The Devel's Workshop 1a - Beyond the Veil (After the Slingshot)

[Velociryx]

Devel I - CS Slingshot Redeux

Initial Notes

I'm starting this game from scratch, because there has been some demand in seeing it played out farther than it was originally (to Liberalism, at least). This being the case, I thought I'd start from scratch and do the Slingshot "my way" rather than following the original recepie fairly closely, so as to demonstrate the different approaches that could be taken in reaching the same end, and by extension, explore some of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

My starting moves are the same, because in my heart of hearts, I believe them to be the best moves I can make, given what I know about the map. In another thread, Dominae said something important to me, and I have been pondering it for days now. I believe I have an answer to the statement that he posed.

He said that he felt I undervalued production in the early game, and over-valued commerce, and I really thought long and hard about that.

Was it true? Do I miss the mark in my valuations? Perhaps.

The more I considered it, the more I came to realize that Dom and I see production differently, and this, I believe, is the genesis of his statement.

Specifically, I regard HAMMERS (as opposed to production in general) as being less important than commerce. Having said that though, I'm quick to leap at alternate means of PRODUCTION to fill the gap. Specifically, my tendency to drive toward Bronze early for the slave rush and chop. My thinking is that with these tools in hand, so long as the food supply is good, then I can use food and hammers interchangeably, and thus, keep my production up, even if hammers per turn are somewhat lacking.

On the other hand, there's no substitute for coin, so in the end, I would have to say if we sub out the word production for hammers, then he has me dead to rights. I regard commerce more highly than hammers. Improper valuations? Depending on the way you play, and the way you structure your game, quite possibly, and it IS something to bear in mind as you read these workshops. There will likely be a commerce bias written into them. It is a bias that serves me well, I think, but be mindful of it, especially if you play to some other focus (like a hammer heavy focus, for example).

In any case, same opening moves as last time, and I'm still interested in yonder ridgeline. Let's see how this iteration shakes out. Research wise, I'm still game for Agriculture first, and for a worker-first build.

In addition to demonstrating how to turn the gains realized from a successful Slingshot into a long term advantage, I'm also hoping to show you ways of staying focused....of not letting the little stuff and the petty details obscure your vision of the bigger picture. The big picture, after all, represents what you are trying to do. The details are simply how you'll get there. If you spend all your time focused on the details though, you will find yourself "walking in place" and not getting ANYWHERE. To avoid this, let us begin by establishing "macro-level" goals, and checking periodically to see if we have met those goals.

Early Objectives
1) Scout the area
2) Get a lay of the land
3) Research BronzeWorking, adopt Slavery, and find a source of copper/site for a second city.
4) Found a second city

[Velociryx]

Again....
3880 Destiny smiles twice, and I get Bronze again from the hut. Only thing I can figure is that I must have taken the EXACT same path to the hut, and that the contents OF the huts are pre-determined on a turn by turn basis? I don't know, but I'm not knocking it! Onward! (1 turn lost to anarchy as we make the quick switch to slavery in true Roman tradition)

[Velociryx]

Other Eerie Similarities
3780 BC - Again, the eerie similarities...I discover a cave bear in the same spot, and once more, dash into the forest across the river to defend against his attack. As before, we are victorious, down to half strength, and healing for six turns to recover.

3680 BC - First Border Expansion brings the corn field and the gold mine into our sphere of influence.

3580 BC - Wolf defeated and we take Woody I promotion (1 turn down for healing)

3520 BC - Lion defeated, 2 turns down for healing.

3480 BC - Agriculture is ours. Next item to research....that's a tricky one. I've not yet found a source of copper. If I HAD, then I would surely gravitate toward "The Wheel" so I could road-connect it and get my defenses up. As it is, I think my next stop will be Mysticism, to begin researching the "Religious Arm" of the tree, toward Oracle, which is our goal. I think I've got all the basic infrastructure techs I need at the moment. The gold mine is our key tile....cottages will be important, sure, but right now, the gold mine is our...well...gold mine, and I'm more interested in prepping for a second city than making cottages that I won't use right away, so Mysticism it is!

