(IT) 1150BC:
Luxuries were higher than they needed to be; cut to 10% for now.
I look at the barbarian situation down south. Two barb horses vs our two warriors doesn't look pretty. I decide the best option is to attack the barb horse with the warrior in Houston. It'll all but assure Houston gets raided, but...who cares? It has 1 pop, and is just beginning to build something. It also accounts for little more than 5% of our population, so any financial loss shouldn't be significant.
Our warrior wins the first round, but then loses 3 in a row. Ok, so Houston is going to get raided twice now.
Boston -> archer, and optimized for max growth.
After a review, I decide I like the look of everything else, so left as-is. We may want to start the Forbidden Palace in Philadelphia in the near future though.
IBT Japan threatens us for 23 gold which we pay dutifully, and barb horsemen raid Houston, for 8 and then 7 gold. Two more barb horsemen show up outside it. A barb warrior also shows up next to our archer west of New York.
(1) 1125BC: Our archer defeats the barb, but only just.
Worker moves back to optimize Boston for food. Sending workers to improve New York's unimproved grassland.
IBT a bunch of scary military units show up: a German archer to the north, as well as a French warrior. A Japanese warrior to the west.
(2) 1100BC: I decide to switch Boston to a temple, with all the forest chops due to happen. I'm really not sure where to send the new horseman out of New York. I want to send him south to fight off barbarians, but that German archer just *might* be up to no good. We can't risk it, while we can risk it against the barbs, so I send the horseman up to Miami, which is where the archer is lurking around.
I broker around world maps and actually make about 20 gold out of it. Looks like there's a barb camp near New York which they must be going after.
Ok I'm pretty sure that Philadelphia is where we want our Forbidden Palace, and it's already pulling decent shields (4), so I start it on it. Due in 47 turns. It is not *crucial* that we get as much of the land around our Forbidden Palace site as possible. That land is the highest priority for us.
(3) 1075BC: St Louis founded. Our wounded archer moves over to a barb encampment which the Japanese warrior has moved next to - if the Japanese warrior loses, we'll try to net the 25 gold.
Chicago switched to worker. We have a decent amount of military running around, and we need more workers!
(4) 1050BC: Atlanta barracks -> spear. Washington settler -> settler. The settler builds lets us nix luxuries. We really do have to make sure we manage the slider properly here guys. Our horse heads south to defend against barbarians.
Chicago worker -> catapult. These are really useful defensively.
Settler heads west for the site near the horse and fish.
IBT another barb horseman shows up in the south.
(5) 1025BC: New York spearman becomes settler escort, and lux -> 10% for the benefit of New York.
(6) 1000BC: Ugh, a new barb encampment has sprouted in the gap east of Washington. We do want a city there at some stage btw guys, it's just not high priority. Luckily our horseman is passing by, and gets into position to defend against the approaching barb warrior.
A barb horseman shows up west of Seattle, which is defended by a warrior. We may not be able to hold him off.
The horseman meanders around, but another one shows up.
(7) 975BC: Now a scary looking archer and warrior show up outside Miami. The Babylonians now have Construction and Polytheism, but no Currency. Hopefully there'll still be a chance to get something for it once we get currency.
Our horseman loses 3-0 to a barb warrior and has to retreat. I'd be fuming if he'd been killed!
The Ottoman city of Salonika is founded just north of Atlanta, denying us one of the sources of silks, and iron, and a good city site that should be in our second ring. I suspected that site might be in danger, but nothing we could really do about it - there's just so many sites to settle; we can't get them all.
(8) 950BC: New York horse -> temple. We have two horsemen now. Time for New York to get some culture. Horseman goes south-west to hunt out a barb encampment down there. A worker is moved to mine and road the iron near Philadelphia, to get its production up to speed the Forbidden Palace.
Washington settler -> settler. The settler is headed for the space two tiles south of Philadelphia.
(9) 925BC: The time for tech brokering has come. With the Germans lacking construction, and the Babylonians lacking currency, I purchase construction from the French for 338 gold (all of it). Then I trade constructions with the Germans for currency. The Babylonians won't give us polytheism straight for currency, so I have to chip in 2gpt.
The babs get Monotheism as their free tech, and the Germans and Ottomans had already obtained Engineering. Several civs have Monarchy, but that's not worth anything to us unless it can be used for brokerage value. Research is nixed.
I decide to switch Atlanta to a harbor, which it really needs.
(10) 900BC: The barb horseman finally decides he wants to attack, and kills our warrior in Seattle. Work on spearman is destroyed. I manage to stuff things up and let Buffalo go into disorder.
Detroit founded on the far side of the lake. We've missed out on the barb encampment by a couple of turns - beaten to it by the French.
The other settler is headed for the site two tiles south of Philadelphia - on the lake, near some decent land. We're managing to etch out a decent amount of land for ourselves in this game, but only just.
We're in the middle ages, but are behind a couple of techs. No-one has gotten Republic get, when someone does, we'll likely want to buy it pretty quick, and broker for whatever we can get. Naturally we want to revolt immediately.
It's unfortunate that it seems Boston will not be able to pull in 5 shields after corruption at size 6, meaning it won't be able to get us a worker every other turn. Hopefully we will be able to get a worker every 3 turns from it. We need more workers! Hopefully we can get our Forbidden Palace online in less than 20 turns. That'll be a real boost.
Good luck Matt_g!
-Sirp.
The Game