As for the settling location, I detest settling on top of Grassland Hills squares, especially early on in the game. I was sorely tempted to go north and settle on the Plains Hills square, but after the Warrior peeked up there, I saw that that location had too much Ocean and not enough production to be my capital and it looked like a better spot to generate some Great People (which is what that location got used for). So, the Plains Hills square was saved for City 2 and then I just headed away from that direction to settle. I'd initially planned to move further, but 1SW looked to be "good enough" once I arrived there (given our expected-to-suck capital location, just about anywhere could look good
), so I went with 1SW of the Settler's initial location for my capital.
I went for Conquest, but hit a couple of stumbling blocks... there seemed to be no one in sight and my boats couldn't find anyone! Then, there was the lack of Strategic Resources (I got too busy building Wonders to bother to settle near the Copper early on).
Oh, so I had Stonehenge and found Iron on an island, so a City placed near the Iron made sense, right? I didn't have to settle on a Wheat Resource and could just get the Iron in the outside part of my big fat cross. Well, yes, except that getting Astronomy obsoleted the Obelisk. Without Stonehenge, I might have been able to whip one, but having Stonehenge prevents such a possibility.
So, I had an army of Galleys which I could slowly upgrade into Galleons and... an army of Warriors! :facepalm:
No worries, as I could also build Archers and then upgrade them to Crossbowmen once the Iron were to come online later. Of course, I got antsy and decided not to wait to collect the Gold to upgrade my Archers. And, I forgot about Construction so with my Archer-mindset going on, I went for Feudalism for Longbowmen, which then upset the idea of building cheap Archers and upgrading them to Crossbowmen!
Anyway, I went for white and took two Cities but twice got stonewalled at white's capital against early Longbowmen of her own, losing about 12 Archery-based units needlessly before I decided that it was time to stop plowing money into upgrading units and to just research useful techs like Construction.
Fortunately, my army of surviving Archery-based units was great for taking on Hatshepsut and Isabella, who hadn't teched to Feudalism themselves yet, so while I built up a stack of Cats, I took my armies further overseas.
Isabella's forces crumbled, as I'd brought Crossbowmen to deal with Axemen. Hatshepsut put up more of a fight... one annoying Axeman killed a Crossbowman and a Longbowman when I tried to move my units along a fogged Road, only to have the attack automatically happen on a Forested Hills square. Since the Axeman was wounded, I attacked with my second unit, then lost it, too, and used my third and final Longbowman in the area to kill off the Axeman. But, then my raiding party for a Tundra-area City of Hatshepsut's had been reduced sufficiently that I decided to capitulate her.
White never would capitulate, so I had to eliminate her. Her sister capitulated when she was down to one City and had a Great General Maceman guarding her remaining City.
Catherine didn't take much longer, as all forces were converging on her from land and sea, and after her capital fell, I went for the capitulation. I could have taken her last two Cities on the following turn with moderate losses, but I was afraid that she might win enough battles to get cocky and then no longer want to capitulate, thereby making me hunt down her every last unit, so I just accepted the capitulation and called it a day.
I'd worked really hard to manage my Great People and was able to Lightbulb Machinery, Lightbulb part of Astronomy, get a Holy Shrine, and two Golden Ages (5 more Great People of mixed types). Of course, doing so cost me, as I think that I got one, maybe two turns of Golden Age at the end of the game out of that second Golden Age... it would have been better to just whip more troops earlier, but it is hard to resist trying to time Great Person production when you have a City that pumps out 100 Great People Points per turn.
Ummm, I think that I only traded Gems to a Vassal. I did get Silver and Whale out of Hatshepsut, so she was useful as a Vassal.
Thanks for the fun game!
Luckily, that meant they had lots to trade with me, too.
