Spoiler T235, Pt II :
So, I managed the Taj, which brings the tally of GA turns to 36. Given the mess of prophets I kept getting, I thought that wasn't too bad of a use of my GP.
Tech wise I go PP next. I basically axed any and all great person farming because Delhi is such a wreck. I cottage up a whole bunch of cities, including Xian, which I made my capital. Since I grew a bit bigger than I planned, the maintenance cost for Asoka's east coast cities was > 12.
My first contact is Justinian. Tech chart below has me in an OK place. I followed PP up with Astro. Always forget I don't need Astro to build caravels, but it's necessary in the end anyways.
What's the play on isolation when you meet civs? Do I trade astro away to backfill?
With the 3rd GA I went free speech + religion. Nearly everyone is in their own religion, and I want to avoid making any enemies. I go US + emancipation willingly for probably the first time in forever because I am very cottage heavy. (41 towns, 46 villages shortly after this civics switch)
Here's the state of affairs @ 1625 AD. I have met everyone, including a GK and Churchill who were both plotting when I met them. I am teching rifling just in case.
Don't see why Churchill would declare, but GK demanded 700 gold from me, which I rejected, and the -4 from trading with his enemies has him annoyed. Monty is also annoyed, which in conjunction with GK makes me a tad worried.
After rifling, I would typically go space race in this scenario. I am very cottage heavy and suited to the late game. I'm near the top in tech and I think I've got the infrastructure to only widen that gap as the game progresses. Also, hauling a bunch of troops takes so much time that it could negate a big chunk of any tech lead.
However, I'm curious to see what more seasoned players would do for domination here. Zara and GK don't have banking or paper, so I'd have a plenty of time to reach a decisive victory with rifling. The way diplo started out (I was eager to make some trades and picked up a pair of not-so-great enemies to have), I am more inclined to be aggressive in this case.
Side note - what determines when a city gets foreign / overseas trade routes? I have some coastal cities with them, and some without?
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