I pushed everything I could eastward. Settlers, workers, military... My lone Galley was constantly ferrying units past the Peak That Divides West From East(TM).

My workers were extending the road as fast as we could. Barbarians were roaming, so I had to guard them with care (and prevent pillaging!) I had a Guerilla-promoted Longbow out front, who actually moved faster than the settler following him.

Still it was not enough. The warm weather site with the Corn fell to Saladin, three turns before my forward settler could arrive.

The plot I wanted to plant on was two diagonally southwest from where the Arabian units are standing. That would have been a massive and powerful city. However, Arabian logistics to this location were about 6x better than mine, so fighting a war up here any time soon could be a defensive-only affair for me at best. I had more to gain by accepting the table scraps and grabbing the remaining, less-impressive but still useful locations.

I had three settlers over there, and pushed the leading one eastward. All three would settle within a few turns of one another.

I continued to train nothing but military out of Teo, and most of that was sent eastward. It was a long haul, but what can you do? You do what you have to do to compete.

Tech trades continued to keep me in this game, along with shrine income paying most of my bills, despite relatively few AI cities with my state religion as yet. Look at the shot above and the ones that follow. FOUR Christian nations! Would have been five but for Saladin the Stick in the Mud being the fifth neighbor. Oh well.

How many times have you seen a COMPLETE ABSENCE of Hinduism and Buddhism among state religions? Religion in this game is dominated by Christianity first, then England's Taoism, with Mali's Islam beginning to spread itself.

I'm still last in score, but you can see that I am researching Education. Since I got Philosophy in trade (thanks to the free Music tech! -- and also got Optics from that deal, too, don't forget that!) my run for Paper while the AIs were going for Gunpowder and Banking has put me in position to reach Liberalism first! And you can bet I did not trade my Paper monopoly to anybody.

Greece declared war on Arabia! (Who didn't see that one coming?) Saladin sealed his fate when he sealed his borders to the influence of Christianity. Now the Greeks will carry the Word to the Arabs via crusade.

Greece bought in Rome a couple of turns later, and the two of them geared up for tag team action.

China, meanwhile, set its sights on Mali territory. When Mao asked me to join in, I agreed. Not that I'd send units or anything, but yeah, sure. I'll declare! "Our mutual military struggle brings us closer together!" Bring it on!

Work Boat in place and ready. Settler arriving on that outcropping behind the peak cluster to settle my SECOND two-fishes slavery center. (Crack that whip!) Can hook up that second Fish as soon as the Theater is rushed!

Lee Kendter was recently lamenting the loss of the "Civ3 Theory of Evolotion" tech jump and the "Civ3 Nationalism slingshot" on the RB forum, but Civ4 still has similar mechanisms. Just that they are a bit less predefined. The free Great People at Music, Economics, Physics and Fusion are nothing to sneeze at. The free tech from the Oracle comes early, and can literally be used a dozen different ways. The free tech from Liberalism can be huge. And a Great Person strategy of any number of varieties can pop techs for you all over the tree. It is just that one has to learn the new game and its potentials. There aren't fewer levers: THERE ARE MORE! They are not as obvious or blunt as Civ3's levers, though. That much I will admit.

The most common use for Liberalism is to grab Nationalism and head on up toward Emancipation, Representation, Universal Suffrage and the Statue of Liberty, and Wall Street and the extra trade route at Corporation. However, that is not the only use. One of the biggest reasons for not being able to do other things than Nationalism with the free tech there is the time crunch. If you divert to opening the way to free Chemistry, free Military Tradition, etc, the delays may cost you Liberalism itself. The AI likes the jump from Liberalism to free Economics, though, often pulling BOTH freebies available in that era in one grab. (I hate when that happens, when I'm going for Economics!)

The second-most common use for the Liberalism freebie is Astronomy! Water maps, yes, but Highlands? Atronomy on HIGHLANDS? Why? Well... Let me show you.

First let me deal with these slackers at Tlacopan.

There we go. Get cracking on those improvements, you fishfed dirtbags!

OK, where were we? Ah yes, Astronomy.

Astronomy opens the way to Scientific Method (which opens the way to BIOLOGY).

The lightbulbs are going on now, yes? Inside your mind?

I quickly translated this tech windfall in to more tech trades. (Sometimes it's good to be last in score!) Picked up Gunpowder, Nationalism, Divine Right and Banking by giving up Education and Liberalism to some of my rivals over the next turn or two. If that's not as good as a Civ3 ToE slingshot, I don't know what would be.

All that, and I didn't have to give up Astronomy to anybody! Unfortunately, to get to Scientific Method, I first need Printing Press. And to get to Biology, I will also need Chemistry, which might be good to pick up since the AIs already have it and there are gunpowder units flying around. (Don't want to tempt my allies by making myself look like a juicy steak they might snack on in between their other conquests!)

A peek at the no-longer-completely-laughable tribal regions of the Az-tEskimos! (Our people are the COOLEST!)

Christian Monastary at Tlaxcala. (Why is this worth noting? Well, stay tuned!)

Four new cities cranking on those Theaters:

One grand in the bank. (Why is that worth noting, do you think?)

Xochi working on its forge. (That's a theme to watch, as well.)

The irony is that Rome, earlier, could not afford to keep that site, but now, later, they grab the much less attractive site at Ardea! (They were tired of paying me for Venison and wanted their own supply, I guess.)

Note, I am no longer dead last in score. Um... yay?

Tlax! The Little Village That Could(TM).

I'm not sure why every time I show Teo, it's building infrastructure. I swear, it trained 75% of my total military! (I alternated between Vassalage and Bureaucracy, although sometimes I ran Theocracy for the extra XP and sometimes I stuck with Organized Religion.)

That pass through the mountains south of Teo is the one taken by my original scout who found Rome, by my first missionaries that came with founding Christianity and Confucianism, by my workers who built the Road to Rome, and by countless other units since: explorers, missionaries, and many more yet to come. Many, many more.

Tenochtitlan, of course, started on Bank immediately! (Holy Men need Savings Accounts too, don't you know!)

Tula has whipped its Theater. You also see my lone Galley Ferry waiting for the next load. Talk about a veteran unit! Holy mother of the north has that thing ever done its duty, or what? (Did any single ship ever do more for a civ?)

Meanwhile, Calix has been sitting around for SIX CENTURIES with zero tile improvements (other than the whale boats).

I kept needing the workers more urgently in the east. Oh well. Finally got around to training its own! Also going to need to do something to beef its culture or it will lose some of those forest plots to Chinese control.

Nanjing. The nearest Chinese metropolis is the city of Nanjing. (Remember that name. Make a note of it, even.)

OK, so here's a trivia question. Which city is going to complete its Bank first? Hint:

Right. It's GOING TO BE the city with no production and lots of food, and NOT the city with mines, marble quarry, forests, and Bureaucracy production bonus. How's that for irony.

And I STILL don't have all those Furs hooked up. (I actually traded away all my connected Furs for a couple of centuries, but was hurting more for FOOD than luxuries, so did not feel the pinch).

Atzcap: my Horses supply. Went all this way to tame the beasts, yet still haven't trained a single horse unit.

That will be my FP site, by the way. Got to get that thing built before it's too late to matter!

Out east, there's still room for two more cities, one strong, one mediocre. Not sure if I can get there, though. VERY busy with other stuff at the moment!

Anyway, like I said...

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