Last two turns were fairly quiet in my side of the world. I have limited scouting on the war front happening near me, but I think Pindicator killed one of Azza's Composite Bowmen. This is good news, every resource spent by my opponents without any gain is a gain for me. Especially since Azza is doing pretty good in this game.
I finished my first TR of the game on turn 54. The TR icon appeared under Sentenza, but I think I only received the TR gold on turn 55. The TR gives me a 3 gold positive (TR is worth 6 gold, while the roads cost 3 gold) + the road movement. I can get a TR with Blondie with only 2 extra roads, but I don't have the worker turns for this right now. I think I'll get another gold from the TR when my Capital reaches size 14 (I get +1 gold for every size Sentenza grows, but that'll take a while) and there's the possibility of choosing a Pantheon that gives me 2 science for each TR I have.
Regarding the Chichen Itza plan, I finished two steps of it, getting the Aristocracy SP and growing to Size 11. The Aristocracy SP gave me +1 happiness, while I had 0 left. This enabled me to grow both Sentenza and Harmonica (doesn't get unhappiness when growing to an even number) on the same turn. Quite a good timing!
On the research front, someone finished Currency and someone finished HR (both prereqs to Civil Service). The timing of the Currency tech was pretty nice, because it gave me a 5 beaker discount on a tech I'm about to finish. Since two people finished Drama and Poetry before me, that's 15 beakers discount I got on my ride to CS.
I really hope HR was Pindicator (to counter Azza's archers) and Currency was Azza. That would probably mean Serdoa is not racing us to Civil Service, which is my biggest fear (Engineer Rushing CI). But Serdoa built a horse unit, so maybe it was him that teched HR (not sure how he would finish a horseman on the same turn, though, so maybe he built a chariot archer). We'll see. I'm confident I can reach CS before anyone else, because my research rate took quite a boost forward (and the discounts also help). I'm making 28,5 science per turn (not sure if the 0.5 gets factored), that'll go to 30 once Harmonica is size 12.
I don't think I'll have all the tiles needed improved for the CI plan. But with overflow + maybe an extra size, I'm confident to 6-turn CI.
Civil Service ETA:
On diplomatic news, Pindicator offered me a declaration of friendship again. This time I took it. The main reason for it is that I wanted to buy Pindicator's gold resource for 50 gold, in order not to delay the growth of my Capital. Since I have 0 happiness right now and my city can grow before I improve the jungled gems, I'd have to delay the growth for a bit, losing precious WLTKD food. I think 50 gold is a small price to pay for it, especially since it'll also give me a WLTKD in Sentenza (which can't benefit quite so much as the Capital, but it's still nice - I can borrow Harmonica strong and unused food tiles while it's building CI to grow Sentenza).
So, I accepted the friendship offer and offered the gold trade. If Pindicator counters with a 70/80 gold for Gold, I'll probably take it as well.
Ah, interesting thing to note about Civ 5, you can only send one diplo offer per turn and after you do it, you can't even open the other players diplo screen.
I'll feel bad when (and if) I attack Pindicator. He was a good neighbour and caused me no harm. And it's always bad to see a player struggling against the map. But his Capital is too much of a prize to pass up, if I have the oportunity to take it. 2 new happy resources (+ extra gold), 2 very valueable wonders (HG and Stonehenge - compare with Serdoa's wonders - TGL, Oracle and Mausoleum - only the Mausoleum gives me any bonuses, since the others are one time use wonders) and a really powerful city after CS + quite a lot of worker turns.
I hope he'll understand my reasoning.
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Overview screenshot. I'm building a Trirreme in my Capital so I can explore the East. I figure these hammers are worth a possible Diplo Contact, new happy resource, new city site, new Natural Wonder or maybe even a Ruin not yet taken. After that, Capital will finally start on a horseman and prepare a big overflow to dump into CI.
Demographics. It's pretty interesting how I have more gold surplus per turn than all my neighbours combined - and Azza is in a golden age. I don't know exactly why, because I'm not focusing on gold production (I'd guess it's the big river). Anyway, I plan to start accumulating this gold to do a Horsemen -> Keshiks mass upgrade later, which is a very good hammer:gold ratio.
Any questions?
. According to your screenshot the Banana is the only tile worked by it without giving gold (and I guess the new citizen works the mined Gems)
