TheArchduke tries his best not to be overrun again as Pericles

[TheArchduke]

Germany has 2 warriors and a slinger, probably did not opt for a scout because of Barbs?

Rather nice capital, 4 stone, definetly 2 harvestable flatland one.

Camp is occupied by warrior which I slowly grind down for EXP, Money and BW boost.

Going to mine both hills and not pasture up.

[Bacchus]

Oh, too bad we can't finish off that horseman with our scout, that would be killer.

Lots of nice places to settle, somewhere around the lake could even make God of the Open Sky work quite well. Maybe 1E of sheep. Quite confrontational, of course, but what are you going to do. Second horse is also ever so valuable. I think at the very least we need to prevent Germany from settling there, even if we don't settle ourselves. His ideal settling place is just on top of that marsh and coffee. Need to think more.

I am also going to consider switching to bronze working, a couple of hoplites would be quite valuable in butting heads over land.

[TheArchduke]

Whilst I am happy with the performance so far apart from the SIP, I must say either I am a total moron or the Citystates are counterintuitive to find, I do hope this is not a map where one player has managed to find 3-4 already.

In any case our barbarian operation "Rumble in the Jungle" has been a resounding success. Not only did we manage to plunder a barbarian camp for money and a culture boost, but our strategically placed warrior managed to kill 3! barbarians already for the boost to BW, without any danger to the capital so far. He is deep in the red and will need to rest for quite a bit though, maybe 1-2 turns before he comes back home.

   

Spartians in action.

Also the capital will finally build a slinger and I will mine the second hill for maximum production together with the hill tile to the W we will get with the cultural expansion.

   

[TheArchduke]

I am 50-50 on rushing a settler next or building another warrior, we are in no danger yet, Germany is certainly busy with its barbarians and we could delay our unit building till BW is done for some military strength.

1-2 more slingers and warriors will be built regardless afterwards for some cheap security.

[Bacchus]

Here is are my thoughts on the overall geographical position:

In the West, I slightly shuffled your dotmap to plonk in a coastal plains-hill city at 2. Extra city is always good, and this one will have a ton of mines if nothing else, it can have a +6 industrial zone, which almost makes it worth it just for that. However, it will need a couple of trade routes to get up and running. Shifting 3 helps, as it will then will very quickly pick up the tea. Mercury becomes second ring, but tile-picker prioritises resources, so it will be brought in very quickly. My position also give the city better access to the flatlands which need farming. A rare case where we have too many hills.

In the East, I traced out a possible border with Singaboy. This is a difficult matter, and we should probably bring the scout around quite quikcly to get an understanding of the lay of the land there. The slinger won't be able to do this in time, he has his own task of trudging through the jungle at a very slow pace.

Of all these city sites, none really scream priority to me, except for Jade. West Jungle at 1 is the nicest, as it stakes borderland territory and has a bunch of 2-2 tiles to work without a builder getting involved. Colloseum at JadeDot could be nice, if put on the tile between the city centre and the closes peak. It would reach 2 in the southwest, a filler spot south of rice, plus hopefully at least one city in the jungle, for 14 culture.

[Bacchus]

How much money does Singa have?

Also, how long till we can buy a warrior or a slinger?

[TheArchduke]

-50 as us. Atm. It was on par before.

[TheArchduke]

If I am not mistaken, Oledavy is at 40 gold and just bought a tile in the third ring, not sure why he did that. Need to scout it, as he just dropped to 40 gold.

We are 170 gold and could rush buy a slinger or warrior. I started to build a warrior before the next settler as I do not want to send a settler without a serious escort.

I am not sure how I think about his tile buying, he has the better capital with two 2F/2P tiles in the first ring.  Feeling less happy about my capital, I guess Sullla expected me to move my settler. Sigh..

Anyway, Scout, notice the tile under the fog:

   

Capital:

   

[TheArchduke]

To get a bit more of a feel for my opponents, Singaboy especially, I read up on them.
Given that I have quite a trail with PBEM 1, CIV IV PBEM fails and some adventure with CIV IV, master of orion and god knows what else under my belt it seems I am one of the more transparent players in this PBEM.

Singaboy played Adventure 1 with a self imposed AW variant. That does explain his unit building. Decent game there, especially under AW rules, probably not a pushover.

Alhambram has nothing whatsoever apart from this game. Wow.

Woden only has an adv 4 report, much like Singaboy with his adv 1. He calls himself not much of a domination player and I tend to agree, he did not conquer too much although that scenario would have been much easier for it.

So pretty much oledavy is the only one you can really check up upon. He seems to know what he is doing and from what I see tends to post and analyze quite frequently, not the same madness like the CIV IV veterans with their simulation start sandboxes, but still.

I am also getting the vibe that I should theme my Civilization somehow in a PBEM, at least what I see from those CIV IV PBEMs.

In any case, I think I want to check out more of my Northeast, make an aggressive settle E or a cautious settle W and try to butt heads with Singaboy.

[Ituralde]

Naming schemes have along tradition at Realms Beyond you hardly ever find a game without one.

Although many people opt for the rather bland 'Historical city names of the XXX civilization' scheme, which you seem to have adopted so far.