By 30AD, I found Persia to be developing nicely, sandwiched in between Babylon and the Zulu - not a good spot, given that Persia has no iron for Immortals, and no horses to boot. Typically for emperor, they were also behind in tech, and with no short-term opportunity to catch up, as they were still in despotism, and had only two workers.
We sent a warrior to explore to the east, and quickly found some iron (see map). A settler was built and a city founded there, creating the opportunity down the road for immortals and knights.
Babylon sent out three settler teams through our territory, which was all the incentive we needed to attack. Archers ambushed them in 130 AD, picking up six workers. In the next turn we took Uruk, picking up a second luxury and possibly a second iron source once our borders expand.
We fought off a small feint in the south, and then settled into the serious bow-and-arrow conflict around Uruk and Antioch. The bowmen retook Uruk and snagged Antioch as well, but we got them back in two turns, as all of our archers were now funnelled northward. With the retaking of Uruk, we figured that Hammurabi would have had enough. We were tempted to take Nippur in the southeast, but didn't want to fight a holding action in the west for as long as it would take us to get archers there. (It'll still be there for the taking soon enough.) Hammurabi gave us republic for 60 gold, and we were at peace in 260AD.
Persia now had two additional cities, eight new workers, a second luxury and an iron source. We started building two more settlers, intended to settle near a third luxury patch northeast of New Zimbabwe, and near the horses southeast of that same city (see map). Yes, New Zimbabwe is also destined to join Persia.
Since researching CoL, we had set research at zero. With the money we saved, we paid for currency, picked up monotheism with my science bonus, and then paid about 16gpt for feudalism. Persia was now ready to research chivalry, which would give it a decisive military advantage against the two civs sandwiching it.
But first we needed to switch to a more efficient form of government. Persia wasn't quite ready to be a republic yet, but there was not enough reason to wait. Persia can barely afford such an advanced form of government - it needs not just temples, but marketplaces, and raising income is its immediate priority. With the luxury slider set at 10%, research is at zero - we will have to save some gold to actually afford to research chivalry in 40 turns! This may have been foolhardy, but we now have our five turns of anarchy behind us, and once we build an army of knights, an immortal will trigger a GA right as we build units and infrastructure, and Persia can seize control of its continent.
; Shaka & Hammurabi begin extorting Perisa
Though Babylonian Nippur did not have any culture, but my city flipped to them right after I built Temple. What a pity.
