1. Technology
I'm quite open minded on this, and happy to be led by the roster. Steel for Cannons and Ironworks seemed to be agreed. I thought that we should push on to Combustion (rails to help movement in our long empire, Destroyers to bombard coastal cities, pre-requisite for Tanks), but running the
slider down for upgrades is fine.
2. War with Persia
My thinking was that Arabela and Ecbatana would make fine additions to our empire, and then we could just take Persia out of the 'Domination' 'to do list' sooner rather than later, especially while Peter and Asoka are preoccupied and we have quite decent units piling up in Karakorum. It seems that this is an unpopular suggestion with the roster - so leave it if you want.
3. Civics
With Rifling 'in the bag', I thought that we could at least weigh up the cost-benefit of a stint of Drafting under Nationhood (I was actually ready to do this in my turnset, but erred on the side of conservatism). I've not done the numbers on Free Speech versus Bureaucracy either (being the two other Governmental civics of note) but I'd imagine that there's not a lot between them.
In terms of Slavery versus Emancipation, we've got a lot of happiness resources, so Emancipation unhappiness won't bite for a little while, although the fast growth on Cottages would still be handy. I'd stick with Slavery on balance, but if you want to 'turbo' some of the growth of Cottages for a few turns and don't intend to whip, then five or more turns in Emancipation mightn't be a bad move. Once we get serious about preparing for war, Slavery should be back on the agenda. We could also even consider Police State if we're turning off our scientific pursuits for a while. 'Yay' for the Spiritual trait!
4. Statue of Liberty
As per my earlier post, I am comfortable if you wanted to bump it elsewhere, and there's only been two turns invested to date (and we'd get fail
anyway). Personally I'd not put it in Beshbalik or Cimmerian, as I think that these cities have other agendas, but once again, if the roster wants to go that way then I'm fine with it. I'd push on with aiming to get The Statue of Liberty built in Uzbek, but it's up to you.
5. Productionwise
5.a. "Overwhipped"?
I'm not sure what you mean by "overwhipped" ... I'm happy to explain the whipping in my turns if it's of help:
I was desperate to get Oxford University up, which accounts for the two University whips plus the Oxford whip.
Uzbek needed more slots for specialists and was teatering on
issues, which is why I whipped the Grocer.
The Lighthouse whips were for cities with seafood resources, and this would only encourage medium and longer term population growth.
Visigoth was starting to work generic coastal tiles, and so I whipped the Grocer there.
5.b. Starvation / Stagnation
Beshbalik is starving to get West Point done as soon as practical - the only tiles left are Farms other than the Windmill that's being converted to a Mine which isn't ready yet - I don't think that we can get West Point out any sooner.
Turfan can grow, but I just wanted to get the Forge done as the other non-worked tiles are pretty ordinary (pre-Biology).
Basra is also working to get its Forge done by putting a citizen on the Mine, as the only options otherwise are coastal tiles, and aside from a Library we have no
multipliers there ... I'm OK if you want it to grow, but with no tiles producing more than 2
, it'll be slow while the Iron Mine lies idle.
5.c. Barracks
More generally, at 1350AD we had
three Barracks in our entire empire - talk'n about Domination! If in doubt, build Barracks, as I assumed that we'd be drafting and whipping out land units at some point or other out of many cities. Generally our
will be derived out of Karakorum, and I'd probably prefer to see Barracks before
multipliers. Universities might have some appeal in cities with a Library already and some decent
because of the +100
courtesy of the Philosophical trait.
My 'two cents'.