800 (0): I'm glad to see we have a single scientist assigned. It's incredible what the GLib can
not produce sometimes.
I can't imagine our using a Leader for the HE when we're so short of armies, so I switch Hunt Season to the HE, due in fourteen turns.
810 (1): I pull back our army/settler team next to Sippar, to better prepare this attack. An army alone in a newly founded town has very little flexibility.
I spend ten wasted minutes musing on the tactical situation around Matalya, when it turns out that the archer threatening the town is our own.
The man responsible for this game's colour palette should be tarred and feathered.
We strike down two Japanese spearmen, a Spanish horseman, and a Bab spearman in the southeast, and a Bab spearman in the southwest (5-0).
I leave a stack of four Bowmen unbombarded so that they'll assault Kummanni, and it works well when three attack and die (8-0).
A Spanish archer cuts down our asterisked swordsman in the SE (8-1). I saw this attack, but had to take a chance to get the road to Samuha started.
Hattusas aqueduct --> library.
The Babylonians are building KT. Well, we haven't seen horsemen from them so we may not see knights.
820 (2): We account for a Spanish archer and a Portuguese horseman in the SE (10-1).
Not bombarding the Babs around Kummanni again works well, as five Bowmen attack and perish (15-1).
830 (3): We get Samuha connected to our road network.
We extirpate two Bab spearmen around Kummanni, and three Japanese swordsmen and two German archers in the SE (22-1).
We move our sword army, six MDI, seven cats, and a settler next to Sippar. I'm not big on one-army offensives.
With our SoD waiting to attack the town, several Bab units pass
through Sippar. I never get tired of seeing that.
840 (4): We raze Sippar, held by two spearmen and two redlined Bowmen just moved in (26-1). We gain two slaves.
We cut down another two Bab Bowmen, and a spearman, in the SW (29-1).
We shoot down two Port. archers landed on the marsh tile E of Tyrana (31-1).
In the SE we carve up a Japanese swordsman, a Japanese spearman, and a Port. archer (34-1).
The MDI which razed Sippar is slaughtered in its exposed position (34-2).
Four Spanish horsemen use the neutral road to attack Samuha. One dies, two retreat, and one implausibly defeats an elite pike fortified behind walls (35-3).
The first enemy MDI appear--Germany's.
Alacacuk library --> aqueduct.
850 (5): We liquidate three Bowmen and two Bab spearmen in fighting around the ruins of Sippar (40-3).
In the SE we crush four Spanish horsemen and a Spanish spearman (45-3).
860 (6): We mop up another six Bab units, three Bowmen and three spearmen, in the Sippar area (51-3).
In the SE we account for two Port. horsemen and a German MDI (54-3).
Hubishna library --> aqueduct.
The Babs build Sun Tzu--so to look on the bright side, it's close.
870 (7): We batter a Port. horseman/archer pair landed next to Tyrana (56-3).
We finally clear the ruins of Sippar for our settler, smiting another three Bowmen but losing an MDI (59-4).
In the SE we destroy two Japanese swordsmen and a Port. spearman (62-4).
The Great Library yields Monotheism.
The Koreans, so far unknown to us, beat the Babs to Knights Templar.
880 (8): In the SE we liquidate a Sumerian swordsman, an Enk, a Japanese spearman, a Port. spearman, a German MDI, and a German pikeman (68-4). In the process we generate Suppiluliumas, our first GL in twenty-three elite victories this round. He immediately forms an MDI army.
We get Yalburt founded on the ruins of Sippar.
The Sumerians are present in force now--eleven units that we can see--but for the moment they're attacking the Arabs.
890 (9): In the SE we wipe out five German MDI, and generate the GL Mutawallis, as our luck begins to even out (73-4). I'll use him for the Pentagon.
In the SW we execute a Bab spearman and a German archer/warrior team (76-4).
900 (10): We expunge a Sumerian archer and a Port. horseman landed in the Tyrana area (78-4).
Mutawallis rushes the Pentagon in Ugarit, where the eventual cultural expansion will fill a gap.
We fell three more Bowmen around Kummanni (81-4).
In the SE we rout a German MDI, a German archer, a Port. horseman, and a Japanese swordsman (85-4)
Twenty-seven elite victories this round, four of them defensive, produced two Great Leaders.
I wanted the town to have access to all the good tiles immediately, not after another foundation or a cultural expansion. The harder the game, the more important it is to think in these terms, I find.
) Only is functioning well as a five-turn settler factory, but it needs constant attention, especially if Karatepe is to get as many good tiles as possible.
), so I'd say they are a huge threat.
They brought a ridiculous number of units for monarch, but I suppose it's the result of the huge map. Our Leader luck seems to have reverted to wretched, even with the HE. 
