I'm even later than Duke. I tried posting the other day, but kept getting a message about my response "not being connected to a thread" or something.
Couldn't post at all.
As I often find myself doing, I agree wholeheartedly with Duke on this. We need to get Cope's up and running ASAP. However, we don't have Astronomy yet and this city has ZERO routes right now. (Where is that cloth caravan anyway?)
I can see producing a caravan until we have Astronomy. Then, rush its completion and used the stored food caravans to build Cope's right away. In fact, if we wait to deliver the caravans until Cope's is finished then we can get some extra "bang" for our buck with this.
Well, it's done now, and I'm glad a caravan was chosen. I actually worry more about barbarians than I do about the AI as far as attacking.
BTW, what is the barb setting on this deal?