Lizzy's rise to greatness

[Dinner]

MZ, I like those city spots and we also have to remember we have room to our south and northwest as well. I agree that our priority should be to firm up our borders to the east though as that's closest to our capital and the area most likely to get grabbed first by the Inca (since it is also so close to their capital). The one change I'd make is to move the #4 city (which really should be the first built) one square to the east so we grab that wine sooner.

[mzprox]

New turn.

First screenshot is about how to develop our civ in the east. I've given lots of thought and this is the best I could come up. Blue 1-3 shows our intended city sites in order when we found them. Red marks a good spot however i wouldn't risk it.. too close to Inca capital. They might be angered by our expansion anyway.. maybe we should try to get our nap renewed.
Our chariot there will watch the border so we can act if necessary.

So we will grab the stone and build the hanging gardens finally. We are also going for the fur within 10 turns.

below a sreenshot about HRE's land.. much more flood plains than we have.

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, let's hope the gambit pays off. After we nab Philo let's go for Theology + Christianity.

[mzprox]

Btw this was the 100th turn. We can see how much the good starting position matters in civ if we compare our stats to the "Lizzy of the Aztecs " testgame we played before this.
Even with harsher maintenance we have about twice as much income, more than twice as much food production etc (I'm comparing this with my test game result there)

[Dinner]

I keep thinking about what I'd do if I was the Inca. They have a huge army but a weak economy so it is use it or lose it time for them. Sure, they still have to defend their border with the country which just attacked them but they still have a good amount left over for a run at us. If I were them I'd be very tempted as a few more well developed cities sure would help them improve their position.

[Hercules]

I 'll drop a communique to WPC about open border.

[mzprox]

well, someone please contact wpc about open border.
and I agree with Hercules to first explore HRE's land, they are more important to us than the Natives.

[Dinner]

I'd go with asking WPC for open borders and then exploring their civ. I also completely agree that we need a strong military unit before everyone sees us as a rich but weak prize. Sadly, we don't have iron working or archery so it will take at least two techs to get either macemen or long bowmen. Let's do metal working now then one of those so we can actually defend our expanding empire.

[Hercules]

Probably try open borders with WPC first.

Then head south to uncover more HRE and the Indians

City possibilities I agree with.

The other chariot I would send south first and then move westerly.

I agree with metal casting but we need to be alert to getting a tech that will give us access to a good military unit, before people see us a plum prize.

[mzprox]

Some things which we can think about:

Where to send our scout chariot(see screenshot)?

A, to the north, along the coast

B, ask open border with WPC and scout their land (trying to get open border would be nice anyway, more income)

C, sending it south to uncover more HRE land and possibly discover the Indians.

Also try to figure out where to plant our cities in thesouth (below the capital) and east. Probably we will grab the stone with one city, one to get the sheep and one more below the capital to get the cow and one of these cities should get the fish which in the bay.

Other than these one city should get the fur.
one city (in the far future) should get the marble in the west.

Soon we can send a chariot to explore the land southwest, hopefully we will find much unclaimed land to settle there. (the Zulu probably live around there, but they are small)

[Dinner]

OK, sounds good. Eventually we will have to go back and back fill those cheap techs but maybe after we've expanded some and maintenance costs have crept up that would be the time to look at some of those cheap techs.

[mzprox]

one of the incenses is already within our borders.

i think now we should focus on couthouses and forges, and that means big slavings in the bigger cities (just in the next 3 turns we will slave away 19 population). after that we should do a heavy expansion, slaving 3-5 settlers and fill every good spot we left around us.

i think either metal casting or theology should be our goal, getting archey is not a big disraction.

[Dinner]

I'm inclined to go for the Great Library but realistically anything to boost our economy would be good so maybe calendar? Though to make use of Calendar we'd have to found another city to take advantage of plantations so maybe back filling some of the cheap but easy to get techs we passed up might be worth while?

My inclination is to go for the cheap ones like archery, mono & poly, and iron working then go on from there.

[mzprox]

We have CoL, most of our cities have started working on courthouses.
We have met WPC and we have trade routes with them. They are backward and small.
So we have met the bottom civs, we still haven't met the 3 most powerfull ones.
Btw this big difference in strength worries me a bit..some civs are really in hopeless state right now..they might have some fun if they go for an early war, but later they will fall seriously behind in technology. (you can see on the screenshot that Inca doesn't even have writing) We are ahead of all of them by several technologies.

About technology:
right now we are collecting money on 0% research, the next target needs to be decided:
-metal casting for forges
-ironworking to get a possible production boost
-calendar to get the incense
-polytheism-monotheism-(theology)
-civil service
-aesthetic-literature (great library)
-archery (for police)

[Dinner]

OK, good explanation as to what is going on. Thank you. Also I am happy we will be getting CoLs next turn.

Thanks. Ok unless I read a contrary view I will try to exchange info with HRE.

Sure, why not tell them who we have met and see if they will reciprocate by telling us who they have met.