520ad, turn 208
As discussed, our plan is to research Machinery then Engineering, and to press Hannibal with pikes, trebs, and whatever other units we can scrape together. Hanni has a sizable tech lead on us but no metal (we hope).
Hanni's visible units include a bunch of LB and archers in Kerkouane, Hippo, and Hadrumetum, plus two elephants and a cat in Hadrumetum. I'll keep a watch on that town to monitor its troop level.
We just started research on Machinery. It's due in 15 nominal turns at 60% rate, with -3gpt. We're close to founding Pony Dot and opening borders with Churchill, and we'll see what that does to our tech rate.
Madrid: Looks good. It can grow a few times before hitting caps. It's a third of the way done with a forge, 10 turns left. MoM would be 26 pre-forge turns here.
Barc: Lots of room under caps, but limited food. I think it will stagnate at size 9 unless it takes back the floodplain tile from Cordoba. 4 turns left on Barc's forge. I work a mined hill rather than the grass forest, trading away 1 food for 2 hammers.
Seville is well below its caps and growing slowly. Lots of cottageable land around it, still. This town isn't a great candidate for whipping because of its slow growth. 16 turns left on its forge. It'll have a low hammer count for the rest of the game unless we mill over some of those riverside cottages, and I think a market might have been a better call here than a forge, but we've already started on the forge, and I'll let it finish.
Cordoba is also well under caps and growing slowly because it's working two gold mines. Library in 13 turns.
Toledo is another town with slow growth and lots of room under caps. It's working on a Hindu missionary. We could probably use another of those when it finishes, for Pony Dot.
Santiago is working on a settler for Pony Dot, 8 nominal turns. This is one city that has ample food for whippability. I can 3-pop whip the settler this turn, and I do so.
Salamanca is size 1 and has +2 food. It'll be a slow-grower. It's working on a forge--55 turns. Man, we're building a lot of forges. Whipping here will hurt. Some worker attention would be nice.
Murcia is size 1 and working on a 4-turn granary. It needs cultural growth for the 3 wine tiles and the rice tile.
Here we go...
535ad
Hindu spreads into Nottingham. That's nice.
Santiago: settler > half-built courthouse in the queue, 58 turns, but growth is in 2, and we'll have more hammers towards it soon.
I get open borders with Churchill, and we go from +1 to +6 gpt from the extra trade.
550ad
The Hanging Gardens is built in a far away land.
Hannibal has added a second cat in Hadrum. He also has a settler there. His two elephants have mobilized and are marching south towards Hippo.
565ad
Churchill adopts bureaucracy.
Hannibal has 500 gold available for trade? Let's see how generous he feels...
Not very generous. He declined to give me 200 of his 500. Oh well.
Toledo: missionary (heads to murcia, which needs a cultural growth) > missionary (for pony dot), 5 turns
Santiago grows to size 4 with growth again in 2 turns. The courthouse drops to 14 turns, from 58. 12 turns left on whipping unhappiness.
580ad
Hannibal adopts bureacracy.
We drop to second in score, behind Zara by 2 points.
Say hello to Valencia, formerly Pony Dot. It works the unimproved floodplain and starts a granary.
Valencia's founding dropped us from +2 to -4 gpt. Not bad at all.
I delete Howie the obsolete fog-busting warrior, and we get 2gpt back.
Barc: forge > cat, 4 turns
Murcia: granary > courthouse, 60 turns
I remember to send an axe into Churchill's land to scout. Our galley sets sail, too.
I send an archer from barc to valencia to relieve the 3xp warrior as its garrison there.
595ad
Santiago grows to size 5. This town is just great--it bounces right back after a whip. Courthouse is now in 7 turns.
Everyone will trade HBR. Well, not Alex.
The only tech we have that anyone wants is MC, and that's only wanted by Churchill.
I try begging all 50 of Churchill's gold from him, but he won't part with it.
I offer Churchill MC (1053 beakers) for 50 gold plus HBR (585 beakers), and he says I'll have to do better than that. Hmmph. I try walking the gold down 10 at a time and re-offering the trade. He keeps declining. Finally, I get down to HBR for MC straight up, with no gold involved. He won't take that, either. I ask him what would make the deal work, and he tells me that I'd have to kick in 140 gold from our side, along with MC for HBR. Everyone else is better at this trading thing than I am, I think. We don't make the deal.
