Since we now have a solid plan for building The United Nations in a single turn, I would like the team to consider completing Gunpowder right now, and research mass media while drafting 15 Musketman in 2t. We can finish mass media in another 7t or maybe squeeze it into 6t via building Research, so The United Nations can be completed in the last turn of this GA, in case we might lose The Taj Mahal (ETA t180 via my recently posted plan).
I also believe that sending at least three Knights with Combat 2 Pinch Amphibious may give us the about the same odds versus the Wizard as Cuirrassiers with Combat 2 Amphibious. Pinch should give our Knights a significant advantage against the wizard (improving our odds significantly over the current 97% overall) and doesn't need Military Tradition.
Sun Tzu Wu
Heh, I too considered Gunpowder now that we can probably build the UN in one turn. However, with the reduced teching rate from leaving Bureaucracy for 5 turns followed by leaving Representation, I don't think we have the research rate to do both Gunpowder and Mass Media in 8 turns. We need about 500 gold for rush buying galleons I think, which will eat about half our trade mission. We should have just enough gold to do that and tech Mass Media. Also, by taking 8 turns to tech Mass Media, we don't have to sacrifice production to achieve that pace.
Sure, Gunpowder would fix our Castle Problem, but it would only grant us 9 drafted muskets. To rush buy the galleons we need to switch civics T178, and to do that we need to switch to Nationalism + Economics T173.
Maybe the Knights who reach the Wizard can get a 4th pinch promo from the Great General instead of our galleons. We should have Gunpowder by then. I think we have to be in our own city to upgrade to Curaissers, so I don't think that will happen in time.