France's start-up 7 cities are almost in place. The next stage - city development, begins simultaneously. Ideally, I should control the empire's happiness on a very weak positive. Extra happiness are exchanged for lump sum gold to sign RAs. After Education, most cities can be used to raise specialists with Universities to further boost research.
Naturally, I want to start building the National College in the capital as soon as possible. Therefore, the last found city will start with a Library instead of a monument.
1134. Stealing Workers from Sidon is like clock-work! Thank you, come again.
1135. I sent two Scouts to discover more AIs for trading oppurtunities - one through Europe and the other through Africa. The Europe-bound Scout has to purchase Open Border from Spain for 75 gold - and Isabella refuses to pay for my Open Border. Spain is plagued by barbarians. What a shame - get some units out and start fighting!
1136. On Turn 56 Germany finally declares war on Songhai. They are a little too far away to make any good contact, though.
1137. In order to sustain the happiness of France's rapidly-growing Empire, I need a number of exotic luxurious resources in early game. Fortunately, I have some extra for exchange.
1138. There is a Horse tile SE of Orleans, but the game isn't smart enough to aim for it. After failing the random roll for two expansion opportunities, I sank 55 gold so the game correctly aim for nothing but the Horse on the next expansion.
1139. Germany and Songhai declared peace on Turn 58 (they declared war on Turn 56)! Hotseat mode introduced a pretty bad feature- a peace treaty can be signed as soon as 2 turns after the war declaration (in regular game the forced war lasts 7 turns). I am not sure whether this is a bug. The good side of this "feature" is that a powerful AIs can rarely make a significant advance on a weak neighbor, essentially leaving the game a lot more winnable. The bad side of this is that the AIs rarely gets a chance to get their army killed off. But if the player does not aim for a Conquest victory, there is not to much to be feared.
1140. Thank you - one more Sidon worker!
1143. Again, for France's bid on Porcelain Tower, I should have signed this RA a little sooner. The level 9 AIs reaches Renaissance as early as late turn 70s. So Porcelain Tower could be completed as soon as early turn 90s.
1144. After making peace Germany, Askia declared war on the City State Genoa. I am quite happy to see Askia's war campaigns - this means that Askia prefers more conquest than science. As we all know, AIs are terrible at war, especially on such a large map.
1145. Finally, the last city of France is established (Chartres, on the very left). This city has eventual access of Gold, Horse, Marble and Silver. But it is a little far away from the rest of France, so I probably won't bother connecting a road to it.
1146. Got some extra cash from the Golden Age. Signed an RA with Askia a couple of turns after the RA with Elizabeth.
1149. Thank you, come again! Now I have a Great General to help the warrior to survive. I think City States are dumb enough to keep building new Workers when they lose their only one. So Sidon will never be able to build military units if I keep stealing its Workers. Even if I already get enough Workers, I can still keep kidnapping new and use them to lure out defenders as I did with Hanoi. I can also disband extra workers at home for 17 gold each.
1150. Songhai declares war on Singapore, too. Now both Genoa and Singapore have become permenant enemies of Songhai. I don't think they stand any chance.
1151. Bought another Fur tile in Paris to work on the camp, and to chop the forest for the Natioanl College later.
1156. Met Arabia. Harun and Askia are the two richest and most advanced AIs in this game. Naturally, Elizabeth and Napoleon will have to do something about them later - but Songhai is a much closer target.
1158. Completed the Liberty tree, picked free Great Engineer, and rushed the Hagia Sophia with it. Again picked a free Great Engineer for Porcelain Tower.
1160. Sidon actually manged a Wall before giving me yet another free Worker. In order to better protect my Warrior, who could be killed quite easily by the city's bombardment and Trireme combo, I sent forth the Scout-promoted Archer to distract Sidon.
1162. England was running low on happiness, so France offered one free Sugar in addition to Silver.
1163. Met Augustus Caesar of Rome, on the very west of North Africa. Took a long time to reach him! Caesar is in financial trouble just like many others. Didn't even have extra resources to exchange for Napoleon's extra Fur.
1164. Luckily there is Suleiman! Now all of Napoleon's extra resources have been traded away, and the French empire sits in a comfortable happiness margin for a while.
1166. Askia's attitude towards Napoleon has deteriorated, as Napoleon robbed his Hagia Sophia. Now I am pretty sure Askia is going for Conquest-Science. I hope he doesn't complete the Porcelain Tower before Napoleon does!
1167. Signed an RA with Harun. This is Napoleon's 3rd RA of the game.
1171. After conquering both nearby City States, Askia has become a regional superpower. Is he going to expand towards France, or Germany? Napoleon needs shift his focus to military soon.
1174. With a single Scout-promoted Archer, which happens to be blocked from the view by the in-game message, I killed two barbarian units close to Lhasa and destroyed a nearby camp. Free alliance with Lhasa! Nice!
1175. With Colossuems being constructed all over France, the French empire will enjoy a good growth period. Money is getting low, but situation should improve once I get the trade routes connected and Markets built across the Empire.
All eyes on the Procelain Tower! If I can't get it, I will go for Notre Dame.
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