NC LXVIII: Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia

[TheDanish]

How does one disable events in a NC game?

 

[Capellan]

Choose custom scenario, then click the 'no events' option (you may need to change the skill setting in the top of the screen too - try not to look at the AIs as you do so! ).

 

[Bjeurn]

Time for an update on my game, I played 940 AD until 1510 AD.

Spoiler :

840AD - 1510 AD
Nothing really interesting happened in this time frame, I basically just worked on teching up and improving my lands, I had to recover from my war on France. Most of the writeup will be text as a result of that.

In 940 AD Tokugawa tried to take the Barbarian city in the southeast of my country. Of course, I don't want him to take it so I focussed on some units to take it.
In 980 AD I finished research on Philosophy. And again, the religion wasn't founded yet. I decided to found Taoism, which is of course only a flavour choice. The Holy City for Taoism is *drumroll* Addis Ababa, again! Now I really think I should start to work on some Great Prophets, the city is a great potential commerce center. I completed the Forbidden Palace in Paris, to help with the maintenance costs for old France.

In 1070 AD all my cities have Buddhism and I'm spreading the religions from Addis Ababa as well. My economy is catching up from the early warring, and I'm able to run science at 70% now. I've never really focussed on religion, I've played games before where I didn't have any religion and switched into Free Religion right away. The current scenario, with 4 religions in my cities, makes for an interesting possibility though, so I decided to try for that a bit.

I decide to build the University of Sankore in Aksum and focus on getting my first Prophet from Paris. Paris has the Oracle, so it generates GP points for prophets, but it also has the Great Lighthouse.
Sankore finishes in 1210 AD in Aksum, and the turn after, I finish both Liberalism and the Angkor Wat in Paris. Since I'll be needing at least one more Great Prophet, I figured it was worth picking up. I used the free Liberalism tech to pick up Nationalism, it can't hurt to build the Taj Mahal if I get the chance for it. After Liberalism I go for Gunpowder right away, after all, we get a Unique Musketman as our UU, with 2 free promotions so getting an army of those is nice. I can always promote those to Riflemen later on.

In 1280 AD Paris spawns Moses at around 65% chance on a Great Prophet, lucky me . As Tokugawa isn't really a trader, I decide to go for Optics next so I can meet the civs on the other continent. After a quick count, I build the Dai Miao first in Addis Ababa. I found another city in 1370 AD to prevent Tokugawa from going up that way. He's managed to split my country in half by building cities while I was warring De Gaulle, I don't want him to encircle me. 1380 AD I send out my first Caravel looking for the rest of the world. I set up some trades with Tokugawa, for now I'm not planning to attack him. Hilled cities with Longbowmen are just not fun to attack, plus I'm teching much faster than he is anyway.

The cities I founded:

Spoiler :

In 1490 AD I find Shaka and his vassal Frederick. Also Paris pops another Great Prophet, so I can complete the Christian Holy City as well. Shaka is below Tokugawa and me in power, despite having Frederick as a vassal. Still, he'll likely get into a war with me later. After all, it's Shaka! I trade away 2 technologies to Frederick for 4 new technologies right away, about equal in breaker costs. Since I have tech brokering off, Frederick can't pass them on to Shaka, which is nice. After trading maps with Shaka, I'm the first one to prove the world is round, and in the same turn I get the Great Merchant from researching Economics first. My tech lead is pretty huge, Every civ still needs Education, while Shaka still needs Philosophy. Shaka has some huge amount of land though, so he might slowly catch up on me:



I focus on building Oromo Warriors for now, cause Tokugawa and Shaka have raced ahead of me in military power. I can catch up though. I decide that I'll go for the easiest route with my tech lead, which is a Space Race. Shaka, Frederic and Pericles (the last civ I find) are in a religious block so I'm probably not gonna win Diplomacy easy. I don't feel like going for an intercontinental war either. Culture is an option but I'm not really set up for that yet and it's not really fun. Most of my cities have 3 religions (Buddhism to keep Tokugawa happy, Taoism and Christianity to benefit from my Holy City), some have Confucianism as well. I can run science at around 80%, and with the amount of cities I have plus the University of Sankore that's pretty fast.

