If you predicted that Mike would forget that his friends from California were in town, then head out to meet them after playing golf, and end up hideously drunk at the titty bar, you win!!!
But that didn't stop me from playing once I got home - I wouldn't want to let the team down.
820 AD Cancel Open Borders with Louis, which strands his galley near London. As it turns out, that probably didn't matter too much, since Bismark is on the land to our south west, but at least it keeps Louis from trading with him, since they still haven't met.
I also trade Bananas to Hatty for Fur, and Music to Louis for Priesthood (will need the happy) and Construction (which will help with engineering) and 30 gold.
We might want to do something about this (though I didn't):
860 AD Finish researching Metal Casting and start Paper. I built either forges or courthouses, with the exception of one workboat in London. I probably would have built the workboat for the city east of Moscow from Moscow, but the new city was already nearly half way done.
920 AD We meet Bismark, who is on the land west of Canterbury. I sign Open Borders since he doesn't have a religion, figuring ours will spread to him, but forgetting that Taoism is the only religion we might be able to build a shrine for right now.
Here's how Bismark looks:
960 AD I make some more resource trades.
Clam to Hatty for 5 gpt
Corn from Bismark for Cows
Spice to Bismark for 5 gpt
980 AD We have a second Great Artist in Moscow. He can discover Drama. Instead, I make the following trade:
Either GA can discover Theology, which we can also get from Hatty for Philosophy or from Louis for Paper. Bismark will also give us Feudalism for Polytheism, Code of Laws, and Civil Service. We might want to take that one soon - I'm assuming he's partly done researching Civil Service anyway.
1000 AD There's an Arabian galley off the German coast. I give Saladin cows for 4 gpt. He's founded Hinduism, and won't make any tech trades with us, probably due to religious differences.
We need a plan for our great artists. If we trade for Theology, what comes next?
We're researching Education currently.
Organized Religion seems like a good choice, since we're building infrastructure in most cities. I made a few chops with our workers, but nothing inside of our fat crosses. I also did some MMing of working tiles, mostly to get the forge in London done quicker and to increase commerce where production wasn't imperative - feel free to change things around though.
The continent to the east pretty much sucks since we already have copper. I got 34 gold from a hut, but nothing else to report. The galley got cut off by ice, and is heading to the west coast of the eastern continent to get around it.
There's also a marble site available to the west of Germany, but I'm not sure we can get there in time.
Edited to add:
Anyone who predicted that I would use the whip was wrong. (though maybe it might have been appropriate somewhere - I just didn't think of it). Likewise, if you thought I'd be MMing our specialists, I didn't even realize we'd built the National Epic until after I posted everything above!
Another settler is waiting near Canterburyon a galley for transport to the marble-place or what else next player (Blid) may decide.
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