We also miss Monotheism (like we care
). I think we should research Engineering now, giving us the impressive Trebuchets and superior roads. That'll greatly help a possible war against Lincoln. Trebuchets + Samurai can make a scary stack.We could also go Feudalism -> Guilds. That'll take longer than Engineering, and to be honest, I think Trebuchets will improve our attack more than Knights will. Samurai are probably on the same level as Knights as city attackers. Trebuchets, on the other hand, are a great improvement of Catapults in terms of anti-city siege.
We could also do Paper -> Education for the Liberalism race. I suppose we could win it, but we could also lose it. I'm confident we'll have a better chance against Lincoln on the battlefield than in the libraries.

on every village and town, which is great, and it leads towards Replaceable Parts, and that in turn to Rifling. I think this is the best option.