[BTS] BOTM 209: Catherine, Immortal - First Spoiler - 1AD

50 AD, 7 cities, 43 pop. I settled in place and my second city was founded W of the horses. Third city shared the clams and pig with Moscow, fourth city 1 NE of the gold. Fifth city SE of the crab, sixth city W of the far east fish. Seventh city north of Moscow to get the fish up there.

Finished monarchy a couple turns ago. Elizabeth and Genghis have been at war for a while now, and Elizabeth has taken a city and is marching on Karakorum. She has 10 cities right now, so she might be a problem later. I will go archery -> HBR to whip HAs and join in against Genghis. Karakorum is two turns away from my culture with HAs, so hopefully I can get there before Elizabeth, although it will be close. Genghis has 6 cities, so even if I don't get Karakorum, hopefully I will get 4 other cities, including one where he stole my gems. After the war with Genghis, I will build peacefully until a cuir/cossack rush against Elizabeth and take the continent. From there, I'll try to go domination, but it might be a grind.

 

I also followed the @mscellaneous playbook BW-Fishing-AH. I established a core of 4 cities almost exactly the same as @krikav and built the GLH early researching Sailing-Masonry before Wheel-Pottery-Writing. My scout died very early despite hugging the coastline, and for that reason I didn't find the gold, gems and ivory early on. Fortunately, I discovered these resources before deciding whether to go for Monarchy or Math/Construction. I didn't trust Genghis to remain peaceful, and at the rate he expanded, I was certain to become a land target soon. So I selected the Construction beeline and settled two cities: Gold/pig and ivory/gems. I have had many poor results from attacking prematurely so I (over)built an enormous stack with 6 elephants,6 axes, 2 spears and 11 catapults before declaring on Genghis in 125 BC. Quickly took Karakorum and Old Sarai, so status at 1AD is that I'm at war with GK loosing 13 gpt at zero research (Liz joined the war which cost me trade routes). Currency in one turn will help keep the finances out of red. 8 cities, 32 pop. A settler is en route to the east coast to build a culture bridge to the Dutch and whatever lies beyond.

 

I started with fishing to build 2 boats first before 4-2 whip for the first settler to share the fishing nets with capital. I went straight for alphabet after writing to get the free iron working from Elizabeth. I sold alphabet to GK for his 180 failgold many turns later. GK razed a barbarian city with access to ivory and I built a city on that city ruin. At AD1 I have 8 cities, col-currency-construction-hbr, 100% 52g+152bpt-59gpt. About 12 units stored in the queue to save some maintenance. At this turn, GK finally gets busy. Let's see who is the stronger horseback rider~~~