Alright, CoL next. What do we go for after that?
Going back to the 5 areas discussed last time (defense, GNP, cities, scouting & culture), after CoL we probably don't need to focus on GNP for some time. Defense is another topic IMO we can skip, barbs while annoying seem to be manageable and I doubt anyone else is thinking of rushing us at this point.
For city improvement, I kinda like Fishing. It would allow all of us to have a trade connection (due to the river) and it opens up 2 city sites for the Malakim. It's also cheap and leads to OO, which we'll need someday. The other techs (BW, masonry etc.) can still be skipped for now.
Scouting, there's a choice between HBR and KotE. HBR is a little more expensive, but it'll be easier for Amelia to get Centaurs up then for me to get adepts up and Centaurs can double as defense units if necessary. KotE gives metamagic eyes which are a lot safer for scouting and we can also use some other spells but aside from Spring and Inspiration we don't have much in the way of useful spells right now. I'm not really sure which one I prefer, but I think you guys will want HBR over KotE right?
For culture, there's Drama and religion. I've mentioned before that building culture is the best way to expand borders early, but aside from the free Artist there isn't anything else at Drama. For religion, we could use either OO or FoL (RoK isn't helpful to us long term). OO is cheaper since we don't need Hunting, but FoL gives more to us in the short term (fawns and ancient forests). I'd probably prefer religion to Drama right now, and FoL over OO.
I'd order my preferences something like FoL > Fishing > HBR. FoL might be the most expensive, but it gives us quite a lot of stuff. Fishing is just cheap enough to put it over HBR IMO. (base cost of Fishing is 160, while HBR is 400 and Hunting + FoL is 700)
BTW Amelia, what do you think of this as your 3rd city?
2 weak food, but a lot of grassland. Horse, cow and 4 hills will have decent late game production. Small amount of river, but a decent amount of fresh water. It's not that far from your cities either. Possible farm spam?