ALC Game 13: Mali/Mansa Musa

LucyDuke said:

I totally agree with KMadCandy, it's great when you get asked for some crap old tech that you couldn't sell for beans, it's essentially a free +1 diplo for a while, and how much research did you save him, anyway, four turns? You don't want to deal with a grumpy Mehmed right now, so no harm done.

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oh wow, you're right! they are coded to only remember you giving them help for 200 years. i'd thought it lasted forever. neener neener, i proved your sig wrong, because you're better than i am! well, unless of course you wanna be less good than you already are, and sink to below my level ... hmmz.

I just brought artists up because being financial research should be fine so thought Sisiutil might want to make a different great person from the usual great scientist spam, especially on that costal city with the fish, cottage some and get a great artist out of it.

I just like artists because I hate waiting for a cities like Catty's religious city or a capital to come out of rebelion after capturing it and a instant artist culture bomb really pushes out the borders to continue your assault quickly and getting benifit from the city instantly.

Torvoni said:

It looks like Gao will be able to support FOUR artists . . . at least I think it works out that way with two fish each with fishing boats plus lighthouse for six times two equals twelve food plus the two food from the city square gives a total of fourteen food which will support seven citizens ... so maybe Gao will be able to support FIVE artists. I always get confused by trying to count.

Anyway, even if Gao only runs THREE artists, the plan should be to get into Caste System as soon as possible, then use those fish to generate a Great Artist, then use that Great Artist to culture bomb Isabella, in order to peacefully capture the pigs. I spend most of all my games in Caste System. Usually I run almost all scientists everywhere, but sometimes artists. It is always a big disappointment to come out of Caste System for any reason.

It seems like maybe this game instead of killing Isabella you should make her your very best friend. If you match her religion and give her free techs and join her in wars, you should be able to get her up to +13 or +14 or some ridiculous friendly status. You could give her the free health from the extra fish with no strings attached. Be her best friend.

Or not.
Either way is fine.

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I like this alternative to bee-lining to Music (not one of my favourite techs) for a GA.

The real issue with KS and the pigs, you see, is food. It's the only food tile for the city. However, there is another option. It can be a production city, what with the stone, iron, and those hills; that just means its marginal until Civil Service comes along and allows me to irrigate all its open terrain tiles; then, with Biology, it really comes into its own.

And who knows? We may have claimed the piggies by then. I'll consider generating a GA, but right now, the priority is taking down Kublai. And I like the idea of going after Currency next. Even if one of the other civs beats me to it, research spent that way is not a total waste. As aelf has shown, the AI often severely undervalues a tech you've partially researched (they shouldn't have that knowledge, but whatevery), so you can often get the tech for a song. I'll watch for such an opportunity.

Round 5: 25 BC to 545 AD, Part 1: The Battle of Old Serai

Okay, so I opened the round with a crazy-a$$ decision that will probably prove controversial:



Yep, I changed research from Code of Laws to... MUSIC?!?

I can just imagine pigswill rolling his eyes over my absurd obsession with his namesake. Well, it ain't just the piggies, though yes, part of the goal is to get the free Great Artist to use for a great work in Kumbi Saleh to claim the pig tile. That's all about making that a viable city, frankly. There's more to it than that, however.

Remember how I had my doubts about researching Currency. Why? Because it's a tech the AI loves to research. As time goes on, I grow more wary of duplicating the AI's efforts. So I thought, yeah, Music is expensive and doesn't offer too much in return--but that makes it one heck of a trading tech. So that was my goal: be the first to Music, get the GA, and then trade it to catch up on techs I'd missed along the way.

This may be a bit of cheekiness--or even, dare I say, arrogance--on my part as well. I'm feeling pretty confident at Monarch level now, and the fact that I'm playing as a Financial and Spiritual leader only adds to that. So this play-out-of-left-field is reflective of a desire to do something different, something potentially challenging, and see how it plays out.

So how did it play out? I hear you cry. You'll see. Eventually.

To compensate for this oddball tech target, I followed much of the other advice I was given. I changed the build in Kumi Saleh and most of the other cities to military:



This included giving up the Great Library in Timbuktu. Sniff.

And I also whipped that monument in Hittite:



Now, on to the main event.

