I went for a Religion mainly because I didn't think that we would be that close on this map. Joel's initial warrior went off to the north. Too bad I didn't have a warrior
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After I got Myst, I got Archery. I spent a couple of turns in Meditation before deciding to switch to BW. I've trained a warrior and am now working on 5 turn archers. Idiot London (Joel's capital) is on a hill so it has 45% defense and as of our last save was still at 1 pop. Joel's score was also at 69 for the longest time. I think that he thinks that I'm in the north. I've popped a hut by him but only got a map of the east coast.
I have a warrior going for a GH just north of my capital.