[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

A list of things I need to get working on, in no particular order:

• Get some more builders. I could use about 20 charges right now but currently have just 1 left. Civil Engineering is on the horizon for the combined builder boost card, but I'll probably look to get 1 or 2 before that.
  
• Get a navy sufficient to at least provide early warning of an invasion. This requires Cartography and running the appropriate boost card. It's pretty inefficient though, with only 2 cities that can build ships, and only one of those with good production. Kongo will not be helping here, I'm pretty sure they don't have any naval tech at all.
  
• Build 5-10 horsemen so I'll have the option of cavalry upgrades. I need to found C12 and borrow a horse from Kongo to be able to build them everywhere. Handily Manoeuvre policy is still available so horses will be pretty cheap.
  
• Build 2 banks for the boost to Economics.
  

[rho21]

Turn 137

Score tracking
Kongo finished an Mbanza in Frikandel. Sadly not somewhere Parallelism has spread to, so no apostle for them to spread it further. They also gained 1 population.
The Aztecs gained 65 strength and lost 3/turn. Probably some healing plus a renaissance unit.

Military
There is an Aztec caravel poking about in the Arctic.

The good news is that it doesn't have a support bonus or a great admiral bonus so hopefully it's just scouting. Nonetheless I move up a second crossbow and the great general so I can ambush it if it strays too close to shore.
I also set Perseus to finish its walls this turn.

Housekeeping
Siege Tactics and Humanism are both complete. Research goes to Cartography (3 turns, and no way I'm getting the boost in any sensible time) and Mercantilism (5 turns, will probably be delayed to make that 6).

There's not really all that much to change with the government this time. I still need Colonization and Feudal Contract, and the economic policies are too good to give up.

The military engineer has placed its first fort.

Menaechmus finished a workshop and starts on a builder. Hopefully I can get two to finish in a short next government.

Bryson's monument is done, it starts a granary.

Euclid has converted to Parallelism, meaning my civ is now officially converted. Only 2 more civs to go!

More seriously, I've been thinking about this game in terms of survival for most of 100 turns now. In that time I've caught up to Aztec science and culture, while avoiding a decisive military disadvantage. That alone feels like a solid outcome from a first game, but perhaps I need to think about ways of actually winning the game, assuming I can continue to hold off Aztec aggression (admittedly pretty unlikely if they attack Kongo).

The obvious one is science, though the Aztecs have a huge advantage here in the form of spaceports for the cost of just 5 builder charges. I also can't see the game going that long without the advance in military tech resulting in a decisive war somewhere.

More likely is for the Aztecs to suffer a military catastrophe. Now that units are really expensive, it might be possible to advance against Aztec cities if they lost most of their forces. Again they have big advantages: obviously they have to lose a lot of units before I would have much chance on the attack, but also they have lots of amenities so won't suffer too badly from war weariness.

Cultural and religious victory both seem pretty implausible for me, though maybe there's a last-gasp chance of a cheesy religion victory if the Aztecs start conquering Kongo.

A view of the east coast for once. Note that Apollonius is just about to finish its settler.

[rho21]

Turn 138

Score tracking
Based on city strength, the Aztecs now have a musket. Not sure when that happened, wasn't paying close enough attention.
Kongo finished researching Metal Casting. They also upgraded their final archer into a crossbow.

Military
The Aztec arctic caravel is where it was last turn.

Housekeeping
Perseus' walls are finished, it returns to working on a granary.

Apollonius has finally produced that settler, which moves towards C12. It starts a builder.

The military engineer fulfills its purpose of boosting Ballistics which can now be finished at a turn's notice.

[Garath]

From what I've seen, most of these games seem to end militarily one way or another. It's just that usually the military victory is going to go to the best economy, once you're past the early game, right?

I think you are doing fine just treating this as an economic game still, on the whole. You have done an excellent job of catching up from much further behind than you are now, so if you keep your focus I don't see any reason you can't continue to do so until you actually overtake the Aztecs (well, unless they really do have twice as much land as you, which is possible. That would make it really hard.)

Of course, you still have to stay alive. I remain surprised by how militarily inert the Aztecs have been since that knight attack, and therefore I remain deeply suspicious of some sort of clever maneuvre incoming.

[rho21]

Turn 139

Score tracking
Kongo built an Mbanza in the capital, again a city without Parallelism. They also gained a population.
The Aztecs built a commercial hub and gained a population of their own.

Military
Nothing moving.

