Before I start I should point out that these turns were played late (my time) on Sunday night. If I was going to give them the time & consideration that you guys deserve, then Sunday was my last chance for a few days. Unfortunately, although I sought & heeded as much advice as I could, TGOM's last post came 6 hours too late for me to act upon it.
OK, my first action was to sell both Lit. & Currency to Liz for 41gpt. I had several reasons for believing this to be the best course of action.
1) The Iroquois. We are so weak (and set to become weaker once we start disbanding warriors) that surely we are overdue an offer to contribute to their favourite charity; once either tech was in the public domain it would be worthless to Lizzie.
2) The English. Since we are several techs behind the Vikings, any tech brokering will involve England buying; any boost to their economy (libraries/marketplaces) therefore is future money in
our pockets.
3) The post-anarchy economic slump. Since there is strong evidence that all the remaining civs are in contact (more of that shortly) I thought it desirable to hit the ground running as we simultaneously became a Republic, and entered the MA., thus avoiding getting too far behind in techs.
My reasoning re. the other civs is thus: There was circumstantial evidence to suggest that Ragnor & Cleo were at war. Firstly, Stockholm appears on the Egyptian city list; Secondly, Ragnor has MI so he has probably has had Feudalism for a few turns, long enough at least to build a MI from scratch since the AI doesn't often upgrade. Yet Cleo doesn't have it; surely it's unlikely for them not to trade for it? So I believed them to be at war. Yet they are several techs in front. How? Neither civ is what you would call an economic powerhouse, and I don't think it likely that they could have outresearched us particularly if they are at war, so it stands to reason that they must be in contact with other civs.
Anyway, that is my justification for taking the deal. History (And TGOM) will be my judge.
turn 1 - 50AD) Anarchy ends, and I chose Republic. For one turn only I can run the science slider at 0% - we need 1 beaker only for Construction, and a scientist does the job. We temporarily make +71 gpt. One or two workers finish whatever tasks they were previously assigned, and they are moved to adjacent squares to continue similar upgrading of the environment. I decide not to disband the warriors where they currently reside as the shields can be more productively used elsewhere, so I send them to Orleons to contribute towards the proposed Marketplace.
2 - 70AD) We learn Consruction. I set our sights on Monotheism, which is scheduled in 12 at 90%; it will come down as the population begins to rise and we disband some warriors. Luxury tax is 10%. Paris is building Library. I change a number of Settler builds to commercial buildings; if we're not going to settle the Islands we have no immediate need for core cities building settlers. Warior Yellow - doing a little border walking between Ragnor & Cleo - confirms my suspicions, they are at war.
3 - 90AD) warriors disband in to Orleons. 2 workers are directed to fell forests in Orleons. The unit support cash that we saved means we now have Monotheism in 8 turns. Iroquois are now polite, they have Lit & Currency.
4 - 110AD) Forest chop in Orleons reveals BG. Workers set to mine & road.
5 - 130AD) Cleo now has Feudalism but neither she nor Ragnor wish to sell.
6 - 150AD) Chartres completes Library. Mono in 5.
7 - 170AD) Forbidden Palace finished in Lyons. Lyons to build library.
8 - 190AD) Ragnor
simultaneously(!) learns Engineering & Monotheism. Forest chop at Orleons reveals another BG.
9 - 210AD) Bescanon builds library. Westward Ho (busily mapping the coast of Scandinavia) sees red border. Cleo learns Monotheism. Who is she dealing with?
10 - 230AD) It's the Inca, and disappointingly they have just 5 cities, and are backward in tech. We learn Monotheism, Theology in 8 at 90%. 11+ gpt. 10% luxury tax.
Summary: We are behind Ragnor with Engineering and Monarchy. We are behind Cleo with Monarchy. We have Monotheism and Construction over Iro. and Lizzie. Our military is worryingly weak. Our economy though is booming. Orleons is shaping up to be potentially our best city.
I'll post pics and a save soon.
France
Egypt & Scandinavia