As you might gather from the title, the majority of this post will be preoccupied with one particular battle: the taking of the city of Old Serai.

In Civ terms, it was a pretty conventional fight. Veterans and higher-level players be warned: there probably won't be anything too earth-shattering in the next few screenshots and lines. But I've had some requests lately to show a city capture in more detail from beginners, people playing on lower levels, builders wanting to be more warlike, and so on. I thought this was the best battle from the war with Mongolia to use for didactic purposes, because this is where Kublai had the biggest concentration of forces.

So first off, let's have a look at the disposition of our armies just before the fight:



You can see that Kublai has a rather astonishing (at first) garrison of no less than seven Archers in the city--1 with City Garrison 1, 3 with Combat 1, all of them fully fortified. If you remember, however, that I've been pillaging in his territory to (a) prevent him from accessing his iron and (b) crippling his economy so he's having trouble researching, you'll realize that Archers are the best unit he can build, so of course he's gone crazy with them. And since this city is surrounded by my territory and we're at war, it also makes sense that he'd concentrate his forces here.

On my side, I have 5 Swordsmen (3 with City Raider 2 (and 2 only 1 XP from CR III) and 2 with CR I); 4 Catapults (3 with CR 1, 1 with no promotions--oops, that's the one futurehermit spotted being built in Gao); and one Woodsman II Axeman who's the stack protector and backup attacker if needed.

2 of my Catapults are unavailable for the city attack. 1 because I just used it to remove the last of the city's cultural defenses (something the other Cats that arrived on the scene a few turns earlier had slowly been whittling away). The other (the promotionless one) because it just moved onto the hill this turn.

So I have enough units to take the city on this turn assuming one of the Catapults gets lucky and none of the attackers die, including the Axeman. I shrug and realize I may have to capture the city on the next turn. Since Kublai has nothing to counterattack with, that's no big deal. Notice that I don't have a good city defender present; normally I would, to defend the city once it's taken, but I'm planning on razing Old Serai, so I don't need one.

My first Catapult attacks with 28.8% odds and withdraws, living to fight another day and earning 1 XP in the process. Hooray! Thanks to the first one's collateral damage, the next one has better odds:



This still looks like a typical Cat suicide run to me. I launch the attack... and get lucky; the Cat kills its opponent, earning its Level 3 promotion in the process! And I have exactly enough units remaining to take the city. (The whole thing kind of reminds me of a World Cup penalty shootout.)

In this shot you can see how the defenders have been weakened:



The good news here is that one very weak Archer at 0.7 strength. Normally a Woodsman II Axe will get very bad odds in a city raid, but against that poor schmuck, it's a sure-fire win.

Now that the collateral damage has been done, it's time for the City Raiders to do what they do best. My CRII Sword gets excellent odds:



(I suppose these aren't technically "odds", but "win probability" or something like it is such a mouthfull.) Now, we've all lost units at those odds, and this guy is 1 XP from Level 4, so I'd hate to lose him. But that's the chance you take in every battle, right?

Against more formidable opposition, I might elect to first attack with a rookie unit--theorizing that I might lose it, but that it will damage the best defender enough to make it easier pickings for a veteran. In this case, however, I'm concerned with capturing the city on this turn--mainly so I can move on to the next city ASAP--so I let the best attack first.

As a result, every unit gets very high odds against Kublai's injured Archers:









Including that Woodsman II Axeman:



And they all win. So before the turn is done, the city is mine:



Like I said, pretty conventional, a foregone conclusion, even. Textbook. And as a result, I have 2 CR III Swords and 1 more CR II.

Normally I would have required more of a mixed force and more Catapults. But normally, I would have been up against an Axeman or two, maybe a Chariot and a Spearman. To avoid this, I denied Kublai horses by capturing Hittite in the previous round, and denied him iron through pillaging as well. To give the AI credit, it also tries to do this; ever notice it pillaging your strategic resources (copper, iron, horses) right off the bat? Still, it isn't usually very effective, because I usually protect that resource and/or have more than one available. In my Stack o' Doom strategy article I wrote about the two types of stacks--pillaging and city capturing--and here's an example of using both of them.

I razed Old Serai, deciding to build a new city 1 tile east as Validator urged. The gold proved very handy for keeping my research elevated as I chased Music and the free GA.