Housekeeping
I claim Isaac Newton and move him immediately to Hippocrates ready for activation next turn.
The next great scientist will be the excellent Charles Darwin (gain 500 for each adjacent natural wonder tile when activated). At a cost of 420 points, right now he is going to the Aztecs in 31 turns. Not that he'd be all that great for Kongo or me, as we only have 1-tile natural wonders; no idea what the Aztecs can get from him.

The apostle moved to spread Parallelism in Waffles. For some reason this isn't enough to convert the city. I have a theory here: the atheism pressure is 50 x the largest population the city has ever reached. This perhaps explains both why this city isn't yet converted despite 257 Parallelism pressure and 4 population (was 5 before conquest) and why Nasischijf (formerly Hong Kong) is in the same boat with 295 pressure and 5 population (was 6 before conquest). That still doesn't fully add up though. Anyway, I'm hopeful Nasischijf will convert next turn and Waffles before too long.

The apostle is unable to improve the religion in allied territory, so will do so in 3 turns when it can get back to Xenocrates.

I realise that Kongo has no nitre (except one source just outside of borders at Kapsalon. Consequently I offer to trade my two spare nitre (I have 2 in borders and 2 from Geneva) for a horse. I will have my second horse connected in 5 turns. Of course I'll look a little silly if Geneva is destroyed and I end up with no nitre. Kongo doesn't have the funds to upgrade any Ngao Mbeba though, so 2 nitre will let them build muskets from scratch if they choose.

[Garath]

It's good to see those crossbows about to finish, despite their long build time.

[rho21]

Yeah. Those are the last two and will leave me with what, 6 or 7 crossbows and 1 archer? Something like that. As soon as the second one is finished I will complete Ballistics and consider when I can do upgrades, and how many. Should be most of them, my income is great right now and going up further when the seventh trader finishes.

Current plans for governments:

• Delay Mercantilism until Euclid's settler is finished or almost finished (I need to see if I can speed this up by a turn).
  
• That gives me a switch in 4/5 turns from now. I can get rid of Colonization and should pick up Professional Army here as it will be a short government. Also available will be Triangular Trade, worth an awesome 287/turn.
  
• A couple of turns later get rid of Professional Army and bring in the builder boost policy assuming I can get a couple ready to finish. I'll also want to start running Manoeuvre to get horsemen built. Hopefully I can chop through a few to continue infrastructure builds too.
  
• 4 or 5 more turns will get me to the Enlightenment. That opens up the policy that doubles the science from campus buildings. Not sure if it stacks with Newton's +2 on each university. 18/turn if not, 24/turn if so. Either way it's better than the +13/turn I'm getting from doubled campus adjacency. Perhaps I can manage to fit the ship-building boost card here to get some caravels built. It's so painful to drop economic policies though.
  
• Next switch will probably be quite a while after that one.
  

Also in that screenshot, Euclid has claimed yet another rubbish flatland tile instead of the hill marked for the industrial zone. *sigh* At least it's guaranteed to pick the right tile next time, in 14 more turns. Still considering placing the industrial zone 1SW of the marked tile. Don't want to until I have the builder charges to sort Aristaeus out though.

The builder crossing the mountain pass is heading to improve the horse at C12, incidentally.

[rho21]

Turn 140

Score tracking
Kongo finished an Mbanza in Nasischijf (which still hasn't converted, drat), and completed Medieval Faires civic. They do have one in production in a converted city (Kroket), thankfully.
Aztec grew a couple of population and finished a lighthouse or shipyard.

Military
Aztec knight spotted SW of Xenocrates. It is fortified and has 2 adjacent units supporting it, but no great general bonus. The units at Near Wild Heaven have shuffled around a bit, too.

The caravel is a square closer, now 3NW of Perseus. I continue to move crossbows around in the area in case of an opportunity for a shot.

Housekeeping
Kongo accepted the 2 nitre for horse deal.

The trade route from Pythagoras to Geneva has expired, and Pythagoras has finished building a trader too. One of them is sent immediately on a trip to Frikandel, the other is rebased to Bryson to get a road out of there in a useful direction next turn.

Cartography has been discovered; Mass Production is scheduled next, due in 3. And then Isaac Newton does his thing, instantly jumping to 119.6/turn and dropping the time for Mass Production to just 2 turns.

Aristaeus has finished its crossbow, the one in Hippocrates is due next turn. Turns out that I have rather more ranged units than I'd realised: 8 crossbows and 2 archers as of next turn. I also have 5 knights, 1 chariot, 2 muskets, 1 warrior and 2 hoplites.