Graphs, showing my lead in score and in GPT:

 

[FlyingSwan]

Playing at Monarch/normal.A great start for a civ that starts with hunting and mining so SIP seemed like a no brainer for the early food,hammers and commerse combo from the beaver and deer.Decided to focus on getting Zaras cheap librarys out asap and push for civil service from the oracle.

After some goody hut good luck ive pulled off a realy early civil service/oracle slingshot-Turn 63-and have just switched into caste and beauracracy.3 citys up and 1 on the way.The plan now is to go for Gunpowder in the BCs by hopefully running 3 scientist in 2 of my citys to put bulbs into education.

View attachment 283325

Im pretty sure scientists in caste(as opposed to cottage spam) are going to get me gunpowder quickest as I should be able to run some great merchants too if gold per turn becomes an issue.

Spoiler :

didnt quite manage to get gunpowder in the BCs,the 3rd scientist came too late which makes me wonder if self researching Math may of been the better play.Wars underway with Hannible and ive just taken carthage.Oromos get about 55%odds against 60% culture and classical era troops so I havnt even bothered with construction yet.

Have now switched civics to heredetory rule/slavery in preperation for whipping in forges and universtys.View attachment NC 68 Zara Yaqob AD-0500war.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Bjeurn]

And my final update. I won a Space Race in 1920 AD.

Spoiler :

In 1525 AD I research Divine Right, founding the last religion that was still open (Hinduism). The Holy City is Orleans, which is a gold farm as well, but I can't bother spreading another religion. After Democracy, it's time for a big revolt. I completely swap around my civics to all the 'modern day' versions, but I decide not to go for Free Religion for now. For now I like to keep Tokugawa at pleased, but if I'm ever attacking him, I'll be switching.

I discover that I have two sources of Oil, one is a sea tile near Paris, another is right on my border with Japan near Matara.

Upon researching Physics I'm also the first civ there, getting me another free specialist. I was also first to Communism for another free Great Person, which I used for a Golden Age. In Aksum I finished the Statue of Liberty, in Debre Berhan I finished the Kremlin. By now I'm really picking up stuff for fun. When my Golden Age finished, I already had a two more Great Persons lined up to enter another one. I picked up the Great General from Fascism when I noticed I could take it with 1 turn of research and nobody else had him yet. I send him to the only town I have geared for unit production (Heroic Epic & Pentagon coming up)

I picked up Broadway for some happiness and trade bait. I had industrialism at 1750 AD, so I could've gone for Japan if I wanted to. Tanks will probably beat his Longbowmen...

Fast forward until 1874 AD. Nothing interesting happened basically, if you don't count me building wonders at will. The Three Gorges Dam is nice . I worked towards the Apollo program and started construction on some parts when the entire world decided that Pericles should die. They also asked me to join in on the fun. Now I'm not planning to do anything, but I don't want to make Shaka ea. angry, so I gave in to that. Pericles is too busy with those other 3 civs anyway, so I didn't foresee any troubles. After 5 turns of world war, Pericles already Vassaled to Tokugawa, so that fake war turned out good for me. Tokugawa also turns some of his land in a colony, so Korea joined me for the last part of the game. After the war on Pericles, Shaka was in WHEOOHRN right away, so I pump out military units in every city that doesn't work for the Apollo Project. After a few turns Shaka declares on Pericles, setting in place another world war between team Tokugawa and team Shaka. I'm keeping out of it this time.