Back to the other events of the round.

As my stack healed and then pushed on to Turfan, Isabella came by, asking for a favour. A big favour.



Hmmm... Again, normally my instinct would be to tell her to get bent. However, I quelled it. I wanted Isabella as happy with me as possible (to avoid an attack on my weak north), and already I had to overcome some "close borders" demerits. Giving Mysticism to Mehmed earlier reminded me of the value of giving in to the AI's requests.

In addition, I'm working on a theory, and I'd love to have someone confirm or deny it. In a recent offline game, Louis came to me with a similar request for an expensive tech which I turned down. I then offered him a trade for it--I had a couple of techs on him--and he refused. I kept offering him better and better deals for the tech he wanted, and he refused them all. 2 turns later, I no longer had the tech on him. So... does the AI only ask for a tech like this if they've already nearly finished researching it themselves? Inquiring minds want to know.

In addition, Mehmed already had Alphabet (and Literature too, in fact), so better I should get the credit for helping Izzy rather than him.

A few turns after this, I founded the replacement city:



It will be a while before it's viable, but that will keep the AI from trying to claim that space. Meanwhile, my stack--now with a War Elephant, Medic I Chariot, and Spear in tow, approached Turfan.

Continued in part 2...

Round 5: 25 BC to 545 AD, Part 2: Music and Mongolia

The "urban renewal" war against Mongolia continued. Protected by only 2 Archers, Turfan fell and was razed:



Shortly after this, I got news of one of my favourite wonders being built:



So we gave up on the Great Library in 25 BC, and it was built in 275 AD. What is that, 20 turns at epic speed? Without marble, it was going to take me 44 turns. Even with chopping, I don't think I could have managed it. The gold would have been nice--I was doing a lot of pointy-stick research, relying on pillaging and city capture income to stay afloat. But to do that, I needed units, and that's mostly what Timbuktu built.

That same turn, I finally took a Mongolian city I wanted to keep!



And it came with a Worker, too. Good thing--I need more of those. And the gold ensured that I would, indeed, get Music on the next turn.

However, when I checked the tech screen, I noticed that Isabella didn't have Literature--meaning I wouldn't be able to trade Music to her! So I managed to make another tech trade with her to ensure that I could:



I didn't change civics, however, because I anticipated getting Monarchy for Hereditary Rule on the next turn.

On that next turn...



So I went shopping:





Not spectacular returns, but very helpful, especially for growth thanks to a rapidly-rising happiness cap. In addition, I earned significant bonuses from both civs for these slightly lopsided trades, which earned me a big payoff at the end of the round.

Despite my theory that the AI would bee-line to Currency, neither Mehmed nor Isabella had it yet! So I decided to research it next to keep my economy from tanking. I was running out of Mongolian cities to keep my research afloat.

Anyway, I changed civics now that I had two worthwhile ones:



On that same turn, I earned a Great General thanks to the Battle of Besbalik. He joined up with my Combat I/Medic I Chariot. With 6 +20 XPs, that unit gained Medic II and III as well as Morale for an extra movement point.



I realize that the war with Mongolia was nearly over, and I might not be warring very much after this, so a Medic III unit might not get much use. But they're just so handy to have around. And without Education, the best alternative use for a GG at this point is a Military Instructor. Which, if you're not anticipating warring very much, is also not very useful. At least with a Medic III unit, I've got something that can aid defense in case I get unexpectedly attacked.

Shortly thereafter, my Great Artist arrived in Kumbi Saleh, built his great work, and I finally had my piggies. Yay!



However, the battle of the bacon is not over. That tile has only 59% of my culture, and it's dropping. I figure I'll have to keep shoring up culture in KS to hang onto it.

In 410 AD, I captured the Mongolian capital:



5 Workers--very nice, very handy. I think I still need some more, though, but I'll await everyone's thoughts on that.

Now, by the time my forces made it to the last Mongolian city--the desert/coastal town of Ning-hsia--Kublai had a nasty surprise waiting for me:



Despite my best efforts to cripple his research, Kublai still managed to sneak in both Construction and Feudalism. In addition, Mehmed had built a city across the bay, threating the clams tile and making it virtually impossible to get that copper.