The crossbow from Aristaeus heads to the east coast, as I'm also getting a bit jittery about a potential Aztec invasion.

Anyway, timings dictate that Pythagoras gets started on a builder (due in 5), while at Aristaeus I'm tempted to place an Industrial Zone. It's cheap and therefore quite quick, plus it will get a 4 adjacency bonus once local mining is done and allow me to place Ruhr Valley at Euclid without having to move Euclid's intended industrial zone.

On the minus side, I do want to place Euclid's zone pretty soon, and it will make it more expensive.

District	Placed	Built
Encampment	1	1
Harbour	2	0
Industrial Zone	1	1
Commercial Hub	4	3
Holy Site	1	1
Campus	3	3
Acropolis	4	4
Entertainment Complex	1	0

That's 13 completed districts of the 8 relevant types, so the first and second of each type is eligible for the discount, i.e. each of the next encampment, holy site, entertainment and industrial districts. Once I have finished 4 more districts I will then get discounts on the third of each type, i.e. another copy of those 4 plus a harbour. That's going to be a while though.

In the end I decide to go with placing the industrial zone in Aristaeus. It's going to be much easier to get the zone and its buildings built there as there are several chops still to do. Aristaeus will put a few turns into the industrial zone then switch to horsemen for chopping.

---

Round-number roundup™


Civ Comparison

Civ	Cities	Pop	Techs	Civics	Gold	Districts	Military
Aztec	15	96	32 (+105.6/turn)	23 (+72.2/turn)	851 (+49/turn)	4 Encampments, 2 Harbours, Industrial zone, 5 Commercial Hubs, Holy site, 3 Campuses, 2 Entertainment Districts	1495 strength
Kongo	8	44	24 (+72.3/turn)	18 (+54.8/turn)	38(+2/turn)	Harbour, 3 Commercial Hubs, 5 Campuses, 3 Theatre squares	575 strength
Greece	10	65	32 (+119.7/turn)	21 (+79.8/turn)	706 (+46/turn)	Encampment, Holy site, 3 Commercial Hubs, 3 Campuses, 4 Acropolises, Industrial Zone	828 strength

The Aztecs have jumped up in population recently. They've also increased science and culture a fair bit but their military hasn't changed notably. My current suspicion is that they are planning to do a bunch of horseman -> cavalry upgrades soon, and perhaps try an attack with their next general.
Kongo have been completing Mbanzas over the past few turns, so hopefully their population growth will pick up. They are falling concerningly far behind in all metrics.
My science and culture has continued to grow sharply (though that is mostly at an end now). I have excellent income and good potential for significant military upgrades shortly.


Great People
Recruited so far:
Greece: General (classical), Prophet, 2 Scientists, Merchant.
Aztec: General (medieval), Admiral (classical), Scientist, Merchant.
Kongo: 2 Writers

Up now:

• (General) Jeanne d'Arc (240): Aztec 192 +5/turn, Greece 108 +3/turn
  
• (Admiral) Francis Drake (240): Kongo 38 +2/turn, Aztec 36 +4/turn
  
• (Engineer) James of St George (120): Greece 40 +2/turn, Aztec 14 +1/turn
  
• (Merchant) Jakob Fugger (240): Greece 109 +5/turn, Aztec 95 +10/turn, Kongo 78 +4.5/turn
  
• (Prophet) Madhva Acharya(240): Aztec 81 +1/turn
  
• (Scientist) Charles Darwin (420): Kongo 176 +5/turn, Aztec 120 +10/turn, Greece 8 +9/turn
  
• (Writer) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (420): Greece 117 +5/turn, Kongo 43.5 +9/turn
  
• (Artist) Hieronymus Bosch (240): Kongo 214.5 +4.5/turn, Greece 108 +4/turn
  
• (Musician) Yatsuhashi Kengyo (420): Kongo 214.5 +4.5/turn, Greece 108 +4/turn
  

Isaac Newton has just been used and has boosted my science production notably. Kongo have a great artist showing up in 6 turns while the Aztecs are expecting a general in 10 and a merchant in 15.


Research and boosts

Tech	Cost remaining (* if without boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Military Tactics	150	Already boosted
Mass Production	105	Already boosted
Square Rigging	330	Kill with musket	~10?
Industrialisation	845*	3 workshops	Never?
Scientific Theory	422.5	Enlightenment	11
Ballistics	63	Already boosted
Military Science	422.5	Already boosted
Steam Power	485	2 shipyards	~35
Sanitation	970*	2 neighbourhoods	Never?
Economics	422.5	2 banks	~15
Rifling	422.5	Already boosted

Not all that much changed since last time. I'm about to start building the banks now, and horsemen in a few turns. Should be plenty to sink science into for the next 10 turns.

