How to bulb astronomy. I back-doored it (ie it just happened) but now I know since looking it up as it was quite useful in my current game. Get optics, don't unlock paper (ie no theology or CS). A weird tech path, but it paid off immensely. Bulbing it I went from a slider % of 40 being break even to a slider percent of 70 being break even, with a near-tripling of bpt (many small continents, I was semi-isolated, caravels had already found almost everyone, I am expansive and organized, and harbors actually make a difference for once. Also, unlocks observatories, which is not too shabby on this game).
Info on game if anyone cares:
I was trying to move up to immortal again (took a long break from civ, and was only just starting to get kind-of competive in imm when I stopped) for the first time in a while, will win handily. Everyone in the world knows at most two other civs, and several are completely isolated. I was semi-isolated with ghandi, and thanks to boxing him in, and the GLH, I just researched a more expensive tech every time he researched something new, and was able to keep up with his techs/turn. Kept trading with him, and that pathetic level of trading (1 tech for every new tech I unlock) made me tech parity with the other top civ (darius of the.. something).
The game's a lock now, as I am the only one with astro (one other just got optics), spread my/Ghandi's religion to each heathen civ I ran into (and there were 5 of them!) so I'm in the largest religious block, killed ghandi and stole his shrine before any of his religious followers even got to meet him, and am going to win a super late lib (post 1000AD, and might be post 1100. However long I can hold out for. No one else has education...) for almost whatever I want.
Will get at least sci meth (sci meth isn't obsoleting anything for me except a single monastery, so it's a pretty good tech to get). I might not even finish this game, as space should be easy, dom would be easy with SP but tedious, conquest would actually be doable but super-tedious. Culture and diplo might be harder, but probably doable. So.. yeah. Woot, a legitmate immortal win! Kind of. I dunno. Each imm win will have now been on very watery maps, but at least this one isn't me as willem or darius of the dutch, which is actually very easy on imm.