I do sell Churchill one of our spare gold resources for 5gpt.
Our missionary spreads Hindu to Murcia.
We have 8 turns left on machinery. Hannibal has 2 turns left on engineering. I increase research to 70% at -12gpt to shave a turn. We have 251 gold in reserve, currently.
Hannibal still has 2 cats and a settler in Hadrum. I can't see the 2 elephants anymore.
610ad
Mono (280 beakers) + 30 gold for MC (1053 beakers)? Yow. That's too much. I try to renegotiate, but he still won't trade Aes for MC or even HBR for MC straight up. No deal.
Somebody builds Chichen Itza.
Hannibal proves that the world is round.
Murcia grows to size 2.
Hannibal's cats move out of Hadrum, heading south past Hippo just like his elephants did. What's he up to down there?
625ad
Cordoba's granary was destroyed by a foreign spy. We catch an English spy in Cordoba. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Our exploring axeman sights an English elephant near London.
640ad
Toledo: missionary (to valencia) > spy, 6 turns
Barc: cat > lighthouse (5 turns)--1 more food from those clams
655ad
A great prophet is born somewhere.
Churchill gets a nice research event.
670ad
Our missionary spreads Hinduism to Valencia.
Madrid: forge > spy, 4 turns
Machinery is in 2 turns, so I figured I'd turn out a quick spy before going to crossbows.
685ad
Our peace treaty with Churchill expires.
Hannibal asks for open borders, but I turn him away.
Our spy from Barc finally arrives in Valencia. I move the 3xp warrior out to fogbust for a few turns until murica gets a culture pop. And then I'll delete him. I start the last sword in the area marching towards our capital, where the others have already started arriving.
Six cities grow this turn: salamanca, santiago, toledo, cordoba, seville, and madrid.
Santiago: courthouse > forge, 14 turns
Hanni's cats and elephants are back in sight, in/near Hadrum.
700ad
Engineering is next, 16 turns at 60%, +9gpt.
Hannibal is on Divine Right, and Churchill is on Literature. I find those tech choices comforting.
England will trade monotheism (280 beakers), aesthetics (702 beakers), horseback riding (585 beakers), plus 50 gold for machinery (1638 beakers). I consult with Liq and pull the trigger on the trade.
Sorry. I didn't capture the screenshots for the three techs. You've seen them before, I'm sure.
The trade lifts us back into first place by a comfy margin. Take that, Zara.
We revolt to Org Rel, because so many of our cities are still building core buildings.
After the revolt, we are still 16 turns to Engineering at 60% research, +4gpt.
Hannibal now has 2 visible settlers cooling their heels in his western cities.
715ad
Darn arsonists. I spend 59 gold to save it.
A great spy is born somewhere else.
Barc: lighthouse > xb, 5 turns
Cordoba: library > granary, 6 turns (replacing the one that fell victim to sabotage)
730ad
I give the 11 gold and food stores for the +3 diplo with Churchill.
He has a scary number of units in Nottingham now. But at least he's pleased with us. And he's not in WHEOOHRN mode.
I start our swords and cat up to barc just in case.
Madrid: spy (stays home) > xbow
Toledo: spy (to seville) > spy
745ad
No news is good news?
760ad
Seville: forge > crossbow
775ad, turn 225
Hanni and Zara will trade theology. We don't have anything they want, though.
Alex would take HBR from us, but he doesn't have anything cheap enough to offer us in return.
Ok. I'm going to wrap it up here.
Engineering is 10 turns away.
Santiago's whipping unhappiness has died down. It has 5 turns left on a forge. You could plug in something else for a turn and execute a 4-pop whip and then get back to the forge.
I think I'd do a spearman quickly in Barc because those English elephants scare me a bit.
Here's a look at the English lands. Our galley has an axeman aboard. It can go to the southeast of England's area and see what's in the fog there.
on Liq. Researching Construction? Liq, we could have brokered MC for Construction. Construction is a cheaper tech, and AIs on Emp aren't going to give you a fair deal, so we can't get any equivalent techs without giving out gold. We basically can't get anything of relatively fair market value for MC now. And the big kicker is that everyone had Construction. Recall that we discussed Construction vs MC, and that's why I dialed MC first. So now we are stuck with a tech that we cannot trade or broker for anything except Mono 
). Early Engineering is crucial for Spain to crank elite Trebs out of Citadel enhanced cities.
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