Russian lands contain mostly health resources. The only Luxuries are Ivory and Whales, and the Whales can't be hooked up until Optics.
You can see that St.Pete is building its Library (had to slip that in there!) while the other two core cities are training new settlers. Going to go from five to seven cities here shortly.
Here's a look at Moscow:
The archer I sent to guard the northern pass is up to 4XP already and one promotion. That won't be the end of the story there, either.
My new cities are just getting started. The lone axeman on that hill overlooking the Whales is waiting for the new settler from Moscow.
Now look at the health bar on this Archer in St.Pete:
That unit made it all the way to 10XP, from scratch, fending off the barbarian raiders, including two batb Archers. Now my Axemen have secured the area where I want to plant the Pink Dot city. That settler is coming from Novgorod.
As I hit next turn, a Chinese settler group (two archer escorts) appears, heading for the area of Pink Dot. "Oh no you don't. That is NOT HAPPENING!"I'll attack that SOB if he steals my ivory!
One turn might make the difference. For the first time ever, I WHIP A SETTLER.
The Chinese STILL got there first, but not to where I was thinking they wanted to go. (I would have beaten them to there.) No, instead they settle four tiles away from where I planned to settle. I ended up settling where I wanted to anyway, and that ticked them off with increased border tensions.
I also still had some barbarian incursions in the area, although the unsettled, fogged regions were shrinking drastically now.
Here's the situation after my two new cities have been built.
Xian? Arrgh. Hated that. Chinese bastids. I wanted another city down there, and to make it worse, they chose a crappy location!
You can see that Moscow is also cleaning up its Library, and Novgorod its Forge, while St.Pete has started on its second wonder. (Two Merchant wonders at that! Plus the specialist points from one Engineer, enabled by the forge and the city's surplus food.)
Moscow also had extra Specialist points going. At this point, I didn't care whether it popped a Scientist, or a Prophet, or an Engineer. I could do good things with any of those. The Prophet was most likely, though, and I was happy to pop my second leader in 275AD. It was a second Prophet, and since Christianity was still available, I was happy to take it. (Yummy Priest points!)
The religion founded itself in my most distant city, the icy Crabbing Village with the sheep and lots of tundra.
I only want Hinduism to spread to foreign lands, so I sent the free missionary home to Moscow.
St.Pete completed its second wonder a few turns later.
Now I've got both of the "Cash From the Sea" wonders, with all my cities on coasts, so my economy is now roaring along nicely.
At 500AD, I've not even seen a barbarian town, nor been at war, so my 500AD Soldier points are limited to the 10XP from my best unit, the heroic defenders of St.Pete!
Notice that St.Pete is building an Aqueduct? That's prerequisite for the Hanging Gardens, which is why I spent half a millenium researching Mathematics.
You can also see another Archer moving forward. I've got St.Pete on heavy wonder duty, but Moscow and Novgorod are busy firming up my defenses. I was none too shabby, in the first place, but I DO have Qin boxed in somewhat and with high border tensions. Plus have I mentioned that he's a rat bastid who cannot be trusted? I do believe I said that once or twice.
It will be interesting to see who opts for the "early warmongering" path and how many 5pt soldierly gains they make from city captures. Qin in my game is all archers all the time, and that's something somebody could run over with a few veteran Swordsmen. Need iron for that, though, and depending on where the iron turns out to be... (I'm still researching it at this point, you see.)
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