RBE5 - The Sea is a Harsh Mistress (PTW)

[JaxomCA]

Preturn: I leave everything as it is, only MM Reykjavik to use forest tile. It will grow in 12 instead of 6 but even that will be too soon to whip the temple. We may not need a standing army but we have a serious need of MP. The proud Viking people are happier under a strong warrior eye

1. 1725 BC ...
   
2. 1700 BC
   Settler finishes in Bergen, starts a warrior for MP. The settler is sent to the red spot to lock in the horse and the iron.
   Luxury still at 50% because of remote Copenhagen.
   
3. 1675 BC
   Copenhagen finishes worker, starts another. Luxury dropped to 30%.
   
4. 1650 BC
   Oslo founded, starts a worker. That will make 4 workers, plus one for each new city, with our limited land that should be enough workers.
   
5. 1625 BC
   The Celts learned how to ride on a horse. A Viking warrior tried to imitate the Celts but he fell down a mountain near Copenhagen and is now missing. The towns people named the place Gronar's Folly.
   
6. 1600 BC A few notable events this turn.
   - Trondheim completes a temple and starts on a settler.
   - Bergen completes a warrior and starts another.
   - Carthage completes the Colossus, the Arabs will cascade to the pyramid.
   - A new contact shows up, the cautious Wang Kon of Korea, who knows about writing but not about masonry or mysticism. He would trade if we throw in 4gpt and 14 golds, our whole treasury. Alternatively, he would buy masonry for 46 golds.
   - Brennus and Abu Bakr know about writing too, either one of them want 11gpt for writing meaning our masonry is worth 6gpt to Wang Kon. Both of them want more than 5gpt for mysticism.
   - I decide to wait on writing and gather some golds. Bergen could build the lighthouse in 38 turns if it started now and we can keep it happy.
   - Man! This turn took me half an hour!
   
7. 1575 BC
   The Arabs cascade to pyramids, the Celts to Oracle.
   I could buy mysticism for 5gpt and 26 golds. I do the deed and trade mysticism and masonry to Wang Kon for writing, who is now polite.
   Treasury: 2 golds, 1gpt
   
   This will be a tough 20 turns to come. Map making is ordered at best rate, 1 beaker.
   
8. 1550 BC
   The Arabs starts the Oracle.
   Bergen finishes warrior and starts on a palace for the lighthouse.
   The missing warrior came back to town with two broken legs. He lay in the town square and collects 1 gold to tell his story.
   
9. 1525 BC
   Korea begins the pyramids in Seoul. Horseback riding was passed around.
   
10. 1500 BC
    Korea begins the Oracle.
    
11. 1475 BC
    Trondheim trains a settler, starts another one.
    
12. 1450 BC
    Hire another taxman in Reykjavik. The Viking people are annoyed at us
    
13. 1425 BC
    Copenhagen trains a worker, starts a temple. The citizens are unhappy, they want a harbor to park their boats.
    
    Interturn the Celts came to town with a barrel of a malted liquid that left most of Trondheim's citizens with a headache by the next day. A seemingly sober Celt informed Ragnar that this building was now an embassy. Free malted liquid will be served to Viking women every Friday night!
    
14. 1400 BC
    Word came that the Ottoman have built the Oracle. Some of Trondheim citizens ask if we can drink it. None of our neighbors have map making yet so we can't join the fest.
    Oslo trains a worker, the population beg for a temple.
    Stockholm founded in a forest, one of the citizens immediately enters the worker training program.
    Judging by the cultural border, the pink city is probably the Arabs capitol.
    
15. 1375 BC
    Well, that didn't take long. Abu Bakr, Wang Kon and Brennus met somewhere near Entremont. Abu was offended by the new liquor and forbid its distribution over Arab territory. Wang and Brennus strongly disagreed and are now using force to insure a free flow of malted liquid. Rumor is, the people of Korea can't hold their malted liquid.
    
16. 1350 BC
    Bergen grows to size 5, luxury raised to 30%, palace in 37 turns, map making in 32.
    
17. 1325 BC
    Trondheim trains a settler and starts a military training program. The citizens are unhappy, they want a brewery.
    The settler wants to see Gronar's Folly and heads that way.
    The population of Copenhagen grows. They heard about the malted liquid and are unhappy they didn't have any. The next leader can decide whether a pair of strong arms or religion is best to deal with the unrest. For now, a taxman is hired.
    