3400 BC - Map from a hut reveals a good bit more about the north country. Source of copper located, but the spot it's in leaves a bit to be desired. Still, as I ponder where I'd like to put my second city, an unusual thought occurs to me. One that I'll not reveal yet (will wait till I found the second city) to see if it takes you by surprise And now that we HAVE a source of copper for use, "The Wheel" is suddenly looking a lot more attractive as a research option again. I'm tempted to interrupt my research on Mysticism, but no...it too, has its uses. We'll stay this course for the moment, but will likely pursue the wheel as soon as we're done here.

3380 BC - Worker completes, and we get busy on a fistful of warriors (minus the thumb). We'll need a solid foundation, and I'm not in a huge hurry to get the second city out. Not so much so that I feel like taking crazy risks. We'll let the city grow some. Working the gold mine is at least as important as the second city, so we'll do both.

3260 BC - Bait a lion to attack us in the forest, defeat him and now spending two turns healing.

3140 BC - Defeat a wolf and gain Woody II promotion. Slick. Now we're styling!

3080 BC - Mysticism is ours, corn farm is operational, and we're verging on size two. Now researching the Wheel.

2920 BC - Warrior completes and Rome begins a second.

2900 BC - A Spanish scout finds us.

2860 BC - An American archer finds us.

2780 BC - Gold mine is now in operation, and our worker is left with nothing to do but chop...so let's see if we can speed that settler on his way to us.

2700 BC - The Wheel is ours, and we now have all the ingredients we'll need to see to our safety and expansion in this hostile world. Back to the religious arm of the tech tree, with research going into Meditation.

2600 BC - Our first chop brings Rome's Third Warrior to completion, and we start on our settler. Worker moves to chop again (outside our cultural borders, under the supervision of a warrior). Beginning to position our warriors in such a way that they will be able to "clear a path" for our settler, to speed him on his way to our new city site.

2420 BC - Second chop, and our settler will now be done in two turns. We're moving the worker back inside our cultural radius to begin road building, in order to connect our two burgs, and meanwhile the warrior that had been assigned to guard the worker will head for some high ground to scout the way for the settler. 21g from a hut, and Meditation is ours in one turn.

2380 BC - Now researching Priesthood (10 turns to completion). Our settler is done, and we're halting capitol growth for a time by letting it build another worker. We need him more than we need to be size four, at present, so we're off in that direction, and our settler is making use of his full rate of movement, on his way to the new city site! This is an important point. Lots of folks like to send their scouts out with escorts to keep them safe. That's a nice thought, and a nice idea, but it KILLS you on speed, because the settler is then tied to the speed of the escort, and in the early game, that almost always means warriors/archers, which means speed one. This is COSTING you big time. Specifically, it's costing you turn advantage. If you're playing with a rival who is managing to move his settlers at their full speed, that means that he's going to get his cities built at least 2-3 turns faster than you, which means you're GIVING him 2-3 free turns of production (at a minimum this is 5r * no. of turns difference). Now, if you don't mind just giving away the store, then by all means, continue to escort the settler "the old way." But if you're interested in maybe getting an edge on the competition, then find a new way. One such way is to "clear a path" for your settler in advance, as shown in the picture. Note that the settler is alone, but able to make full use of his movement points. Note too that he has a clear "line of sight" (no fog of war) between him and where he's going. Thus, no wildlife or barbarian surprises. Thus, he's just as safe as he would have been if there'd been someone in the same tile with him.

Hugely important, from a tactical POV.

[Velociryx]

Bad Company

2340 BC - Unexpected company shows up, in the form of a barbarian archer. We're fortified in the woods across a river, but he gets first strike and is stronger than we are by a third. I do not like my chances in this fight, but we're so CLOSE! We have to secure this site! No other option, so we brace for it.

[Velociryx]

The Founding of Antium & A Review of our Goals

On the computer's turn, the archer attacks, and sadly, kills our warrior. He's down to 0.4 strength, BUT, he still gets first strike, and he's in the woods.

