I started by making the Banking trade with Izzy. This revealed that Economics had not yet been researched. Despite what we said about Nationalism I decided that this might be worth taking, given the problems with our economy at the moment. The extra trade route from Free Market will bring in extra cash from those few cities that don't already have Castles. More important, I think, is the free Great Merchant.
The Merchant will bulb approx. half of Printing Press. We're currently researching at 100% so that would be worth around 7 turns. The alternative is a trade mission, so in the meantime I've sent him off to Huayna's lands. As things stand at the moment he would give us 2250g for a mission in Cuzco; alternatively the next player could move him on to Ollantaytambo to see if he can get any more there.
With Liberalism in, I used it to make the following trades.
There's always the possibility that HC might go Free Religion and drop back to Pleased, but I think that risk is worth taking: he has surprisingly few Buddhist cities anyway at the moment, so it is definitely worth sending more missionaries. In the case of Peter, Free Religion would improve relations with us, which I'm sure is a good thing.
Civics were switched. Free Speech, as discussed, is temporary to help out the borders at Numidian. In fact, I also switched the build in that city to Culture, again temporarily to get them popping ASAP (see below).
The previous player set up Wealth and Research in a number of cities to speed Liberalism. I changed all but the capital to other builds (courthouse, barracks, etc) but kept us on 100% science. We are losing money like anything, but we have plenty of cash in the bank for the time being, thanks to our trades, so we can afford it. I set research to Chemistry and I'd like to get it pretty quickly.
Other events:
- Wang demanded Education once again. Once again he left empty-handed.
- Buddhism spread to Uzbek, Andahuaylas, Machu Picchu, and Numidian
- Peter completed the Islamic shrine
- Wang / Ragnar declared war on Toku on the last turn!
- Huayna founded a city (Ica) between Verlamion and Numidian. It is unlikely to inconvenience us for the time being, but is annoying nevertheless:
Points for the next player:
- The borders at Numidian will expand to cover the Iron resource in 2 turns, so remember to switch back to ordinary builds (I already have a barracks and courthouse set up), and also remove the artists to allow growth. I've started chainfarming the plains/forest tiles N of the city to improve growth: one worker is on the road 1NW of the city chopping the forest so that the farm there will be built quicker once the other workers have finished their current task. You'll also get extra hammers to use for the courthouse But obviously you'll also want to concentrate on getting the Iron hooked up as well. You can use the Guerilla II Gallic Warrior nearby to escort the workers and protect the mine from the barb city.
- You'll probably want to switch back to Bureaucracy once the borders at Numidian are done.
- We have an axeman making his way back to our territory via unclaimed roads and Huayna's territory:
- We should be okay economically for a while, so I think our priorities should be Research, Military, and spreading Buddhism.
- There don't appear to be any trade opportunities for the moment; Peter is still the only one with Nationalism and he isn't wiling to trade. Shaka / Saladin are also keeping Printing Press to themselves. NB/ They are HC's / Izzy's worst enemies.
Save
)
... in fugured speech
(note that toku is christian now)
.. i vote for onother player taking a slot in, this is an epic game so everyone will have some more fun for a while.
