[spoilers] Alhambram crosses Rubicon yet again

[Alhambram]

Turn 21 and 22:

Turn 21 a barb horseman chased my warrior, my warrior made a stand upon hill and welcomed it with open arms since there is one more barb kill needed for Bronze Working boost. Turn 22, warrrior got hit and healed, again fortifying.
   
Next turn barb horseman shall attack again and there should be little hp left for barb horseman, enough for my warrior to finish it off.

And in my empire nothing really happened, just my settler making a walk to city spot 2 and oh I shall settle it at turn 24 already, not 25 how could I be wrong about it?  
   
When second city is founded, prioritize growth for Early Empire boost. Warrior try to destroy camp nearby Preslav for Military Tradition boost.

[Alhambram]

Turn 23:

Seem that dice roll wasn't really nice for me, my warrior is still alive but attacking barb horseman ends in stalemate now, so I again fortifying warrior.
And settler reached spot for next city and no barb or Grotsnot's units around, so I move warrior west to search for third city state for PP boost, there should be religious city state somewhere next Grotsnot's capital.
   
Warrior finished in capital and it goes to barb camp nearby Preslav, hoping to nail it for Military Tradition boost. The production overflow is so nice that I decided to produce builder now.
When builder is finished, I start cheap slinger and builder can chop out forest south of Rome and overflow in encampment provided that barb horse suicide against my warrior next turn.

International news: both TBS and Alhazard pop went from 8 to 7, we shall see new cities everywhere soon.

[TheArchduke]

Thanks for the reports each turn. No naming sheme, going with Vanilla names?

[Alhambram]

TheArchduke, thanks for your comment! At this moment no inspiration for naming schemes, so just vanilla names this time.

Turn 24:

Barb horseman suicided against my warrior earning much needed boost for Bronze Working. My warrior wanders further to south, though next turns healing might be needed since it is redlined now.
And biggest event of turn is of course the founding of second city: Ostia.
   
I put it at 3 food tile without production, I need growth for Early Empire boost soon, I might swap to State Workforce when Early Empire is almost at 50%. Slinger is cheapest military unit that I can make now with Agoge equipped. I want at least 3 archers for machinery boost.
Also travel time from Rome to Ostia is now 2,5 turns instead 5 turns formerly due Roman road, I shall put that road at good use for builder. (And for finished military units in Rome for conquest of Grotsnot's Japan).

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, you could go Roman Gods:

Jupiter, Juno, Minerva,... etc.

[Alhambram]

That is not a bad idea, TheArchduke. I can do it at turn 26 since I played turn 25 before reading your post.

Turn 25:

It turns out that I wasn't only one who settled 2nd city at turn 24, he did that too:
   
TBS did settle his 2nd city in my direction, altough it is still outside area of my legitmate claim: city at 1 tile west of closest riverside rice. Unless there is some 3 or more food yield tile east in fog of Astrakhan, it is fairly food poor spot to settle second city.

Another thing: a new barb horseman appeared, it seems that he is somehow more interested in Rome than newly founded Astrakhan, so I summon warrior on route to encampment nearby Preslav back into my borders to defend against this annoying threat.
And in northwest barb scout zone of control limits my warrior's movement, I want to find 3rd city state fast and not fight with barb scout.

With founding of 2nd city and God of Open Sky soon if I manage claim it, my culture is going to increase only much faster towards danger to outproduce my culture so that I am forced to finish civic without boost.
And I already did swap to State Workforce because Early Empire is about to pass 50% mark.

[Alhambram]

Turn 26:

Barb horseman moved one tile SW and I fortifies my warrior, ready to absorb punishment and heal inside my borders.
NW warrior zooms past scout searching for city state nearby Grotsnot, after moving it, it turns out that I didn't need to do because action of injured warrior SE.
I have habit to search for forested hill for injured units to heal, this way they can see enemy from far and I can respond according the situation namely to stay and heal or move, so I moved warrior upon jungled hill and a suprise!:
   
A city state and I am first to meet with them! This completes boost for Political Philosophy and I get faith bonus which mean I can ditch God King with next civic swap. Normally Marcopolothefraud or TBS should meet Kandy earlier than me, but oh well I take the little prize.
This also mean that warrior NW don't need to search for city state nearby Grotsnot and I can retask him into clearing barb camp nearby Preslav while other warrior keep barb horseman busy.

I was in hurry to finish turn in morning before going to work, so no city name changes yet.

[Alhambram]

Turn 27:

My warrior and barb horseman are fighting which shall be won by my warrior next turn.
   
Barb scout got intel of my empire, so a job for warrior NW to get rid of it.

More importantly I finished Bronze Working and it revealed three iron sources, one is going be picked up by Ostia's tile picker after 2 turns. So I can net Iron Working boost soon.
Builder finished and he moves to forest to chop out slinger next turn and overflow production in encampment.

Next turn Pantheon pick if I am right, I shall pick God of Open Sky for two reasons: firstly I have six pastureable tiles in close range which mean 6 free culture per turn.
Secondly I deny others one of ways to catch up Rome in terms of culture and enlarges the gap myself.

I can finish Iron Working and get Legions before turn 40, but two problems: Legions are more expensive to build and having alomst finished warrior storing don't help since it do disappear magically as it did happen in testgame.
So Legion production from start, Rome already got strong production and two free production from Preslav and if I manage to put two envoys in Preslav, encampment also add extra production. So Rome can spam Legions every 4 turns in best scenario with Agoge.

And for current existing warriors, I did save up gold upon purpose except buying tile for encampment for 50 gold, at this moment I have enough gold to upgrade one warrior into Legion.
There are three barb camps visible for me now, one bothering TBS and other Preslav. North of Buenos Aires a new camp has spawned. I shall try to clear all three and I need to clear at least one for Military Tradition boost.
If I really need gold, I can swap tile to crab in Rome for extra gold, I need to make that decision in short term whether to do it or not.

[Alhambram]

Turn 28 and 29:

Past two turns wasn't happy one. Firstly my mistake reqarding the chop, too few tech and civics researched resulting in low yield chop and decreasing encampment by merely 1 turn from 6 to 5.
So I decided to put overflow in trader instead, slightly faster growth, extra gold and boost for currency.
   
And just build encampment out stratch. Barb Horseman killed and warrior heals. I try to kill barb scout with slinger for archery boost. Next turn swap away from State Workforce and start already boosted Mysticism to have a civic swap ditching God King and enter Ilkum.

Second thing that I wasn't happy with:
   
Alhazard decides to give shot for GG using Greece's wildcard power. Need to think how to beat him, after 6 turns encampment complete and after some time I get classical governemnt and still needs to finish Military Tradition. I might be forced to run one project in Rome to claim this GG.

International: Chevalier and Marcopolothefraud settled 2nd cities, leaving Grotsnot as only one with 1 city.

[TheArchduke]

Early Encampment. Legions with a GG incoming?