Normally I wouldn't attack him, but we're INCHES from getting off the ground...we have to risk it, and we do...to the sounds of victory!

2300 BC - Antium founded ON the wine site. We still have some to trade later, so we're not giving up much, but more importantly, this positioning gives us acces to a flood plain, a food special (cow) AND copper, with its first border expansion (plus, founding on the wines gives the city site an extra 1cpt...nice, this early in the game. Our warrior takes "combat I" as his promotion, and moves into the city, and we focus antium's production away from the warrior I originally envisioned, and straight onto an Obelisk. Not my first choice, but we need a border bump.

[Velociryx]

So how are we doing with our various objectives? Initially, we said we wanted to:

1) Scout the area (done)
2) Get a lay of the land (done)
3) Research BronzeWorking, adopt Slavery, and find a source of copper/site for a second city. (done)
4) Found a second city (done)

Great! We're off and running! Now, we need some additional objectives.

Let's set the following:

1) Prepare for "The Blackout Period" (the period during which time we'll be busy building the Oracle and actually EXECUTING the Slingshot....we don't want to lose any time shifting away from this focus, so we enter a "blackout" stretch of time, in which we can't do anything but focus on these hugely important goals (well, we can, but we want to avoid it at all costs). To do this we need to:

1a) Properly Garrison both cities (a minimum of two warriors each, plus a fifth warrior--possibly our starting warrior--as a worker escort/swing defender)
1b) Road-connect our two cities to facilitate ease-of-defense, allowing our workers and warriors greater mobility
1c) Three workers to improve the lands around our two cities, and to (possibly) pre-emptively build roads to future city sites

2) Successfully execute the Slingshot, by:
2a) Creating a Great Scientist/Founding the Academy of Rome
2b) Completing the Oracle/make switch to Bureaucracy

3) We also want to find the lands of our rivals (since they have found US). Very important for later.

Those are some pretty hefty goals, so we'll leave it at that for the moment.

And since we have two cities, we're going to approach the Slingshot a bit differently than before. First big difference is that we're going to break it up. The capitol is going to work on the library and generating the Great Scientist, while the second city builds the Oracle. The reason for this is that the Oracle generates points toward a Great Prophet, and IF we are the first to Code of Laws, then we'll found Confucianism, and it will be founded in our second city. The implications of doing it this way are chiefly that we do not have to worry about having the Great Scientist in Rome before the Oracle builds. One of the disadvantages of doing the Slingshot in a single city is that everything has to follow a very prescribed order. If you don't get the scientist first, then when the oracle completes, it starts adding Great Prophet points to your city, and your first G-Man might not BE a scientist. Not the case with the way we'll be doing it, so if the oracle completes before we get the G-man, it's no big deal. Plus, it will concentrate all our prophet points into a single city (since Confucianism will be founded here, we can build a temple here and assign a priest specialist, and his GPP's will add to those already generated by the Oracle, making our SECOND GP complete that much faster.

With these goals in mind, let's work on making them happen. Before we do though, let's take a look at where we are now, research-wise. Nineteen beakers per turn. Very nearly double what we started out with, and of course, there will be more to come!

[Velociryx]

Making it happen

2200 BC - Priesthood is ours, and another important piece of what we're trying to do falls into place. Our next stop will be writing then! Onward!

2140 BC - A third neighbor met...India (Ghandi) finds us! This bodes well for us, and here's why: We know that there are seven civs in the game, and we have now met three of them. That's four of seven total....the majority. Odds are extremely good then, that the remaining three, EVEN IF THEY ARE TOGETHER, will not be ahead of us in tech, since we can reap the benefits of trading with three other partners....nice, and a good detail to know.

2120 BC - Rome's second worker completes and we immediately begin working on a third. New worker moves to chop out the third worker, so we can get him more quickly and get down to business!