Civic	Cost remaining (* if without boost)	Boost	Turns until boost
Naval Tradition	200*	Kill with quadrireme	Never
Divine Right	290*	2 temples	Never
Reformed Church	200	Already boosted
Diplomatic Service	270	Already boosted
Mercantilism	12	Already boosted
The Enlightenment	327.5	Already boosted
Colonialism	362.5	Already boosted
Civil Engineering	460	7 different speciality districts	10
Nationalism	920*	Declare war with casus belli	Never
Opera & Ballet	362.5	Build art museum	~30

Lots of big civics arriving pretty soon. Exciting times. I'm intending to spend 580 on an archaeology museum in Aristaeus as soon as I have enough, incidentally.

[rho21]

Turn 141

Score tracking
Kongo grew a population.
The Aztecs built their first theatre square and grew a pop. They also finished an industrial tech. It's neither Industrialisation nor Scientific Theory: I'd be able to see the change to their tile yields. So that means Ballistics (field cannons) or Military Science (cavalry). Either way, they haven't done any upgrades yet, so no big pile of industrial units will be descending on me for at least a couple of turns. Mentioning which...

Scouting report
Here come the Aztecs again!
In the north there are 3 ships I can spot: 2 caravels and a frigate. With them is a siege tower for some reason. Support bonuses indicate there's (at least) one more ship following on behind.

Approaching Xenocrates are 2 knights, a musket and at least 2 other units from the SW plus two swords, 2 catapults and at least 2 other units from the W. Red circles indicate fogged tiles with enemy units, the green circle indicates an empty tile.

No sign of great general support on any of these units, and the Aztec great admiral doesn't affect renaissance ships so is irrelevant. It's pretty likely the great general is off escorting a strike in the far south, but could be approaching Menaechmus and Perseus by land.

Time to split into theatres:

Western theatre
I feel very confident at Xenocrates because the Aztecs have managed dreadful timing once again. Next turn I will have Field Cannon tech available and also the opportunity to do cheap upgrades. Simultaneously, my apostle will be able to improve Parallelism to offer the Defender of the Faith bonus. So instead of 40-strength crossbows, they will be facing 50-strength crossbows and soon 70-strength field cannons. Of course that boosts wall attacks too, so I would expect the encampment to one-shot the catapults if they try to move in for a shot. Oh, I can enact Bastions policy too if needed.

Here's how things look now:

Arctic theatre
I have much more trouble in the north, but still a good chance to do some damage if they attack.

I have a knight in Perseus to increase its defence strength from 49 to 52. I expect the walls to fall immediately anyway, assuming there's a second frigate approaching. But I very much doubt the city will fall this turn as there's only one sea square to attack from.

I also have a couple of crossbows here and the great general. I could attack with one crossbow this turn, putting a serious dent in the front caravel. But if there is a second frigate, they'd be easily able to destroy the crossbow on the counterattack. Anyway, Perseus is due to convert next turn, so units there too will gain the Defender of the Faith bonus. Of course there's still a big risk they are planning to sail right by Perseus and take out Geneva. If so, I might still be able to hit them with field cannons on the turn after next.

Anyway, I need to deploy to be able to get as many GG- and DotF-boosted crossbow attacks in next turn as possible if they attack Perseus, without exposing the crossbows to attack this turn. I bring up extra crossbows from Menaechmus and (newly-built) from Hipoocrates. Here's how I left things lined up. All the crossbows are out of sight of the water; the red arrows indicate how they might move next turn before attacking.

If they attack Perseus right away with 2 caravels and 2 frigates, I reckon they could burn down the city in 2 or 3 turns at the cost of most if not all of their ships.
If they sail on by to Geneva, it's probably much the same story: my field cannons wouldn't let many of them leave alive, but I doubt the city could be kept unburnt.


Housekeeping
As mentioned, the final crossbow is now complete at Hippocrates, so research is switched to Ballistics. I had been expecting to also change civic research this turn to delay a new government, but Professional Army next turn now looks very valuable.

Hippocrates gets going on a bank. The trader at Bryson sets off for Frikandel.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Just wanna say, really impressed iwht how you've managed to keep up with the Aztecs so far. No mean feat! 

I also continue to appreciate your reports - really clear, easy to follow.