Great Lighthouse doesn't go useless until Magnetism, not Astronomy. :(

That wasn't the point. He'll be able to safely travel over sea squares, and in that way he negates the advantage given to akots by the GL.

yes, right now, I cannot reach his coast while he can reach mine (we have disallowed ship chaining, so no suicide ship chains either). I have tried to send 2 or 3 reg galleys across to map his coast, but all of them have sunk on the 1st or 2nd IBT. by research astro, I can build caravels (def 2) + travel on sea tiles + have a 4MP ship. This is what I mean by "negating GLight advantage". Once this happens, I can land something on his coast, so he must play a little more defensively (though he already has Legions everywhere so I can't do much damage atm).

ah, I see, your plan is a-ok then!

Time for an update ?

yes, i'll try to get something done later this week or next. basically, we're up to turn 230 and I have no hope of winning as I'm being outclassed :)

230 turns in 4 months [eek]. That's a steady average of 2/day! You're a PBEM junkie. ;) Why do you think you're being outclassed?

Sorry for the delays, here are some updated picks showing my issues in this one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...n239-stats.jpg

As can be seen, I up in terms of Literacy rate, gold per citizen, and family members. For the rest, I lag despite the fact I have many 2T infantry factories atm (3 right now, plus 1 3T infantry factory). However, Akots has Hoovers, so he only has to build a factory to double production. I must build a coal plant in addition to the factory to keep up. This is currently costing me in the strength calc as I am weak compared to him for the 1st time all game.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...39-coretop.jpg

Setting up barracades all over the place, for when the Marines start coming. Not sure if he's going to bother with too many or just try to bomb me into the stone age. For now, I'm concentrating on infantry. I will switch 2 towns to destroyer construction once Combustion comes in.

Actually, I'm debating on whether or not I should switch to an optional tech after combustion. I'm thinking Espionage (spys) or Navigation (Magellan's), but I can't decide.

Either way, I'm not sure I'll be able to handle his excess production. Coal plants are costing me 160s and force me to keep a sizable workforce. Not sure if I'll be able to keep up research-wise either into the next age as the Colossus expires with flight. Hopefully, I can do a better job timing the next prebuild as I've fucked up ToE (underbuilt) and Copernicus (overbuilt) already in this one.

Akots gets back from Russia and tears me a new one [eek]

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...vsG-1440AD.JPG

Akots has this game well wrapped up. Just a matter of time and effort on his part. I have been trying to plant spies to steal tech's as my research rate was seriously crippled but I've failed 3 times over 9 turns. really a pity, as I'd at least like to make this a little more interesting for him.

Well, I would have loved to do that but my FP was also hand-built in Veii (same 4 tiles from the capital) before I had the leader iirc. I have formed an army which was standing idle throughout the whole game unloaded.

Nice spoiler! I don't understand though why you were pessimistic. I understand, the Lighthouse was very annoying. But IMHO, the chances were even before I got Theory of Evolution and Hoover and certainly were only very slightly in my favor after that. Which was mostly due to Commercial trait and not my gameplay. Thanks again for great game!