka and Zara.
I haven't even started the settler but if I got that spot Literature becomes worthwhile.
Indeed yes. That site=suck though. Settle
on the marble? Would allow a real city on the grass between the rivers 2S. Shaka's not trading Poly so he's building Parth, he wants that marble, he's closer, he's going to beat you there anyway. Shucks.
I had this other wacky idea that if I get Shwedagon Paya I could use OR to spread Hinduism to Shaka then use Espionage to convert him which would be semi-profitable anyways since I'll get a Great Prophet for the shrine at some point. I'm 23 turns away from a 70/30 priest/merchant in Thessalonica (which could be sped up if I run an Eng). Another GS for Philo/Paper/Education won't be around for a while. If I have Sailing a GM bulbs CS. O.o
That's a serious plan, and a little unorthodox, nice.
You have few advantages here. Mfg is high, Justinian gave you good GPP, you're Spiritual, that's about it that I can see, in the near term of course. This plan attacks with just those strengths,
very nice.
Where would you put ShwedaP / how many chops can you get into it fastest? OR's expensive, do you have the commerce to pay for it? Which city is available for missionary spam? Can you produce enough troops if you get DoW'd? If you get positive answers for these, I think this is the way to go.
And I like throwing your available one turn at 100% into espionage. You'll get Sailing, as you say, cheapen future spy missions, and might even force Zara and Shaka to put commerce towards espionage, slowing down their tech pace a touch (and un-cheapening future spy missions, can't win 'em all).
With Drama out, Machinery next? You could do Poly/Lit for the marble site gamble, or Poly/Mono as a backup OR if ShwedaP doesn't come through, I guess.
. The only thing I don't like about not trading with Shaka is that he might demand Currency anyways and then I'd get nothing for it. I wonder, how much more it would take to bribe him against Zara?
