Around 500AD

Some interesting stuff happened around this time. I noticed Rik hadn't build the Collosus although it would benefit him hugely with Hangzou being a sort of fishing metropolis. I decided to build it defensively in Beijing and finished it 540AD. This sparked some mail discussion that accompanied the save which learned me Rik didnt know the Collosus would affect all water tiles, not just the city it's built in. He wrote he'd rather not build a useless Collosus in his capital if he couldnt build it in Hangzou where it would be usefull. I guess I got lucky there.

In 580 AD the world looks like this:

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1243980262

The F9, same general picture as before :

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1243980262

The tech situation:

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1243980262

Tech lead still looks good, I also have literature which doesn't show in the diplo screen because Rik also lacks aesthetics.

The 750 AD's GA and arms race

In 760 AD Rik started a golden age. F9 looks like :

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1243981482

Good to see that GNP still isnt above mine :) However Rik has built the pyramids and has switched to Representation. This is giving him 3 beakers extra on every specialist and with his surplus of pop, that will add up. I have no clue if this will show in the F9 GNP however.

Luckily Rik has neglected Alphabet and so I've managed to get an espionage lead that show me his research. Comparing turns on techs he's researching to my own amount of turns I needed for those techs shows me he isn't catching up after his GA ended.

The whole GA sparked an arms race as well. I was worried about the rise in Soldiers on Rik's side so I built more units myself. Still not sure if Rik planned an attack or just built more units because he felt he should respond to my rise in soldiers. The fact that Rik has a higher soldier rating doesn't really worry me. He's got a much bigger navy then me and boats can't attack cities/land units. I also have the impression that the GW gives a bonus to soldier rating. If I'm correct about that his land based units should be about the same size as mine and won't pose a real threath. I don't expect Rik to load em all up boats and send them over leaving his cities exposed and having to attack units benefitting from city defense bonusses.

I' m researching towards Guilds so I can build knights. The extra movement makes them much more efficient in defening my territory should Rik decide to attack after all. Build the Heroic Epic in Beijing as well somewhere between 750AD - 1000AD.

How now, brown cow?
Well that about wraps it up untill the 750AD's. Atm we're at 1000AD approximately and I plan to do a final spoiler update this week. Hope to see some comments from you all !

hey, great to see that the game develops - although I must admit that you both use the map totally differently from what I envisaged!