I performed my traditional opening move--for games where we start with a Warrior--and stole a Worker from a nearby AI, Washington.
Oh wait, we started with a Scout, so I actually had to build the Warrior myself after building a Worker.
Washington had settled his second City in a silly location, totally missing any chance to use his Copper. Having teched Agriculture and then Bronze Working, I knew where his Copper was probably before he did, and my Worker-thieving Warrior parked his butt on the adjacent Grassland Hills Forest square.
My Scout found the Marble so I decided to settle my capital near it, picking up Marble, both Corn, and what ended up being zero Flood Plains squares. This way, I got a production-oriented capital and didn't have to worry about potential Health problems from Flood Plains squares until after I'd connected some Health Resources.
I did not find Stone in the immediate vicinity but wanted Stonehenge for its bonus Happiness from the Monuments in combination with the Charismatic Trait. Thanks to the Monuments' Culture, I also then had the flexibility to settle Cities with nice fat crosses but not necessarily the nicest of inner-circle radii.
I had the intention of blocking-in Huayna after having discovered that his capital's Cultural borders were "up against the Coast," but he managed to get out a Settler far before I did. Still, I settled westward (westward from the Marble, in case you forgot) and later a City to the north of the Marble to pick up Clam & Pig, so Huayna ended up with only 4 Cities for quite some time.
The Great Wall and The Oracle went long before I had a chance to even consider building them. No Religions were founded immediately after The Oracle had been built but an early Colossus confirms the tech that an AI took from The Oracle--not a bad choice on that AI's part (as of yet the AI is unknown to me), if I do compliment the AI myself.
Axemen and the odd Spearman went to war with Washington's horde of Archers, slowly gaining experience and a Great General, which I saved for later usage on a Chariot for a Super Medic.
My tech pace had been slow as I REXed crazily, but I delayed settling my 5th City until I'd completed research on Pottery. Cottages being built slowly dragged me out of the hole and I eventually felt that I was close to time for an offensive on the City of Washington.
Of course, Huayna wasn't going to let me off easily. He decided that he didn't like being blocked-in and chose to go to war with me. So, troops designated for Washington turned around and marched towards Huayna's lands, while some Axemen stayed around Washington just to keep collecting experience from Archers and free Workers à-la-captured-Settler style.
Huayna sent in some nasty stacks of Axemen, Chariots, and Spearmen. I decided that it wasn't worth attacking those stacks and decided to let him tear up my Cottages--a whole 2 of them--and hope that he'd attack. No such luck--he parked two stacks on squares within my territory, essentially preventing a Worker from rebuilding those 2 Cottages.
Of course, my empire had an additional 10+ Cottages elsewhere, so he was the one losing out in that deal.
Other than the occasional lone unit that he'd send in, I only really fought off one "stack," which only had one Axeman defending, so I decided to throw several Axemen at it (Chariots won't defend any better against Axemen--they only get the bonus against Axemen if the Chariots are the attackers). I killed off an Axeman, a Chariot, and a Spearman this way but lost 2 Axemen in the process and he managed to flee with his remaining unit on the next turn.
Still, his stacks sat there, so I decided to be coy and built up a stack of 8 Chariots--they blitzed past his stacks and BAM took out a City defended by an Archer and an Axeman. Before he could respond, the Chariots returned to my territory--yet, his stacks had not even budged.
Okay there buddy... so, I repeated the trick, this time with 10 Chariots and a couple of Axemen + Spearmen defenders, being able to bring along the slower-moving units as I'd had to trudge through Jungle squares to get at the next City.
I didn't wait until the 1-movement point units had movement points remaining and attacked with 1/2-movement point Chariots. I was up against 1 Spearman, 2 Archers, and an Axeman and won the last battle with the 9th Chariot. I kept that City and now Huayna is down to his capital and a City to the northwest.
Meanwhile, I finally sent enough units Washington's way to take out his capital, using Warriors and unpromoted Axemen to wound the defenders and then my highly-promoted Axemen to finish off the defenders.
I soon met Genghis Khan and got some Inter-continental, Foreign Trade Routes going--he had Writing but no Alphabet.
Washington himself is down to 2 Cities but I'm letting him live as he is providing nice, free experience, the occasional free Worker from Settlers that I kill, and a target for Barbs in the south.