In 1910 I launch a fully completed spaceship. For kicks and giggles I fully upgrade my army to Modern Armor, I build the Kashi Viswanath and I complete Hollywood, which looked nice along with Broadway and Rock 'n Roll which I already had. Also I incorporated Creative Construction in Addis Ababa and finish the internet in those 10 turns.
In 1920, I win, with an absurd tech lead, of which I'd researched almost everything myself, cause Tokugawa was a pain in the ass with trading the entire game, and I was miles ahead of the rest of the world, including Toku anyway. The only tech line I hadn't completed at 1920 AD was the Flight one. Two pictures of my civ:




Some graphs:

Spoiler :

This was by far my best Prince difficulty game out of the three I played, I guess early rushes are overpowered

 

[drlake]

I hate to be a nitpicker, but NC 55 was also a Zara game.

The more Zara the better!

 

[Danelius90]

I'm signing in too. Had a rest from the last 2 and did my own thing. I've kinda had my civ week, this is my study week didn't see this come up on friday will probably have a chance sometime this week though. I'll be on Monarch/epic

 

[A_Hamster]

This is my first NC game, and I do want to improve my game. I can usually win on Noble, but often it is with 42 turns or so left on the clock. At the least I'd like to win consistently about the turn of the century, and earlier would be better. When I can do that with regularity, I think I'll be ready for Prince.

Also, I'd really like an early Space Race victory for the cool factor: I like the thought of Victorian Steampunk spaceships spreading golden sails to catch the lumiferious ether. Taking pith-helmeted explorers to the rusty sands of a dying, decadent Mars inhabited by eight-foot tall four-armed green warriors and dusky princesses who are unfamiliar with the concept of clothing. Alternately a 17th century Aether Caravel setting forth, not just for the New World, but a New Planet. Per domita ad astra!

4000 BC
Game-specific goals. A number of my recent BtS games have forced me to do an Early Rush, so I'd prefer to do a REX for variety, but I will rush if necessary. For a Space Race victory, I think I'll need about twelve productive cities, with a bias towards production.

First turn, move Scout SW to see if there are any exciting must-have resources in that area, if not SIP. Research Agr, then BW. Queue Worker-Warrior-Worker.

Spoiler :

T11 - 3560 BC: First Contact with Carthage.
Ick. Too close for my taste, looks like another rush.


T46 - 2160 BC: Oh, look, it's Toku! Joy! (He has the Great Wall.)


T47 - 2120 BC: Gondar founded to the SSE of Aksum, roughly SW of the Carthaginian frontier. Starts Barracks. Aksum is busy building Archers and Axemen.

T54 - 1840 BC: DeGaulle finds me. He is the founder of Christianity, and will also build the Pyramids in about 20 turns.

T77 - 950 BC: Start the rush. Islam is founded in a distant land (ADL hereafter). While I take sack Utica, I make a botch of the attack on Carthage due to lack of Axemen, and need to sit on a hill until reinforcements come, thus the rush takes until 112 to complete when I find and destroy Hannibal's last city.

That's where things stand now. My plans are to build a city in the NW for the jumbos, a city to utilize the horse and cows north of Gondar, and turn Carthage into a commerce city. Currently researching Fishing, and I want to go for CoL for Caste system. The slider is at 30%, so the economy really needs work. Suggestions and advice would be welcome.

 

[Mogur]

Emperor/Epic to 1750BC

Spoiler :

I decided to SIP. Settling revealed wet corn, which is always welcome.

Start with worker and tech Ag>BW. After BW I find copper in BFC. Meet Hannibal very early and find his capital near by. I think an axe rush is in order. By the time I whip/chop 8 axes and am ready to go Hannibal has settled one city besides his cap, both on flatland. Not good for him...


Hannibal is dead. His capital will make a great GP Farm. He was also nice enough to found me Hinduism.

Land south:


North:


Toku's Land:


Ive also met DeGaulle but have not found him. He is almost certainly to the NW. Plan is to fill out the land and will try for GL in Carthage. Thinking either Cavalry or Oromo/Cannon war to take out Toku and DeGaulle.

