Yesterday night I survived 1 1/2 major barb uprisings. The first one, many barbs came out from the shadows but not the full brunt. It wasn't to bad, as I didn't have any cities close by, so I rushbought a dip, and went to bribing... I found that I now knew what the cash from the charitable donations is for... I was lucky enough to get the barb leader that time, so my costs werent that bad. The second time, I bribed some more, and used a bribrd horsmen to kill the stack of 74 units. It was a very good thing that I had read the d+2 succession game, as it gave me much strategy. I also started to wonder if an uprising on a mountain range could be destroyed. I have also got mikes now, and as soon as a city grows to size two, I rush build a settler and then send it out to found another city. I started begging form everyone again, giving the ones at war techs, or sometimes money, but I usualy got back most, if not all, of the money that I gave them. Marco is becoming the most important thing I have done in this game. My cities are almost all at size one, and once I have enough to get black faces everywhere, or just about, I will grow to size three and celebrate up as much as I can...