First off, sorry for the lack of pictures. I had actually screenshotted some stuff, but I don't have time to crop anything (midterms coming up) and putting up uncropped pics is not my style.
950AD (240):
Preflight check. Our empire is coming along nicely but is clearly in a "development" sort of stage. We're about to push for a new wave of REX into the islands for those lucrative trade routes, so in general it's a good idea to buffer our economy.
Astronomy is our targeted tech for Liberalism, and it's already unlocked, so we just need to get there.
Get rid of some obsolete signs in general, and going to take a quick look through our cities.
Moscow is building an Aqueduct, which is a decent idea as our health cap sucks all around. However, sturick is correct that an earlier courthouse would have been more effective. Not a huge loss either way. The aqueduct can be 2-pop whipped at this point, and seeing as we have a food surplus in Moscow, going to use up some population. Growth in 2.
St. Petes is building a Catapult. I'm not a huge fan of these things anymore, especially since we are not looking to go to war with them. I swap to a worker as I notice we are working unimproved tiles here.
Nova is still trying to build it's market. That won't do. I swap to an Aqueduct with full intent to whip next turn.
Rostov is building a harbor and is stagnant and running a spy! Eh, indeed. I unstagnate it, as we are going to whip this building next turn.
Yaro is building a crossbowman, and that seems fine. We'll need to lay off on military in this town though, as we need infrastructures. And workers! I delete Franky the warrior because we have a ton of garrison here already.
Yek is working on a Crossbow. Seems alright considering our lack of options and lousy terrain down here. Again, could use another worker, but we will get to that after builds finish.
Yak is in fair shape, and we can start bringing the irrigation here now that we have Civil. Again, more workers. I surrender Yak's farm to Yaro, as we don't have any tiles to grow into anymore here (working unimproved tiles).
Vlad is working on a forge, and I cringe as this building should have been whipped. Oh well, I switch all work to land tiles to finish the forge next turn. We need to get libraries and stuff up here to run specs.
We need 90 hammers invested to 2-pop whip Smolensk's Courthouse, I'll see what I can do in the min-max department. Eh, notice that we can whip a lighthouse much faster, so switch to it now.
Orenburg's Granary gets 2-pop whipped.
Krasnoyarsk's Workboat gets 1-pop whipped (we need it bad).
Sign Open Borders with Boud to get some more trade routes and give her an excuse NOT to attack us.
We don't have Crabs, and it will be a while before we do, so give Boud Silk for Crabs. More trade relations is always good.
Ramesses has some spare cash lying around, so give him Sugar for 3gpt.
Dial up Charlegmagne for 2gpt for one of our Silks.
De Gaulle and Fred have cash, but not looking to make any new enemies yet, so holding off on that for now. De Gaulle is in WHEOOH mode anyways, so someone is about to get hurt. Hopefully not us, and likely Fred?
960AD (241):
War Horns sounding! Not against us! De Gaulle declares war on Boudica.
Found... uh... Khabarovsk. WTH? On Purple Love Dot. Immediately dial for a Granary.
Nova eats a brutal 3-pop whip of it's Aqueduct. Growth in 3, lol.
Moscow's Aqueduct is finished, so going to blitz a Courthouse before pushing out settlers for the islands.
Vlad is done a forge and starts a Library. It's 4 turns, so no need to whip this thing.
Orenburg's Granary is finished, and dial a Forge for even more efficient whipping. We will likely get a few chops into it as well.
Rostov can 2-pop whip the Harbor, and I do it because we just sacrifice pointless specs anyways.
Krasn's workboat finished, and it defaults to a granary. I dump out the annoying build queue. It is not necessary to do this kind of stuff.
970AD (242):
Charlgemagne adopts vassalage. Ok, who is he planning on fighting?
Nova's duct finishes, back to that forever market. We will refrain from whipping if we are not wasting food into unhealth (as we need to grow cottages).
Boris lands on a tundra island to the north.
Rostov's Harbor finished, so dialing a Galley.
980AD (243):
Charlie wants Machinery + gold for Feud. Uh, naw...
Then Fred shows up offering Feud + 125 gold for Civil. Seeing as this is actually a fair deal (in the AI's eyes at least) I take it as we need Feud for guilds later.
990AD (244):
Boud shows up and wants us to declare war on the French. I think not.
Apparently Boud doesn't even need any help, as she wins a Great General.
Our explorer's hit land in the south on the new world.
St. Petes finishes a worker, and I note that Angkor Wat is available. Heck, it is a wonder worth getting, and we have stone, so if we lose it, we win mass cash. Don't try this in a real game!
