[continued from the previous post]
As we got to a few turns away from getting Priesthood, I adjusted the tiles in Thebes so that we could begin on the Oracle once we had the tech:
I adjusted the tiles again after that so that we could get Writing before completing the Oracle (we needed Writing to grab CoL as the free tech):
Anyway, you might notice that I ran a priest in Thebes (we built an Obelisk in between building WCs). It didn't make a difference to the turns needed to research Writing if we were working the other lake instead, so I thought why not get some early GPP in the meantime?
Oracle construction was helped along by a few of the pre-chopped forests. Our timing turned out just right. We would get Writing and the Oracle on the same turn. But there was a problem: Thebes was growing again, and there was no way I could stagnate its growth without upsetting our delicately balanced timing. I fiddled around with the tiles one turn before Thebes grew and realised that I could starve the city a little by running another priest (getting more GPP in the process) instead of working the corn farm:
For the next several turns, I kept alternating between running the second priest and working the corn, starving the city a little and then getting it back to 1 turn from growing again.
By then we had pillaged the two Inca farms I was eyeing and signed peace with Huayna. There was nothing else safe to pillage, so I thought our warrior should go on to do more exploring elsewhere.
By the way, I had forgotten we had another exploring warrior, whom I fortified on a forest hill in the south to heal many turns ago. The thought of exploring made me remember him (it's amazing that he was still alive!). Well, he had Woodsman II, so moving around in the jungles to catch up on exploration shouldn't take too long. I also used a WC to help map out Izzy's current borders.
Anyway, the little bit of gold we got from pillaging helped us maintain our timing, and we did get the Oracle on the same turn we got Writing:
Our CS slingshot is successful! Now we just need to wait for a prophet to appear.
Couldn't resist taking that screenshot. But then I realised I made a small error. I forgot our capital couldn't be the holy city since there was a second city. Looks like Memphis doesn't really need the culture from the Obelisk after all. Should've built a barracks instead earlier...
Well, the show goes on. Maybe we can make some use of the priests we can run in Memphis later.
Anyway, this is where I stopped. Completing the Oracle is certainly an important milestone, and it removes a lot of anxiety from my mind. Our grand strategy can go on. But what are the next few steps we should take? Researching Pottery next seems obvious as we need to get some cottages up around Thebes soon. After Pottery it will be Polytheism so that we can burn our GP on CS.
Thebes is quite high on production:
Should we start amassing our first WC army and charge at one of our neighbours? And who will it be?
Huayna is weakened by our brave warrior's incursion, but has managed to expand further despite it. I fear our advantage may be eroding faster than I had expected. Attacking him first would allow us to capitalize on his weakness. And voek raised a good point about trading: if we attack Izzy, we might not have a trading partner as Huayna is not too pleased with us and might not want to trade.
However, Izzy is closer to us. And she offers a few good prizes: the resource-rich city south of Memphis and the holy city of Buddhism (probably her capital), which I suspect has Stonehenge in it. Keeping her happy and trading with her now might be good in some ways, but it also means by the time we take her on she would have already established herself well.
Anyway, this is a map of our empire and its proximity to our neighbours:
Barbs have built a city in the north, on the spot where we plan to build our 3rd city (looks like it). That means we don't have to build a settler to claim the spot
This can be the first real campaign for our WCs (two of them have killed a few barbs so far).
Any thoughts?