2060 BC - One of our objectives has now been accomplished! Our woody ii warrior has found American and Spanish borders. That's all we need to know. They're far enough away from us that we will have time to build up and develop in peace. Perfect. We will do what we do, and let them come to us. Our plan will be to let them settle the jungle and begin clearing it for us, while we focus on the areas to our north, and up to the edge of the jungle. Then, when the time is right, we shall take it from them in a series of "oscillating" wars, focusing first on one opponent, nibbling away and weakening, and then shifting gears to another opponent, taking each down by degrees, rather than all at once. We will do this for two reasons: 1) because it will be easier to economically absorb newly gained cities if we don't try to take them all in one bite, and 2) because by focusing on a series of limited wars where we switch back and forth between opponents, we do not allow either of them to grow stronger while the other is being ground to dust. This way, WE grow stronger consistently, and our rivals both grow weaker.

We haven't found Ghandi's borders, but the conclusion drawn by the borders we CAN see is that he is, or soon will be cut off from us by either the Spanish or the Americans, or both, so we won't spend more time looking for him. Instead, it's time to bring our warrior home. We have scant defenses right now, and every warrior counts, so home he comes.

[Velociryx]

Winding our Way Closer

1990 BC - Having to drop our research down to 90%, because we're almost out of money. This adds one additional turn to our research time for Writing, but it also gives us +2gpt, which will be important later, so we're good.

1970 BC - Chop completes third worker quickly, and all three now make for Antium, to finish the road-network and to chop out the Obelisk.

1920 BC - The Obelisk of Antium is pop-rushed to completion. Excellent. Our chop then, will help jumpstart construction of the Oracle, which will be that city's next build.

1910 BC - Writing is ours, and our next research priority is Pottery, so we can be getting cottages built early on, while we're in the blackout period. This way, when we re-assign our scientists to the field, we will already have gold-intensive tiles for them to work. Antium begins the Oracle. 425 turns to build, but we know better....

Another step closer to accomplishing our goals as well, with the completion of the road, linking Rome and Antium. Another mission accomplished.

1880 BC - First chop on the Oracle. Still a ways from completion (300-odd turns), so there's no harm in chopping again. We'll have code of laws well before the Oracle is done at this rate!

So where are we? Now would be a good time to take a first look at our f9 summary screen to see how we stack up vs. our rivals:

Relevant numbers:
GNP: 1st (23/19) - This is good, and we're hoping that the gap keeps on widening. That's what the move to pottery is all about. Growing this number.

Production - 7th (5/14) Roughly one third of our biggest rival. Not good, but we knew this wasn't gonna be a strong point for us yet.

Food - 5th (16/27) - Expected, given that we're only using one food special so far, and have no farms besides the corn field at Rome.

Population - 7th (last) (22k/70k) Expected, given that we've been sacrificing population to speed build the things we need.

Troops - 7th (last) 21k/39k) Also expected, given that we're making warriors, while all our rivals are cranking out Archers (or better) at this point.

Land - 7th (last) 30k/51k - We're slightly bigger than half the size of the biggest players on the board. This will change, and is of scant concern thus far.

Conclusion: We're "unbalanced" just now (as is generally the case when going for a Slingshot opener....playing to our strong suit, the economy itself. This summary is of no great concern yet, and is pretty much as we expected it would be. What it does for us, however, is that it gives us a benchmark to compare against later, as our plans begin to come to fruition.

[Velociryx]

Progress, even as the Blackout begins

1870 BC - Rome completes her latest warrior, and begins a library. We now have six warriors in total. Two in each city (what is, for me, "proper garrisons"), and two set to guarding our workers, chopping trees at the cultural border of Rome. We're well positioned for the blackout period, and another objective has been met. Of our stated objectives then, all that remains is to actually execute the Slingshot, so let's get to it!

1810 BC - Two chops bring us significantly closer to completing the Library at Rome. Moving to execute a third chop to bring it online that much more quickly.

1780 BC - Pottery is ours, and we move on to Code of Laws. In Antium, we complete a second chop for the Oracle, and our worker moves to the flood plain there to build a cottage. Both of our other workers are chopping just outside Rome's current border, in order to bring the Library to a rapid completion. Note too, that at this point, we are refusing all offers of open borders. Not yet....not yet.

