Pre-turn 1900BC. Boat builds net on crabs near Kyoto. Growth there in 5, Library just started, need a few turns before it can be whipped. Not going to happen anytime soon, might as well another boat. Growth is Osaka only in six turns and we lose precious turns towards Iron Working, so worker waked up and will move to forest for a chop. Settler ready in 10 turns. It hurts to see a city which can grow to size 6 being stuck at size 4. Move northern warrior SE. Press Enter but with a troubled heart. This game is somewhat wrong. We have nice income but not working enough food and not growing.
[2] Shuffle some warriors here and there, hopefully barbs wont do much damage. The guy on the forested hill gets promoted, I give him nothing yet, it all will depend on who is coming at us.
[4] Starting to advance with the warriors towards the horse site. It is almost certain that we will not be able to settle in the southern spot now just because of barbarians but northern spot might be OK or the horse spot. Ill go for the horse spot and will try to grab control over surrounding tiles with 2 warriors. There is no guarantee we will be able to keep the city though if many barbarians will show up. Kyoto reaches size 6, so I whip the library there. IW still in 8 turns from now but things will hopefully change with two scientists in Kyoto. We got 1 unhappy there for 24 turns and the other also for still quite some time, so the city is stuck at size 3.
[5] Some more barbarians killed, Library ready, hiring 2 scientists, shaves off a turn, IW in 6 but we are losing 1 gpt and there is nowhere to get it. Not sure what to build there, started on another boat, ready in 6 because of slight overflow from the Library rushing. On the other hand, changed my mind and started on Stonehedge. Hopefully, somebody will build it soon and we can gain a few gold coins. Moving a forester warrior towards the horse spot. Get open borders with Spain. Chop finished, settler ready in 2 turns. Lose a warrior in the forest against all possible odds.
[6] Worker to chop another forest for a worker or settler coming out next from Osaka but we would need more warriors.
[7] We have a settler in Osaka but this settler cannot settle anywhere. Just because there are lots of barbarians. So I park him right there in the city. Osaka set to build another warrior for now. We lose a warrior fortified on a hill with combat I and melee promotion against non-promoted barbarian again against all odds. I guess it is a payback time. Osaka to build another warrior, ready in 3 so chop still will go to settler or worker. IW in 4 turns.
[8] Finally kill the pesky guy because he was wounded. IW in 2 turns.
[10] May be I skipped a turn or two, I dont know. Anyhow, IW is ready and we have iron right near Osaka. Research set to Pottery (ready in 4 turns) and Osaka to build worker to hook up this iron. Heroic warrior near horses got to forester II and he thus can scout 2 tiles per turn to disperse more fog. It seems we should be able to settler the city there soon. Ill stop here even though it seems Ive played only 9 turns, may be 10. Here is the state of the art right before the end of turn.
Osaka must be certainly allowed to grow even though this would mean halting research. We are basically wasting a great city here not working very nice oasis tiles and flood plains. Especially critical this is with iron mine which will be ready soon.
There are two possibilities, as I see it. Keep Osaka underdeveloped, continue with settler and worker there, may be chop and axeman or a sword just to be safe from barbarians. Or let it grow for a few turns. We have an option of building Oracle there as well either by chopping or just straight with an iron mine. Kyoto having two scientists provides for considerable research anyhow. From Oracle we can take Metal Casting or CoL and either one of these techs would be OK. I dont think we need to go for CS gambit but we have this option as well. Still, IMO, Palace is a priority here. It will compensate for many things and will give us a good income.
Now, about future settling plans. Lets make it clear, food is top priority still or forests. We should try to build many cities which will be possible once the Palace is up. We also dont need to tie the settlements to copper deposits since we already have a metal. Whether this is a good spot or bad, in terms or resources, does not matter. Once we have one iron and one horse, that is all that we might need. But rapid growth and production should be important. Production in the first phase can come from forest chops. So, IMHO, after pottery we might consider going for Mathematics or may be Priesthood but we wont be ready for Oracle yet. Math increases substantially chop yield and we would need it anyhow.
