Round 2: 2260BC - 925BC
We went full steam ahead with the settler to settle the horse city 1W of site B:
Even if we're not going to invade Shaka with chariots, it's better to grab strategic resources first before it's too late. We slow-built the settler, though, since there was not very efficient to whip it for 1 pop and it would only take 4 more turns anyway.
Research-wise, we went for Masonry. As soon as we got it, we could hook up the stone and start on the Pyramids. Having the Pyramids for Representation would be neat, and if we're not going to rush, it would be even more important to give us some edge over other civs. Our exploring warrior was already heading towards Zululand to check up on Shaka's military situation so that we could decide on rushing or not.
Once the settler was done, we started on another worker:
The horses needed to be hooked up asap if we were going to invade (chariots would be good defence against barbs, in any case) and, at the same time, hooking up the stone was another major (and slow) project that we needed to get started on soon. Some pre-chopping and improvement-building were also in order, so a second worker would be very helpful.
And so we built our second city:
Everything went without a hitch, and so the horses could be hooked up soon.
We discovered Masonry soon. I decided to research Writing next. There are a number of reasons for this. First, I wanted to build libraries to get some culture (since we're not researching Mysticism anytime soon) and run scientists (to help with research, especially when we need to slow growth down in our cities). Secondly, I wanted to get Open Borders signed asap, not only to explore Shaka and Genghis' lands, but also to start building more cordial relationships with them so that they were less likely to invade us before we could do anything. Lastly, and this is closely related to the first reason, if we were going to run Representation soon thanks to the Pyramids, being able to run scientists would significantly boost our research capability.
I know at least some of you would be rooting for Pottery next. But being in Representation also suggests less whipping so granaries wouldn't play such a central role. Of course, all this depended whether we actually managed to get the Pyramids or not...
Our recon warrior reached Shaka's border, and guess what...
Looks like our rush has to be called off. Turned out that Shaka's capital itself was sitting on the only source of copper we've seen so far.
Anyway, since our build queue for improvements was getting longer, I decided to build yet another warrior and timed the build for a good whip. For that, we needed to switch to Slavery:
And then it was time to crack the whip just as our capital grew into unhappiness:
Pretty soon, we had both horses and stone hooked up and our workers were all busy building improvements or chopping for the Pyramids. And chop all the trees we did:
Give me Pyramids or give me death! With a rush now impossible, I don't think our game would get anywhere without them.
And, as you can also see from the screenshot, since horses wouldn't be too effective for holding off an invasion, I decided to research Iron Working after Writing. We had better grab some iron before it's too late.
Things seemed to be smoothly and we were soon about to complete the Pyramids:
I whipped the last bit, just in case. And in exactly 1000 BC:
Nice! Now let's have a Representative government for the good of our civilization:
That gave our cities the very useful boost of +2 happiness. And with the bonus beakers for specialists, I ran a scientist in Edirne, which had built a library, to help speed up our crucial research:
The city did not have the prospect of quick growth anyway, and our capital was working food tiles to grow back the whipped population, so why not put it to good use in the meantime?
Iron Working was soon discovered. Fortunately for us, there's a source of iron pretty nearby to the southeast:
And this is where I stopped. I have shown the top half of the known world above. This is the bottom half:
It seems reasonable to assume that our continent is not much bigger than that and we only have Genghis and Shaka to share it with. Not the best people on Earth, unfortunately.
Here's an overview of our relations with them:
Or, rather, the lack of relations. Hopefully the Open Border agreements will make them more amiable soon for the safety of our civilization.
So what next? It seems pretty clear that we need to settle a city to grab the iron next. Again, I have highlighted two possible sites:
Site A is closer and has fewer coastal tiles, but site B has the pretty significant advantage of immediately availing the cow and wheat tiles to our new city. Maybe we can have it 1S of either sites to get more grassland and lose the coastal tile(s), but we don't get to work the cows until the borders have expanded. I also highlight the commerce city site (C) again, since settling it might be in order soon now that we can chop those jungles.
And what about research? I'm quite sure most will recommend Pottery next for granaries. But then what? Do we want Maths for better chopping and the Hammam? Or should we go for Alphabet to start trading techs with our neighbours?
Since rushing is not an option now, I think we would most likely pursue a builder path until Construction. But that might be in the round after the next. The engineer might be born quite soon, though. What should we use him for? Should we research towards the Great Library and use him for that? Or should we use him for some other wonder, such as the conveniently placed Hanging Gardens for even more GE points? Or, should we settle him a la Obsolete, keeping the Representation bonus in mind?
Plenty of things to decide on that should stimulate an interesting discussion.
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