Technology
I put together a spreadsheet of techs, their cost in CAII, their age, if they are required and if we can currently research it in 4 turns at 70, 80 or 100 %SCI.
For the industrial age, required techs, it looks like there are six techs we can't currently do. They are, with the number of bpt we need to add:
Refining (47)
Atomic Theory (314)
Combustion (47)
Flight (180)
Electronics (180)
Radio (314)
I'm not sure the rounding formula for calculating library contributions but if it's round-down then we stand to gain ~37bpt by building librarys in >1bpt towns (including Entremont!). Building the Unis in the same towns would gain ~258bpt for a total of 295bpt. So we can get everything but Atomic Theory and Radio once the unis are built. We would need 19 more scientists than currently exists in America which should be no problem. So I think we want to delay the GA until the modern era, unless we have difficulty running at 100% Science for ~24 turns (6 techs).
Wonders
Sages can now build Newtons and should be switched. Zentral is way past a bank and will need to finish a wonder if we don't want it to waste >100s. With Sun's due to expire soon, I think it needs to be put on Leos until we research Economics or Music Theory. Economics would be preferred since we'd rather have Bach's down in the south. That gives us 11 turns to get Economics IF we use the big picture to switch Zentral to Smiths (should happen on my turn).
Without knowing what Spain will research and knowing that Spain will build any wonder from scratch faster than we can, we either need to have a constant prebuild in the south, research Music Theory on our own, or forget about giving Bach's to India.
The other option is to have a strike force prepared to decimate Madrid if it tries to steal OUR wonders. This is probably the prefered method because it will also allow us to delay building Universal Suffrage and TOE. The former because it will trigger our GA and the latter to hopefully grab some Modern Age Techs with it. Ideally we would grab Miniaturization and Space Flight with it as they are the most expensive required techs. India should then be allowed to take the Great Library so they can start building Apollo.
(BTW, the Spaceship screen indicates that Robotics is not a required tech for the Spaceship. Are you sure it's required?)
Improvements
It seems like Niklas' build list is:
Library, Harbor if possible, Aquaduct if necessary, Courthouse if helpful, market, university, temple, Cathedral. I like this order (with occational swaps as appropriate).
I think Spicy Smurkz could join Steinsmurkz in worker production rather than building it's aquaduct right now. Switch it to a harbor due in 1 to prevent wasting shields, then start the worker after the harbor finishes. If you irrigate one of Stein's tiles (1 North of the Lake is easy), it can make 5fpt with only one wheat. Spicy would use the other wheat and the oyster for 6fpt and alternate the osyter with a mine. They could both make workers every other turn.
We have the equivalent of about 94 workers (slaves=.5 workers). That sounds like a lot until we say that we are working 263 unrailed tiles. That equates to a minimum of 1578 worker turns. In reality with the hills and mountains that we will need to use, its probably closer to 2000-2500 worker turns. so it would take us twenty turns to railroad. The more workers the better.
Kalmurkz might be better off supplying a worker and then a settler since the aquaduct won't have enough space to fit 12 citizens. Don't forget there's a chop coming in 4 so building the settler right off the bat would waste 5s of the chop unless you can speed the chop by a turn or two.
Mo needs a harbor rather than a galleon.
Other MM
According to CAII, we're 8bpt over the exact amount need to finish Metallurgy in 3. There are a lot of scientists hired that could be switched to taxmen, or into food for growth but do the city MM first incase you need to switch from coast to mine (like in Tromsmurkz).
Ismurkz could get the bank in 3 instead of 4. Cabana could get it in 10 instaed of 13. (All of these sacrifice some science so be careful not to mess up the 3 turns left on Metalurgy.)
I'm sure there's others, but overall things look good. I like how many towns are at 10spt (no MM needed).
Dealing with the other AI
The only critical issues with the AI that I can see now are:
- Mongols or Ottomans need to be moved to their own padded wall room before they eliminate each other.
- Carthage has a settler pair walking through our land. I'm sure he'll withdraw if asked. If he makes it halfway, then asking him to leave will teleport him to the Bursa area that's vacant which would be bad but not a big deal. Just don't let it walk into an undefended core town because that would set us back the cost of replacing all the infrastructure.
None of the other AI seem to have pressing issues. We can leave Gergovia there as long as we want but it will allow them to repopulate some of the territory.
Carthage has an Atoll town that needs to be ours soon so that we can "give" it to India but not a pressing issue.
Spain has connected their saltpeter so there's no point trying resource denial against them. They are currently 74gpt of our economy so I hope they can sustain that.
OK I've been posting this for a long while. Time to submit.
EDIT: Not surprizing I cross posted with zyxy. Except for the bank in Zentral I think we're saying the same thing. Switching Zentral to bank will blow >200s!
I was under the false impression that railroads give an extra commerce as well as an extra sheild/food. I was wrong, so yes, Sages can wait for rails.