I started off by asking Darius, who was pleased with us, if he could spare Aesthetics for a good friend. He felt that I was pressing him too hard. I was hoping that we could pick up Drama in some trades. The culture slider would be a quick and handy way to pop the borders in our new cities. At least until we have Music. Unfortunately, our trading options are limited. Isabella doesn't want to trade with us, and I certainly don't want to give Machinery to Ramesses.
I researched Aesthetics and Drama after Engineering completed. I started Paper on the last turn, for a possible run on Liberalism, but feel free to change it. Vicky is the only one with Paper, at the moment.
I renegotiated our resource deal with Darius. We were selling him corn and silk for 5gpt, which I renegotiated just the corn for 6gpt.
As for city builds, I completed the Courthouse in Tiwanaku and
the Courthouse in Toledo. Akkad completed its Granary and I started up a Barracks next. Toledo will be a nice commerce city one day, but in the meantime it is sorely lacking of production. I started a Library in the city.
Ramesses researched Divine Right and founded Islam, while Darius picked up the Mausoleum of Maussollos.
Ramesses decided to try for an early diplomatic win with the Apostolic Palace.
I spent an inordinate amount of time fighting barbs during this set. They were coming down from the icy tundra in droves. We didn't lose any units, and even got one of our Macemen up to 10xp with all of the fighting.
The barbs abated a bit after Isabella founded that city to our northeast.
A barb Galley started pillaging the fishing nets off the coast of Babylon. I built a Trireme and replaced the lost fishing boats.
I noticed, on the last turn, that a barb city had spawned to our west. In addition to the War Elephant on sentry duty, we also have a crossbow in the area.
That Settler that Izzy had running around decided to settle right in the middle of our empire.
The worst part is it cut our road network, since she is unwilling to give us open borders. I had our Workers road around the city and I stationed a couple of Macemen outside of her borders.
I know the plan is to go after Ramesses next, but we might want to consider a short altercation with Spain just to get rid of this city. With our variant, I doubt that Akkad will ever be able to win the culture war.
I moved our stack of troops to the English border, in preparation of an Egyptian invasion. It consists mostly of obsolete swords and axes. We can turn research off for 4 or 5 turns if we want to upgrade the stack. I would have done it during my turns, except I just now thought of it.
Literature is available for trade. I would suggest using Drama to pick it up, so that we can build the Heroic Epic. Its not the best site production wise, but I would consider putting the HE in Ulundi because of its proximity to the border. Cuzco would also be a good choice, while Babylon has the most hammers. Darius and Isabella also have some available gpt.
