Just a quick note to say that I am aware that it is my turn now (thanks Shabba for the PM), but I'm swamped with stuff to do the next few days. I might be able to sneak in some turn tomorrow evening, if that is too long a wait someone else can play in the meantime, if he wishes. :)

I can play some turns but i'd like it if someone else did.

are we going to keep etruscan should we capture it?

I think we should. It looks like a decent spot, and there's no room for us to settle.
For the moment the question is if we should attack it with those chances. Chariots have a withdrawal chance, and some of those chariots have flanking (?, the upgrade with withdrawal chance).

ok well seems Kemal couldnt get round to playing so i'll play 10

or rather i would love too but Shabba what the heck is a .rar file? can you not just upload the save?

Sorry about the additional delay yesterday, I am available this evening to play a full turnset though.

@BCLG: .rar can be unpacked using winrar or similar programs to produce the .sav file.

oh ok well i'll just leave you to play it if you dont mind kemal?

not sure if i have winrar

That's fine with me, though I won't be able to play until 19:00 CET though.

I've just taken a look at the save, and being completely honest I think the situation looks grim, and our prospects aren't very good.

Considering our military status and diplomatic standing on our continent, we are in immediate danger of being attacked by one or both our neighbours, and we aren't prepared at all.

While some of our problems have "natural" causes (our geograpic location in the middle is really poor, for example), I think we may have run into some problems due to the fact that we have been playing with so many people without having had many moments of discussion between the members of the team (counting myself as the biggest culprit here as I've not kept myself up to date on this game in such a manner that I could join any discussions) and as a result it seems we've not been able to set long term goals and strategies but have fallen into ad-hoc leadership.

Since this is "the learning game", I'd like to pose some points that could merit further discussion, where I'd like to stress that it doesn;t mean that these points have necessarily gone wrong in this game or should have been done differently by those responsible; I do think that there are game-defining strategic choices embedded in these points of interest that can sway games into one side or the other.

These points include:

- What do people feel in this game is the actual philosophy behind researching an expensive tech like alphabet?

- What are the actual effects Hinduism has on our civilization at the moment? Do these benefits weigh up against the negatives, and what could be done to maximize the good parts of having a state religion while minimizing the drawbacks?

- What are the strong points of the land immediately surrounding the capital, and what are the weaknesses? How can we combat and counter the weak parts while maximizing the effect of the strong points?

- What's the strong point of our military, and how does that stand up against the possibilities the enemy has regarding military production?


I think that these 4 points are playing vital roles in the way this game has panned out so far, and it might be useful to find out what might have been done differently and what (possible better) results that could have given, and on the other hand illustrate in what fields we have done well and could be classified as "the right move" in this situation.

I'll be posting my own thoughs on the 4 points mentioned later this evening, but I thought it might be wise to put them down here in advance for everyone to read, with the hopes that it might result in a better understanding of the game we've played so far.

If anyone wants to reply and give their thoughts on these points, feel free to do so (whether you're a member of the team or not doesn't matter I think, though having a look at the game would help). After all, discussing why certain choices or moves are made is the most interesting and informative way of becoming a better player, imho. :)

(That reminds me... why am I not in the civ4 demogame team? [crazyeye])

Just to answer number 1- i think the belief is that we can get Alpha and then trade it but thinking about it we only know 2 people who arnt our bestest friends right now so they might not want to trade anything with us.