18. 1300 BC
    The taxman in Reykjavik is fired after a warrior entered town and growled at the crowd who were discussing the unavailability of malted liquid.
    
19. 1275 BC
    Brennus and Wang Kon learned how to make a map. Rumors of ship loads of malted liquid are flying throughout the Kingdom. Talks of joining the Celt Empire have been heard. We need to send loyal warriors soon before our glorious Kingdom falls into anarchy.
    
20. 1250 BC
    Korea starts on the lighthouse in Cheju.
    [/list=1]
    
    It looks like the Celt are the most clever as they discovered all the new technology so far. And they know how to make malted liquid
    
    Bergen was set to finish the palace in 29 turns, we will know how to make maps in 28. If Bergen grows again, we may not be able to provide enough luxury to keep the citizens in check. It might be a good idea to keep the town at size 5 by working a mined plains at a food deficit. Damascus is on the coast as it cascaded from colossus to pyramids. Entremont is not on the coast so it is stuck with the pyramids or nothing. The biggest treat to the lighthouse is probably Carthage as they built the Colossus in their capitol. Wang Kon's map could be bought to determine if Cheju is a danger for the lighthouse.
    
    The palace can be switch to a temple, loosing 16 shields in the process. Or we can keep our fingers crossed and hope we have literature before someone builds the lighthouse. I would go with keeping the palace prebuild.
    
    The settler is almost ready to settle near Gronar's Folly.
    
    
    The Viking kingdom in all its glory.
    
    
    
    Click on the minimap to see a full view.
    
    The save game

 

[Charis]

This is the stuff that legends are made of - the Oracle foretells the Ancient "Malted War" brewing even now!?!

Alas, until then, the people are most discontent, knowing of this nectar, but unable to brew any themselves! They work hard, yet have no luxuries - sad! In fact, I dare say if this goes on long enough people will *literally* go Berzerk!! (Our generals wonder if they can use this to our advantage?)

It looks like we did a very good job of settling our little home more rapidly - we'll need those workers to get roads to improve income and mines to improve production asap. Oh that they could irrigate, but that's a tale for another day, how can one irrigate without malted beverage?!

I like continuing with the prebuild, and trying to save up some cash to buy another tech like Literature in case of cascade. Koreans, eh? So Abu is FAR from alone it seems. I'm not sure if the palace is more or less shields than the Lighthouse, but if less, we may want to buy map making on the turn before we have enough shields to finish the GLighthouse.

It's too bad the map made our expansionist trait 100% useless, unless of course the GL sets of our Golden Age. It would do so too early rather than at the right time by Berzerker victory, and 'exp' would then be literally a negative benefit to us, where sci or rel would come in handy about now Still, expansionist we shall be!

It sounds like one warr one spear is about the right MP/defense per city, with extra production going to spears and a horse or two, in prep for the "incense" settlement/war. The warrs can be regular, but we'll want to get to building rax for higher quality spears that will last the whole game via upgrade chain. We'll have the nasty burden in that time frame of building aqueducts in every city.

Charis

PS in Edit
- I'm wondering if Stockholm would be better off with a warrior than a worker, seeing our capital and other cities naked no with souls to dissuade malt dissatisfaction? Without extra food those hamlet cities aren't the best ones to bleed a worker from - we can snag more later when we hit size 6 and hit the growth cap. Usually a quick worker can pay for himself very quickly by doing one irrigation, not possible here.
Although... ya can never have enough workers - like the Iron Hill, all those gold, three more bonus grass, plus if we're stuck at size 6 for long, we may want to pop workers from high food spots and put them into fishing vilages when they have harbors - enough food to support themselves at any size but not enough to grow very fast. Just a thought, either warr or worker will work fine.
I'm also thinking that once we get engineering we can do a massive lumberjacking program to get as much as we can from this dry land.

If we get to the point where we have more units than allowed for gold, disband the scouts. (They're not free cost are they?)

 

[Architect]

Roster:

Architect
Charis
JaxomCA
Arathorn <-- UP
Falsfire
Iteean

Excellent start gentlemen. We now switch to 10 turn trade-offs.

Please try to avoid too much of this "malted liqour" during your turn as we do want to win this game right..

 

[JaxomCA]

Copenhagen can be changed back to worker duty at this time, it is the most corrupt city (I think Gronar is not declaring all the golds he is making). I have put the new cities on worker because I expected to build vet warriors in Trondheim for crowd control. Trondheim could be changed to warrior without loss on this turn, or it could continue with spear and train enough spears for each city.

