Indeed. It took me a bit to re-read all the posts here, just to remind myself where we are.
Here's the good news. We are tech kings of this world, tied for first place with Fred the Stinky Mongol. We the richest folks around, having a massive treasury of 100g. Fred (see above) has 92. Many of the other civs are way behind us -- the Greeks don't even have Pottery yet. If anything's going to keep us strong in this game, it's keeping the tech edge. Writing is finally going to come in three turns from now. We likely won't even be able to trade it for a while, as everyone else is behind. A couple of the civs are on islands by themselves -- Babs and the Greeks again -- so their trading is minimal at best.
The bad news. We're sucking wind as far as expansion goes. Mongols have four cites to our two, and Babs have filled their island up already with 7 cities.
I know I've been whining a lot about how slow we don't have any food bonuses
but it is slowing us down in a major way. I don't know that we're going to get a third city up in my turnset, but we'll see.
The goal here, as I see it, is to expand south and east to block off Fred from some nice real estate up in our territory. I figure that we should snag the incense first, then move in on the iron and further east to the wheat and the silks. The horsies up north can wait for a bit.
Here's a quick look-see.
The way I see it, the city order should be Pink Dot, Blue Dot, Purple Dot, and then Yellow Dot. Let's see if we can pull it off.
Turn 0 (2150BC) Our worker is done roading and mining, so I send him off to do the same to yet another BG. It's not time yet to start roading out into unknown territory. Our Military Advisor warns that there are thugs about, so we need to keep our guy safe at home.
Our exploring warrior finds more hills and mountains.
The dinkyboat fleet has done what it can do this turn.
No micromanaging to do right now, as we have almost more finished tiles than we do citizens.
Hit Enter.
IT We see the Frenchies kill some thugs, and then see some thugs wipe out (I think) some Vikings. Heh.
Turn 1 (2210BC) Sail around some. I switch the rax build in Con to a granary. Vet troops aren't our best investment right now -- but they will come. GOtta shorten the time between settlers.
IT Babs start to work on the Colossus.
Turn 2 (2070BC) Ahoy there! We have discovered the Chinese! He's rich, but not very smart. I trade him Ceremonial Burial for his entire bank account -- 135g. We are now the wealthiest fools on the planet. Our boats continue their world tour.
IT Nuthin.
Turn 3 (2030BC) Writing comes in, and we're only ones who know it!
Of course, no-one has anything to trade for it. I have to think here. The way the tech race is coming along, we're almost certain to pop Philosophy first. However, we're so beaker-poor right now, I doubt that we could make a detour to snag another tech (like Maths or CoL) and then still make it back for Philo in time. We're also not so hot to trot for Republic this time around, I think, because our ruleset says that once we go to war, it's AW until the other guy is dead. I leave this for the team to ponder. I set research for Philo and MM to get it in 22.
We could spend some of our cash here on embassies, but I hold off.
Babs is now at 8 cites.
Our exploring axeman finds more incense in the desert south of our mighty empire.
IT The Greeks also start to work on a big brass statue of a naked guy.
Turn 4 (1990BC) Not much.
IT A lone Viking bowman takes his revenge on the barb encampment where his brother died. Sven is up 25g, I guess.
Turn 5 (1950BC) Con's granary comes in, and we're now running at a deficit. We can afford it. I opt to build an archer for cleaning up some bad boys before starting on the settler for our third city.
IT Alex whines that we're playing on his side of the pool. We apologize and sail on.
Turn 6 (1910BC) 
IT Joan also starts to work on a brass statue of a naked guy. Guess she's feeling a bit lonely.
Turn 7 1870BC Dinkyboat 3 spots another shoreline. I suspect it's a small island off Greece, so I don't try the suicide run.
It appears that my MM skills are off. The mine that the worker just finished building dumped enough sheilds into Adri's granary build that it's just one short of compleating it next turn. Nowhere to get that extra shield. Drat.
IT Nuthin.
Turn 8 (1830BC) Dinky 3 makes landfall on a new shorline, abandoning the journey around Skandanavia for now. No-one in sight yet. MM Adri for gold.
IT Carthage starts on the Pyramids. Greeks start on the Oracle. Fred the Mongol sends an archer and an axeman into our neighborhood, but I don't think he means anything by it.
Turn 9 (1790BC) Adri finishes the granary and starts on another archer. Don't want Fred to get any ideas about us.
IT Not much.
Turn 10 (17050BC) Fred the Mongol now knows Horseback Riding. He'll cough it up, along with 120g, for Writing. This could be a good deal. A few other folks have enough gold to fill our coffers nicely, and it might be a good idea to empty out Fred's bank account. I've left the deal ummade, but the next best player can play out whatever we decide to do.
So a solid set, if not so dramatic. We're still the tech kings, but we're the smallest empire in the world right now. The Babs are up to 10 cities already! France has 8, as does China, and Greece has 7. Fred isn't doing so well, but he does have settler headed in our direction. Can't tell if he wants the incense, the iron, or some other moronic site. (I was right, by the way. He did put a city on top of a cow.) Also, he hasn't connected the iron in the middle of his territory, and I can't tell if he even has any horses to connect.
I've moved our lone worker to the hillside due east of Adri and covered him with the archer. Whether we go for the incense or the iron, we're going to need a road there soon, and our two cities have enough roaded tiles between them for now, I think. In two turns Adri gets another citizen, but Con will pop a settler, so they can swap tiles. Oh, and we have to increase lux, now that Con is up to 4 citizens.
That's my story. No other pics, as not that much has changed -- just a bit more coastlines explored. Here's the
>>SAVE<< Chox, who's up?
(Leader-rushing Secret Police HQ in an IW city doesn't count.) Or if we can manage it in time, how about a city 1N of the incense hill, so it can share the river?
Did you mean SE?
