[RUBY] Right next to Petrie... but this is looking good, good it is looking.

Hello my friends, my friends hello!

[thanks to the awesome RockingScorpion for the permission to use this!]

I'm a fast runner, I'll also try to run fast in the game of civ 4 me and my friends have started playing, fast I will run. I know the weaknesses of the others, the weaknesses I know.

Here is my starting location. Honestly, that is more than I could have asked for. Although I didn't ask for it, hmm...

The gold in the east is tempting but I'd have to miss some of the food in exchange, some of the food I would miss. There are no less than 6! Silk resources up north, wow! I'll need to place my first city in a way that allows me to put another in the south later. Considering there's a certain distance cities need to have to one another, I think I know where to start...

There we go. That way, I can have the shrimp and the clam (or Snapping Shell as I call them, they're really tasty, tasty they are!) as well as the bison. I can't have the gold with my first city but I might get one with a city at the southern tip of this island. Actually, wait... there's someone!

I'm right next to somebody, I'm not sure if that's good or not. This must be one of us, this is not the AI, they haven't had their turn yet... but who is it? *looks at the scoreboard at the lower right* It is Petrie, Petrie it is! I don't think he's very strong but you never know what Petrie is going to do, I need to be careful.

Oh, I almost didn't tell you something that I wanted to tell you. Since I have Fishing already, I can start building the work boats for the water resources already. I had a few choices in research but I decided to do Bronze Working. That will show me where Copper is and I will be able to chop down forests.

I am playing England, England am I playing. Their ability is pretty cool. A free Golden Age is very very strong and the small bonus on fishing boats on water resources is small but useful. One more reason to build a work boat *grins*

My leader is pretty good I think because I think he's good. [Suryavarman II/Khmer originally]

Usually, I like to play with a leader who gives me an economic advantage but this combination seems to be very strong, especially in the beginning so it's giving me a good start, a good start it's giving me.

Expansive [4% odds for Ruby] makes my cities start on 2 so I can work two tiles around my city right away as you can see... I can work the bison and the shrimp at the same time which my enemies can't. That should give me some head start, a head start it should give me. I also get a map of the area for every city I found. I got one in the north-west which is why I might not even need a scout at all. On top of that, my people are less unhealthy because of overpopulation and I can construct two important early buildings faster!

Artistic [16% odds, second favourite of Ruby] is another trait that gives me an early advantage and I like that advantage a lot! As you can see, it's all about culture. You need 10 Culture for your borders to expand so you can work all tiles your city can reach. They can expand another 4 times and the more culture you have the more land you will have because a tile belongs to whoever has most culture on it. So having a lot of culture can be a huge advantage.

My cities start with the first border expansion and get 2 free Culture per turn so they will continue to grow. If I conquer a city, I can build the unique building of the former owner in there and buildings are less likely to be destroyed when I do [as you can imagine, it would be totally OP if a city you gain from your neighbors would keep all the buildings :P]. I also get some happiness from some cultural buildings which I can also build faster than the others.

I think I had a lot of luck with this leader and this civilization. Let's see if we can outsmart the others.

Here are my unique units. The first is the Yeoman. I can't use him before reaching the Middle Ages but it's a strong unit, a strong unit it is. Usually, Longbowmen are the best units to guard cities but not so good offensively. Since this one here has a little more strength [normal Longbowmen have only 6] and an additional first strike with the Drill promotion, I could use it to attack too.

This unit doesn't come before the industrial age but it's really strong because of the bonus against other gunpowder units [the bonus against mounted units is not special though, all Riflemen have it]

I don't really know what's the unique thing about this unit since I have never used it before but it seems mighty strong to me, mighty strong it seems to be.

This building is really cool and gives me a significant economic advantage. The unique thing is that I get a free Merchant in every city where I build this [which is one of many specialists you can hire in your cities instead of working tiles around your city. They all have unique boni and help to grow Great Persons who have even greater abilities. More about this once it becomes relevant] and they're also giving me more money than normal merchants. Unfortunately, the building can't be build before the Renaissance Era.

Well, that looks very promising, very promising it looks. I think I will do good in this game and actually succeed to build a spaceship this time to win the game. Cera destroyed mine in the last game...