Well, I took the liberty of taking 15 turns also, to try and get things moving. Here is a write-up. Screenshots and savefile to follow. Gotta go do holiday stuff or I might lose my presents.
125
Citizens look busy and well employed. No adjustments.
Moved horse in Rome SE to embark towards New Land ruins, etc. Calculations show relative speed of Trireme will let it be in front of embarked Horse to act as escort.
126
Northern of two Horses moves SE (to get flanking bonus) and attacks Barb camp. Leaves barb at minimum health. Second (injured) horse attacks Barb camp and kills Barb and clears camp. That horse then moves NW to get out of range of Barb Spearman.
Why is there a road NE, NE of Sukhothai? Did the AI leave it for us? It seems to me that a connector to Cumae is best coming directly out of Sukhothai. Remove road to reduce maintenance
More farming around Cumae.
Scout goes E to go swimming and do some water exploring while the trireme is doing escort duty.
127
Barb Spearman moves to menace one of our Horses. Horse moves NW, NW to avoid Spearman and be in borders for extra healing. Other horse starts to heal.
Horse that is North of Cumae moves to Sukhothai to be in relatively central position when barb camps pop up.
128
That nasty Barb is still chasing our Horsemen! Retreat second horse back into our borders. First horse is healing.
Upgrade Warrior in Antium to Legion. There is a Barb Camp to explore South of Antium. I have never used a Legion in combat. There might be a Spearman in that camp that a Warrior, even with General, might have trouble with. Also, Legions can build roads and we have a bunch of road building ahead of us. I meant to save the money for buying our first ally, but couldn't resist.
129
Antium finishes Settler. I dither a while between starting a Market or a Circus and then decide on building a Worker to follow the Settler. It will be after the fact, but I will take input on that decision. I found it particularly challenging.
That nasty Barb Spearman entered our borders! Berlin bombards the Spearman. Horses heal. They are both across a river from the Spearman and feel relatively safe even if within reach of a weakened Spearman.
130
Spearman moves on to Pasture. (Why didn't it move and then Pillage?) Does not attack wounded Horseman, but the Horses, having healed two points each, do attack, even across the river, and eliminate Spearman.
Legion attacks Barb camp south of Antium. It was just a Warrior, despite my worries, and falls in one turn.
A Workboat completed in Cumae. I do not see anyplace to immediately put this Workboat to use. I can eiterh spend 55 gold and buy a tile here at Cumae, or I can wait 12 turns and Hamburg will grab a fish tile from Cultural expansion. I go ahead and buy the tile. I manually assign a Citizen to the fish tile to get the extra gold. Start a Coliseum in Cumae. I am thinking about staying ahead of the happiness hit when we establish our two new Cities.
131
Rome finishes a Settler. Sending Settler to earlier suggested point South of Berlin. Just to be safe. I am doing a go-to to Berlin. Someone can steer the Settler to the right point after that, avoiding any barbs or other hazards. Starting a worker in Rome.
Trireme has verified all clear for embarked Horseman. Moving back to exploration.
A barb camp has sprung up in the North. Sending Horseman from Sukhothai to deal with it.
Settled Neapolis. Started Monument. Legion is in Neapolis healing.
132
Another Barb camp pops up on the New Land.
Trireme discovers Singapore. Embarked Scout heading home having found a one tile island with Marble for its efforts.
Horseman finds Archer in Barb Camp
Legion moves toward Sukhothai to begin road to Cumae.
133
A Golden Age Dawns. I feel so special.
Horseman takes out Archer in Barb camp. Cash is back to where it was before I did all my spending.
134
Our Trireme finds Ruins near Singapore with no signs of nearby Barbarians. Embarked Scout diverts to go investigate. Horseman pops Ruins on New Land to promote to Knight.
135
Rome produces Worker. Worker heads south to Neapolis. Rome starts Trireme.
Barb camp pops up in southern Peninsula. Two Horses are just finished healing around Hamburg, so they go to investigate.
Legion starts road. Having a military unit do a worker's job causes me more satisfaction than it merits.
136
Antium produces Worker. Worker moves towards Berlin. Antium starts Market.
Horse pops Ruins on New Land. 75 Gold. We now have enough money to buy an Ally. I will wait and let the group decide who to bribe.
We meet Dublin. Also find a Barb camp.
137
We discover Theology.
Our Knight on the New Land finds a new Ruins, the Barb camp with a worker in it, and three Warriors. For a recently upgraded Horseman, this should be fun. Knight pops Ruins for 30 culture. Attacks and destroys wounded Warrior.
Trireme finds wounded barb Trireme and Archer in the Barb camp. We move NW, which should put a hill between us and the Archer, and attack the wounded Trireme, killing it.
IBT Warrior attacks Knight and dies
138
Scout pops ruins south of Singapore and is promoted to Archer
Two Horses in south peninsula finally get arranged in proper flanking position and wipe out barb Spearman in camp.
Trireme took out a wounded barb Trireme that Dublin had been pounding on. (Note: the Trireme took two steps exploring and then shot at the barb before losing range. That way we get some exploring and some experience in one turn.)
139
Founded Ravenna. Ravenna starts Monument.
Rome finshes second Trireme. Trireme goes exploring. Rome starts Legion. I would have started a building, but I am not sure what group consensus. The Legion can serve as a road builder until we need it as military.
140
I have deliberately delayed several decisions:
When and where on new cities? I got two cities up. I think we are still ahead of the Happiness issue. We should probably put up some more as soon as possible. I still like the general logic of an earlier post on city placement on this thread. I would emphasize choking off Sidon.
Who do we buy as an Ally? I think we need a Maritime Ally with a Luxury resource. I am away from game right now, so I can't make suggestions. I would do it this turn. Actually, I would have done it earlier, but I wanted to let that be consensus.
Do we have any buildings that need to be built in Rome for the discount? In my SP games, I build a lot of temples. In this game, that may not be needed, since we are not fighting anyone culturally for land on our little continent.
What do we do with the Knight that is about to take a barb camp with a worker in it? If that is a City State worker that is a new one on me. I do not know how they manifest their gratitude. I have tried returning workers to Civs and their gratitude isn't worth the imaginary paper it is written on. Personally, I would keep the worker. I believe in one worker per city (and Legions to build the roads!) and we are short of that ratio with more cities to come.
And I strongly suggest that Cumae build a Workboat for Hamburg when done with the Coliseum. Also, I have a Trireme harassing an Archer in a barb camp. If the Trireme pounds the Archer into nothing, there is an Archer-formally-known-as-Scout nearby that could be walking/swimming in that direction to walk in and take the cash bonus.
Who's next? Who's still in the game?