Goals:
Long - Crack open the world like a tasty peanut
Medium - Cow our neighbors and meet the rest of our victims.
Short - Build and sail our first curragh, prepare for war,
Cities:
Karakorum (3) grows in 1, Spear in 2.
Ta-tu (3) grows in 4, Spear in 4.
Kazan (2) grows in 5, Archer in 5.
Almarikh (1) grows in 9, Curragh in 7.
Military:
2 Workers
3 Scouts
8 Archers
Economy:
53 gold
+8 gpt
10% lux.
Diplomacy:
China (9 cities) - peace
Russia (9 cities) - peace
Both are up numerous techs (everything we can know about).
Discussion and questions:
Is everyone OK with a short 'research war' with China? We might be able to net a pair of slaves (if I declare as soon as the Archer is in position). There's some risk - declare ASAP and the Archer might lose; wait for a second Archer, and they might settle before we're in position.
How much military force do we need before we'll be ready to settle our fifth city? Ten non-MP archers? Twenty? Finally...if China settles on a hill before our archer is in position, how much force do we need before we're ready to kill the warrior defending it? Two archers? Three? Or do we have to back down?
Pre-turn:
Lux slider to 0% with no riots pending.
IT:
The Chinese settler pair heads N!
Turn 1 (1475 BC):
Move workers towards their road assignments.
Lux slider to 10% to prevent a riot in 'korum
Trading for Iron Working or Writing "can't be done."
The asking price for the Wheel is 8gpt+62 gold
(all we have).
MM Ta-Tu for growth in 2.
MM Kazan for one less red shield and one more uncorrupted gold coin.
MM Almarikh for one more gold coin.
IT:
China settles with the settler pair we were stalking.
Korum: Spear->Archer
Turn 2 (1450 BC):
Troops and workers move.
IT:
China demands 22 gold. After checking the rules of the variant, I cave.
Turn 3 (1425 BC):
MM cities (Ta-tu grew to size 4) and move troops.
Switch Ta-tu to Archer instead of Spear.
IT:
Ta-Tu: Archer->Archer
Turn 4 (1400 BC):
MM cities again, gaining an extra gold on the next IT. Writing is still too expensive.
IT:
Korum: Archer->Archer
Kazan: Archer->Worker
Turn 5 (1375 BC):
MM cities. Korum is now a 2-turn Archer factory!
I'm also moving our Archer forces towards China's closest city - we'll want a stack handy just outside their borders when we declare.
IT:
Zzz...
Turn 6 (1350 BC):
MM cities, move troops and workers.
Still no deals for Writing.
IT:
Almarikh: Curragh->Worker
GRR! The governor disappoints me. The new citizen in Korum was supposed to work a forest, completing the Archer. Instead, he worked an unmined BG, leaving us ONE SHORT of completion
On the bright side, it still works as a 2-turn archer pump at size 5+.
Turn 7 (1325 BC):
Lux slider to 20% to prevent Korum from rioting.
MM cities.
Start sailing the Curragh west.
IT:
Korum: Archer->Archer
Ta-Tu: Archer->Archer
Kazan: Worker->Archer
Turn 8 (1300 BC):
MM cities, move troops a bit. China has a warrior exploring our core, so I'm covering our worker with an archer.Up the lux slider to 30% to keep Ta-tu working at peak efficiency.
Ta-Tu will grow in 5, Archer due in 4.
With some fiddling, I discover that Russia (or China) will sell us Writing for 10gpt+112 gold. That seems to expensive, so I don't take it.
IT:
We see two Chinese Warriors and a Chinese Archer on the move. We should watch them closely; I have a feeling they might declare war on us.
Turn 9 (1275 BC):
Disband two Scouts, bringing us back up to +5gpt.
MM Almarikh, losing a wasted shield and gaining two uncorrupted gold.
We could buy IW for 7gpt+120 gold. We can just barely afford that (we'll break even with our current citizen assignments). I don't take the trade.
IT:
More Chinese Warriors appear near Kazan.
Korum: Archer->Archer
Turn 10 (1250 BC):
Worker and military moves.
Handoff notes:
We can afford IW or Writing - barely. We should make a decision on whether to buy one of those before warring with China.
Speaking of which, China has several military units near Kazan: 4 Warriors (visible now) and one Archer (1S of the 2 Warriors on the hill).
In three turns, we can have seven Archers stacked outside Tatung - that would be a good time for us to declare on them, IMO.
The save
