I've had less and less time lately to play or think about this game, which is a shame. The turn pace has been snappy for 10 players (civstats says one less now), the map has been fun enough to play on, and the civ neighbors have not been crazy.
First off - how has my pick gone? Decently well, but with caveats. The early courthouses have been just enough to stave off bankruptcy, but not much more. It takes a while for a fresh new city to build one, so I've been riding off cities founded 20 turns ago scraping the hammers to whip them. EXP / IMP might be better if you want someone to pair with Sumeria. CRE has been very nice for getting good border control, and the map has low enough food that spaced out cities don't feel like such a loss. I'm still crawling to currency at a snail's pace, but at least have kept up in expansion. A better player with spreadsheets would have made more of this position, though.
Another very nice and understated benefit of Sumeria is the 6 str axes. It's very comforting, when your neighbors are running around with scouting chariots all over the place, that you can just plant a vulture on a hill and not have to worry to much.
One of the biggest things holding back my economy at the moment is happiness. I only have 2 resources I can use at the moment, ivory and silver. Sugar when I get access to Calendar in a million million years, and that's about it. Hereditary rule will be a godsend when I finally get to Monarchy. Although my capital has beautiful cottage terrain, I'm stuck on how far I can grow it until I get some more happy faces. I made an offer to Gavagai for his spare fur, hoping that goes through.
Border shots with each of my neighbors: Lllllljubjbuana, Mmjd, and Dreylin. Compared to whatever war eliminated Ricketyclick early, this part of the map has been very peaceful, with each of us managing to get the land we seem to feel comfortable holding. At least it seems that way from my perspective.
As we continue further, my empire seems to be heading for a solid middling position, not in dead last, but behind the frontrunners. Frequently this invites despair by people aiming to win, but I'm happy for it. It means no pressure of being the frontrunner and messing things up, and not the tedium of clicking end turn with three cities on islands no one can be bothered to finish up. My main goal after currency I think will be monarchy and then engineering. Don't want to get railed by knights.
