Alright. I went ahead and played on. Went the Aesths route.
Ha...this is sad on IMM:
Rag of all people donates to the cause. But boy, what a gift. Too bad we settled on riverside grassland iron...ha. Still a good city though.
Sent a couple of chariots to protect Antioch and check out that barb city. Surprisingly the city was populated by loincloth dudes. Odd. Whatcha do there, Cam?
Chariots took city in just 2 turns. I razed it. It's crap and Antioch takes most of those tiles anyway: (the capture gold was most helpful though)
Made some trades:
Sal:
GK: (in hindsight I wish I held on to some techs with GK for a bribe. I though Maths and Mono would be enough on Mansa. it was not
)
(note: I did put turn into Alpha to set up better GK trade to get Sailing too)
Mansa: (I was hesitant here due to Mansa's culture instincts and Music path leanings, but he was still several turns from finishing Construction and we were doing ok at this point)
I accepted Rags request to join him on Mansa. Gives us a distant AI to bribe folks on and absolutely no one like Mansa, so no diplo hits.
Charlie trade: (this was in part to get Mono to setup GK bribe that did not fly. OR is good anyway for multiple reasons and Maths goes quickly anyway)
Current Tech Situation: (looking much better
)
So....
1) We are close on Lit. TGL should be built quickly in Nople. Have some chops working. A mish whip is nicely setup as well as setting up a Sword whip. GS arrives right in time to switch city to production. Don't mind a couple of whips in this city for good OF.
2) Whipped worker into Settler in Thess. Finish after Sword. Not sure where to send him though. Really good city W of Antioch (fish, cow, copper) but will not make nice with GK. We could just put coastal city near horses to start working NE. We don't have coastal city yet anyway and may setup island city later.
3) Nicaea will have culture issues with Charlies stupid city but I chopped forest out from under his nose to get up very quick Library there. Started Parth for culture or fail gold. Doubt we get it, but worth a shot with marble.
4) Adrian should whip Barracks in 2 turns. Put 1 turn in and switch to Sword for 1t, then whip Barracks, finish Sword.
5) Adrian and Thess can build Swords to send to barb cities. One due N may be crap too and better resettled, but other barb cities look pretty good.
6) Nople stalled by switching corn to cottage, but can grow immediately when unhappiness wears off.
7) Send 1 Nicaean worker back up North to help out. City only needs 1 worker for now.
Genghis - I have no problem using Lit to bribe him in on Mansa as long as he doesn't get Maths first. We need to bribe him into war. Looking he hasn't gone fist mode yet, but I expect it any moment.
I assume Music next. We should get it easily and TGL. Only GK has Monarchy, but we do need it somehow here soon. May just tech it after Music or at least set up a trade. Then look to things like Currency and CoL/CS.
edit: Oh..and the religion spread here is seriously hosed. Still no Xtian an any cities but Nople. We can build mishes though now. I would send first one to Nicaea.
during this turnset.
