The main themes of this round: expanding the economy and attempting to catch up on tech--the latter could be difficult with a runaway Ramesses in play.
As previously decided, we started with printing press. Along the way, we finally got our first trade, with Mehmed: calendar, engineering, polytheism, a world map (something I wanted) and the spare change under his couch for education. On the resource front, Mao and Ramesses were the only civs with astronomy for a long time; Mao traded cow for ivory, a deal I really liked.
The very next turn, Mehmed would give compass, feudalism, and monotheism for liberalism, and that was it for that round of trading. Interestingly, Mehmed offered nothing for Nationalism after I researched it in 1605.
The other continent seemed embroiled in almost constant warfare, which I kept out of. In 1607, Caesar adopted emancipation, and one other civ followed, creating a big happiness problem in my larger cities as I worked through constitution (finished in 1630) and democracy (fininshed in 1670, followed by an immediate revolution into universal suffrage and emancipation). Without hereditary rule, happiness problems would continue leading me to research drama (only one turn at this point) to resort to the slider for a brief period of time.
Mehmed would take democracy for guilds (more health), gunpowder, horseback riding, and 60 gold, after which I earned the anticipated WFYABTA (yes, I am now in the top half on the power graph!). My self-research path lost focus here as I addressed smaller immediate needs (drama, literature, optics for whale happiness, then chemistry to start working on defenses). I wonder if periods like this are what keep me from 19th century spaceship launches.
Some luck in 1715: we discover gems in mines our people have been working for thousands of years. Would that we could have discovered them earlier. . . but still, the whale and the gems help, as does the importation of religions into cities intentionally left without them: we gained Islam and Christianity, and began spreading them to our larger cities for the happiness bonuses under free religion.
After chemistry, I research astronomy. When researched, I gain 30 gold/turn from the overseas trade routes alone with the research slider set to 70%. Note to self: astronomy is an important part of economy building; research it earlier.
I finish off the economics focus with economics and corporation. In 1758, Ramesses offers broadway musicals for fish. I take it, muttering about how technologically backward I still am.
I go for scientific method and biology, a tech which none of the AIs seem to have. Biology nets me steel from Mao and steam power from Caesar. I follow up with replaceable parts, hoping to get a bit more out of the massive forests to the north of the capital. Then, I decided to stop and take a break. I've made some mistakes--neglecting to grow a great prophet for a Confucian shrine is probably the biggest, as that could have been an easy 10 gold/turn had I been thinking.
Despite bonehead moves like that, things are looking good--not InvisibleStalke good, but good:
Here is my current city activity:
And the rather impressive demographics screen, showing my total economic dominance even with a middle-of-the-pack population:
I plan on going for a computer-first space race given that I am still 4-6 techs behind the leaders. The next round should be fairly straightforward if I can avoid an invasion--so far, no one is less than cautious toward me, so the careful diplomacy seems to be paying off.
The save file:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/95757/Lonely_Shaka_AD-1798.CivWarlordsSave
= less need for "happy units" = less maitenance.
bonus is a lifesaver). But willpax has the final word on this.
(mine was in 1934)). Post the save when you can, please.
). I was only able to trade techs in the industrial age. And because of that I needed to wander a bit in the tech tree ( for Drama, at least), and that forced me to beeline Rocketry, not Computers (another mistake of mine...).
I only got two extra gold mines late in game (If it was early ...)) but your game is far better than mine. Maybe a hard beeline to Optics is a better move in Isolation than developing alone...
