Now I must turn my attention to the next goal: transforming Lots O People in to the biggest city ever in the history of Civ4 gaming. That sounds like a tall order, but fortune favors the bold.

Here is where we stand at the moment.

Obviously, happiness will soon be a nonissue. There are two real questions. First, how much Healthiness can I bring online and how soon? Second, is there risk of winning the game before the city can grow to its maximum capacity?

Astronomy will open up trade with the other continent, but trade can be a risky thing. The city MUST BE self-fed at game's end, no food deficit, or all the work goes up in smoke. Relying on trade goods (and not on conquest to secure my own sources) could be risky. What if an AI gets itchy on me at the end? Oof. Of course, six units from Environmentalism, three from Genetics, five from Aqueduct and Hospital, and some more from Supermarket, will help.

One might think that it would have been better to found the city on the coast, but clearly not. Every lost health unit (such as from lack of access to Harbors) is erased by loss of a food unit on any tile. Trading even just three grasslands for three Coastal tiles would lose six food. There's no possible way it could be better to found on the coast. Short of contrived situations, this is about as close to ideal as one could hope for! All flat, seventeen grass, two good food bonuses. I've not seen better.

America is off to Liberalism. The bastids.

I'm centuries behind them! Thank goodness I've got some time, though. Lot of turns left in this game.

Upon trading for map info, here's the situation:

My wonder situation just keeps getting worse. Although I've tried for some, so far the only one I've actually completed is Stonehenge!

"Missed it by that much."

Surely this is the most productive Forbidden Palace I've constructed in Civ4:

The fact that it only helps with Distance Maintenance, which is negatable by adopting State Property anyway, while Number of Cities Maintenance is the real killer, has relegated this Civ3 icon to second tier status. In most cases, it's not even worth bothering to build. (Often I don't!) This time, though, with the capital on the far edge of a large, open, uncontested continent, I finally got my money's worth out of it.

A deal with the Pharoah:

Well, I got my answer. Louis did grab that hole in the north, finally (when he ran out of nearby islands to settle).

The bad news is that there's immediately two points to the negative, dropping him out of Friendly category, and opening up the threat of a sneak attack at some point. ... Great. I've got to scrabble together an army, and make it snappy.

This could yet turn ugly on me. (Just what I need!)

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