Round 6: 820AD - 1050AD
Sorry for the wait. Busy few days. And it's quite a short round this time because we're navigating our way past difficult choices that require much thinking and deliberation to be made in order for our mission to be successful.
So far we've gotten all the wonders that we need to maximise the benefits of the trade route strategy: the Great Wall (for a GE to build the ToA with), the Great Lighthouse and the ToA. Sadly, in the upcoming patch the Great Wall gambit is no longer viable, which quite a blow to our strategy since there's no way you can ensure you build both the ToA and the Lighthouse without it. Unless you have 2 high production cities very early and either stone or marble nearby. Or maybe if you build the Pyramids super early. But the show goes on, so let's see what can happen assuming both wonders can be built.
Now, with our strategy in mind, we are faced with some difficult choices. The trade route strategy favours getting Astronomy asap. Although it may not be the fastest, I think the most effective way to do this is by getting to Liberalism first and grabbing Astronomy as the free tech. That way, we get the relatively expensive tech free while setting the stage for a tech lead. This gambit is made easier by the possibility of lightbulbing Education with a GS, which is what we might be able to do since we managed to build the Great Library as well. Failing that, if we get a GM instead, we could use him to lightbulb CS, which is an important tech and on the way to Education.
However, there is a problem. We need Optics for Astronomy, and that tech does not lie along the Education route. But beelining to Optics also has its benefit - the possibility of winning the circumnavigation bonus. Since we are not aiming to win by diplomacy this time, we may have to attempt domination by conquering one or two factions on the other continent (assuming the AIs there are not united as one). The +1 movement bonus to ships would certainly be helpful when we have to conduct intercontinental campaigns to get enough land/pop to win. We had a GE around to help with this, since he could lightbulb Machinery, which is on the way to Optics. However, should we delay CS for this if we don't get a GM next? Bureaucracy would help our research, but if we research CS before Optics we might lose the circumnavigation race. Of course, there's no way to tell that we're not going to lose anyway. Or to lose the Liberalism race, for that matter. Certainly a tension-filled phase of the game.
Well, for this round I decided to research Metal Casting first for the cheap forges and their extra happiness from gems that would encourage more growth and hence increase our research power. Anyway, it's probably worth waiting to see what GP we get next. If we get a GM, we could lightbulb CS so we might as well be researching the other techs we need along the Optics route first. If we get a GS, we could lightbulb Education later on and get even more free beakers that way, but we would've been delaying CS at the detriment of our regular research. But then again it might mean we're on our way to winning the circumnavigation race.
And I set the NE as Washington's next build, since most of us have agreed that we should maximise the GPP we're getting there asap:
Then I traded CoL to Brennus for gold to help us keep our science rate high so that we could get the techs we needed sooner:
A few turns later, our exploring spearman (which was built to guard against a sneak attack by Brennus, by the way) found out the situation around stone city site:
Looks like Brennus razed the Arabian city there and has a big city of his own nearby. Well, too bad, I guess. I think we should build a city on the ruins in the future (if one hasn't been built there already) but keep Gergovia when we capture it. It's one tile away from the river, though. Hmm...
Anyway, soon, two more catapults arrived in Mecca and it was time to delcare war on Saladin again:
Our target was Medina, the holy city of Christianity. We already had a prophet waiting to build a shrine there. There was a small problem, though: By the time we invaded, Saladin has researched Feudalism:
Damn. Protective longbows
This might be costly. First, we had to spend a few turns bombarding to cultural defense to 0.
Meanwhile, we discovered Metal Casting. Since we hadn't gotten our next GP, I decided to proceed further down the Optics route, using our GE to lightbulb Machinery:
Yes, I know some of you buildaholics out there might be clamouring for another wonder hurried by him
But I think this is worth the investment. After the lightbulb, we needed only 1 turn to research Machinery.
Notice that Washington is unhealthy in that screenshot. Yes, health problems were indeed beginning to rear their ugly heads, partly due to an Arab trireme pillaging the clams near Mecca. This delayed the construction of those forges, since our cities have to build aqueducts first even after the sheep to the south of Washington have been pastured (Brennus has no health resources to trade)
After Machinery was discovered, I checked our GP meter:
Not quite there yet. The completion of the NE would really hasten the birth of our next GP, but for now I guess we should research Compass (required for Optics) first. At least it would allow us to build harbours, which would increase our trade route income, especially in the capital.
Then Medina fell, at the cost of two catapults and two rookie axemen:
Well, it wasn't so bad. But we had to bring up our small reserve of catapults to continue our campaign.
[to be continued in the next post...]
Therefore I would settle the scientist we have for tha academy instead of keeping him hanging around for a long time to lightbulb a part of Education. 