Well, I had several Catapults, so after stripping Ning-hsia of its defenses I attacked with all of them (except my 3 Accuracy Cats). Most died, but their odds gradually improved:



And just for the record, Swordsmen do very well against Longbowmen--provided the latter are on flat terrain (rather than a hill) and have been significantly weakened by collateral damage attacks:



I started the round with a crazy-a$$ decision, to bee-line to music. And I finished the round with one as well: I kept Ning-hsia rather than razing it. Why? The marble. It could come in handy, and the city is in the best position to claim it. Mehmed was marching a Settler in that direction, so he no doubt would have claimed it. I had a Buddhist missionary with the stack and spread the faith there before the city even came out of revolt, so it can start working on popping its borders ASAP and re-claiming that clams tile to feed itself.

I played a few more turns just to settle things down, move my units back onto my own territory to reduce maintenance costs, that sort of thing. And to check in with the neighbours. Remember I said all those positive diplomatic modifiers had a big payoff? Well, here it is. I went hat-in-hand to Mehmed, begging for anything he could spare...



He gave it to me! Can you believe it? I tried this with Isabella, who's now "Friendly", and she wouldn't part with anything, not even the pile of gold she's accumulated. But my buddy Mehmed came through. What a guy.

Below is the saved game file. I'll follow this post with the first "state of the world" post for this game.

The State of the World, 545 AD

Let's start by having a look at the map, first with resources:



...and without:



So I still have 2 cities I can build on that eastern peninsula. In fact, I have a Skirmisher and Settler in place for the northern one, 1 NE of Turfan's former position, as Validator suggested. I haven't built it yet to avoid maintenance costs, but should I just get it done? I have yet to build the Settler for the other city, which will go 2 SW of former Turfan. Should that one be the higher priority? Someone mentioned that it could be the Heroic Epic city. Since my other cities will likely be focusing on infrastructure, it would be good to have one pumping out military units. Thoughts?

Oh yes, and there are some islands about! Now that things are peaceful, I think I should send one of my 2 Triremes south to explore both of those intriguing little land masses. I still have my Scout; if I spot a goody hut, I'll build a Galley in Gao quickly and send him over to it. Furthermore, the continent is an interesting shape. I can't help wondering if there's an island to the south as well.

Speaking of what the cities are pumping out, here's a look at the domestic advisor:



Yep, mostly civilian builds. I just whipped the temple in Karakorum, and I may do the same with the one in Ning-hsia just to speed its border pop and add to its claim of the clam tile. Kumi Saleh, as I mentioned, needs culture, so after the courthouse, I'm thinking of a monastery. The other cities will keep focusing on infrastructure, I think. I'm pursuing Metal Casting to help in that regard, so I can build Mints to increase production. They'll also help my bottom line, what with their +10% wealth bonus. It's about time we green-lit the UB, don't you think?

Here's a look at the capital:



Thanks a little to HR and a lot to Calendar, the happiness cap has taken quite a jump, so I'm focussing on food for growth at the moment. I want to start working the other cottagable tiles. To that end, I think I should chop the two forests south of the city to help speed the Market and to cottage the two remaining riverside tiles.

Civics:



No, I haven't switched to Caste System--like I said, I'm thinking of whipping a temple in Ning-hsia once it emerges from revolt. However, I think I should go to Caste System soon. I still haven't generated any great people (other than the free GA from Music), and I think they'll be very valuable, especially Great Scientists. I was thinking of making Gao the GP factory, though that would require converting its cottages to farms. Thoughts?

The military advisor:




So the next GG is several XPs off, but I may not need him if I play peacefully. I now have 13 Workers, all but one of them teamed. I was thinking of building the odd-man-out a buddy. That would give me 7 teams of 2 Workers each. Think that's enough for the territory I have? There's a lot of jungle that needs chopping...

Foreign relations:



Even though Isabella is friendly and Mehmed pleased, the latter has been a lot more accomodating. Obviously something in the AI personality XML accounts for that. Frankly, given how snooty Isabella usually is, I'm not surprised that she's still a bit of an ice queen when she's "friendly". Most other friendly civs would have coughed up that 300-some-odd-gold she has, especially since I asked so nicely.

