1226AD: Oof. Sorry, pal, not handing that one over to you.
We did pop another Scientist. I thought about leaving them both asleep. However, it occurred to me to wonder what would lightbulb next, after Optics. It could not be Paper, so... it must be Astronomy!
An early Astronomy would net us early access to Observatories, which grant 25% science boost and allow a third Scientist specialist. We would need two scientists to pop the tech, but I made the call. We don't need to spend eons debating what to do with the leaders, so as much as to avoid that fate as for the benefits, I committed us to this course.
Our next Scientist, which may pop soon actually, can finish the research with another Lightbulb. We're now on course for Early Biology, which will feed yet more specialists going in to the industrial era, and we have tech-trading material probably for longer than we'll have access to traded tech, since as yet we have no true friends.
Mansa, by the way, got converted to Christianity, and the instance is in his largest city. We'd have needed to send two or three missionaries to have any hope of making that plan work. However, the missionary and chariot are still alive and heading that way, for whatever that may be worth.
1232AD: Alex has a proposal.
If this move were allowed by our variant rules, I'd have taken the offer. Alex could become that true friend that we need. I had to turn him down, though. Still, good that he's roughing up Peter and not us. Poor Peter, who lacks army strength, while we are packing longbows and jumbos and not looking like anybody's female dog, if you know what I mean.
1238AD: That missionary I trained in Boston arrives in SanFran.
The road is also almost finished. Note our Woody2 Warrior earning his pay with fogbusting duty.
Strauss will have a connected city with borders expanding and two workers in the area. Enough to connect a Dyes, for sure. Will need more beef in the area to protect outlying resources from pillage, though. Still, Sugar and Bananas not TOO far off in the future. I certainly got things moving in that direction.
Although our military situation is COMPLETELY secure at the moment, there is a mini-wave of incoming at Seattle:
Gray Dot has caught my eye. It's on a hill, grabs most of the lake, the wheat, some farmlands. Good looking site, overall.
The Longbow I trained out of Atlanta this round is moved in to the forest in the SE corner of our border and promoted to Combat II. We are mostly dealing with barbarian foot units, but at some point they may come with Horse Archers or Longbows of their own. I thought it wouldn't hurt to head for a Combat III Longbow capable of responding to any threat. Leaving him parked in the forest on a semi-permanent basis will anchor that choke point. With +75% Str (forest and fortify) and a First Strike, that should chew up any incoming. If/when we grab Gray Dot, the cows and wheat would then become "back line" territory and be much more likely to be protected successfully -- but only if that Longbow stays put.
After learning Polytheism, I did go back to the Guilds research plan. Not a lot of power to put behind it, as yet, but the only other alternative is to research Monotheism, since just about everything else could be tech trade fodder.
1250AD: Mansa builds Angkor Wat. He looks to be the prime competition, at the moment, powered in part by trades with us.
One last military shot, of clearing most of the incoming threat at Seattle.
Zero American losses were incurred in the making of this round's report.
Oh, and I spent our money from the trade with Cyrus on upgrading the CG3 Archer in NYC to Longbow. Atlanta is still guarded by a mere Archer, though, so keep that in mind!
We had practically zero activity in the Chicago area. Not sure why, but the AIs may be settling nearby, reducing the fog. Plus it seems for sure there are no barb cities in that vicinity.
Our expedition encounters a Malinese war party:
Mali is not currently at war. They are clearly going to sneat attack somebody, though. A barb city, if not an AI. I'm fairly sure they are not headed our way, but their intent is not clear. A French city sits behind them. If they were attacking France, why would they have moved PAST a French city? ... Anyway, that's not my problem any more, at least for a couple more centuries.
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!. Did anyone mention that we need Courthouses
