Round 7: 1214 AD to 1502 AD
Well, this is a round where everyone gets to either congratulate or berate me for either the brilliance or the stupidity of my tech trades and civics changes, according to your own preferences and inclinations. They were the highlight of a very peaceful round. I seem to be recovering some of my old builder mentality.
I started, before ending the turn from the last round, by making a tech trade with Isabella:
That would allow me to make a run at the Spiral Minaret, a very nice combination, as I've said before, with the Spiritual trait's cheap temples and the University of Sankore. Isabella was probably building the SM, so I started building the wonder in Timbuktu, my best production city thanks to Bureaucracy. It pollutes Timbuktu's GP points, but I wouldn't mind a Great Prophet rather than a Scientist, so I can build the Hindu Shrine. Besides, I thought the Minaret and the University would look nice together, and I'm sure the spirit of Muslim Mansa would approve of it as well.
On the next turn, I completed Liberalism and chose the tech we all pretty much agreed upon:
I immediately stared building the Taj Mahal in Kumbi Saleh. I then went to Huayna to make a tech trade:
Notice anything significant? Yeah, I don't have Nationalism on Huayna! (He got Printing Press a turn or two later, too, the little jerk.) I think he must have finished researching it on the very same turn that I got it from Liberalism. So I realized I could have serious competition for the TM. There was only one solution: every tree around Kumbi Saleh had to get whacked.
The new tech allowed me to change civics, too:
The free specialist from Mercantilism would help with the two wonders (a free engineer in Timbuktu and KS, of course), and GP generation.
Now that I had free specialists, I was loathe to give them up. So, to ensure the Statue of Liberty was a possibility, I secured some copper:
This might also, I thought, help secure Ning-hsia's clams eventually. And it looks as though Tadmekka will actually make for a decent production city.
A couple of turns later, thanks to some judicious chopping around the capital, I beat Isabella to my next wonder:
That helped my bottom line a little, though I didn't have nearly as many Buddhist buildings to take advantage of it as I'd like. To help with that, I changed civics again:
In particular, I switched to Slavery because I wanted to whip some buildings in Karakorum--a mint, a library, and the National Epic in particular. Also, that city had just generated its next Great Scientist, who built an academy in the capital, so my need for Caste System and Pacifism was diminished.
On the very next turn, my frantic chopping around Kumbi Saleh paid off:
I took advantage of the golden age to get a bunch of Buddhist Temples and Monasteries in place. Yeah, I know the former are cheap thanks to Spiritual, but I wanted to start getting the benefits of the two religious building boosting wonders ASAP. The other thing I built a lot of during the GA was stables and Cavalry. I also deleted a few obsolete and underpromoted units to save on unit support costs.
Thanks to MT, Isabella came by with a welcome proposal. (I said proposal, not proposition. Get your minds out of the gutter!)
She's not a military powerhouse, but she's no wimp, and a Defensive Pact would pretty much ensure that I got left alone to play builder. I've never been attacked while I have a DP in place. What's everyone else's experiences with them?
Once that little bit of whipping was done, I changed civics again. (Yes, I love being Spiritual!)
Representation for research from specialists, now that the GA was over. (I put specialists back on the land during a GA, to reap the benefits of the extra commerce and production.) Serfdom would help my Workers, of course, as they scurried about improving tiles. I call it, along with Organized Religion, one of the "builder civics". Universal Suffrage is another one I'd place in that category. You could put Slavery in there too, I guess, as an alternative to Serfdom. Depends what your priorities are--tile improvements versus city builds.
George loosened up a little and was willing to trade Economics. Huayna was willing to trade it as well, but I'm reluctant to help the tech leader unless he's me. I considered waiting for Economics, as I didn't want to switch from Mercantilism for a while (preferably until the SoL is built, but we'll see). The diplomatic situation was, however, a little volatile; Mehmed or Isabella might decide that Washington is their worst enemy, then demand that I stop trading with him, which means he wouldn't speak to me for ages. So I made the trade. I had Nationalism's wonder anyway.
Around this same time, to my surprise, Isabella changed her religious civic--to Free Religion! I can't remember if I've ever seen her do that. Why would she? Maybe it's to increase her cities' culture, to try to overcome the cultural pressure from mine? She certainly has several religions to spread around. Maybe she sees herself falling behind in tech--as usual--and wants that +10% research per city to try to catch up. I wasn't too worried at first, but then she came by to cancel our Defensive Pact.
I suppose I could do without it, but it was certainly a nice safety buffer. So I persuaded her to find her religion again:
She immediately became Friendly again and I restored our DP. I never mind trading Economics for a pittance, hoping that the AIs will gradually shift to Free Market from Mercantilism, justifying my own change to that civic.
A few turns later, Isabella proved herself useful in the tech field again. I had kind of hoped for this when I traded Education to her, hoping she'd build universities and prove to be useful for tech trades every now and then.
During this round, I followed this tech path: Liberalism -> Gunpowder -> Military Tradition -> Constitution -> Democracy -> Astronomy -> Replaceable Parts -> and then...
... after which I began researching Steel for Cannons and the Ironworks, which will be built in Walata to take advantage of its mines and grassland riverside tiles. I haven't built any Grenadiers, but I think a switch to Nationalism and Theocracy for a few turns of drafting is in order so that I have a good defensive force in place.
I was going to stop there, but I played one more turn when I noticed that my next great person in Karakorum would appear as a result. Against all odds, the National Epic had its say in the GP generation:
So what should I do with him? He currently won't lightbulb anything. I could either settle him or use him for a culture bomb. Santiago, by the way, didn't flip; I'm pretty sure Isabella reinforced its culture, because it took that incense tile back and is, in fact, putting pressure on some of Geo's tiles. Just to experiment, I was thinking of settling the Great Artist in Geo to contrast it with the effects of the earlier culture bomb in Kumbi Saleh.
Anyway, I'm nipping at Huayna's tech heels, and we're on track to Alpha Centauri. A "state of the world" post will follow.
Now someone get me some soft pillows and a comfy chair and we can be sure Issy will stay on our side the whole game. 
Incidentally, I Googled Queen Isabella out of curiosity - if the woodcuts and paintings are any indication, our Issy's cuter. 