1740 BC - A third chop finishes out the Library, and we immediately assign two scientists. This boosts our research in Rome to 28 beakers per turn, and generates 6gpp's per turn toward our all-important scientist. It also stalls growth in Rome, but that is of little concern at present. We're willing to give up some growth, in order to achieve this goal. There's nothing that can be done to speed the Scientist along any faster than he already is, so we'll sit just as we are, at present. Since growth is stalled, we'll set Rome to building a Barracks (Granary won't do us any good just now anyway, and we'll need the barracks for conquesting later on).

Timeline:
Scientist: 50T
Oracle: 228T
Code of Laws: 38T

[Velociryx]

1640 BC - Antium's floodplain cottage completes, and with a bankroll of 77g, we push research back to 100% to shave additional time off of Code of Laws. Adjusted timeline looks like this, losing 2gpt.

Scientist: 40T
Oracle: 218T
Code of Laws: 24T

1600 BC - Sees border expansions in both our cities. This brings cattle and the copper into play in Antium, and gives us a new goal. As soon as we get some workers freed up, we'll be migrating all available labor-power to Antium to get the copper mine in operation. Once we have that, we'll be able to defend ourselves against just about anything.

* New Goal - Get the copper mined, and road-connected to our cities for defensive options.

[Velociryx]

Completing the Slingshot

1470 BC - The copper is mined, but not yet road-connected to our cities. Still, it greatly adjustes our timeline, thusly:

Code of Laws: 7T (8T after adjustment, read below)
Oracle: 39T
G-Man: 23T

Moving research back to 80%. Only adds 1 T to CoL, and gives us a gain of +3gpt, which we will need later. I can live with this tradeoff.

1420 BC - Goal completed. The copper has been road-connected to Antium, and by extension, to Rome. Good deal.

1410 BC - Having completed the road-link for the copper, all three of our workers remain near Antium, with one of them working on another cottage, and the other two moving to the forests east of Antium, with a plan to chop the Oracle to an early completion.

1390 BC - It begins to fall together...Code of Laws is ours, and we found Confucianism in Antium, but we do not adopt our new religion yet. Reason? Our next tech to research is Alphabet, and we don't want to alienate a potential trading partner.

1380 BC - Rome completes her Barracks and begins a Granary. With 67g banked, we bring our research back to 100%, shaving some seven turns off of our research time. We're losing 3gpt now, but this is acceptable, if it means faster tech trading.

1350 BC - Barbarian troubles. A barbarian archer marauds through our territory, severing the road that links Antium with Rome, and killing the warrior we had posted to the Corn Fields. Our woodsman warrior retailates, killing the archer (down to 1.4), and we're holding as we are for the moment, as we have no workers free to come repair the road (two set to chopping, and one building a second cottage for Antium).

1320 BC - Our two chops in Antium come to pass, causing the Oracle to be sped to completion this turn. Civil Service taken as our free tech, and Antium gets busy building a Confucian temple. Meanwhile, we spend a turn mired in Anarchy.....

1310 BC - Once the government is re-established along bureaucratic lines, our research is found to be greatly enhanced, even without the academy (which will be along shortly). Alphabet is a mere 18 turns away, and then we'll begin reaping additional benefits of our sterling research.

[Velociryx]

1280 BC - Road network repaired, and our two workers get back to the business of improving the lands around Rome.

1230 BC - We get a Great Scientist in Rome, and create our academy. Note in the picture below that our research output in Rome is somewhat less than it was in the previous game, and this is the tradeoff we accepted when we founded the second city, and approached the tech tree a bit differently. Not that we lost MUCH in the way of research, but it is important to note the difference.

[Velociryx]

Less research or no, we have accomplished a MAJOR in-game goal, and now, it's time to re-assess.

Re-Assessment

First thing...we knock our research back to 90%. This only adds 1 turn to Alphabet (8, instead of 7), but gives us 2gpt. Again, profitibility is very important, so this is a key consideration.

Second thing, let's look at the numbers.