Techs:



I'm a couple behind, but hey, I just finished a war! Plus I made a diversion that delayed Currency, so I'm just starting to get my economy back on track.

Trade Deals:



I plan on getting Walata's bananas on-line next; that would give me something to substitute for gems in return for Isabella's furs. I'd love to steal one of her incense tiles from her. Huh, maybe I should generate a bunch more Great Artists after all!

Religions:



Well, Izzy's really gone crazy with the religions, hasn't she? She's founded all of them except Hinduism and Confucianism, and only Islam is left! Most of them have spread to my cities, so I can spread them around and build several temples and monasteries--good news for Kumbi Saleh and its purloined piggies. Should I still generate a Great Scientist and lightbulb Philosophy for the Liberalism race? What about a Great Prophet for the Hindu shrine?

Another concern is that the other continent will be a big, happy Confucian family. They may be tech trading like crazy and far ahead when we finally meet them. Yikes.

Power:



Thanks to the war effort, I'm up there pretty even-steven. Mehmed's big jump is because he just finished researching Feudalism and upgraded several of his Archers to Longbowmen.

So I think the plan for the next round is to indulge the builder in me. I need to ramp up infrastructure to get my economy and research revved up again. What with all the armed forces I have, and our happy continent of Buddhist brotherhood, I can neglect military for a little while. Not for long, just a little while.

And as for playing peacefully... yeah, I guess, but you know, Mehmed has built a bunch of wonders, like the Pyramids, Notre Dame, Chichen Itza... And here I have all these veteran units sitting around, twiddling their proverbial thumbs... hmmmm...

With the other continent being a big confucian family, you should think about keeping Isabella and Mehmed around. With the same religion you have 2 very good friends at your hands, and I am curious if an early overseas expansion could pay off.

On epic you should have teams of three workers.

Music? You'd have been better off with CoL, its not usually on the AI research line either so same trades apply and its more directly useful (for the non-obsessive civ player that is).

I agree with turning builder at this point. Might be worth getting some courthouses together and deciding on location for FP.

You've got a bunch of veteran units but you'd probably need to upgrade your swords to maces before you take on cities full of longbows so war would involve an opportunity cost.

I'd say you have a solid foundation for a Culture win. You already have nine cities and four religions.

Maybe /one/ more war, to knock out either Mehmed or Izzy. Then peaceful building.


Waldo

One thing to consider is that AIs decide (partly) whether or not to trade a tech based on what fraction of other civs know it, but only count civs with which they have contact. [And the English teacher in S should be smiling at me not saying "civs that they have contact with."] If you really do fear that the other continent is ahead of you (which you seem to do every game, and here on fractal there's no guarantee that there's just one other continent), being the first to optics vs. being the second can mean the difference between being "that poor civ that's the only one still in the dark so we should trade with it" or not. And the good news this game is that you know you're not going to run into Isabella on the other continent, already "furious" with you because of your religion!

Sisiutil said:

I was thinking of making Gao the GP factory, though that would require converting its cottages to farms. Thoughts?

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Karakorum. Farm over one of the silks to get irrigation down there. You can get it to 18 extra food pre-biology. Really, what else are you going to do with it once you switch to caste? It has zero production. Gao has less food, maturing cottages, and you can actually build worthwhile stuff there.

Sisiutil said:

I tried this with Isabella, who's now "Friendly", and she wouldn't part with anything, not even the pile of gold she's accumulated.

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How many times did you ask her for something? If you ask once, then don't ask again for a while. I normally wait 10 turns, although sometimes they'll give you stuff after just a handful of turns from the last request. They basically have to "forget" that you asked for something, and there's like a 1/20 chance of that happening each turn.

