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As we pass turn 100, the world's scholars have moved us up to fifth (from last) in the "Most Advanced" rankings. Clearly, I've been pretty busy building wonders. Even now, Paris is building the Parthenon while we're working on both early coastal wonders simultaneously:
Before any of these complete, I learn Monotheism and use Moses to discover Theology and found Christianity in Orleans. The prime reason for founding my own religion was to enable the construction of the Apostolic Palace and control over the votes once I did so.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, this series of wonders completes, one in each production city:
I finally felt like I could take a breather and found another city:
I think this is the most profitable site in my little section of the continent, with enough food and good enough land to work nine cottages. It's not as quick to get online as the fish-silver-silver site, but in the long term, it should help me keep up in tech.
Another Great Person comes along in 25AD: another Prophet. So, I dial up Mansa and give him my Code of Laws for his Mathematics and I'm able to get 1048 beakers toward Civil Service. Only two more turns to go now! I also trade Code of Laws to Willem for Monarchy.
With such a strong emphasis on working mines for production, I guess this was bound to happen somewhere:
I wasn't sure whether to be happy about the extra two (with forge) happy faces, or regret the loss of the hammer from the mine. (Just kidding...I was happy.) The ironic thing is that just a few turns prior to this, I'd traded for Gold with someone (Mansa?), and for centuries I forgot to cancel the deal. Well, I don't know whether our own gold or our traded gold was helping the construction, but we soon had:
The loss of a hammer in a Parisian mine didn't hinder the construction of:
And at the same time, my far eastern coastal production site finishes:
At this point, Code of Laws had been known for hundreds of years, so I was a bit worried, but Paris was able to construct:
Things continue to go well. I get the free Great Artist for discovering Music first, and settle him in Lyons to help keep Mansa's borders pushed back. Also, Orleans finishes another wonder that the AI's have the tech for:
And a turn later, wonderful Paris ups our science rate slightly:
In 500AD, I'd given birth to a Great Merchant. I couldn't decide what to do with him, but in 580AD, I finally decided to settle him in Paris. Greater growth from the free food was the main reason.
In 620AD, I happened to notice that a few AIs had "enough of their hands." So, I switched some builds to military so that I had at least some credible defense, or at least something I could upgrade or move to defend Lyons. I also built a trireme to spot any approaching sea invasion from the south (since the northeast sea route was closed by ice.
By 800AD, the AI was on the move:
Fortunately for me, Mansa was the target. Suryavarman declared--also on Mansa--at almost exactly the same time and from the same place. I wondered if there is some higher-level coordination between the AIs with this expansion. But I guess it could have just been coincidence.
With the 800AD/Turn 150 world status report, I again got the list of the "Most Advanced" civs. This time, I was on top.
In 900AD, another wonder is finished:
I'd actually interupted the building of the Sistine Chapel to work on this one. One of the AIs had used a Great Scientist to lightbulb Philosophy, so once I got around to researching Philo, I figured the Wat had a higher build priority than the Chapel.
A couple of turns later, Orleans cranked out another one:
Shortly thereafter, I hand researched Divine Right and founded Islam. Fortunately for me--I guess--it was founded in Orleans, which was also the Christian Holy City. I guess I didn't need to bulb Theology to get my own religion after all. Although I guess bulbing theology made Divine Right that much quicker.
I'd actually held off on founding Marseilles so that I wouldn't get Islam there, but here's where I put my next commerce city:
And then I caught a nice little break by popping a Great Engineer in Orleans where I'd put the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens and had been running an engineer specialist at the forge for quite some time. I immediately sent him over to complete the biggest project then available:
And so, in addition to completing this in Paris:
I also had Versailles just a few turns after founding Islam:
In 1060AD, I popped another Great Merchant in Paris. Now, normally I would never want to do this, but I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten to build the Apostolic Palace back when I'd popped Theology. Ooops. That could have been bad.
So, I burned the lone Merchant in a golden age and was able to switch to Christianity with no anarchy and also into Organized Religion again without anarchy. Then, I set Paris to building the Apostolic Palace. Five whole golden-age turns it would take! Nice:
Needless to say, I won the election with 112 votes to Mansa's 8 (abstained). At this time, I also founded my last city of the game in the only seemingly profitable spot left:
I didn't expect this one to ever rake in too much dough, but at least the people there could fish while working on up to four cottages.
Another quick set of wonders came in as the golden age closed:
In Paris:
In Orleans:
And in Lyons:
It seems like just easy pickings, doesn't it. Well, this actually glosses over a fairly major mistake I made. I wasn't quick enough to grab a screenshot of everything, but here's a trade I made with the Dutch in 1180AD:
Now what did he do in 1180AD? My trireme was returning from its attempt to find a south passage around the continent (failed because of ice cover) and was able to backtrack to Utrecht a few turns later to check this out. (Note the log:)
So, before I'd completed all the Divine Right wonders, I traded the tech to Willem, who popped a great engineer that very turn! Now, I was a single turn from completing the last of the DR wonders--the Minaret--and Willem's Engineer was never heard from again, so I'm guessing that he burned the Engineer on the Minaret, but I got credit for the build on the next turn.
This is when I realized that I could easily have had one or two wonders before snagged from me not just by not building them quickly enough, but by the sheer unpredictable and uncontrollable bad luck of having the AI pop a Great Engineer rather than another GP. My condolences to anyone who has this happen in their games. Here, it's a little different because I made the tech trade one turn too soon, but still, I would've been peeved.