Round 5: 875 BC to 110 BC (42 Turns) - India's Two Scientists
Part 1
Turn 125/875 BC
To start off the round, I switched Varanaisi to build a granary. I did remind myself to switch back to building a library for 1 turn to prevent decay later on. I think buildings start to decay after 15 turns on epic speed -- correct?
Turn 126/850 BC
Christianity has been founded in a distant land. Good, that means that the other continent has a second religion to hopefully cause strife.
Turn 127/825 BC
I connected the second cows this turn and I set a trade with Ramesses II for his sugars. Can you believe that I have a monopoly on cows?
Turn 128/800 BC
Wang completes the Buddhist shrine. Not good....
Turn 129/775 BC
I switch to Judaism this turn to please Ramesses II. I didn't want to stay in NoStateReligion because then Egypt could possibly declare war on me. And in any case, I had a feeling that a war between Cyrus and Wang would initiate soon which would eliminate the need to please the two of them any more.
Turn 130/750 BC
And it did!
Turn 132/700 BC
I suddenly get a peek at Ramesses II's research, and I see that he's 1 turn away from finishing Theology. But after that, the image of Theology disappeared! I check the espionage screen and it shows that I am about 10 points behind the threshold to see his research so I have no idea why that happened (and no, the threshold did not increase from last turn). But I'm not complaining.
Turn 135/625 BC
I hate it when these things happen.
This was a tough decision. I could join the war on Cy's side and get a unit up to 10 XP for Heroic Epic. But I would also be getting demerits with WK. In the end, I refused, because Cy already has a -3 towards WK because WK was the one who declared war. A -3 outweighs a -1 in this case. And if I declared war on WK,
he would give me a -3. Therefore, if the two made peace, I would be stuck with demerits with Wang and Cy wouldn't have any because he was not the one who declared war.
Ram continues to wonderspam.
Turn 138/550 BC
My first Great Scientist is born. I used him for an academy because my economy was improving and the slider was able to remain at 100% research longer. I also didn't want to bulb Mathematics just yet.
Turn 140/500 BC
I negotiate this deal with Ram since he obtained Currency the previous turn.
Turn 142/470 BC
Finally!
The next tech was a tough one for me to pick. In the end, I chose Polytheism.
I eliminated Fishing, IW, HBR, and MC from the list immediately. Then, I spent some more time considering the other technologies, but decided that:
- Meditation could come later as it's main purpose for me is to unlock Philosophy
- Drama could also come later because I wasn't ready to make theatres and the Great Library was a higher priority for me
- Mathematics was a bit too expensive to research right now, and again, I wanted the Great Library first
- Alphabet was going to be researched by the AI's soon anyway so why bother researching it?
- Masonry has little to no purpose at all -- I have a stone resource, yes, but I'm not planning on building any stone wonders or walls
Turn 143/455 BC
A Great General was born in a far away land. Since I have visibility of every single one of WK and Cy's cities, the GG must have been born on the other continent. Good!
At the same time, I finally found WK's stack of doom.
Why is it all the way down there and not attacking the capital directly? I cannot fathom this.
Turn 144/440 BC
I finished Polytheism and started to research Mathematics to get better chops for the Great Library. However I would switch this in 2 turns (I think) because WK ended up building the Statue of Zeus, so I knew that I needed to hurry to Literature.
Turn 149/365 BC
Cyrus actually loses a city! That's got to be embarrasing for him.
Turn 150/350 BC
WK and Cy make peace this turn. But...get this...WK actually GIFTS BACK to Cy the city WK just captured!!! Then what was the point of declaring war in the first place?
Turn 151/335 BC
I finish Literature and start Drama for the Globe Theatre and for trading fodder. Ram also completes the Apostolic Palace in his capital. I vote for him to gain +2 diplomatic points.
Turn 152/320 BC
WK gets the Shwedagon Paya. It seems like the other continent doens't have an Industrious civ over there.
Turn 155/275 BC
Cy finally gets Alphabet! And it only took him close to 4000 years. And the good news? He has no Aesthetics!
Turn 156/260 BC
WK and Ram all get Alphabet this turn! I hope they didn't tech trade behind my back. Anyway, here's the deastating tech situation:
Yeah, I know, not pretty. But it will get better soon! I promise.
I give Aesthetics to Cy:
That's 2 techs he's giving me so I will have to remember that for WFYABTA. The funny thing with this trade is, I didn't even get demerits with WK for trading with his worst enemy! Now that's weird. I can never tell if I'm going to get demerits or not.
Turn 159/215 BC
I obtain my second Great Scientist:
I saved Socrates for a bit, and you'll find out why.
Turn 164/140 BC
Woo hoo! I rarely get stuff like this:
WK is trying to give me a nice, fat, juicy tech for free? This guy is just begging to lose.
Now, up until this point, I had held off trading Literature and Drama since I wanted to be sure that I got the Great Library. After chopping the wonder within 1 turn of completion, I know it is safe to start trading (finally!). I traded with all 3 AI's and will let the screenshots do the talking:
And I do have iron, which was, predictably, in that non-forest tile in Delhi.
Turn 165/125 BC
Like last turn, a lot of things happened during this year. I first completed Meditation and began to research Civil Service in anticipation of going up the Paper-Education-Liberalism route.
And after some nail-biting (I had no control over the other continent's decisions), I completed my wonder, which would hire 2 permanent scientists up to Scientific Method.
Since I finished Meditation, Mathematics, Alphabet, and Drama, Socrates could now lightbulb Philosophy! I was propelled into the Medieval era.
I switched my state religion back to Judaism (I believe I switched out of it at one point in the round, maybe for culture reasons or something), and then did anarchy-free civic switches to Hereditary Rule (thank WK for that

), Caste System, and Pacifism.
On the next turn, I ended the round.
[To be continued in next post]