 

[lymond]

@Hamster

Spoiler :

First off, just a friendly suggestion that your screenies are a bit cumbersome. I see that you use imageshack which I do as well. I believe you are using the wrong code for the forum. Also, note that you can change the resolution on upload. I use the largest and then place them in spoiler tags. Assuming you you right click your images and select "Share it" just copy the code from the first box labeled "Forum". Paste it in a spoiler tag and it is ready to go.

Look at your save and a few notes here:

1) Your war with Carthage does not look like it went well and lasted way to long. The reason is clear by looking at the map. You have all that juicy forest that was not chopped around Aksum. With chopping and the whip you can get up a sizable army in no time with more on the way.

2) No libraries! You are creative! Not taking advantage of that is a huge mistake. Heck, a 2 pop axe or worker whip in cities like Aksum will probably build the library almost completely with overflow. You could have at least 2 GS's by now plus an overall better tech rate.

3) Why are you running your slider at 30% with all that gold? Not sure if Fishing is the best choice. Yeah you have one seafood, but Carthage isn't exactly hurting for food. You need to tech to better your economy and setup trades. Alpha, Maths, Currency would all be good choice. This is a crotchety couple of neighbors you have so you might need Alpha yourself to get some trades going with DeG. Also, you want something to gift Toku to get him to Pleased. Really, on Noble, you should blow these guys away tech wise. Of course, not having libraries doesn't help. (Note: Toku is strangely more advanced on this map for some reason, maybe he lucky hutted. Same thing happened in my IMM game, but I'm still destroying him with Phantapults as we speak.

4) Why did you build a stele in Carthage?

5) Why did you raze that cow/spice city? It's actually a pretty good city. Did it auto raze?

6) Why do you use the "No Tech Brokering" option? It hurts you more than the AI.

7) No point being in Slavery if you are not going to use it.

 

[dalamb]

I hate to be a nitpicker, but NC 55 was also a Zara game.

Oops. My spreadsheet finds the FIRST occurrence rather than the LAST, so I thought we hadn't played him for a long time. I should have picked somebody other than Zara, since NC 55 was a bit too recent. Edit: actually, it was NC 45 (XLV).

 

[FlyingSwan]

Finished with a conquest in 1822AD monarch/normal.Love playing Zara,his UU is the coolest imo(at the moment anyway).

Spoiler :

after taking over the continent and capitulating Toku,Hannible and De Gaule I had a decent BPT rate,had won the Lib race and taken electricity as the free tech and bulbed Bio and a bit of Fission.As soon as the Manhatten project was complete I built a mixture of ICBMs and wealth to upgrade the Oromos into infantry.

Only needed a small force of transports/destroyers/infantry/machine guns and cannon.Fredrick capitulated easily with no nukes required.Shaka was a bit more stubborn-used about 6 nukes and raised 2 citys before he would vassal.(he only had 4 citys anyway i think!)

Pericles otoh had become a bit of a monster and took about 16 nukes and 2 raised citys.Anyway job done on a nice map.View attachment NC 68 Zara Yaqob AD-1822last turn.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[dalamb]

Just ordinary exploration so far; I'm now contemplating where to put my first settler, so there's a dotmap.

Spoiler :

tech path agriculture > bw > wheel > fish > pottery, working on AH. Archery, a scout, and some gold from huts, including a few surprisingly close to my neighbours. Built worker > barracks > warrior >archer, with a 2nd worker chopped somewhere in the middle. The workers are now chopping the first settler.

There don't seem to be good sites especially close by. Eventually I want the elephants to the northwest, but for now, I want a production city to generate axes for taking over Hannibal; after that I'll think about whether to take on Tokugawa and/or De Gaulle. DG hates me, so he might be second after Hannibal. I'm still not entirely comfortable with warmongering unless I have a serious tech or production advantage, but this:

made early warfare more attractive. Toynbee thinks I'm the most powerful civilization, but this early there are so few units I doubt that's worth depending on:

However, the fact that Hannibal is "pathetic" is nice.

