Round 3: 3000 BC to 1800 BC (49 Turns)
Not a single response between this round and the previous one?
Maybe I need to start posting more lengthy updates then.
Anyway, my plan THIS round was to do some serious expansion and hopefully get the land that is east of me in my posession.
My fast worker went off to pasture the pigs while my capital built a fourth warrior (which I opted over Stonehenge because I reasoned that having an extra fogbust would prove invaluable). In fact, barbarians were hardly a problem in this round. Despite the fact that a close AI to me built the Great Wall, I have only killed one barbarian unit, a warrior, and lost no unit yet! Of course, part of this may have been that I was constantly following the other AI archers that were around and the barbarians attacked
them.
I also began to admire the 3-move fast worker this round. The fast worker went from the eastern cow all the way to the pigs and started working on a pasture in only 2 turns. For comparison, a normal worker would have taken 4 turns.
A few turns in the round, I researched Archery. The next tech for me to choose was a difficult one but I ended up choosing The Wheel, even though I had planned on selecting Bronze Working from my plan last round. I did some quick math and found that the fast worker would be idle for about ten turns after finishing up all the Animal Husbandry resources. I didn't want that, so I figured that it would be best for my fast worker to build some roads. This way, the settler would also be able to reach the second city site faster.
With the pigs improved, growth in the capital was accelerated.
I got some news in terms of how I ranked with others among power....
I'm rounding out the list at #7, which is really no surprise at this stage. Ramesses II is, apparently, #6 in power while Cyrus is among the top in this game. Again, no surprises here.
I also deviated from my previous plan last round in that I decided to grow Delhi to size 4 before starting on the first settler, so another archer could be produced.
While I was doing that, the AI's were obviously doing their own thing, like founding more religions.
I would have prefered that Judaism had been founded in Ramesses' western city on the coast since now my second city will experience greater cultural pressure. On the upside, Egypt and Korea now have conflicting religions.
I eventually finished researching The Wheel and then opted for Bronze Working afterwards. Also, by this time, I had gained visibility into everyone's power rating due to my adjustment of the espionage points assigned to different civilizations.
As the capital reached size 4, I began on a settler while my fast worker built a road towards the new city site (previously, he had built a road on the pigs and a forest tile next to it so the pigs could get connected to my capital). I would have liked a second fast worker, but I needed to get a second city QUICKLY. My warrior also managed to scout out Cyrus's borders, and they're too close for my taste.
I really hope I can beat him to some of the city sites up north...particularly near the gold. On a side note, I suddenly gained the ability to trade resources with Cyrus on turn 62. I have no idea why, though, as there aren't any rivers I can see from my cities that would extend into his territory. Another surprise was that Cyrus was already asking for Open Borders on turn 65....
I had other things to do, though. I founded my second city, settling it 1E as I originally planned, and began a monument while working the forested plains tile.
There were several reasons for me founding Bombay in this location:
1) The city 1W would be even more culturally threatened.
2) The city 1W cannot immediately work the gold.
3) The current city will be able to block the east nicely, working together with several peaks (see those three peaks in a nice, vertical line?).
I had my lone fast worker go and instantly mine the gold. I desperately needed an additional commerce resource because I wasn't working any riverside tiles yet. In fact, I was still generating the default palace+capital city center 9
before I founded this city!
Oh, by the way, I
finally finished Bronze Working after going through several turns of 0% research to gain cash. Fog busters and fast workers aren't cheap!
I selected Agriculture as my next technology....
And is there copper near me? Yes!
A city located 1W of the unforested plains hill is looking like a great early production center.
In other news, Judaism had spread to Bombay. I converted immediately to gain diplomatic points with Ramesses II.
Judaism actually spread to Delhi the very next turn so both of my cities had my state religion! Ramesses II was also "pleased" with me and Wang Kon, who had a different religion, was still "cautious," but considering that I can't find his borders, I'll assume he's far away and thus, I can worry about him less. Unfortunately, Cyrus decided to ruin the fun and found Confucianism on turn 80 (2000 BC). So now there's three religions here on the continent. I may have to convert out of Judaism to avoid getting negative modifers with any AI. (although none of the 3 AI's at this point is annoyed with any other AI) Switching back to no state religion won't be a problem for me, since Gandhi is Spiritual. Speaking of which, I need to figure out when I should switch to slavery. Random events are off in this game, so I don't need to worry about slave revolts, but the "medium" upkeep of the Slavery civic keeps me from adopting it.
I decided to end the round at 1800 BC when I need to make a critical decision. I have made a third settler who is now ready to found a blocking city. Unforunately, Cyrus already founded Tarsus 2 turns earlier. The question is -- do I settle my planned city?
If I settle there, that will make the city very likely to culturally flip to Cyrus if I don't immediately pump up some culture in it. That means a monument ASAP, which will probably be whipped while the city works that corn.
Anyway, here's some other information:
Delhi, training my third fast worker, which will probably be followed by another settler:
Bombay, working the gold because that tile alone provides almost 50% of my civilization's total research:
The map:
Proposed city sites, numbered in the order I plan to found them:
So do you agree with this? Also, I'm going to need some kind of an economy here.
Should I cottage some cities? Farm them and run science specialists instead? If I cottage, I'm going to have to research Pottery right after Agriculture. If not, I could probably skip Pottery and research it after Writing.
Some other points of interest:
-Ramesses II built Stonehenge (2825 BC)
-Cyrus built The Great Wall (2275 BC)
-Wang Kon built The Oracle (2200 BC)
-My three continent mates have 5-6 cities each so far
-I have open borders with all 3 AI's but no foreign trade routes yet
-No one has Alphabet
Here's the save if you want to look at it. But I would
really appreciate just a few comments about my game.
3
cow had the same value for settler production as a 5
The spice will be in cyrus border and you'll just piss him off by trying to flip(supposing, by absurd, that he won't settle some city closer to it anyway, before you do). Cap. should provide decent production. 
