"Position," I mean, "Can this position be saved?"
Cradle 1.32, "Birth of an Empire" at 362 of 600 turns.
Ur-Nammu -- This would have been a decent starting position in Civ2: a moderately-large island with no AI positions on the island. Could have set up about 8 cities and driven straight for Alpha Centauri. Not an option here, for many obvious reasons (i.e. I'm not getting a SETI win in 600 turns). As I made contact with AI civs, I discovered I was about 15 techs behind.
Basically, I developed the core of my empire on the island, then built up an armada of mighty coracles, sailed to the nearby coast and made life miserable for the Hexagonians. [Perhaps not a wise move in Cradle.
] Doubled the size of my empire at their expense. One near-ally, Apolyton, but I made the mistake of enlisting their military cooperation against Hexagonia, and ever since they've been dragging me into wars against all their neighbors (usually at no cost to me, as I can't reach their enemies). The exception to this was the late unlamented Macedonian Empire, which I conquered, extending my "mainland" empire to the south.
I'm still at war with the remnants of Hexagonia, and I am in a state of war with the Byzantines, Kushites, and the distant Yamato (who declared war on me despite complete lack of borders or even contact within the last several millenia).
So Sumer is now on the verge of Tribunal Empire, and the opportunity to expand the empire to 30+ cities (from the current 21, one over the Republic limit). I've been clinging to Republic to maintain faster research...but I just noticed that I am now 27 techs behind the Assyrians, the #1 power.
Sumer is in a huge tech hole, and apparently losing ground. I expect to be able to achieve the "civilization" requirements (15 each of courthouse, theater, forum, and arena). What I can't see is achieving 60% coverage of the world with the Obelisk tile improvement. I'd probably have about 10%, now.
So, a question to the Wisest of the Apolytonners: can this position be saved?
-- HtL