The key one for us, is, of course, GNP, and we're still running first at 38, with our next nearest rival trailing at 26. That's a decent gap...we've tripled our lead on whoever's in second place, from 4g to 12g...that's pretty solid.

Food, we're still in last place, but not by much (22 vs. 30). Seems like most everyone is fairly close in this regard. I can live with that.

Production, we've actually come up a notch (this, due to the copper mine we're working). 6th place, with 11 vs. 25 for the leader. Still less than half of whoever the big dog is, but we're okay.

Land area...our border bumps have put us right in the middle, and that's fine by me.

Troops. Last. Nothing has changed here.

Population - Also last, but then, fifty turns of zero growth in the capitol will do that. No biggie. We're growing again, and that's all that matters.

So....new goals are needed. We've got a solid beginning...now where do we take it from here? Answering that question is the true purpose of this workshop.

New Goals
Here are some of the things in my mind that I would like to see us accomplish sooner, rather than later (not prioritized or in any type of order):

1) Gain Alphabet and the ability to trade techs
2) Generation of a Great Prophet in Antium & Build the Kong Mio
3) Make sure our religion is spread to all cities we control
3) Research Currency, so we can begin trading/selling techs for gold
4) Upgrade at least three of our warriors to Axemen, to bolster our defenses
5) Research Ironworking and secure a source of Iron
6) Train at least two Praetorians to serve as the backbone of our army.
7) Formally embrace our religion and switch to Organized Religion (to reap the 25% building discount) (will require Monotheism)
8) Found or conqer a coastal city
9) Expand, so that our empire includes four cities, then hold and develop these until our Empire can support them (at least a +1g profit at 70% research is my rule of thumb).
10) Bring the Marble into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.
11) Bring the Stone into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.

As you can see, lots of these goals overlap, and that's not a bad thing. This should give us tons to do, and tons to focus on. Indeed, these plans are quite long-range in their nature, and that's exactly what we want. This is the kind of thing that will help us keep our focus over the next span of turns, because periodically, we can stop and ask ourselves, "is what I am about to do going to help me achieve any of my stated goals?" And if the answer is no, then we know that we're off track (or, that we have identified a new goal that is worth adding to our list, which is by no means a static thing!).

So what to do first? Well, IMO, with a religion in hand, and the only thing that's stopping us from switching to it is not wanting to offend a potential trading partner, the best thing we could do for ourselves at the moment would be to get Alphabet, see if we can off-load some of our low level techs for OTHER low level techs we missed, and do some serious trading. Once that's out of the way, we're free to switch to our religion and thumb our noses at the world, so that will be my first choice.

[Velociryx]

1180 BC - Rome completes her Granary and begins building an Axeman (our first!).

1160 BC - Alphabet is ours, and now we're racing toward Iron Working. Let's see what the tech situation is.....

All three of our trading partners have Hunting, Masonry, and Animal Husbandary.

Of our techs, America needs Alphabet and Code of Laws
Spain needs Pottery and Writing
India needs...NOTHING!

Okay, this tells me two things. First, Spain is our trading partner of choice right now, because we can trade her low-level "throw away" techs and back fill. Groovy. Also, it tells me that Ghandi is likely our number two rival when looking at the f9 summary, so we can infer his numbers from the "rival best" section of that information. Will be a good rule of thumb, in any case, until we find evidence to the contrary.

Addendum: By trading Pottery and writing to Spain, and later, Ironworking to America (read on) over the course of a couple of turns, we were able to pick up a collection of odds and ends like hunting, archery...and stuff from the religious branch that we had just plain missed. The pottery trade was an especially good deal for us, since everyone else had pottery anyway....one of the rare times you get to trade in the really cheap stuff. Also note that had we adopted Confucianism right away, Isabella would likely not have traded with us at all....

A good round of trading, and we got rid of techs that nearly everybody else had for some items we'll be needing later. Next turn, we'll check back in.