I did not try to connect the iron since we might want to go for a warrior training program first. With our weak economy, it might be better to train swordsman right off the bat.

Maps can be bought for our whole treasury, our own WM was worth about 10 golds so I did not sell it.

I think the current palace size is the same as the lighthouse, base on the numbers of turns I calculated for the lighthouse but I was at the embassy party so I may have miscalculated

 

[Charis]

I like the idea of Copenhagen back on worker duty rather than the closer cities.

As for warriors, I'm not fully in "PtW" mode that even there will one day be guerillas. Then again, with the Berzerker, the chance it will be more than a warrior are slimmer than usual. Berzerkers come with invention, so the option to make Med.Inf out of them is weak, likewise with 6 attack and far earlier, Berzerkers outclass Guerillas. We will need spears and lots of them if we're planning to have one per town plus several for the incense, so I like Trondheim on spear duty. The chance of us getting invaded is so remote, and we would get 'first shot' to counterattack anway, we could probably use warriors literally for defense and never lose a city - so cheap regulars from low shield towns works for me as it frees up our bigger cities for 'real' production. (On Pangaea I like the warrior training then Sword route better)

At 'some' point before our first ship goes out we want to buy all the maps, but until then there is no rush.

> I think the current palace size is the same as the lighthouse,
> base on the numbers of turns I calculated for the lighthouse
> but I was at the embassy party so I may have miscalculated

So 28 turns until we actually GET the Lighthouse? Wouldn't that be lovely?
[EDIT @Jaxom - "Blinks eyes... checks difficulty... Deity, of *course*... tries to reset expectations of mauling the AI in the Middle Ages ]

Charis

 

[JaxomCA]

I am not too hot for warriors either, but since Trondheim can get one out every other turn at size 2, possibly one every turn at size 4, Trondheim could quickly supply all the MP needs for now with 2 vet warriors for each city. These warriors would eventually become Med. Inf. then Guerilla. With 2 of these per city (possibly 3 later on) , I don't think we need to have defenders in the cities until Marines hit the scene. That way, these 'sober' warriors, supported by a couple of knights for greater range, can easily take care of homeland defense while our 'malted-enhanced' berserker are wreaking havoc oversea.

Once the local unrest is taken care of, Trondheim can start building the incense taskforce, with Bergen eventually helping build that force.

Buying maps now would help to determine if Damascus is a danger for the lighthouse. Other than that, there is nothing we can do about Carthage and whoever else is out there in the fog. A decent deity AI city can build two lighthouses in 28 turns

 

[Iteean]

How hard do you think it will be to invade Arabia?

I figure someone else noticed, but hey, Arabia's power is comparable to ours and Brennus' is growing. And they are at war. If Damascus completes the lighthouse, we'll just have to borrow it.

Actually, Arabia may be a non-issue, civ-wise, by the time we have Map Making.

Iteean

 

[Arathorn]

Got it.

Arathorn

 

[Arathorn]

(0) 1250 - Changed Trondheim to archer -- we can have non-vet MPs but our war units need to be vets. Cope to worker. Stockholm to barracks. Celts will give horseback riding for alliance vs. Arabs. WM + 23 gold gets us close to map-making.
(I) Celts start Lighthouse.

(1) 1225 - Science rate to zero.
(I) Celts and Arabs sign peace treaty. We missed an opportunity to play mercenary. Would've gotten us a tech for free. Sorry.

(2) 1200 - Birka founded on the hills. Warrior ordered.
(I) Cope worker -> worker.

(4) 1150 - Back to 10% science. Lux tax to 50% to keep Bergen happy. Actually, Bergen makes a scientist. Sci to 0%. Luxes to 30%. Celts have Philosophy. Arabs still lack map-making.

(5) 1125 - Trond archer -> warrior.

(7) 1075 - Horses online.
(I) Trond warrior -> spear. Stockholm barracks -> archer.

Save file
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads2/rbe5-1000bc.zip

Arathorn

 

[Architect]

Roster:

Architect
Charis
JaxomCA
Arathorn
Falsfire <-- UP
Iteean

 

[JaxomCA]

Well we are moving ahead

I think there is an opportunity for a 2 for 1 trade, buying Map Making from Korean and trading it to Abu for Horseback riding. The next leader should keep an eye on that. If you feel bold and lucky, you might be able to pull a 3 for 1, buying maths@2nd civ from the Celts, trading it to Korea for Map Making, then trading this to Arabia for Horseback. But this will put a heavy load on our economy so it may not be a good idea. And it would give even more money to the Celt who are way too rich already, the maltd liquor probably has something to do with that

 

[falsfire]

will play tomorrow afternoon/evening.

