Whoops! I lost my summary of my turns. I'll give the executive summary, from what I can remember.
War with Japan began pretty much right away. It went pretty well. I captured three of their cities, then razed Kyoto (it really hurt to raze away the Great Library, the Oracle, and maybe the Great Wall, but culture flip was inevitable there). One city flipped back right at the end of my turns.
My biggest achievement was founding "Sevastopol was Kyoto" on Kyoto's old site and building the Forbidden Palace there. At 3 culture per turn, that should expand its borders ASAP and it should have no chance of culture flip.
We lost our source of iron by Ironvod when it depleted. We had one in old Japanese lands, but that was the city that flipped back to the Japs. I have some troops headed for that city, but it's gonna be a bit.
I diverted many of our cities from pure war production to pick up libraries. Research is slow and we need some culture, IMO. Then it was back to horsemen. A few cities are still building libraries, but I think that's a long-term gain. It does hurt our war effort a bit, as the resistance has stiffened going after Japan's new capital (and its associated incense).
Japan will give one city and the Republic for peace. Since we're still despotic, I see no need to do so right now. A few more turns and a little luck will return the iron-producing city to us and give us the incense. Peace at that point might be worthwhile.
The Americans are getting a bit uppity, too. I had to give in to their demands, since they were reasonable (territory map and 19 gold) and we do not want to be fighting them, if we can avoid it. Keep an eye on them, as they may attack and we're not really ready for it.
We researched Feudalism and started Theology. I haven't upgraded our spearmen to pikemen yet (why not, I wonder? That was a bit bone-headed of me). I love Sistine so much I went for Theology before Chivalry or the path to Military Tradition.
I lost a galley and a settler trying to cross some sea squares. The sea (not ocean) extends a fair bit NE of our land, so I chanced it. I lost. Sorry.
What else? What else? Horses are online and a few horsemen have been produced. Just got the one great leader. I was about 16-2 with veteran troops and about 4-3 with elites (one defending elite swordsmen killed a couple attacking archers before dying).
I would advise the next leader to take a couple more Japanese cities before suing for peace. Revamp the war machine, as America will need trimming at some point. We might want to try to completely kill Japan as samurai are a royal pain when they come around. Getting all of Japan's iron is a tall order and they don't need horses.
That's it off the top of my head. I hope I didn't forget anything too vital.
Arathorn
