Round 6: 365 BC to 170 BC (13 turns)
Another short, cautious round... I haven't had very good luck with Saladin in the past, and I'm once again in a precarious position with him, hence these short rounds.
I started off by making a number of adjustments that several of you suggested. First off, I changed a number of my cities' builds, prioritizing growth and expansion instead of research, the economy, or even military:
I also changed research, balancing out my de-emphasis of military in builds by pursuing a military tech:
And as I said I would, I settled the Great Spy.
As I mentioned, part of my reason for doing this is that we saw the early infiltration mission play out in the Gilgamesh game. So this time I decided to take a different path to see how that plays out. I certainly acknowledge Validator's point that I could probably really use the infiltration benefits in the short term, but part of the purpose of these games is to try something new. I'm sure someone in one of the shadow threads will try infiltration from this point in the saves to see how it compares.
With the GSpy settled (and producing 12 EPs and
six research points per turn, thanks to the Pyramids and Representation), I adjusted my espionage points as follows:
Another reason for the short round is to hear your opinions on the above: should I allocate all the points to one AI, or divide them as I've done above? By the end of the round, I could see what Suryavarman and Roosevelt were researching. Zara will take a little longer.
With those course corrections complete, it was time to augment my supply of Workers, courtesy of my black-bordered neighbours:
On the next turn, I found out where everyone stands in terms of population size. It's interesting that I'm in the top 3, even with only 4 cities--no doubt thanks to Representation allowing my cities to be larger than they otherwise would be.
Another turn, another purloined Barb Worker, because the AI is too stoooopid to move him to a safe place:
As you'll see, I wasn't done nabbing Workers from our uncouth friends.
Meanwhile, Zara built
another wonder:
Dang, but his capital is starting to look awfully attractive. I know some of you were urging me to leave him alone for awhile, but he might be my first military target just for the wonders alone. Aksum now has the T of A
and the Great Lighthouse, so it could produce Great Merchants like crazy.
On the tech side, I usually manage to use Alphabet to catch up in techs, but not in this game. By the time Zara was will to trade both Fishing and Polytheism for it (not the most even trade, but still), he clearly was almost finished researching Alphabet himself:
Sure enough, on the next turn, he finished researching it, so I got nothing for it from him. Sury obtained it shortly after Zara, so Alphabet wasn't proving to be the catch-up bonanza tech it usually is.
Also on the next turn, Roosevelt got demanding, but I decided it would be a good idea to start patching up our relations.
Roosevelt's usually pretty easy to get along with, but he plainly is capable of carrying a grudge. Something to remember in future games. As I recall, Washington is much the same--initially easy to please, but not the forgiving type if you cross him.
Shortly after this, Zara got a little pushy too:
I almost always give in to these resource demands if I'm not about to trade the resource away. You can easily cancel the trade 10 turns later, and you earn a diplomatic bonus for giving in without getting a demerit when you cancel. And it kept him pleased, which meant I was able to get something for nothing from him:
Since I was about to found my southeastern crab city, Fishing was going to come in handy. And I
just managed to beat Zara to it--look at what he had lurking in the forest nearby on the turn where I founded my 5th city:
Meanwhile, the barbs finally left their last Worker in a vulnerable spot. The AI sometimes seems to have trouble understanding that some units can move two tiles in one turn.
So that was a total of 4 Workers I captured from the Barbarians--a very welcome, much-needed, and quick addition to my roster of Workers. I also managed to build one this round, bringing my total to 9. I now have enough Workers that I've been able to double them up the way I like to do. Given that I now have 5 cities and am planning on adding 3 in the next round (capturing the 2 barb cities and founding the southern iron city), how many more Workers does everyone think I need?
Finally, at the end of the round, I finished researching Horseback Riding.
Which begs the question, what's next? I selected Metal Casting, which was slaze's suggestion--and an attractive one. The AI tends to make MC a low priority, probably because it's so expensive. That usually makes it good tech trading fodder. Granted, I'm running a risk that the AI will research it and it will turn into a tech-trading dud like Alphabet was, but the settled GSpy should shortly ensure that I'll be able to tell if any of my neighbours decide to go after MC as well, so that risk has been mitigated.
Meanwhile, one of Roosevelt's cities has proven vulnerable to my capital's overwhelming culture (and keep in mind I haven't even finished the Madrassa there yet):
Hmmm... with several riverside tiles, copper, and dye, that city might be worth holding on to if it flips. A pity it doesn't have a good food tile.
Now, Zara is willing to trade for HBR, as follows:
So do I go for this trade, or do I hang on to my military advantage as long as I can? Sailing won't give me any great benefits at the moment--I have trade routes with all the neighbours now. Polytheism, though, could be valuable for going after some of the later religions as some of you have been suggesting, as well as allowing me to pursue the Great Library if that still seems feasible.
Here's a look at the map:
I think the best spot for the southern iron city is 1 SW of the iron. The city will have a lot of tundra, but it will also have deer (though it shares it with the barb city) and crabs. On the other hand, that leaves the fish unclaimed; there's no way to get both the fish and the crabs in the same fat cross, unfortunately.
And relations:
Interesting how Sury and Zara are both at +3, but one is Pleased and the other is Cautious. All part of the AI's personality programming, no doubt.
So that's the round, a short one that once again delivered me to a place with several important decision points. As always, I look forward to your input.
You're going to need either a lot of culture or a large garrison to keep it from flipping to Zara.
