[Spoilers] Gavagai, Bacchus and Elizabeth Form a Romantic Trio

[Gavagai]

By the way, I can see techs now and Slowcheetah still has no Iron Working. I suppose he just doesn't need it, having no jungles.
Also, Slowcheetah has the following pre-calendar resources connected: silver, ivory, gold, fur, gems. He also has silk on top of that.
I have only ivory, gems and gold. To connect gems I had to research IW and I could claim gold only after I razed Moria - Egypt first-ring city. I potentially have silk but it is near Koln and also actually belongs to Egypt sphere of influence. What it means in practice? It means that Slowcheetah didn't need to research monarchy (he still doesn't have it!) and didn't need to spend hammers on military police. If anyone wonders how he won all wonder races against me - well, this is the answer.
Also, Slowcheetah has 15 cities now to my 11 and he is the first in land. What is significant, he apparently never had to engage in any kind of serious conflict to claim his current territory: he never bothered to research construction and was behind Egypt in power for the most time. I, on the other hand, had been squeezed between Egypt and jungles.
What's my point? I guess, my point is that my land must have some balancing advantages which I failed to exploit. I only wonder what are they...

[Gavagai]

According to civstats we lost Koln as expected.

[Gavagai]

Before:



After:



The war is basically won. I wiped out his stack completely at the price of one catapult. He has only one heavily damaged catapult left, I will finish it off next turn.

Also this:



I have 7% chance to get a great artist. Actually, I once got this guy at one percent. Also while trying to generate a merchant for civil service bulb, by the way

[Gavagai]

New civics



Machinery in two turns. Killed an Egypt catapult, otherwise, everything's quiet. Plan to advance to their capital in something like six turns.

[Gavagai]

Also, some foreign relations news. BaII offered cease fire and I accepted. I think, he understands that I declared war at him only to deny Egypt metal. I can always redeclare if he starts trading it to them again.
Slowcheetah offered open borders. I declined at first but then reoffered. He has a lot of open borders with other civs, so I don't think that he is going to gain a lot. For me, on the other hand, it can be a chance to turn few 2c routes into 3c ones.
Also, I think we should try to work more closely together against Serdoa.

[Gavagai]

This is getting ridiculous. Serdoa has almost double of my GNP while I'm in golden age and at 100% science; and my GNP is second large by far. I think, Serdoa is now in golden age too, though I thought it should end this turn. Nevertheless, his demos are intimidating.
Also, observe how my CY suck (below average). My complaints about my land aside, I did a really terrible job at growing my empire.

[Gavagai]

New city which features no food resources in its first ring but has 12 forests, seven of them immediately available. I really wanted to invest these forests into something interesting but haven't got any ideas and decided just to chop quickly a lot of stuff. My current plan is to go worker - forge - settler - granary - courthouse.
Also, it will receive a missionary in four turns to get border pop and orgrel. bonus (will delay putting chops into forge until then).

[Gavagai]

New idea to consider: culture victory.
It's not as crazy as it seems. Yes, I now have only one religion but one of Egypt cities is Jewish, Jowy's city near my border has Hinduism and I don't think anyone would compete with me for Islam. This already makes four which is reasonable. Music Artist hasn't been taken yet, I still can build Sistine. I have four hammer-rich inland cities which are pretty easy to protect. Serdoa must be really far away from me, so attacking me won't be easy and I'm not really afraid of Slowcheetah - his tech rate is terrible for some reason, I don't think he will make it to infantry until it is too late. Spies are banned.
And, of course, I'm playing Elizabeth who is one of the best leaders for culture victories and I haven't generated a lot of GPs yet.
Definitely, it worth thinking about.

[Gavagai]

Drama is happening in tech thread. I understand Serdoa's dislike for reloads, he has good reasons to feel that way. But his latest post goes too far, I think.

[Gavagai]

There was a long rant but I deleted it.