1st Civilization Post

I have enjoyed learning how to play Civilization. I have found it quite challenging not necessarily due to the elements of the game but just because I am not very game savvy. I choose to start the Egyptian society and right now am the highest ranked out of the other "empires" on my game, so I guess I am doing something right. I learned that for every city it is important to first establish workers then warriors. Then once those positions are filled then they can build farms, granaries, boats, etc. Once the city is being developed then I developed scouts to find new areas to establish new cities. I am up to 5 cities right now and they are doing well. I have been asked to go to war a few times but have turned the gesture down, deciding to keep peace for the time being. I figure that I need to have stronger cities and armies before I take them to war. I did accept an offer to have open trading boarders with another empire. So far that has been helpful because we have been trading pottery and technology. I think if I keep maintaining the peaceful relationships with my neighboring empires I will do just fine.
I knew to start of by ensuring safety and food to my cities would be the best way for survival by reading the novel "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. In his novel he addresses a question that was placed to him by a New Guinean: "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" (Diamond 14). His answer was not that the people of New Guinea were less smart than those in abundant areas; but that it had to do with location. Diamond believes that if way back when, man could not transition to farmers from hunter gatherers then they would be behind technologically. The start to a great civilization is "food surplus". Once a group of hunter gathers can create surplus food then they can stay in one location. With a food surplus, not everyone has to hunt and gather allowing them to become specialized in some type of trade. This is how technology progresses.

Source

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999.

first time ;)

OK... I have never used a blog before so this is my first attempt. Hopefully I will be writing paragraphs upon paragraphs of insiteful thoughts on my blog page... we shall see :)