So, the world as I know it:


And nearby potential city sites:

Magenta (northwest of Aksum) and light blue (east) look like the only choices for nearby production. Light blue has several not-so-useful tundra hills, but the 2 grassland hills and 1 plains hill will be good enough in the early game -- and three food sources looks nice. Magenta is lower on food -- it has cows and has to share corn with the capital to grow -- but has a 2nd copper.

I think I'll go with light blue, then conquer Hannibal, and then take stock of the situation again. With De Gaulle being IND and Tokugawa having both stone and marble, there ought to be some nice wonders to conquer.

A few comments on other "early" games -- skipped anything much beyond where I am at the moment:
@Bjern:

Spoiler :

I think with Hannibal so close the right move is to take him out like you were planning on. You settled your 2nd city 1NW of where I planned my 2nd (or later) settler; did you consider overlapping with Aksum's corn? Very little food where you went -- not even farmable grassland.

Carthage is a wonderful GP farm IMO -- all that food means that you can run lots and lots of specialists. It may seem like a waste in the early game, but in the long term you'll get enough happiness and health resources to be able to make the city very large and be able to run lots of specialists. It's also reasonable to let a city to the north, say 2W of the gold, claim the corn -- overlap isn't necessarily anything to be afraid of.

@Capellan:

Spoiler :

Your deer/wheat city is 1W of my proposed light blue. You give up some deer but also trade tundra for more useful tiles, including wine. On balance I think your choice is better than mine.

I'm debating whether it's worth going for your SW city (2N of deer, 2S of cows). It has food and a little production, but not much else. If you're going for cultural it's another potential temple site, I suppose.

Addis Abbaba doesn't have any food resources -- and you cottaged instead of farming the river tiles. Why did you choose to do that at this point?

Spoiler future map knowledge :

Or did you remember about nearby hidden resources from creating the no-hut maps?

@FlyingSwan:A turn 63 CS slingshot! Congrats; I'm at turn 63 also, coincidentally, and am far behind you in techs. It does reinforce the hut-haters' point about games ceasing to be comparable, though.

 

[FlyingSwan]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

great choice for your production city,think to the future with irrigating the wheat and watermills aplenty.

 

[Capellan]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

SW city (2N of deer, 2S of cows) - I settled this as my Moai site, as a canal in the south, and to block barbs. I was pretty happy with how it worked out.

Addis Abbaba - I founded the city to grab the two spices and wine, which meant it had a strong commerce base, and I decided to go all out commerce there, so spammed cottages instead of farms. May or may not have been the right choice.

I use find and replace all to remove the huts, so I don't see any details of the map while I am updating it.

 

[Deonnim]

So I've decided to up my game to Noble and figured this would be the best way to do it. Here's hoping that I can improve my haphazard style of gameplay along the way.

BC 4000: I'm with everyone else, I'm going to settle in place, start on a worker, warrior settler

BC 2720

Spoiler :

I've just trained my first settler, and am off to claim my second city. I have a preliminary dot map that I'm fairly happy with. I really want to claim the Yellow Dot, but feel it is too far off to be effective for my second city. So I decide to stick close to home and settle
to the east on the purple dot. *We shall call this tentative mistake #1*

Research: BW => Agr => Wheel => Pottery

My plan is to settle next at the Red Dot to try and beat Hannibal to it

BC 950

Spoiler :

OK, so here is where I curl up in a ball and cry for my Mommy. I've met 3 other neighbors, one of which will not even sign open borders with me. Both Hannibal and Japan are closing in on my quickly and I'm starting to feel claustrophobic. I've met De Gaule, but have yet to find his borders. *My scouts keep getting slaughtered by Barb animals*

So I settled the Red Dot a turn or two too late, Hannibal approached and slammed down a city near there. I figure with the Cre trait I can pop my borders and grab the tiles I need which I do. *This is tentative mistake #2* Hannibal is encroaching on my land quicker than I would like, I'm training two Settlers now to grab the green dot and the aqua. I settled at the Yelllow Dot early enough to grab the tiles I need after a quick border pop, but it's surrounded by Japan and Hannibal.

