Our new spy Fraushag... or whatever, landed out of Alphan range in Viking territory.  It's kind of ironic that the vikings don't have any ships out and about. 

Alpha is on full scale military production.  There's not a city which is not producing a military unit or a city improvement which benefits military units.  According to the graphs, they are about equal to us in production and power which mean the raids are going to become only more and more difficult to pull off.  Already, the 5 knights Konrad warned of have come to guard the Seafood City.  The hill needed to take the city has been taken by two knights with three more on the way.  While I think we'd win against the knights, we'd sustain too much damage to take the city. 

Instead, I'll sail just south of Omega THIS! and they'll have no choice but to send some knights to protect it and then I'll make a shot for Demos and see what things look like when I arrive.  Our window for raiding may be almost over... until we can bring more forces. 

See Victory Conditions attachment below:

I think we need to start thinking endgame as well.  How do we want to win?  Conquest is probably out of the question and Domination is a stretch.  Diplomatic is not a likely win either IMO.  Cultural is a possibility since we have such a cultural lead on Alpha but I have a feeling we're going to be at war a lot with Alpha and the attention needed to build our three cultural centers to Legendary status will likely be diverted.  Space Race seems to be the most obvious direction for me.  We've already got the tech lead and industrial complexes galore.  It would sure beat a time victory but it may come to that. 

I'd also like to consider going for Mining Inc. if only to prevent Alpha from getting it.  If they do, a Space Race victory for them becomes a real possibility, not to mention they've had a Great Engineer sitting around for some time (in Bismarckia).  They'll also become a real pain militarily.  On the other hand, it'll be a great boon for our industrial complex cities and our commerce cities will try and make up for the expense. 

Since we have Free Speech, I can't shoot you for dissenting opinions... but I may sneeze on you .

Yeurch Can't you bottle it and send it to Alphaland?

I think I agree with you anyway, so you can keep your germs to yourself. Our raiding days are numbered unless we want to throw away our units uselessly... maybe sail round their coast threatening them then join up with another force and capture Treasure island instead? At least we're forcing them down a course of action - they're not doing what they might like to do.

A cultural victory is probably easier than a space race. We could be building those nice cathedrals (+50% culture) in our 3 main cities. If we already have these buildings here please disregard this message.

On the raiding front, "another one bites the dust."

We were actually able to get Demos after all and yet again without any blood spilt.  So far they've taken two Japanese cities and lost two cities.  Demos was a size 11 city though and that has got to hurt.  It's what they get for only guarding it with a longbow and an archer.  It fell rather swiftly.  I think we got lucky in that they had a change of leadership just as the ships went out of sight for a turn.  I don't think we'll get another city but you never know.

They were in Anarchy last turn and I think they switched to Theocracy and Vassalage, which makes sense.  That's all for now.

re culture: a cultural victory is on the cards but we need to do some calculations (quite a lot actually) to get an idea of how long it will take. We've still got the Hermitage and Sistine Chapel to build as well as the Cathedrals if we choose that path, but it does seem a bit, um, wimpy for a bunch o' ruthless dictators wot attack anything on sight

Culture.  We have a long way to go for sure but it is possible.  Why not just go for both I suppose.  Sistine Chappel and Hermitage aren't wastes of time.  There are also some pretty hefty culture wonders in the modern era, though at that point we'd need to pick between Space Race and Culture victories. 

We also had some Viking troops land on our homeland.  I destroyed the ships but Ragnar managed to get some cats on our south coast.  I destroyed one of them already but only one Oromo Warrior is in the city it's near.  It's definately time to get some updated troops garrisoned in some of our coastal cities, especially now that Alpha's going to be itching for revenge.  I just finished Rifling so Riflemen can be built starting next turn.  I'm going to go for Military Tradition next so I can get some Cavalry.  That should help with Treasure Island as well.

Culture may not be such a bad way to go.  50000 is legendary in this game:

Megaton-7062 culture, 145 per turn (has Mandir-hindu cathedral)

Napalm Springs-5561 culture, 150 per turn (has Mandir)

Junker Hill-4603 culture, 115 per turn  (has Mandir)

At the moment, it'll take about 300 turns for the first two to reach legendary culture.  I figure Junker Hill would get Hermitage and Sistine Chapel could go to Napalm Springs.  If we spread Christianity to these cities, we can build cathedrals but we'll need christian temples all around first.  Definately doable though.  Maybe I'll do some math later to figure actual turns it would theoretically take once we get SC and Hermitage in Junker.