 

[falsfire]

1000BC[0] - looking over our empire, things seem to be in order, I was at first skeptical about building archers, but then remembered that they u/g to Berserkers for us. I change nothing and go to next turn.

975BC[1] - Trondheim spearman-->spearman. Reykjavik temple-->rax.

950BC[2] - Birka warrior-->rax. Ottomans build Pyramids in Edrine. Carthage cascades to and builds lighthouse in Carthage Pooey. Now what to do with our Palace prebuild in Bergen. Great Library? Not sure. It's accumulated so many shields it'd be a waste to switch to anything we can build now, and we still *may* have a shot at G.L., as no wonders are being constructed by the AIs that we know about, we're the only ones with a prebuild. Our treasury (91g +9gpt) plus WM is "close to a deal" for MM from both Korea and Celts, Arabia still doesn't have it.

925BC[3] - Korea has Mathematics, so there goes the chances of a 3-for-1.

900BC[4] - Trondheim spear-->spear. I trade Korea 104g +9gpt +WM for Map Making (ouch), his attitude improves to Cautious. Then we get Horseback Riding, 3g, and WM from Abu for MM. Then back to Korea, who buys our revised WM for 3g. Then to Brennus who gives us his WM and 5g for our WM. He was about to know our WM anyways, as he's sailing a galley along our coastline now. Here's our revised knowledge of the world:

Then I change Stockholm from building an archer to building our first galley, due in 6.

875BC[5] - I trade our map around and make us 5g. Otherwise, zzzzz.

850BC[6] - zzzzz.

825BC[7] - zzzzz.

800BC[8] - Wang Kon and Brennus have met the Ottomans. Let's see if they sell contact with us to them

775BC[9] - zzzzz.

750BC[10] - zzzz.

Notes for next player: Trondheim can't grow any more unless it gets a harbour. It's current orders are horseman, but next player may want to change that to grow it one more to size 6. Our military consists of: 5 warriors, 2 archers, and 4 spears. One galley is constructed and heading down towards the crossing to Arabia. We're currently researching Polytheism at 1 scientist rate, and our treasury is 27g +2gpt. We have 14 turns left on our massive 9gpt payment to him for MM. I vetoed my own decisions of rax in Birka and Reykjavik to build warrior (Birka, for MP duty in various cities of our empire), and galley in Reykjavik (due in 3).
We only have 12 turns left on the Palace prebuild in Bergen, so if there is any possible way for us to get Lit off the AIs before then we must do so to swap it to GL.

http://www.kaejae-worx.com/~devin/civ3/rbe5/rbe5_750BC.zip

 

[LKendter]

Originally posted by falsfire
1000BC[0] - looking over our empire, things seem to be in order, I was at first skeptical about building archers, but then remembered that they u/g to Berserkers for us. I change nothing and go to next turn.

Uh, sorry to disapoint you, but Archers DON'T upgrade to Bezercks. If you look at the below picture:
archer - longbow
longbow - guerilla
berzerck - guerilla
The 2nd should have send bezerck to have a chance.

 

[Charis]

Ouch, archipelago viking wins are tougher than they seem, eh? At least with a small land mass with no fresh water.

We're rather in a pickle about the wonder prebuild. Going deep into debt will either be seen as a stroke of brilliance or utter

If we just get units over there to get Mecca and the chokepoint Damascus, then full speed ahead on Map Making purchase will get the yay award. If Arabia is already dead and gone by the time we get there, OR if we can't land sufficient forces to actually take anything, it will be seen as weed when we could have chosen Literature to research ourselves, going max research, and definitely landed the tech just before the prebuild expires.

As it stands now, SLOW DOWN THE BUILD, there's not enough time to assume the AI is researching Lit, *OR* that we can afford it if they are! Bergen can move a tile worker from cattle to the sea, and from the plains mine to the unimproved grass, to make it due in 20 turns, and still no growth. There can be an extra few rounds of low-starvation delay, and at best a few slim rounds purposefully going into disorder there! So we're talking no more than about 28 turns, max. IF we had the gpt still, we could switch even now to Literature and research it before 28. But we don't.

If I had to bet, I would say it doesn't score the 'yay' point -- I don't think we had the troops ready enough to the point where we HAD to have Map Making right then. "What can wait, should" But there is enough of a chance that the bold purchase was our last shot at Arabia before they go down, and "it can't wait" ringing true. Should be a fun next few player turns to watch!