Huayna, meanwhile, has built The Temple of Artemis (before he started the war) and The Pyramids (after he started the war?!?!?!?!?!--too many Hammers wasted there, buddy!) in his capital. He has already Shined the Hindu Holy City, so his capital will be a juicy target once I rebuild my army from after my latest Chariot-rush. Perhaps now he'll finally wake up and will send home one or both of his stacks that are just sitting on squares in my territory doing nothing but looking pretty and stopping me from Cottaging a couple of squares that don't REALLY have to have Cottages.
I have met Mansa but still need to map out a path to his Cities so that we can get Foreign Trade Routes with him, too.
Oh yeah, I did manage to build The Great Lighthouse in a City on the Coast to the SE of the capital that was settled for Grassland Hills Pig and a bunch of Hills squares. I don't have TOO many Coastal Cities but I have probably half of my Cities on the Coast, so it still has been a useful Wonder.
Oddly enough, I have found VERY FEW Sid's Sushi resources, so I will be able to safely delay researching Corporation (if I ever make it that far in the tech tree) for a long, long time, essentially providing a very long lifetime to The Great Lighthouse.
Huayna, so far, has only used The Pyramids for Hereditary Rule, his Favourite Civic. No complaints here--although I HAD finally connected Stone, I wasn't really certain about my chances of getting this Wonder before another AI built it.
However, I have just recently built The Hanging Gardens after beelining Mathematics--it was paining me to keep chopping all of those Forests "inefficiently" for 20 Hammers each and the Wonder was more of an after-thought once The Pyramids had been completed and I was stuck with Stone that didn't have much use.
That said, I have started on Moai Statues "just because I can."
The tech rate is probably the worst part about my game--I have put a bit of partial research into Alphabet (since Mansa knows that tech) and have started to research Aesthetics.
If I recall correctly, I saw a message claiming that The Parthenon had been built in a distant land, but fortunately, it was not Mansa who knows The-Parthenon-unlocking tech of Aesthetics, so I may yet have a chance to get in on the trading game.
I have generated a Great Prophet from Stonehenge and am working on getting a Great Scientist/Great Prophet/Great Engineer--whichever comes up--from my capital with Stonehenge, The Hanging Gardens, and 2 Scientist Specialists, for my second Great Person.
I imagine that Huayna's capital, once I capture it, will help with generating a Great Person or two. Washington's capital has a lot of Food but even more unhappiness, so it will be a while before it can really help out in that regard, but it does hold promise for the future.
I am thinking that I will go for Literature, Drama, and Music after Aesthetics, then will finally head towards Code of Laws and Civil Service.
Literature + Marble + a production-oriented capital = The Great Library
Literature + lots of early warring = The Heroic Epic, which is a National Wonder that I will still have to decide where it will go
Drama + Unhappiness = The Globle Theatre, which I will probably build in Washington and will likely pair it up with The National Epic
Music = A free Great Person for a Golden Age in order to save on Anarchy when switching into Bureaucracy... wait... we are Spiritual so maybe I won't need it... err... maybe I'll just save him for a time once the City of Washington has grown and has hired a ton of Specialists, so that I can spam even more Great People during the Golden Age period.
Or, maybe in going for both Literature and Drama while trading away Aesthetics immediately after learning said tech, I'll miss out on being the first to Music altogether. In that case, I can just get started researching Civil Service that much sooner.
As for future wars--well, I have a bone to pick with Mansa from other games that I have played in the past. It seems that (by looking at the F4 -> GLANCE screen using BUG + BULL) one the AIs has a HUGE negative initial attitude towards another AI in this game, in particular the attitude of Kublai towards Mansa. That said, Kublai and Mansa are both Buddhist, so it may not be too easy to split them apart.
Chances are that Mansa will get to Longbowmen before I am even able to field any units against him, but I would rather tech to Construction and field Chariots, Axemen, Spearmen, Catapults, and maybe even the odd Gallic Warrior against Longbowmen than I would have to fight him in the future when it will likely be my Grenadiers versus his Infantry + Cavalry. That little tech monster must be taken down a notch while I still have the chance!
Here is a screenshot showing the status of the land around Huayna's area, as well as other minor details, such as my current tech pace on Aesthetics and my mini-map of the World.
