Damn...I keep forgetting about the 50 turn rule and we are quite a ways from it. That will have a considerable effect on the war advantage with Grens/Cannons. I think we can at least wipe off one AI or two, but definitely need to consider the next era of warfare, so Infantry and Artillery should be targets.
I change my tune, might as well make use of our units in the meantime and go take the barb city. It's not a bad city. We can throw some trebs at it too. And we can fill in some cities - Cow/horse, Rice/Copper and maybe something over near that corn in the East if we beat Cathy to it.
I also say we go for SoL with GE since the extra research will be nice to get in more military techs.
lymond, why do you see we don't need them ? i don't get it. it is always better with more cities, no?
Well, it depends on if a 50 turn peace is enforced or not. If we could war from the start, I would already have several Grens and Trebs out the door and getting close to DOWing someone. I'd only settle a new city if I needed iron, but if I had iron I'd stick with 3 cities for now.
As for settling on ivory, I mentioned that, but it is much safer to settle next to the iron. It is highly probable that the blue AI will settle in our face and likely steal the iron from us if not in first ring. Also, I think we can get 2 good cities down there.