Kyoto (it's no longer my capital, but has most of its buildings built) begins a new Palace placeholder, to be turned into Adam Smith's or Newton's; as much for the wonder as for cascade prevention (we must get all the Industrial wonders).Finally, in 940 AD, we meet Babylon. I didn't even see any units of theirs, but suddenly they were on the F4 screen. They have contact with Iroquois and Aztecs, but have not contacted China and Egypt. I broker contacts all around and pick up a few hundred gold. And there's still one AI missing!
We trade Chivalry to the Iroquois for 14/turn and the World Map.
Um, yup, Babylon got LARGE, as I surmised. I'm astounded that we didn't make contact sooner; there's only three ocean tiles between my continent and theirs, totally reachable with a Great Lighthouse galley. Well, I'm quite happy to have had contact and tech delayed while I conquered this continent.
The Iroquois are on their own fairly small continent, and the Aztecs are down to some OCC action.
Checking out what Babylon is up to... They're building only one wonder, Magellan's Expedition. I investigate Ur; it just started but is due in only 18 turns, which I can't beat. Dang, I really wanted that wonder, too, with the amount of intercontinental conquest we're going to need to do.
Nobody has Music Theory, so I'll have Bach's cold after I research it. And then the very next turn the Iroquois start building Bach's! Well, that makes it easy.
Also, that same very next turn, everyone but me has contact with Germany. (What in the world did the OCC Aztecs trade for the contact?) I give the Aztecs Engineering for the contact. Then I deal with Germany, trading Engineering, Dyes, and Ivory for their Music Theory (which almost everyone got) and Wines. Tokyo swaps its Palace to Bach's and completes it this turn. Kyoto (it's no longer my capital, but has most of its buildings built) begins a new Palace placeholder, to be turned into Adam Smith's or Newton's; as much for the wonder as for cascade prevention (we must get all the Industrial wonders).
I'm still warring with China, fishing for Leaders and beating them even farther down. They've had Invention for at least thirty turns, so should have gotten Gunpowder by now. I want to finish Invention at minimum research myself (getting the something for nothing) in hopes that they'll have Gunpowder to concede for peace.
Since I was able to trade lux with Germany, I know they've got Navigation. So I wait until getting Astronomy for peace from China, so that I can trade either Invention or Gunpowder to Germany to get Navigation.
Three turns later, we FINALLY get another Great Leader against China. That's the same turn Invention finally came in. Mission accomplished. So we finally settle, China conceding Gunpowder, Astronomy, and one useless city. I didn't get as far as capturing Beijing, but did raze all but one of China's other core cities. I can then trade Invention to Germany for Navigation, and rush Magellan's with that Leader.
Should I go for one off-continent conquest while all the Samurai are still around? I could, but the logistics would be a headache, and the territory would be tough to defend. Nah. Babylon's already obviously the only credible opponent, but it will take a tanks-vs-riflemen or armor-vs-infantry advantage to really damage them.
So I revolt to Republic, and continue building up, getting all sorts of infrastructure done everywhere. I snag Magellan's with that GL. I've got somewhere over 40 slave workers, that are chewing up the jungle nicely. Egypt didn't make peace with China, and soon swallowed all the rest of China's core. I form another blockade on the west side of the inland sea, to stop Egyptian units from wandering all over my territory again.
This whole time I've still been at zero or minimum science, and with 450/turn income I've got nearly 10,000 in the bank. I trade Incense + 1210 gold to Germany for Chemistry at 3rd-civ price. Expensive, but I did it because I can then trade Chemistry to Egypt for Printing Press. Three turns income for 2 techs isn't bad at all.
Eight turns after that Chinese war ended, both Babylon and Germany begin Adam Smith's. Wow, the AIs rarely rush to Economics that early, but at least both builds are in cities that look to have only 10-12 shields. I do have a Palace prebuilding, but decide that I need to get Banking so I can buy Economics when I need, so I buy it at 4th-civ price from Egypt for Incense + Dyes + 640g.
Then I decide I want Economics now after all so I can start another Palaceholder to kill the cascade at Newton's or Shake's. I buy Economics from the Iroquois at 4th-civ for Spices + Dyes + 360g, and sell it to Egypt for 210 (all they had).