I count 9 cities. how about going for cultural at this point? you allready have music now just get to liberalism and your set to turn of research. You have 5 religions allready so with some heavy builder pursuit you should be able to do it fairly fast. Are you running scientists anywhere? if not why not. you can lightbulb through to liberalism even as financial.

like pigswill said, it's epic speed so pairs is nothing.
I team them rather than pair them anyway, but each to his own.
With 13 workers, you can cottage 2 and something tiles/turn.
Which isn't much for 9 cities.
If you want to cut out the jungle and cottage in the same turn, you can use all your workers on 1 tile

"Well, Izzy's really gone crazy with the religions, hasn't she? She's founded all of them except Hinduism and Confucianism, and only Islam is left! Most of them have spread to my cities, so I can spread them around and build several temples and monasteries--good news for Kumbi Saleh and its purloined piggies."

i was gonna ask for an F7 screenshot. that one is almost beautiful. you have all of the religions on your continent. only one you don't have is conf which is confined in limboland. if we let isabella live (which i think would be an interesting change and i'd kinda like to see that if it works out), we will want weapons for the culture push and religions are the ammo there. and now we have the added suspense and intrigue of a crab battle down south vs mehmed! good move bringing the army chaplain along there.

the screenshot is only almost beautiful tho, one part is screamingly hideous ... you don't have your state religion in your capital. get a missionary there quick!!! i know you haven't been in OR very long so i don't blame you. but since you didn't mention spreading your state religion as part of your infrastructure phase i do feel obligated mention it. if you don't spread it to timbuktu pronto i shall nag you ceaselessly.

"Should I still generate a Great Scientist and lightbulb Philosophy for the Liberalism race? What about a Great Prophet for the Hindu shrine?" if i'm reading the screens right, you're already behind on that race. liberalism = philo + education + paper + (civil service or theology). you don't have any of those things, you're 5 techs away. isabella has philo and theo already, so she's 3 techs away. she may not be aiming straight for it, but you aren't either (which isn't a bad call, the mints will help us get there faster by letting us raise science). she's not willing to trade theo, but who cares, that wouldn't help since CS serves the same purpose and we need CS anyway. should we place bets on whether she's building the porcine chapel?

what do i recommend as far as the GS question? pshaw, you know me, i don't give useful advice on important stuff, i just ask questions. i usually hate to bulb something that the AI shows willing to trade, but in this case there's nothing you can give her in trade. and it's not like you have the time to build enough missionaries to make the hindu shrine a priority at this point either. so i'd probably bulb him, but go with what the wiser people (including yourself) think. definitely do not trade her any techs along that path, given her headstart.

"In addition, I'm working on a theory, and I'd love to have someone confirm or deny it. In a recent offline game, Louis came to me with a similar request for an expensive tech which I turned down. I then offered him a trade for it--I had a couple of techs on him--and he refused. I kept offering him better and better deals for the tech he wanted, and he refused them all. 2 turns later, I no longer had the tech on him. So... does the AI only ask for a tech like this if they've already nearly finished researching it themselves? Inquiring minds want to know."

hmmm. i am intrigued. it would fit in with how they're more likely to trade something to you if you've put in some research yourself.

I like the cultural challenge but that would mean building a lot of missionaries since your cities are lacking a lot of religions (especially the capital with 0 religions). Getting a great prophet for the shrine is not a very bad idea. With some spreading you can get up to 9 gold from it with your own cities alone. With the financial buildings in place that can net you up to 28 gold (market, mint, grocer, bank, wall street = 210&#37 which is a very good boost and with some more religious buildings hinduism will spread more.

So what is your goal right now. Befriending Mehmed and Isabell and taking over the other island? Going for a cultural win? Trying to set things up for a space race?

You've got the basics in place so this probably would be a good time to decide on victory condition.

Just one question so far: wouldn't it have been better to settle the Great Artist instead of using him as a culture bomb? I think it would have helped more in the future to keep the pigs inside your borders.

carl corey said:

Just one question so far: wouldn't it have been better to settle the Great Artist instead of using him as a culture bomb? I think it would have helped more in the future to keep the pigs inside your borders.

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true enough, but he would only gain the pigs in 1400 AD

You're fine for now, but I'll take the bait on Music/GA/pigs. To me it says that you didn't leverage your traits as soon as they came into focus. CoL, Currency and MC are the backbones for Mansa Musa in this part of the game. The pigs are a distraction. Civil Service would have permitted chain irrigation of the grasslands, albeit with more workers. Moreover, I would have envisioned better uses for a GA than waste it on essentially one tile that may or may not prove definitive.

[rant over]

Nevertheless, you have the land and the traits to win this handily as you head up the tech tree and ramp up the Cottage Economy.