.
Yaro finishes a Crossbow, so we'll order up a longbow to keep our military strength up.
1000AD (245):
A barb galley attacks our caravel and dies. Caravel has to stop and heal though, sigh...
We get an event at Yak's iron mine that manages to win us something like 30 gold. Fairly inconsequential, but extra cash is always nice.
Yek finishes a Crossbow. We dial up a Library.
Yak also finished a Crossbow, but we order a settler.
Vlad's library is done so hire some scientists and dial a Monastery.
1010AD (246):
Hanging Gardens is BIAFL, and someone gets a Great Engineer. Oh well, I guess we're losing Angkor Wat, lol.
Our Caravel gets attacked AGAIN, and wins a promotion. Taking combat and stopping to heal.
We finish the Galley at Rostov and order up a settler.
Ramesses is running all these Jewish missionaries around in our land, so some more free culture and happiness for us!
1020AD (247):
Parthenon BIAFL. So Vlad is off the hook!
We land the Horse Whispering Quest (build 7 stables) WTH? Too bad we don't have HBR. Uh, ok, going to go look at the rewards.
1.you get default number of players for this world size Horse Archers (6 for standard)
2.All mounted units get the Sentry promotion
3.All stables provide +1 food
The free Sentry promotion intrigues me, but everything else seeems like garbage. Not something to stress about since Education is next and will nuke this quest.
Ramesses is about to tech Civil, so get a bit of gold from him for it (60 gold).
I realize that Smolensk grew a few turns back, and I was supposed to whip it. Lamely attempt to whip it now.
1030AD (248):
Paper comes in and Boud immediately shows up and wants to trade world maps. Uh no?
Moving on to Education in 20ish turns.
Orenburg can JUST whip the forge this turn, so do it.
Our explorer pops a hut in the new world and wins a scout >.<
1040AD (249):
Purple Love dot pops borders, yay.
Our second explorer lands in the new world and nails a hut worth 151 gold.
Yaro finishes a Longbow and we order a Monastery.
Oren's Forge is done, so dial a courthouse.
Wang is working on a quick guilds, so Lib is all but assured.
1050AD (250):
De Gaulle and Boud make peace due to an event, boo.
I blunder our free scout into a barb warrior almost immediately >.< Dead Scout.
1060AD (251):
As predicted, our scout gets whacked.
Vlad's Monastery is done, so Vlad will dial a cheap worker.
1070AD (252):
HBR is up for trade with almost everyone. Ramesses has a big pile of cash on hand, so trade him Compass for HBR and 275 gold.
We win ANOTHER scout from a hut, omg.
Moscow's Courthouse comes in. A market sounds like a good idea as we are making decent cash in this place.
Rostov's settler is done and on the boat. Order up the HE as we have a break right now.
Yek's library is done, hire a scientist and dial a longbow.
Yak is now done a settler, getting on a library.
2-pop whip Smolensk's courthouse for maximum overflow.
1080AD (253):
Smolensk's whipped courthouse comes in. Dialing a forge and going to let this place simmer a while.
Krasn can finally whip the granary.
1090AD (254):
Another GE is born far away, so hopefully losing Angkor Wat for cash next turn!
A barb galley appears to try and harass our settler party, sigh... Going to divert to the closest island to drop off our settler and crossbowman (in case we get punked).
Krasn's granary is done, dialing a forge. We can and should use the worker whip trick here. (wait until size 2 and then switch to the worker!
1100AD (255):
Hagia Sophia BIAFL!
Barb Galley closing in so dropping off units. Switching to another Galley in Rostov, sigh...
Going to take one more turn to MM Krasn. And our galley will live or die by then, lol.
1110AD (256):
Our Galley lives and has 0.6 Strength left. Going to limp back to port and let it heal/pick up more settlers. We can found on the eastern half of that close island.
Swap Krasn to a worker.
Passing off the save here, as it seems like a good point. Education is in in about a dozen turns, and Liberalism shouldn't be long after that. There is minimal threat to the Lib race as well, as Wang was researching frilly stuff like Music and Drama.
Expansion into the islands will get us some more trade routes to play with. The palace needs to be moved to a more central location though, as maintenance is going to start killing us with Colony costs (2+ cities on a landmass). Nova obviously seems like a good location, with the only problem being getting it built with the few hammers we have there. It will also let us run a Bureaucracy Capital and milk a massive commerce boost due to having a ton of cottages there.
). 
