With the economic squeeze of the early game beginning to loosen via technology, it's time to examine further expansion potential.

Only the Bananas and Stone represent new resources. Looks like I will want to put a new city directly ON that gold, not only for the defensive boost but because that fits best with the other cities already on the board (or in planning).

At the moment, I'm settling "around" Hittite, but at some point that too is going to change. Here's an overhead view of my region:

My borders in the south have finally expanded far enough for me to remove the Woodsman Warrior from fogbusting duty and reposition him in Rome for military police duty. Those horses still aren't accessible, but they will be eventually, when the borders at Antium reach 750 culture and pop to Level 4.

I've moved a garrison to the jungle hill tile NW of Ravenna. This draws some attacks and removes some heat from the city, giving me enough breathing room to improve some of that city's back line plots, finally, although some pillage danger remains.

Spearmen continue to be needed in the gap to the south to fend off Horse Archers in onesies and twosies, to protect the sheep and the various Hamlets and Towns in the area.

After getting my economy off the ground, I'm finally in position to try to upgrade my military, including the economic booster of "free unit support" from switching to Vassalage civic.

Nothing researches quickly on Deity, though, thanks to the quadruple whammy of higher research costs, higher maintenance bills and inflation, fewer/smaller cities, and being shut out of tech trading entirely once you fall behind.

You can also see the bad news that Gandhi has already completed Magellan's Expedition.

Not long after, somebody pops Liberalism:

You can see that half of Rome's worked plots are Cottages. I ran as many cottages as I could at every city, but I still needed some shields to produce units.

Another overview:

Arretium has been under regular siege since its founding.

A lot of the fighting ends up taking place outside the city, though, as the invaders move around the city and try to cause mischief.

As I reach nine hours played, my land casualties have increased to ten units lost:

My kills have climbed to well over 250, though, so my kill ratio is still better than 25 to 1:

I finally crawl along to Feudalism:

You can see my research rate has improved to 60%. I'll actually get it up to 70 here, but of course, once the AIs reach Democracy, I'll suffer Emancipation Anger until I catch up, and that will take a long time.

Do you see my units on the hill in the north, at the river bend? Going to put up my eighth city, and it will be a bit of a stretch gambit:

My second Great Person plants an Academy in Antium:

Not much use for an Academy in other cities, though. Antium has scientist specialists and lots of coastal plots, plus two mature Cottages. Rome has lots of cottages. Other towns are lagging on commerce. My next great person faces uncertain usage. (If the timing is right, and it's a scientist, I may burn him on speeding along Education, a move I've often used. If he's an Engineer, I may save him for rushbuilding a national wonder, like Wall Street or Oxford.)

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