[SPOILERS] Bankai

[Jowy]

Although going back to your question, perhaps I should have settled somewhere else once I knew that TBS was there and my surprise attack failed.
I guess I underestimated how aggressively TBS would pursue the city. I even whipped a monument, when an extra axe might make or break me.

[Jowy]

I decided that it was more important to defend my city than to snipe TBS' city.
TBS attacked. We won the first battle without a scratch. TBS then retreated and asked for peace, which I accepted.

[Jowy]

[Jowy]

Two turns of Anarchy for revolting to Hinduism and Organized Religion + Heavy whipping = Sad demos
I'm LAST in population. Scipio only has 5 cities and he's ahead of me!! Oh well, sometimes you need the hammers.
Met Haram this turn. Whatever he's doing is working. Let's hope his neighbors don't sleep on it.

[Jowy]

TBS' power skyrocketed, I hope that it's just from the Hanging Gardens pop increase. I don't want to go to war mode so soon. At least I did tech Triremes just in case.

[Jowy]

It's Turn 100 so here's an overview:




I think the score in this case is indicative of my real standing in the game. Seventh.
There are a few factors why I'm behind:
- Bad micromanagement compared to the leaders.
- Charismatic trait being useless on this map. We have Gold, Silver, Ivory, Gems, Wine, Silk, Dyes, Furs, Incense and Spices!!
- Being too passive with World Wonders. It's a bad habit to try to build them all, but a few can give you the edge you need against others.

On top of that, eventually we'll have a problem with TBS. Although it's likely that we'll have problems with others too.
We share borders with TBS, Fenn, Haram, Dreylin, GJ and possibly another person to the NE if GJ hasn't grabbed that island.
What's the plan? I'll keep having fun managing my little empire. Not terribly exciting to read about, but fulfilling to play out.
We'll try to keep our defenses up to fight whoever comes for us when it's time for them to start expanding through conquest.

[Jowy]

Right now I'm the most vulnerable that I will ever be. TBS' power is insanely high.
In 4 turns I can start building and whipping Longbows. A big cat stack will still wreck Benihime, but it might not be worth the hammers for him.
That's not my only worry though, I expect surprise attacks by sea at some point. A few longbows will hold for a while.
Tech path is aiming for Guilds and Banking.

[Jowy]

Archer builds don't turn into Longbows when you reach Feudalism
Still better than nothing I suppose. I can upgrade them when an attack comes.
Spotted a catapult build from TBS in one of his island cities.

#4 in Pop now. About to settle two more cities.
I might take a detour to get Civil Service next instead of going for Machinery -> Guilds -> Banking.
Bureaucracy should be good with our capital having the highest production.

[Jowy]

Update:



At max cities now. Haram beat me to the furs spot by a few turns.

One thing I'm definitely going to check when the game is over is how the leaders have managed to have such high population while still whipping a shit ton more than me. There has to be something that I'm missing.

[Jowy]

Traded maps with Haram, got vision on everything. Land seems about equal apart form Scipio crumbling.
What stood out to me was how high pop a few of the capitals / second cities were. Perhaps the key is to let a few cities grow to max size and whip the others every 10 turns?
I know I fumbled with the capital at least. Should have grown it first, then started working all those production tiles. Add in +25% from Forge, +25% from OR, and +50% from Bureaucracy, and you have one fantastic production centre.

TBS has Samurai out, but I can build Crossbows now.
I'm planning to build a few SCOUTS soon, sending them to my other neighbors so I'll know if they come for me.