Hmmm, the warrior has forest for defense. But facing both the barb warrior and the lion...maybe you will get lucky and one will not attack. But more likely both will, and then the odds of the warrior surviving are not good. 
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[Spoilers] RFS-81 and haphazard1 don't know RtR, but won't let that stop them
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Ha! Only the lion attacked, and our warrior won without taking a hit!
 The barb moved west instead. I fortified the warrior, because I'm pretty sure the barb will attack. Lighthouse has grown, otherwise no news. Next turn, Animal Husbandry will be finished, which hopefully will be an opportunity to update my planned city locations. I'm sure Commodore is a nice guy who wouldn't cheat me out of my UU 
2 turns more played! Bad news: The only horses I'm seeing are in Charriu's land. I'd like to explore to the east a bit more to see if there are any more over there. For now, I research archery to get some better defenses. I want to pick an economic tech next, but haven't settled on which.
One forest at Golden Void is chopped, the axeman is out and moving to Lighthouse and the next worker is due in two turns already! I'll follow it up with whipping a settler. I plan to put my next city at the Unit Pump marker. With the copper hill, it has a good production tile even before masonry is in. Or would you suggest a different plan, haphazard1? The worker at Golden Void moves to mine a plains hill, so that the city can have some more production when it's at the pop cap. Then finish the road to Lighthouse. Power graphs show that Charriu has slightly overtaken me...don't know if the axeman is already factored in.
Unfortunate news on the horses.
Hopefully there will be another source somewhere not too far away.The Unit Pump location looks like a solid next choice. It has good food with the pigs plus possibly sharing the capital's rice, and excellent hammers with the copper and stone hills. It does not need a border pop to access any of those resources, either. It will need a fair number of worker turns to get resources improved and a road link in place; you should also push for the road link to Lighthouse soon for trade route income plus military flexibility. (Always so many things for workers to do!)The main alternative would be a much more aggressive plant to grab the gold. Unless there is something else in the fog, that would have to be a significantly weaker city, plus likely needing a border pop. And of course it would be much more exposed to hostile action. The upside would be the gold, plus staking a claim to that portion of the border region between you and Charriu. I would go for the Unit Pump site as the much stronger city, but maybe make another settler for the gold region a high priority.
2 turns more already!
Builder at Golden Void is out, settler is next. Starting the mine at Golden Void right now was a bad idea: For the settler, I might as well work food tiles, and since the city will be whipped soon, it will take some time until I would actually need it. Getting Lighthouse connected is a better use of worker turns right now, I think. At Lighthouse, the worker has finished chopping the hill forest and is working on a mine now. The barb warrior keeps walking back and forth, but never even moved adjacent to the border, so my worker isn't threatened for now. Axeman is on the way, and that should keep the city and worker safe for now. Also, my power graph jumped slightly ahead of Charriu, so it seems my axe indeed wasn't counted yet when I wrote my last report. Settling near the gold is a bold plan. I thought I'd settle Luxury City after Unit Pump. Of course, until Calendar, I'll get exactly as much happy from the gold city. The only worry is the distance. Where exactly would you plant it? Near the rice seems like a good idea. Archery is in next turn. Now I'll have to make a choice. I'm leaning towards Masonry or Mysticism, but here's a full list of techs and my reasons for and against. Any thoughts, haphazard1?
July 28th, 2018, 12:09
(This post was last modified: July 28th, 2018, 12:11 by haphazard1.)
Settling for the gold would be a bold move; not sure it would be worth it. But it is a possibility to consider, as Charriu is likely to be thinking about it as well. Gold is a powerful tile for happiness and early commerce boost. But unless there is something in the fog to the north, any gold city would require a border pop to have any food.
And as you note, the distance would be greater so higher costs and tougher to defend. Maybe a bit later would be better for the gold, although it may get claimed. Will have to see.On tech, hmmmm. lots of choices opening up. A few thoughts: - Religious line: Mysticism would open up an additional culture option, but an actual religion is a bigger commitment since you would need at least two techs. And then to really get value from a religion you would need more techs, plus buildings. It can be very useful for happiness and culture and great person points, but it takes a significant investment to really pay off. - Writing: Also a bit of a longer-term investment, as you already noted. In SP games writing sets you up for open borders with AIs and trade routes; not sure that would pay off as well in MP. Libraries do have their uses, including some early scientist specialists, but that requires a fair number of hammers and spending time running the specialists to pay off. - Sailing: You do have cities that would benefit from lighthouses, but the hammers might be better put into granaries and more expansion first. Would also open trade connections along rivers and coasts, which would provide another link to Lighthouse. Exploration via galley is also a possibility, but ships are expensive at this stage of the game. - Masonry: Would allow you to improve the stone, although you can also mine the stone for a hammer tile if you are willing to spend the worker turns on a mine that will get replaced later. Having stone would open some possibilities with wonders (including Moai), or cheap walls. - HBR: Without a source of horses, this would be a very expensive gamble. Does open up your uniques, but without horses.... - Iron Working: Could clear the jungle from the ivory tile; otherwise you probably do not need this until you expand to the northwest and those sugar tiles start looking tempting. Would be a higher priority if you did not already have copper for axes/spears. - Metal Casting: Very very expensive at this stage of the game. MC is a common Oracle target for very good reason. Forges are powerful but very expensive to build; would double happiness from gold. One option to keep in mind is Mysticism plus Masonry opens the path to Monotheism; if you do not manage to claim Buddhism or Hindusim you could grab Judaism. And Mono opens up OR for the building boost and missionaries without monastaries, which can be useful despite the high expense of the OR civic. Depends on whether you want to make that big a commitment towards the religious path, but Mysticism and Masonry both have short-term benefits for you as well.
You're right, if I want to go religious, it's best to go all the way to Monotheism.
I picked Masonry as next tech. A library would just take too long to build for a border pop. On the other hand, a monument would save 30 hammers compared to barracks, but it doesn't do anything except making culture. I'll probably build a non-zero number of units at Lighthouse, so barracks it is. There still are plenty of forests to chop. Luckily, there's still some time to think about the gold city. Do you think it could be a better idea to settle next to the rice and get the gold with a border pop than the other way around? About Open Borders, maybe I should read some old Pitboss threads to see if that's done. It opens you up to your neighbors scouting your land. On the other hand, if, say, half of the players sign open borders with each other, and the other half doesn't, then the first half will progress faster.
Settler is whipped, the overflow will go into a new scout. Then, Golden Void will build a barracks or granary, probably barracks. At Lighthouse, the mine is finished. The two workers building the road stop for a moment to chop down the forest for Lighthouse.
Forest is chopped, and settler is on the way. My plan is to move one worker to improve the new city, while the other two finish the road to Lighthouse. After that, I'll send one to build a road to the new city. Lighthouse finishes the granary next turn and starts barracks next turn. It grows to the happy cap in three turns, at which point I'll whip a worker.
The empire is growing.
Any plans for additional exploration? More workers and such for expansion and development are important, but learning a bit more about what is out there (and maybe finding some more horses  ) would also be useful. Not sure just when hammers will be available for more units; always so many needs at this stage of the game.
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): Takes just way too long, and I don't have horses yet anyway.