1060 BC - Our first Axe comes online, and Rome begins a second.

1040 BC - Rome has a source of Iron! (currently researching Mathematics) We dispatch a worker to go fetch it for us, while the other two workers are assigned, one each, to improving the terrain around our two cities. Meanwhile, it's time to begin thinking in terms of expansion, so we have sent onen of our "resource guardians" (the warrior on the corn), to the north country to investigate the possibility of founding a city there...horses were found in that area, and there appears to be good terrain, so we'll check it out. If we can arrange it, that would be the ideal spot for a third city, although it would not bring us either the marble or the stone. With the acquisition of the Husbandary tech, however, we can safely add "Acquire a source of horses" to our list! And speaking of our list! How are we doing:

1) Gain Alphabet and the ability to trade techs
2) Generation of a Great Prophet in Antium & Build the Kong Mio
3) Make sure our religion is spread to all cities we control
3) Research Currency, so we can begin trading/selling techs for gold
4) Upgrade at least three of our warriors to Axemen, to bolster our defenses
5) Research Ironworking and secure a source of Iron
6) Train at least two Praetorians to serve as the backbone of our army.
7) Formally embrace our religion and switch to Organized Religion (to reap the 25% building discount) (will require Monotheism)
8) Found or conqer a coastal city
9) Expand, so that our empire includes four cities, then hold and develop these until our Empire can support them (at least a +1g profit at 70% research is my rule of thumb).
10) Bring the Marble into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.
11) Bring the Stone into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.
12) Secure a source of Horses

Two items complete, and one added...not much progress, but we're moving in the right direction, so we'll keep doing what we're doing.

[Velociryx]

1030 BC - Trade Ironworking to India for Polytheism and Masonry. We'll shop that tech around to the others later on and see if we can get yet more for it. I don't mind if our rivals have ironworking, since we'll be able to beat their swordsmen in the field in any case....

990 BC - Our second Axeman completes, and Rome begins working on a settler. Time to expand!

950 BC - Antium completes her temple, and assigns a priest specialist to speed GP Points and bring us a great prophet! Begins a worker.

900 BC - We trade Ironworking to the Americans for Sailing and Archery. Note that this makes four techs (sailing, archery, polytheism, and masonry) that we've gotten for our one tech (spent 897 beakers researching it, got the benefits OF the tech, plus 1518 beakers of research in trade for it...this puts us HUGELY ahead of the game).

820 BC - Our settler is ready, and Rome begins another immediately.

810 BC - The Iron Mine is hooked up, and we can cross another item off the list!

800 BC - Antium completes a worker and immediately begins another.

790 BC - our third city, Cumae, is founded, in a location that takes advantage of sheep, wheat, and horses (after first border expansion). It's also a coastal city (our first!) Cumae begins an Obelisk.

1) Gain Alphabet and the ability to trade techs
2) Generation of a Great Prophet in Antium & Build the Kong Mio
3) Make sure our religion is spread to all cities we control
3) Research Currency, so we can begin trading/selling techs for gold
4) Upgrade at least three of our warriors to Axemen, to bolster our defenses
5) Research Ironworking and secure a source of Iron
6) Train at least two Praetorians to serve as the backbone of our army.
7) Formally embrace our religion and switch to Organized Religion (to reap the 25% building discount) (will require Monotheism)
8) Found or conqer a coastal city
9) Expand, so that our empire includes four cities, then hold and develop these until our Empire can support them (at least a +1g profit at 70% research is my rule of thumb).
10) Bring the Marble into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.
11) Bring the Stone into our sphere of influence and open the quarry for use.
12) Secure a source of Horses

700 BC - Currency is ours...now researching Monotheism.

680 BC - Cumae completes her Obelisk, and begins a Lighthouse. (Obelisk chop-assisted, of course)

670 BC - Antium completes her worker and begins a courthouse (maintenance costs in that city are at -3gpt).

650 BC - Rome completes her settler and begins training a Praetorian.

640 BC - Monotheism is ours, and we begin researching Literature.

620 BC - Neapolis is founded, to take advantage of the crabs and marble. It won't ever be a power house of a city, but it'll be important in its way (ie - a "fishing village").