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I agree with Beta that it is time we figure out how we want to proceed with our future planning.
Currently we have a research engine that is beginning to ramp up quite nicely. We can't compete with the larger civs, but we can work on the more obscure techs (read...unnecessary for age advancement). On the military front, we're pathetically backward.
But at the same time we have our big brother (Lego) protecting us.
I think we really need to get together with Lego in chat or through a series of PMs and discuss with them our future policy because a lot of it will depend on them.
Possible Future Policy Plan A) - We completely eschew military needs in favor of building research and commerce improvements, as well as aqueducts. With this policy we will be able to become a stronger research partner for giving Lego the techs we research, as well as being able to shop our techs around to the other teams for concessions much like we've done with printing press and soon democracy. This strategy will depend greatly on Lego as we will have to rely on them solely for our defense as our current military would get run over quickly.
Possible Future Policy Plan B) - After our current round of building marketplaces we begin building up a force of horsemen (by freezing our road on the iron) that can eventually be upgraded to knights and cavalry and provide us an excellent defense force against invasion by other civs. This would, of necessity, require a lot of gold for upgrades and necessitate that we ramp our research engine back down. I believe it's either 100 or 120 gold per upgrade from horse to cavalry (can't check
right now). This would provide us a more secure military and make us less vulnerable to an invasion of our shores designed to hurt Lego through us, as well as giving us the ability to send forces if they are invaded. However we wouldn't be as good a research partner for Lego.
Possible Future Policy Plan C) - A hybrid of the above in which we ramp our research as much as possible until we discover democracy and then try to build up our military through the use of horseman upgrades. This has the benefit of the fact that there won't be too many techs that we can research quicker than anyone else once democracy is finished. The only tech that the other nations likely won't prioritize is free artistry until we get into the nationalism branch of extra techs.
That brings up another point that we need to discuss with Lego. We will get metallurgy and hopefully another nice tech or two for democracy trades. If Lego can get us the remaining ones as soon as possible then we will start the next age...where as the only scientific civ we will have a free tech to share with Lego!
If it's Steam Power or Nationalism we might also see about keeping it to ourselves and Lego for a while.
Okay, of the above plans I'm kind of leaning toward Plan A with getting our economic engine going as fast as we can. There are a bunch of industrial age optional techs that aren't often prioritized by human players that we could shoot for and trade around. Once we get a bank up and running in New Voice then it's commerce boosters will be finished and we can start building a small mobile military with that city alone.
Thoughts?
Currently we have a research engine that is beginning to ramp up quite nicely. We can't compete with the larger civs, but we can work on the more obscure techs (read...unnecessary for age advancement). On the military front, we're pathetically backward.
But at the same time we have our big brother (Lego) protecting us.I think we really need to get together with Lego in chat or through a series of PMs and discuss with them our future policy because a lot of it will depend on them.
Possible Future Policy Plan A) - We completely eschew military needs in favor of building research and commerce improvements, as well as aqueducts. With this policy we will be able to become a stronger research partner for giving Lego the techs we research, as well as being able to shop our techs around to the other teams for concessions much like we've done with printing press and soon democracy. This strategy will depend greatly on Lego as we will have to rely on them solely for our defense as our current military would get run over quickly.
Possible Future Policy Plan B) - After our current round of building marketplaces we begin building up a force of horsemen (by freezing our road on the iron) that can eventually be upgraded to knights and cavalry and provide us an excellent defense force against invasion by other civs. This would, of necessity, require a lot of gold for upgrades and necessitate that we ramp our research engine back down. I believe it's either 100 or 120 gold per upgrade from horse to cavalry (can't check
right now). This would provide us a more secure military and make us less vulnerable to an invasion of our shores designed to hurt Lego through us, as well as giving us the ability to send forces if they are invaded. However we wouldn't be as good a research partner for Lego.
Possible Future Policy Plan C) - A hybrid of the above in which we ramp our research as much as possible until we discover democracy and then try to build up our military through the use of horseman upgrades. This has the benefit of the fact that there won't be too many techs that we can research quicker than anyone else once democracy is finished. The only tech that the other nations likely won't prioritize is free artistry until we get into the nationalism branch of extra techs.
That brings up another point that we need to discuss with Lego. We will get metallurgy and hopefully another nice tech or two for democracy trades. If Lego can get us the remaining ones as soon as possible then we will start the next age...where as the only scientific civ we will have a free tech to share with Lego!
If it's Steam Power or Nationalism we might also see about keeping it to ourselves and Lego for a while.Okay, of the above plans I'm kind of leaning toward Plan A with getting our economic engine going as fast as we can. There are a bunch of industrial age optional techs that aren't often prioritized by human players that we could shoot for and trade around. Once we get a bank up and running in New Voice then it's commerce boosters will be finished and we can start building a small mobile military with that city alone.
Thoughts?
I too am leaning towards option "A," since if the other civ(s) truely wanted to invade our island, a few more military units wouldn't really make a difference, except for acting as a "speed bump." 
If New Voice builds defenders some of the other cities can build cannons since those don't require a barracks to be more effective. We can also build some frigates since all of our coast cities but one have a harbor. That will also work well with the picket duty they are requesting. We can upgrade our other two galleys, but we already have two other caravels ready to go for picket duty/exploration of the black tiles once we have navigation.
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