IT 550AD: Steady as she goes. Hey, we're in good shape here!
A couple vetos: Satsuma swapped from market to FORBIDDEN PALACE, due in 30 turns (and we'll shave some off that.) Munich, even with a temple and 3 lux, is still unhappy with one citizen! Wow, the Germans whipped it really hard.
It's never going to amount to anything, I don't think, so I switch it to walls, and then to wealth. Smolensk is too far from anywhere, so I swapped it to walls, too. Looking back, maybe should have done barracks first, but I make my share of nonoptimal moves, too.
Upon first read, I thought the Bapedi aggression move sounded dicey, if not unwise, but I get in and look at it, and wow, the Zulu culture in those cities really does suck. One has not expanded borders at all and the other has less than 100 culture going, maybe even a lot less. Yeah, I affirm the plan there, only... not a library. Cathedral. Same shield cost, same culture per turn, more benefit. So I rush it.
I rushed a courthouse in Edo, too, since I saw it was NOT 1/1, just really really hurtin. (~75% corrupt).
Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka switched to Cathedrals, all will be done before my turn ends. I run Osaka on max food for starters, going to get it to size 7.
560AD: Found Shimonoseki on yellow dot on the Isle. Sending one of our ships north to Edo, so we can reinforce the Russian front if need be, or... attack Tbilisi Island (again) if we go to war with Aztecs. (Next time we need to settle it ourselves, or we'll be attacking it over and over all game long
). We can build new ships in the south more easily, where production is stronger.
570AD: Rushed the granary at Nagasaki. (Yeah yeah, I'm spending the treasury. And it's going to get worse, but note that I am spending on improving corruption management and production at the cities on the fringe of usefulness -- and NOT spending on the hopeless cities, stuck at 1/1).
580AD: Bought Engineering @last, less than 100 gold. Swapped our research to Chivalry. Map brokering nets us current known charts plus some change.
590AD: Rushed the courthouse at Berlin.
600AD: Yokohama pushes back contested borders with Ngome, establishing itself as the culturally dominant city in the region. Osaka reaches size 7, swapped from max food to break even, (switched two tiles from coastal to mined hills).
Sold X-man some lux for cash @miser price.
610AD: I realize that we, in fact, have feudalism. Duh. I upgrade most of our spears. I also buy Chivalry from Monty for our map and 55 gold, start researching Printing Press. (I figure that one, we MAY end up researching with our lone Munich scientist. The other techs, surely not, the AI's will have them soonish).
Yokohama trains a worker. Um... the first worker our civ has trained since 2500BC.
We now have three. (Of course, in fairness, we do have a buncha slaves running around, and our lands, for the most part, have been well developed. Still... there are a few key tiles begging for help, such as the iron at Nara).
620AD: Kyoto finishes its cathedral and is swapped to max food to grow more quickly (trading two shields for two food may not sound to LK's liking, but it DOUBLES the rate of growth while only adding one turn to the training of the pike unit we need to replace the one I shipped out of Nara. If we keep the city on max food config through Sullla's turn, Kyoto can train a samurai AND grow to size 10 by the start of LK's turn). Nagoya finishes temple.
The Zulus moved a sword into Bapedi. I get a little nervous, and ship the newly upgraded pike unit from Nara over to Yokohama. Also swap from harbor to walls.
630AD: Steveville takes one for the team, giving up its bonus grassland with two shields to get an extra shield to Satsuma and shave a few turns off the FP ETA. Rushed the harbor at Nagoya.
Another map trade, and the Persians have explored the island south of Germany. It's an ice rock, only big enough for two cities tops. I think, as with the Isle, that it would do us better to settle it ourselves than let the AI grab it and us have to take it from them later. I start moving our southern ship in that direction, and we can rushbuy another settler out of Son of Frankfurt to ship down there. I thought the Persians might have a settler on their ship, but apparently not, as they did not grab the site.
The Zulu sword was not threatening us, but rather coming to escort a settler out of Bapedi. That poor town still does not have a lick of culture, and we may actually flip it if we get lucky. Walls finish in Yokohama, start a harbor.
640AD: Tokyo finishes its cathedral AND CELEBRATES WE LOVE THE SHOGUN DAY!
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
Starts a harbor. Could be vetoed in favor of samurai, if we intend to leave Tokyo at size 6 for the duration. Nagoya finishes harbor, Izumo finishes temple.
I renegotiated Peace and RoP with the Zulus, netting 4 gpt and some change. (We need time to finish our Forbidden Palace and train a few samurai, before we could attack anyway, so might as well get paid.)
650AD: Nara grows to size 5, now pulling in 12 gpt NET, and that's after losing 2 to corruption and paying for its three buildings. If that iron gets mined, it could also start slow production on some pikemen or catapults for support.
I realized that I overlooked the spearman at Son of Frankfurt, so I upgraded him.
I renewed our lux for lux trade with X-man. I trust him about as far I can throw him, though, so I did not give him RoP.
Bought Theology for 63 gold. Coincidentally, that is our income for ONE turn.
I rushed a pikeman at Shimonoseki. I had wanted to train one at home to send down, but never got the chance and didn't want to leave a city undefended for an extended period.
Walls finished in Yokohama, started harbor.
We still need a couple more new workers, so I set Steveville to build one, and saw that we could shave one off of Osaka with no pain. Osaka will grow right back to size 7 the turn after the worker is done if you run it max food at that time. Then it can be put on break-even to train military units. Use the worker from Osaka to mine the iron at Nara.
Nara is undefended, but a pike is due in in Kyoto next turn.
Edo is almost to size 6, and the hills there are being mined. Once the mine is finished, swapping to break-even will pull in two, possibly even three shields per turn up there.
Nagasaki is building harbor but still needs its temple (after the harbor).
Towns on the Isle are building walls now. When those are done, either have them build pikes (at 1 shield per turn) or put them on wealth.
I didn't build a single military unit on my turn, but I did upgrade all our troops and conduct a major infrastructure upgrade. We are just about ready to start training samurai in a bunch of cities. (Our core three for starters, but more in the second core after the FP is built on LK's turn).
RBD23B - 650AD
There is ONE major rushbuy project I wanted to pull off but did not have the cash to do it: rushing the marketplace at Nara. That would pay for itself eventually.
Let's stick with letting the AI's do our research for us, for the time being. Right now they are all at peace and brokering everythng, and we are getting the techs at absurdly low prices.
- Sirian
EDIT: One more note. If you do opt to settle the frozen island south of Son of Frankfurt, the tile in the exact middle would allow a single city there to take up the whole landmass, as the AI's will not settle within two tiles of any existing cities. Any other tiles and it would take two to get the job done.
I should have the honor of building our first samurai! 
