Round 4: to 1200 BC
Okay, so, I chickened out regarding Clammy Horse. I was just getting more nervous about barbs and wanted a better unit than Warriors ASAP. So the Settler went east and founded Horse Hill... er, Bombay:
Its first build was a monument to speed up that border pop:
Meanwhile, I still had one Warrior exploring down south. I decided to bring him home for defense and/or fog busting; a faster unit--a Scout or Chariot--will finish exploring the south later. First, though, I decided to do have him do a quick sweep through those tiles in the southwest that the map I received before didn't reveal. Good thing, too:
I really didn't expect to luck out and find another goody hut this late!
Hey, better than a kick in the teeth. The gold will finance research at 100% just a little while longer.
Shortly after that, my 2nd Settler finished and headed near the same area:
I didn't chop rush the Settler, the pigs and farmed flood plains were doing fine in that regard. I decided to save the forests for the Oracle. With all those flood plains, I want to keep some forests around if I can. Madras' first build was a Fast Worker so I could get the copper going ASAP. My other FW was busy building a road to the horses, and since Buddhism did
not spread to Bombay on its own in time, he rushed back to chop forests for the Oracle in Delhi.
I kept Bombay busy building units--Warriors, specifically, the only ones available until the horses come on-line. The last thing I wanted was for the barbs to start appearing and raiding my new, empty cities. I also sent a Warrior to the northwest peninsula to fog-bust; I also didn't want barbs, let alone a barb city, appearing up there in my back yard. Look at what was hiding in the fog up nearby:
I think the city site up there just shifted to that forested plains hill. It will have a lot of ocean tiles (7, not counting the fish), but fish and clams are just too good to pass up. It will also get the cows, and the wine will be available with the city's 2nd border pop--or earlier, as I think Delhi's borders may claim that tile. That's fine by me; wine is a great happy resource but a so-so tile for a citizen to work. The northwest fishing village will be on a plains hill (+1 hammer) and have another plains hill for production. Not bad for a fishing village, which I also think is now a slightly higher priority.
I also completed several techs: Hunting, Priesthood, Pottery, Writing, and Masonry. Normally I don't research Masonry this early, but with the changes in the patch, a CS slingshot from a Great Prophet has become more unlikely. At any rate, with Writing in hand, I went to talk to the neighbours:
WHAT?!?!?! Tokugawa won't consider an Open Borders agreement?!?! I'm shocked--nay, speechless!!! That's so unlike him.
Hey, look, Buddhism spread to Bombay!
After the Monument popped its borders. Nice, but kind of late:
Good thing I built the monument.
Thanks to two chops, my first and thus-far only wonder completed:
As I mentioned before, I chose Metal Casting as the free tech. I probably won't build courthouses for some time, nor switch to Caste System ever, and I already have a religion, so Code of Laws lost a lot of its usual appeal, even though I'm Organized. Then again, if the courthouses are cheap, that's all the more reason to delay them--until the cities have the production (and maybe Organized Religion and a forge) to build them even faster.
And yes, that is a Barbarian Warrior making a bee-line for Bombay. He arrived next to it on the same turn that my first Chariot completed. Serendipity. The results were predictable:
So that Chariot has earned 3 XPs in that battle and will be promoted on the next turn to Combat I.
Speaking of the barbarians, it looks like they were nice enough to found my science city for me!
That was nice of them. My only concern is that Ragnar or Tokugawa will capture it before me. I think that may therefore be the first city I capture with my troops, before I even take on Mehmed.
So the Oracle was built, horses hooked up, my first mounted unit completed and battle-tested, and the copper is nearly hooked up outside of Madras.
Here's a look at the flying camera map for clarity, especially of the gridlines:
And here's one with flying camera off, for better information about the resources down south:
Now: what next?
It looks like the big decision this time around is expansion--or, more to the point, how to accomplish it: peacefully, with Settlers, or via axe and hoof? It looks like Mehmed
still hasn't claimed Clammy Horse, but that can't be too far off. I suspect he must have expanded southwards first. Even without it, we still have two other cities we could found: Bedrock (on the stone) and Surf 'n' Turf up north.
Now would be a perfect time to decide on this because Delhi's and Bombay's current builds (both Chariots) finish on the next turn. (FYI, I just whipped in each city recently, so that's not an option until the population recovers and the unhappiness wears off.) I say we either build Settlers next or barracks, depending upon the course chosen.
My own inclination--surprise surprise--is to go the military route. Let Mehmed found Clammy Horse for us. Build barracks, then units, and send them to claim Purple Rice from the barbs, then have them turn NE towards Mehmed's cities. You'll notice I'm working on Alphabet--I'd like to have Purple Rice in my possession, containing a library, by the time I discover Literature; around the same time I want to take the marble from Mehmed to help with the Great Library.
However, as always, i bow humbly before the wisdom of the group mind, so say your piece!
, but it makes rather little sense to have a dotmap location where you settle on the stone. 
(It was my dotmap.)
Maybe barbarian dye city first, but this peaceful expansion thing you keep talking about is overrated.
, which being a Holy-city, Capitol, and Oracular, shouldn't be too far off.
