Round 7: 1565 AD to 1610 AD (9 turns)
9 turns?!? Shortest ALC round on record!
Yeah, a short round. I moved past a number of previously-discussed decision points in short order, and now face a few larger, more challenging ones. (I've also been busy and am feeling kind of tired, so I didn't want to do
too much lest I make a questionable decision or ten.)
To start off with, I decided that I should, indeed, refrain from trading with Hammurabi as much as possible. Since I'm flush with cash, that meant forgoing a trade mission (which are not that lucrative on a land-based map anyway--1950 gold, max). So I used the Great Merchant to help research the tasty tech Hammy was holding out to me:
This way, with "no tech brokering on", I'll be able to trade Constitution myself, and without giving Hammy too much of a tech advantage.
I also decided to follow OTAKUjbski's advice to capture two more American cities.
And, to hold off any decisions regarding Korea and France, I played peacemaker, albeit a decidedly Machiavellian one.
OTAKUjbski made a stellar call on what Peter was going to do with Chicago. Look how close he came to taking the city himself!
As it was, I lost two units (the Cat and one Knight) to take the city. Given the low health levels of Peter's units, I don't think he could have done it on the next turn. So hats off to OTAKUjbski and his opportunistic streak! I've had the AI pull this stunt on me in a couple of games, so it's nice to get some of my own back.
Okay, Peter, your job here is done. Take your new toy and run along home like a good boy, will you?
Why take chances that George will capitulate to him rather than me?
On the next turn, I captured another choice American city:
On the next turn, I also razed this annoying little burg Washington had founded right outside Tiwanaku, since with all the other potential masters out of the picture, I had some time. But after that, I called it quits. It was time to reign in the dogs of war, at least the ones baying for American blood:
As some of you suggested, I liberated Philadelphia back to George. I think that will prove to be a good decision, as Peter went and founded a city nearby in the empty space I'd created by razing some American cities:
I would have had a culture battle to hang on to Philadelphia's tiles, especially the pigs, but for America, it's no contest. I think that Russian city may end up culture-flipping, especially since I'm going to put pressure on it from the other side:
It will likely flip to America. George can either raze it, which is fine by me, or keep it, which is also fine, because as master to his vassal, my cultural borders win. Of course, if I end up going to war with Peter, I'll just raze the stupid thing. One way or another, that copper tile will eventually belong to Nongoma.
That's pretty much where this short round ended. Oh, except Peter is offering me a deal:
It looks like a good one to me, since Replaceable Parts is a pre-req to Rifling, and notice how Peter is close to finishing that dangerous tech. What do you think?
George, I should mention, is refusing to trade Chemistry to me, so I lightbulbed most of it with the Great Scientist I popped this round. Krikkitone was talking about either a Grens/Cannon or Rifles/Cavalary combo, but my preference is for Rifles and Cannon. Rifles are great for capturing and defending cities (as well as protecting a stack), while Cannon excel at whittling down opposition. RP leads to the former, Chemistry to Steel for the latter.
So let's get into the decision points.
The big one is still who to attack next, which is really related to the biggest question of all, how to go about winning the game.
(By the way, an AP vote came up and, yes, I decided to try winning an early diplomatic victory. The shame! Well, it didn't pan out. Everyone but George voted for Hammurabi, and that wasn't enough votes for him or me to carry the day. It's just as well, I know you all want to see a blood-soaked Zulu victory, but like I said, I was tired tonight.)
So the options are Wang Kon (who will not voluntarily capitulate, BTW), De Gaulle, or Peter. Peter isn't far from having Rifles, and De Gaulle is researching Replaceable Parts, so he isn't far off either. I think a war with either of them would have to wait until I have Rifles myself, and possibly Cannon for an advantage as well. I should probably stop deficit researching so I have money to upgrade some of my best units. The advantage of going after Wang Kon is, obviously, that I can do so right away, with the stack I have. So maybe that's the way to go, and when I have Wang in hand... er, vassalized... then I should have some other military techs to allow me to go after either France or Russia. Taking Wang's cities would also give me more $$$ for upgrades, too.
In terms of power, I'm not too far away from the leaders, but once Peter has Rifling, that will change:
Civics is another item to be decided.
I think changing to Representation is an obvious choice. I built some happy buildings to help with war weariness in this round--markets and theatres, mostly--so losing the HR garrison-boost won't be such a big deal. Remember I also have silver and incense from George now, too.
Now what about the other civics? Do I stay with Bureaucracy to keep leveraging the capital's cottages, or switch to something else? Keep in mind I lost a few turns to anarchy in the previous round for the military queue build, so I have to be careful about any more of those. If I change civics, I want to stick with them for some time. Frankly, Nationalism looks attractive for the happy boost from the UB and for drafting once I have Rifling. We should choose a good food-rich city for the Globe Theatre to be used as my main drafting source.
Economically, it's either Mercantilism or Free Market. Here's the civics the AI civs are currently running:
So many of the AIs are running Mercantilism, but keep in mind that Peter and De Gaulle also have Economics and Wang isn't far away from it, so any of them could switch to Free Market at any time. Then again, I'm running a SE (pretty much), so additional free specialists are very attractive.
Finally, here's a look at the victory conditions:
So it's taken me all this time and effort just to be neck-and-neck with Peter for a domination win. Good thing I kept him from taking any more American territory. I've got a tough row to hoe in order to get that domination win, so I guess I'd better get cracking.
Sorry for the delay, but real life has intruded and kept me busy over the last several days. I should be able to post the next update on Wednesday night. 
. Guess thats why im still at the lower levels 