As far as the invasion - we can stick to incense hill landing and settling, and ferry more troops to hold it then take Mecca, or if we had more troops (we don't ;P ) land South of Damascus and totally cut off reinforcements, then fight upward, taking Damascus and Mecca. I would expect this to need about 6 spears and 8 archers to work, which needs too many boats as well. The incense city has the advantage of needing less boats.

If our next player can slow the prebuild, scrimp for cash, and somehow pull out a wonder of Bergen, I would be impressed. Given our very rough start, the "other" GL would be very helpful to us this game!

Good luck,
Charis

 

[Iteean]

Now I just have to see what we can do about that prebuild in Bergen. I can swap the tiles around a little bit to slow its progress (prob stretch it to 20-25 turns), but then we gamble on someone researching Lit and then us being able to afford it. Maybe build a harbor and trade away our horses if necesary, for extra income?

Course, I could pillage one of our grass tiles and slow it even more.

I believe I'll think on this a bit.

Iteean

Edit: oops I see Charis posted before my "got it".

 

[Iteean]

Okay, I've spent a while thinking about our situation. Bergen could be starved down to size 4 and micromanaged to min shields and the palace could be delayed around 40 turns. That is enough time to start a min research of Literature. Currently, we are 5 turns into Polytheism, so we could try to finish Poly first, and hope it could be bartered towards obtaining Literature. Since Lit is optional though, I'm not sure if I want to take that risk. If the AIs got Poly first, they could trade it around and make it useless to us. Which is the AI more likely to research first?

There are a few other things to consider too. We could try researching Lit at faster than min. That would require selling off horses and / or iron. This is bad because we want to have those available for our troops. Rather than sell immediately, we might be able to use them later as insurance in case we need to buy Lit when someone beats us to it. The risk there is that the civ that needs those resources might not have cash or Literature.

The other thing to consider is the Great Wall. The AIs should be picking up Construction soon. If I had to bet, I'd say they'll finish the Wall before anyone gets Lit, but we don't want to ignore the possibility of a cascade. Actually it isn't out of the realm of possibility that we could get the Wall. I don't think it is worth it though.

If the cascade ends at the Wall, I'd say we have a pretty good shot at the (other) GL. I'm going to play tomorrow, so anyone with a suggestion is welcome to speak up.

In case anyone has problems understanding my incoherent babbling: I want to starve Bergen, and then start min research on Lit. I think that hoping Lit will be discovered in under 28 turns is too risky.

Iteean

 

[JaxomCA]

I would starve Bergen down to 5 pop and then delay production, but not too much. Keep at least 4-5 shields per turn on it. The Great Library is more shields than the Palace by a 100. That means 10 turns of production. I have seen many comments about what the AI usually research, my personnal experience say at least one AI will research what I research and get it shortly before I do. So I would switch to Literature now. Either we go all out for the other GL, or we cut our losses right away. With map making in our hands now, I would make sure we have at least 3-4 galleys exploring around our island. I believe it is worth 1 pop-rush each since we can barely keep our people happy without going broke. Those galleys will be helpful in 30 turns when we are ready to land in Arabia and they have a chance of finding a crossing and meeting some of the other 3 civs out there.

On the other hand, Arabia was (is still?) at war with the Celts and Korea, so they must be quite gassed out by now.

Our land is poor, we will not be able to buy or research techs in a timely fashion soon. At the current rate, it looks likely our berserkers will face rifleman when we finally get them. To avoid that, we either need the other GL, or we need to grab what is left of Arabia. I don't think we can pursue both objectives and it is a gambit either way.

In any case, do build a harbor as soon as possible, this will improve the flow of malted liquor

 

[Zed-F]

About losing a few turns on Polytheism, I would seriously consider dropping Poly now if you think you can get the Great Library. If you're planning for success, then you will automatically get Polytheism when the GL finishes anyway.

 

[Iteean]

In 750 BC, Iteean, later to be known as the Thrifty, ascends to power over the Vikings. The harshness of the land has made his people a hardy if gloomy lot. The people chase off the tax collectors and spend their money on huge amounts of malted beverages. Iteean too loves these beverages, but realizes this waste must stop if the Vikings are to become a great people.

