Round 3: 925BC - 70BC
I decided to research Pottery next for granaries and cottages, and our capital proceeded to start on the settler that would claim the iron:
For now, our capital was the main workhorse, the production centre between our two cities where settlers were built, while Edirne supplemented production by slowly but steadily building units. However, it didn't forget to build improvements as well. And it ran a scientist to help research from time to time, since the prospect of growth was that quick anyway due to a lack of high food resources. Eventually, we got a few cottages up there that it could work for some commerce.
Meanwhile, our exploring warrior found something rather interesting to the south:
The barbs were sitting on a pile of rubble, which I can only surmise was a new Mongolian city that they overwhelmed and razed. Teehee
The enemy of my enemy is my friend... well, not quite in this case.
After we've discovered Pottery, I decided to go for Alphabet next. Someone mentioned the need to trade techs with or bribe our neighbours, and I agree that the ability would be very useful. The research would take time, however, but I was quite sure that neither of the other two continental denizens would be interested in researching it themselves for a long time. We should be able to trade it for other techs, even if bribing is not possible yet.
Shortly after, our capital was ready to crack the whip for the settler:
And it settled 1S of site A:
I didn't want to delay getting the iron, knowing our neighbours. Anyway, once the iron is mined it can help get a library up for border expansion so that we can work the food resources.
Sure enough, the iron was quickly hooked and, before long, we built our first axeman:
Now that we can breathe safely, our capital built the next settler for the southern commerce city:
It was settled as per the dotmap:
It wouldn't take long to pay off, since mining the gems could be done immediately, but it would take time to grow to its full potential due to a lack of food resources. At least there are some hills to help with production. Once this city is fully cottages and improved, it will be very commercially viable.
To speed up the mining, we had two workers there to do the job:
Working the gems would boost our research. Alphabet would be done in no time, and then we could finally shop around for techs.
But there's one more thing in that screenshot. Notice that both Genghis and Shaka are Jewish? Yup, I forgot to mention last round that Genghis, of all people, founded Judaism. And now it had spread to Shaka and they could become buddies. Not good at all
To declare on one of them, we would first have to build a very strong military as deterrent against the other. This will be difficult...
Very soon, Judaism spread to us too:
Of course, I decided to convert right away. We don't want to be picked on in this neighbourhood, do we?
And this was also the turn that we finished researching Alphabet. I had to decide on which tech to research next. At first, I was thinking of Metal Casting, so that we could use our first GE to lightbulb Machinery. But what's the use of warmongering if we can't dig ourselves out of the financial hole we would surely be in? First, we needed to research towards CoL. And along the way we could perhaps grab Literature and use our first GE to build the Great Library. That would really help our research, keeping in mind that we aim to win the Liberalism race to get Nationalism so that we can mass draft Janissaries. A few GS's for lightbulbing would be very useful.
So, after thinking for a while, I decided to research Mysticism next.
I also checked the tech screen to see what we could get from our neighbours. Genghis had the usual stuff and was willing to trade. Shaka, however, was upset about our close borders and didn't want to. I decided to wait until after the religion-switch anarchy to get the religious diplomatic bonus with Shaka and try again. It would be better to trade with both on the same turn to minimise the chances of Genghis turning around and trading Alphabet to Shaka.
On the next turn, I tried again. Unfortunately, Shaka was still not amenable to it. Oh, well. I wanted Mathematics and didn't want to risk waiting, so I went to Genghis:
Sometimes the AI isn't willing to make this trade. Seeing that Genghis was willing, I made it without hesitation. We could certainly use better chopping, Hammams, as well as the ability to research Construction. Then, seeing that we were both happy with the trade and Genghis was pleased with his brothers-in-faith, I asked him for Mysticism. And he agreed:
Wow, that was quite nice of the little blood-thirsty warmonger. We saved 4 turns and could now decide on what to research next.
[to be continued in the next post]