Hopefully the Hanging Gardens will help you reach #1 in those categories in the upcoming turns.
Indeed. Possibly not in gold (at least not immediately), but in production and food anyway. Just have to hope we don't lose it to anyone.
Next thing to do is to put out feelers for whether SleepingMoogle is still intending on going for the Hanging Gardens, and perhaps bargain with him if so. Still thinking about that, will get around to an actual message later.
I'm also going to work out when Felidae could produce the Hanging Gardens if we built it there. I think about 3-4 turns earlier, assuming we 3-pop whip the Aqueduct. It's a less ideal place to build it (not least due to the slower settling down south), but knowing that info may be quite valuable in future negotiations.
Hadn't touched base with Mackoti in a while, so sent out an email to check how he's doing.
Hi Mackoti,
I'm sure your Pyramids investment will pay off. It certainly seems unlikely that anyone else will be able to beat you to them.
Hope everything else is going well for you at the moment. Hopefully you should catch up to us in cities once you've finished with your wonder.
Just to let you know, I've given Adlain's scout directions to find you, so you should be able to meet him soon and complete your list of civs.
On another matter, we'd be happy to talk about opening borders when we get trade routes to one another, if you'd like that. If you'd prefer, we can choose to keep it to an economic agreement, so that we don't enter each others' territory. Anyway, let us know what you think.
Chatted with Luddite yesterday for a bit. He's got Sailing now, so has trade routes with us (speeding up his research on Writing) and we can trade resources. He mentioned an interest in our Gems resource (not for the first time), though he doesn't really have anything to offer in return. I said I'd consider sending it to him in return for something but only if we weren't using it. It would obviously benefit him quite a lot since he already has Forges, but then he's been a reasonable friend so far and it's probably worth cultivating some more goodwill. I might actually end up just offering it to him temporarily as a gesture of friendship, for 10-15 turns or something while we don't need it. Won't hurt us, and won't really help him much for that period, but should reinforce our good diplomatic relations.
Also chatted briefly about his settling towards Mackoti (he's on his way to settling the chokepoint, situation hasn't changed much) and my settling towards Plako (figure it can't hurt since Plako already knows our intentions anyway).
Furs hooked up at Pantherine, working them now for the commerce boost. Borders will expand next turn, and we'll get to hooking up the Corn there. That'll soon be a very decent city. When it gets to size 3 we'll chop out a Settler while working Corn-Deer-Furs, possibly followed by a Worker.
Tigris is finishing a Worker and will then begin on a Settler, then probably another Worker or a Granary.
Parkin City is building a Worker, followed by another Worker, and then it'll be time to begin on the Aqueduct/Hanging Gardens.
The Great Prophet produced in Magadan this turn will settle in the capital next turn for a nice hammer and commerce boost.
The Axeman produced in Magadan is heading down to meet up with the first Settler being chopped out of Felidae, which will head for the Pig-Gold site. We're now building a Spearman in Magadan. We've also stopped working Priests there and have started working a cottage and a forest instead to grow.
Evermore is finishing off a Worker, then will probably chop out a further Worker before completing its Granary and beginning on a Library.
Felidae is chopping out two Settlers, the first for the Pig-Gold site (as mentioned above) and the second for the Corn-Ivory-Ivory spot. After that we'll probably get out a quick Worker before continuing with the Granary (and possibly Library) there.
We continue to remain strong in the demographics. This turn we actually temporarily tied with Plako for food, and were only 1 hammer off equalling him in production too. Our GNP is even catching up fast to his ridiculous numbers, which is good to see.
Discussed Gems again - I said I could loan them for 10-15 turns if he wanted and I wasn't sure about after that (depends on city growth)... he said he'd get back to me. Hopefully he appreciates the offer, even if he doesn't need them immediately. Reasonably generous offering a happiness resource for free to a rival for any amount of time, after all.
He also mentioned that Mackoti's getting aggressive towards him and threatening war, though he's not sure if it'll be followed through. Apparently he's just hooked up Copper and Horses. Very interesting news indeed... a war between them would certainly be brilliant news for us. Having your neighbour stagnate their expansion and waste many of their early hammers on battles with rival civs is always a good thing, after all.
Made use of his concerns about Mackoti to lengthen our NAP, while we were at it. Ended up agreeing on turn 150 (800 AD). That's great, allows us plenty of time for expansion. Also completes the set of land neighbours with which we have long term NAP's (Nakor to 160 and Plako to 180). Only one notably absent is Rego, but he hasn't expressed interest so far, and I'm not concerned for the moment anyway as there's still that barely settled lake between us.
Also chatted briefly with Rego. He wanted to agree to an espionage truce (~43 points / demographics only), which was fine - I was happy to oblige him.
He was also fishing for information about what I was teching at the moment - guessing Maths, Monotheism and Iron Working. I didn't reveal anything, though said I might later. Can't afford to let him know anything about our position in the Hanging Gardens race since he seems to have very good relations with SleepingMoogle (he convinced the guy to Open Borders with him before we met, after all!). Wouldn't want anything to get passed on which might then hinder our attempt at the wonder.
Rego also asked whether the Great Prophet was ours, so I confirmed it was - couldn't really have been anyone else's anyway, so hardly revolutionary information.
Hmm, very interesting... Mackoti declared war on Luddite this turn, except he double-moved in doing so. I guess that means we'll be reverted back to the start of this turn (the 950 BC save). Bit frustrating, means there's yet another delay before we can continue playing, but oh well.
Might explain why Mackoti's been waiting to play until last and holding the game up the past couple of turns. Hopefully that'll stop from now on, which will at least speed up the game a bit.
Anyway, aside from the downtime, the overall picture this paints is absolutely great for us. Mackoti and Luddite are now guaranteed to have strained relations (if not outright war) for quite a while to come. This means we can pretty much rule out any chance of aggression from either of them towards us for a long time. Brilliant! That should further secure the west for us.
Must be excellent for you then. Now the only thing you have to do is get all the neighbors south and east (did I get directions right?) to war and you can take off!
Well the southern neighbours I already have long-term NAP's with. Hopefully they'll prove slightly more trustworthy than Mackoti in keeping them. I'm not really concerned too much anyway, a N-S war would be too much effort for anyone this early in the game... distances are simply too large.
As for the east, that can be sorted out a bit later. I might hit Rego up in chat at some point to see what he thinks. We'll see.
In other news, I chatted more with Luddite about the Mackoti situation - he's rather pissed at him for breaking the NAP, which is about what I'd expect (I would be too if it happened to me). He asked if we could send the Gems to him for 10 turns to help him out a bit, so I agreed. He sent us Wheat back in return - a resource he doesn't need - just to make the trade look slightly less suspicious to anyone checking. (I still think that was a dubious design decision, as IMHO rivals shouldn't be able to see specifics of resource and gold deals you have with other players. But I digress.)
Anyway, those Gems will help him out a little bit for now, and hopefully the goodwill generated from helping him out at an important time might mean he can do some small favour for us in return later on, if we need it. Always nice to have allies a little bit in your debt.
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot1192.jpg]](http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l323/LordParkin/Realms%20Beyond%20Pitboss%204/Civ4ScreenShot1192.jpg)
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot1193.jpg]](http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l323/LordParkin/Realms%20Beyond%20Pitboss%204/Civ4ScreenShot1193.jpg)
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot1191.jpg]](http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l323/LordParkin/Realms%20Beyond%20Pitboss%204/Civ4ScreenShot1191.jpg)
I'm not really concerned too much anyway, a N-S war would be too much effort for anyone this early in the game... distances are simply too large.