Research: Pottery => Writing => Alphabet => Mysticism
I wanted to train Math next, but I traded out Writing to Hannibal for Animal Husbandry and Archery. The French won't trade Mysticism, so with it being only 4 turns I grabbed it. My plan with this was to start building a Stele in all my cities. *This probably should have been done earlier so I can have the extra border pops* I figure I am going to need that extra culture in my cities now that I have enemies surrounding my borders.

Ok, so now I'm stuck and need assistance. I don't really know where to go next. I am now pushing my research at 60%, the addition of two more cities is probably going to cap me out on expansion, and might be too much. But I'm also afraid that if I don't grab those spots ASAP, I'm going to lose them and have very little left to my name. My only other option is to try and build a couple of barracks and try for an early rush, perhaps against Hannibal. I see two problems with this: 2. I believe he has copper, which means access to Axes, 2. he has archery, which means extra defenses.

Any help you guys could give would be extremely appreciated.

 

[Capellan]

@Deonnim

Spoiler :

I'm not a fan of where you have Green dot as it's one off the coast and doesn't really have much food to work the hills ... 1W 1NW of there would avoid settling one off the coast, offer more green riverside tiles, and give you iron rather than a 2nd copper. It would also give you a west coast port if you decide to pursue the circumnavigation bonus.

Aqua is too far away and too isolated, I think. I'd try to claim rice and dye west of yellow, instead. Another option is 2W 2SW of Aksum, to claim cow and deer and protect the capital from tundra barbs. That city can probably wait until later though since the AIs aren't likely to grab the site any time soon. At least get a unit out there to fogbust, though

There's no sign Hannibal has copper, but he does have horse (not yet hooked up), and Utica will be able to pick up iron when its borders pop.

Economy/Tech-wise, consider going for Meditation or Poly, then Priesthood and CoL. You get cheap courthouses for being Organized, so it's probably quicker than Maths-Currency, and building Markets, and it will give you espionage on your neighbors. On the other hand, Maths leads to Calendar, which is a strong tech here - you've got dye, bananas, spice and silk all within your cultural borders already. So if you do go for maths next, I'd suggest Calendar before Currency.

How many workers do you have, btw?

 

[Deonnim]

@Capellan

Spoiler :

Thanks for the tips. I changed my dot maps to fix the issues. I wasn't sure if green was a good spot or not, I believe I put it there before I got IW, so wasn't even aware there was iron to be had, my bad. Aqua I wasn't sure on either, and looking at it again it is a really bad spot since Hannibal just settled in between a few turns ago.

The next city I'm going for is the one you suggested near yellow, that will at least cut off Japan grabbing it, alllowing me a few more tunrs to grab green. I'll also grab your tech line and see what I can do with it.

As for the number of workers, I have 7 atm, or at least that I counted, I may have missed one. I was working one tile in the yellow town, but switched to cows without gaining much. And I'm working the spices in Lalibela wihtout an imrovement because it just gives me 1P + 1C in exchange for 1F.

I know I am probably going to need another worker or two quite soon, but my cities can't grow until I get a happiness resource which I need badly. Only way I can do that is get Calendar and/or snag the ivory. It's going to be a little while before I can grow again

 

[Nicol.Bolas]

Hello, so I finally join you for the actual NC game! I will play noble with huts on and events prolly disabled depends how i feel when i start the game, might leave them on, i got tired of them for now

I won the previous after 22hours of solid gameplay (1906, around 180turns left)... it was a massacre, there must have been like 50 GGs altogether
its really long, ussualy i win in 5 hours on noble standard...... i won my last noble marathon huge in 22hours....
reasopn ebing heave micromanagement thorought most of the game, since i was under pressure from both roman empires, who were basically on steroids, and lets not forget the early barbarian hordes
lol i never recovered the worker deficiency this created, the ques were always so bussy....

