[SPOILERS] Wilderness

[Jowy]

Golden age was launched. At our current tech rate we'll have CoL+CS in 10 turns.



That's 22 more pop since the last overview screenshot. Every city except Returning is on military duty. We need an army.

Let's take a look at the other players.

Retep:

Canceled OB to prevent me from scouting. Settled next to my capital. Has set all his EP's against me.
Retep could be afraid of us or he could be planning to attack us. Often those two go hand in hand.
Threat level: High.

REM:

We share 4 borders. He's rushing cataphracts.
Threat level: Through the roof.

Bob:

We share a big border. He has already taken a city from someone else. He could capture my settler next turn, and whether he does will tell us a bit more about where he stands.
Threat level: High.

Cornflakes:

We don't share a border, but might eventually. He's behind in city count and might be demoralized.
Threat level: None.

[Jowy]

Well Bob attacked and razed a city. He also tried to kill my scout on the other side of the world to add insult to injury.

I'll have to think what I want out of this game. Being surrounded by three hostile civs makes me think it's impossible to pull off a victory. I think it might be time to switch gears and take out a neighbor for fun. Much to Retep's dismay I'll have to hold the turn for a bit to cool my head and think.

[Jowy]

I cooled my head and played the turn today. Here's the dead city:



I could have waited a turn to let the axe catch up, but I wanted to know if he'd raze it. It's a trust building exercise. I let myself be vulnerable, and if he doesn't abuse it, I would know that I can trust him.
I'm sad that it turned out like this, but it's good to know that Bob will be opportunistic and I have to keep that in mind when I deal with REM.

Bob is gonna shit his pants when he sees my power skyrocket

[GermanJoey]

I'd even say you got the better end of the deal. Losing a settler at 500BC is just 100 hammers, not that big a deal. On the other hand, you know now how he feels about you, while he still has no idea how you feel about him and has got to be paranoid about you forever.

That said.... make him pay!

[Jowy]

We've climbed to #1 spot in Soldiers. Exciting times ahead.

[Jowy]

I think we were the first to CS, but Cornflakes beat us to CoL and grabbed Confucianism. We had two cities with Judaism so I converted to that instead.



We've doubled our soldiers and population in 8 turns. Our cities have almost grown to their happy caps, so I'm going to start cracking the whip soon
Courthouses in particular will be huge in our faraway cities.



Tech rate will take a dip in 4T, but I feel confident.

[Jowy]

Here we go. It's time to take our fate to our own hands.

Trick #1:



Built three galleys in 399 Opts and never moved them. Loaded troops in while they were inside the city. Killed the lone longbow in Bikini Bottom in one turn.
It's the iron that really matters, but I can't move next to it without showing my galleys. Better to kill the city so he doesn't just whip a longbow and we'd have to kill two to get control of the island.
Now we reinforce the island and try to keep it for at least 15 turns while we tech to safety. I know he has galleys so it's no cake walk.
It was now or never though. A Great Engineer was born a few turns ago in a faraway land, and REM 1-turn teched something after Machinery, which could mean a bulb.

I've got some other tricks up my sleeve too



We have one iron in the desert and another south where I wanted to settle a city anyway. I don't think REM has more, Bob took one in the east.
Bob has 3 iron, 2 connected. If he gives REM iron I'm going to kill him.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Attaboy!

[GermanJoey]

Nice work!!

[Ichabod]

Congrats!