Slight change of plans.
#1 We have more hammers than we know what to do with.
#2 We don't have a lot of land, just 3 cities.
#3 We don't have metal. Our best units are chariots and archers.
#4 There's a fine city spot (Wheat+Cows+Gems+Iron) just to our SW, guarded by barbarians.
I decide to combine the
advantages of the situation (#1 and #4) to overcome the
disadvantages of the situation (#2 and #3). Switch Berlin to a settler (6 turns), Hamburg to an archer, Munich to chariots (1/2 per turn). I gift Poly to Alex, but it's not enough for a diplo bonus.
The very next turn:
Yeah, a day late and a dollar short, again. That's becoming a theme of this game, eh? My guess is he'll settle NNE of the Iron. ... And I guessed right. At least it's well-placed for the long run. I don't see the point of storming the barbs now. Though with Gems maybe we still should? At any rate, un-change of plans. Hamburg still builds a pair of archers for defence, and I finish the first chariot in Munich for general utility, but otherwise I pick up 2 scientists in Munich (and Berlin once the GE is born) and simply build Research. Turn hammers into beakers directly.
375 BC. Stonehenge built in a far away land, and we collect 228 gold. Enough to run at 100% for almost 30 turns. As to the idea of spending a turn in anarchy for US, then spending gold at 3 gold = 1 hammer, then spending a turn in anarchy to get out of US.... um, no. Commerce is limited, hammers are abundant.
350 BC. Literature in, switch to Construction. The GE rushes the Great Library in Berlin. Check out the research rate (time to Construction). I guess Representation-scientists are good for something after all.
Washington has switched to Buddhism (Alex's religion; I hope he builds the shrine for us). Alex has settled another city north of Sparta. Sparta's borders pop again and we've got a -2 close borders, dropping Alex to annoyed. I smell a war.
225 BC. Construction in. Switch to military builds. I send the Munich scientists and one of the Berlin scientists back into the mines. No more seminars and scholarly papers for you, it's pickaxe and shovel time. Pick up Priesthood in one turn, as a useful pre-req.
200 BC. The tech decision. I think I recommend CoL or Currency. We don't need the happiness from Monarchy or Calendar. Drama and Compass are strictly trade-bait. Or maybe Pottery-MC?
The cities:
Great person next turn, 80% GS, else a GE. Build an Academy in Berlin? It would boost our total research by about 25%. Next GP in 12 turns for Philosophy, then 16, etc. Or we could hold him for a lightbulb.
There's a phalanx and sword in Mycenae, I think four total units in Sparta. I'm of the opinion that we should keep Sparta and Thebes. The food is a little thin, but that's just the nature of the map. Overall they're well-placed
Lit and Construction are monopolies. We could just give away Lit for the diplo bonuses, but I'd rather wait for Currency and sell it for cash. Please don't trade for Pottery or Monotheism. They're not worth the WFYABTA demerit. We should not trade away Construction for now -- both Hannibal and Alex have elephants, and I don't want to face them if we can avoid it. We do have the option of trading our spare Horse to Nappy for either Spice or Deer, if we want to.
Domination clock: 6.64% population, 5.51% land.
peace,
lilnev