In this game I would like to improve my very erly opening and chopping.
what is the correct build order in this opening situation (just judging from screenshot)
and research order of say
first 5 builds and 5 techs.
then I chop into the settler?
thank you for advice.


I hope that this time the map is more standard...... I still dont get how I survived and even won the previous one
so far I am noble etc. 19w/1L, so dont spoil it for me.
i wanted to try prince already, but the last NC game scared me.
so i will play again on noble, and try to be even more agressive and faster and try to incorporate more prince gameplay
also in last game i only managed to build kremlin and SoL. granted the game was hard but I ussually dont build wonders. i rather build units and settlers. without resources i dont even try.
all others i was beaten technologically (but i was beelining State property for war and sustainibility of huge empire) or beaten by many turns (attempted great library, university of sancore and some others i dont even remeber)
but i caputered pyramiods and university of sancore.....which enabled me to go to police state

the early wonders i didnt even try, since start was harsh and basically all wonders were build by romans who had GW, which protexted them from intial massacre

police state from pids, nationhood, slavery, organized religion were really ideal for this endless war i was having . also big bonus to production of anything and espionage, nice
(really nice state to live in..... you are enslaved but think of the nation in the process, your only relieve is to go into state organized temple. any one who resists is arrested and enslaved even more)


settlers and stacks of axes or other units always do a better "wonder" for me: eliminate some rivals when its still easy.
but maybe my thinking is wrong.
also many times i build cities, where i cant tell whether they should do commerce or minig, so i end up doing hybrids, which are also good for war (cites with both hills but not that much food, but just barely susstainable for cottaging)

thanks a lot for any general advice...... i will be posting maybe later today before or after i play first 50turns


ps
can i post save games in BUG - BUFFY mod? it is basic unaltered gameplay used for GOTM games.
maybe you can consider recommending this mod instead

if not, what screenshots whould i provide to make it most effective?

again thanks a lot

 

[Danelius90]

Monarch/Epic - No huts or events.
4000BC ~ erm, 1000BC ish

Spoiler :

Moved the scout SW to see if there was coast, which there is and then NW to reveal cow. There's deer to the south too, so a possible city site here in the future. So decided to SIP.
First techs Agri > BW
Worker first in the cap, then warrior warrior settler
hannibal is really close... he must die. I think I will start to expand towards him.
score! copper in the BFC.
researched AH since my second city will use the grass cow to work the grass mines around it

Spoiler :

revolt into slavery once the settlers out.
I'm thinking I will cottage the capital, since there's not that many other great spots for cottages close by..
There's horse just outside of where I was planning to put my city, but I'm thinking I can grab it with another city, and the creative culture should grab it soon.
The wheel > pottery now. Possible chariot rush on Hannibal? Or even axes. I'm not that experienced with early rushes, have done a few successfully though.
OTOH, there is room for peaceful expansion to the north.
For another cottage possibility, I'm thinking about the nasty tundra bit SE of Aksum. Can get 3 food resources in the BFC, which will let me work the plains and tundra tiles? Dilemma... Because there will be no way of using the hills just to the right with the lack of food...
The other option is settle on the hill just right of the horse, then if I take Hannibal, I can use one of those food resources.

2075BC, perhaps because of a little indecision, Hannibal has taken the spot where horse it. Will try to rush..
he eventually opened borders so had a quick scout and he has no copper, and only an archer per city. This should end well
1775BC declared, 1375BC as below

Spoiler :

I declared a little early, but he was hooking the horses up so I didn't want him to get chariots. Anyway thats some nice land and solves the close neighbour problem!

Carthage will become a GP farm.
I'll make some plans soon...

I settled another city and got a few more ideas in my head.

I'm thinking up by the spices where I can get access to coast. Toku is coming down now so gotta think about how to deal with him. Alphabet will come soon (I'm writing this a day after I saved ) so need to think about trades and such before making any enemies.