Whether or not to ravage sweet Isabella, that will be the question as she moves towards Guilds and her UU.

The decision to go after Music was a bit unusual but it worked out. I guess it did add something interesting into an otherwise predictable round. (Although I guess the LBs in Ning-hsia were a little bit of a surprise.)

At this point you need to work on improving the economy. You're next to last in GNP, largely because you're also next to last in population. Now that the happy cap is raised you need to grow your cities. For that reason I wouldn't be looking to build workers at this point, although you will need to fit in a settler build.

I'll restate my position that if you were playing this game "to win" you would want to take out Mehmed. He has a lot of good land in addition to his wonders. But the initial plan was to play this game relatively peacefully, and you don't need to fight another war to secure the win.

With that said it might not be easy to live with Mehmed. He seems to have decided to take over from Kublai in annoying you with unfortunate city placements. There's an Ottoman settler to the south of Hittite. It may be headed toward a spot N of Ning-hsia (the hill with the Spanish archer looks good, or maybe 1 E), but it also may continue E and try to settle between Beshbalik and Karakorum to claim the iron. Or it could even head all the way over to the Turfan peninsula. You can block the latter case if you use your settler to found the city to the SW and then close borders, but there's nothing you can do about the first two options.

I agree with the others that you really should be deciding on the victory condition that you're going to shoot for. Space seems to be a guaranteed win at this point. In addition to a strong science position you'll have two strong production cities with decent production in several others. OTOH you're in a reasonably good position for going cultural. You have enough cities and religions, although you were shut out in early wonders and maybe also in mid-game wonders (including Sistine Chapel). I guess the question is which 3 cities would you be looking to use. Timbuktu seems obvious, but I'm not sure about the others.

As to the worker situation you really shouldn't be teaming up workers at all. Regardless of the team size you're going to be losing worker turns at some point and when you're trying to get by with minimal number of workers ( )you really need to be efficient with the way you use them.

I would switch to caste system immediately and assign 5 scientists in Karakorum. You'll get a GS in 10 turns. Lightbulbing Philosophy will make pacifism available, but you may want to wait to switch to pacifism until most of your buildings are done. So maybe use the first GS for an academy in Timbuktu?

I would build NE in Karakorum, but you'll have enough excess food in Gao, Timbuktu and Hittite to run multiple scientists. So you may find yourself staying in caste system plus pacifism for much of the game (assuming there are no more wars). Being spiritual you can easily change back to slavery when something needs to be whipped.

I agree with KMad that you need to spread Buddhism to your cities. Djenne should be building nothing but Buddhist missionaries until you have Buddhism in all your cities.

One advantage of researching Music is that it lets you build culture in your cities which is the best way to get needed border expansions. Beshbalik, Ning-hsia and Karakorum should all build culture until they get their first border expansion. You also might want to build culture in Gao to get the second border expansion which will claim the closer incense tile and put revolt pressure on Santiago.

Your army seems to be heading west so you may already be planning this, but you should take the barb city in the SW. The question is do you just plan on taking it for the gold and razing it, or do you plan on keeping it? It will have high distance maintenance, but it does have iron and fish and maybe more in the unrevealed tiles. Also it will deny Mehmed a source of iron which he doesn't have. That will mean no pikes or X-bows if you do end up fighting him. And since he doesn't have horses either you'll be facing limited opposition. Assuming you get to him before gunpowder.

As soon as you finish your buildings you might want to have the cities with the "other" religions build a missionary and send them to KS so that it can get a full set of religious buildings. Seville has added a Jewish temple and Jewish monastery since the last update, so Isabella doesn't seem to want to let go of the pigs. Let's just hope a wonder doesn't get built there. Isabella is probably the only one with Theology (Sistine Chapel) and Philosophy (Angkor Wat) so it's definitely a possibility. Now that KS has the pigs it can work mines on all of its hills, so you should get a worker over there ASAP.

Definitely send one of your triremes to check out the island E of Turfan. It looks to be reasonably sized and green so it's likely to be a worthy site for a city. There's another island SW of Karakorum although it doesn't look as promising.

A couple of minor things:
Gao needs a lighthouse.
Ning-hsia should build a courthouse (not Hindu temple) after it gets its border expansion.