He is very unpopular with the people. He continues building a palace in Bergen within sight of Trondheim. As it approaches completion, the despot suddenly orders work to slow down to a fourth of what it was. Some call him mad, and wonder why he orders the palace remodeled with hundreds of empty shelves. To fund this project, Iteean decides to squash all the discontent with a little more military, and squeezes every G he can out of this barren land.

[0] 750 BC - Research switches from Polytheism to Literature. Configure Bergen for 2 spt at -1 fpt, which gets a palace in 40 turns. I'll switch that to 3 spt as soon as I get another road built. I don't know if that is slow enough. Move a warrior from Reykjavik to Stockholm for MP duty, switch Bergen scientist to an entertainer and Copenhagen's taxman to a scientist, which is enough for me to lower the lux rate to 20% and get an extra 3 GPT. This still only allows 4 beakers for science at 20%, so I'm going to risk a 40 turn Lit. We got such a late start on it, some AI will probably research it before then, and we want cash available when they do.

[1] 730 BC - Iron mine finishes, so I start a road. Juggle around the troops a little more on MP duty, which allows me to lower lux to 10%. I change my mind about the worker building at Copenhagen and switch it to a warrior.

[2] 710 BC - Galley completes in Reykjavik, starts a harbor. Temple completes in Oslo, start barracks since it is close to where the action will be soon. Warrior completes in Birka, starts harbor. Korea offers its WM for WM plus 30 G but I decline.

[3] 690 BC - Oslo borrows tiles from Trondheim to speed its barracks while Trondheim takes more ocean for extra cash, without slowing down anything. Horseman completes in Trondheim, starts Swordsman, which we can build every 3 turns. Warrior completes in Copenhagen, starts Harbor.

[4] 670 BC - Western galley crosses the sea and spots a yellow border, the Mongols. The Mongols have contact with Spain but no other Civs. I take a slight gamble and hold off on selling contact, hoping to find the Spanish myself. Stockholm has grown to size 4 and I can't keep it happy, so I switch to a scientist there, and swap tiles between Copenhagen and Birka to get Copenhagen growing again.

[5] 650 BC - Bad news for us, the Celts declare against the Arabs.

[6] 630 BC - Sword completes in Trondheim, starts another. Barracks completes
in Oslo, starts spear.

[7] 610 BC - Bergen's palace is currently due the same time as Literature at one beaker rate. I swap a sea tile to an unimproved plain to make it due in 22 turns. The Ottomans offer Mathematics for Writing plus 18 G. I decide to trade their WM plus Mathematics for Writing, our TM, and 31 G to get the maximum value out of our Writing tech. Stockholm completes a horseman, starts a spear.

[8] 590 BC - Galley finds the Spanish town of Vitoria. Spain is also lacking contact with our three neighbors. I hold off selling contact again since we seem to have a perfect opportunity to slow down the tech race. I notice the Ottomans lack Map Making and will give all their gold for it, but I think they can give more.

[9] 570 BC - Disband a scout in Birka to hurry the harbor, plus I don't want to pay 1 GPT when we hit 28 troops. The Mongols offer Philosophy plus TM plus 26 G for Mathematics, but I wait. Sword completes in Trondheim, starts another.

[10] 550 BC - Whip a harbor in Birka. Disband a scout in Copenhagen.

Notes for the next player:

We only have two galleys and they are far from home, so we'll need to build more or bring them home. I'd like to find the last civ though.

The Ottomans still lack Map Making, so you may want to sell it to them. This may speed them to finding the Spanish and ruin our brokering abilities though.

The Mongols will still buy Mathematics. We can probably get either Philosophy or Code of Laws for it. The Arabs lack Code of Laws but have Philosophy, so we might try for a 2-fer. I had held off trading with the Mongols to see if I could get a lux deal, but I just realized we won't be able to do that until Astronomy. Of course we could just gamble 100% on the GL and not make any trades. That's slightly risky though.

I believe keeping the AIs ignorant of each other is working to our advantage at the moment. Spain is the only civ with Currency, the Celts are the only ones with Construction, but are not building the Great Wall at the moment. Once they meet each other, the tech speed will of course take off, so we may want to think carefully about selling contact. I hope it was a good idea to not broker contact, but we can still do so if the team wants.

We are also making 9 GPT at the moment with 74 in the bank. When the current trade deal expires, we may want to speed up research on Literature. I'm afraid of a cascade off the Great Wall when someone finally gets around to starting it. I'm also afraid of no one getting Lit before our prebuild is done. Just some thoughts anyway.

Good luck!

Iteean

rbe5-vikings-550bc.