Ganked by Gandhi: 98% of the wealth controlled by 1% of the population

'What sort of army can he muster' Gandhi asked anxiously.

'Our scouts have tracked a few units of spearmen and a few units of swordsmen, but we suspect his army is much more extensive than we have seen so far.' His aid answered.

'What about us? What kind of force can we muster up?'

'Well, there is our Warrior...'

'Summon them, I wish to inspect my troops.'

'You mean him, sir, not them. We only have the one, a bloke called Dave, really nice fella. Carries a great big club.'

'Well bring him here then.' Smothered frustration seeped through Gandhi's voice.

'I would sir, only... you sent him half way round the world looking for ruins.'

Gandhi sighed. 'Right... lets try diplomacy then.'

The first thing I did was withdraw my warrior from his exploration. By this point he had travelled half way round the world. I had been hoping to find some military units milling around some ancient ruins but all I managed to discover were some dusty old maps. Unfortunately it would still take hundreds of years for him to finally return to within home borders so in the mean time I initiated diplomatic talks with Genghis Kahn. 

I was going for the tourist market with this city...
lots of things to shoot.

He haggled hard and in the end I gave him ten gold per turn, two hundred gold as a lump sum, stone, furs and opened up my boarders to his units and he gave me dyes... that's it. Lots of dyes though! A red one, a blue one, and a yellow one probably. They were nice dyes and my people love dying things so it was a really good bargain... Right fine, so I got screwed but I had initiated trade and soon this would lead to improved relations which would in turn, hopefully, keep me safe for a while at least. 

200ad: Delhi begin 'we love the king day celebrations' they go on to last 500 years. They really love the king!

225ad: Vijayanagara founded - Indian people not happy, probably because of how difficult the name is to spell. Letters are miss-delivered everywhere!

My third city is a bit of a dog, but I knew it would be. I placed it on an island to the north west of Delhi that was close by. I wanted all my cities close so I could move my warrior quickly between them. The island did have some decent resources within its borders though, which is why I chose the site. At this point in the game I am relentless targeting technologies to research which will help with my economy. Early on I set the goal of discovering Banking and have been heading towards it ever since (with a few detours every so often). This has been to the detriment of other technology and it means I will be unable to stimulate growth in Vijayanagara for a long time. It really is a terrible city to begin with, unproductive and slow to grow, and it was probably a mistake to found the city as early as I did. 

To summarise this picture. I am not that good. 

I also checked the scores just to see how I was doing and found I was lagging behind. Suleiman was doing very well with 371 points and Darius wasn't far behind him with 317. Me (264) and Genghis (251) had some catching up to do. To add insult to injury Pliny the Elder went and released his greatest work the very next turn. It was a detailed list of the happiest civilisations and I was rock bottom! Genghis was at the top. 'World peace? No, no. It's the ruthlessly aggressive nomadic lifestyle for me thanks very much!'

325ad: Bismark of Germany makes contact - 'Germany,' Gandhi muses, 'something tells me they are a peace loving nation! Just like the English!'

580ad: Golden Age Begins

620ad: Horseback Riding discovered - A use is finally found for the saddle invented the previous Tuesday.

I'm sure the Military Uniform is just for show!

I follow the same path with Bismark as I did with Kahn and establish early trade relations. Again I was severely hammered in the negotiation. Giving up much more than I wanted for a few whales. However this does lead to even more 'We love the King days' so it was probably worth it. My empire is very happy again. I am making more money than I can spend and I'm reasonably safe from attack, at least for a while. Time to start messing with others. Time to instigate a few wars. No need to fight, when others can be paid to do it for you.

[Just as an aside, from now on i will be updating 'Ganked by Gandhi' every Thursday. Enjoy]