Well, it seems that the RNG gods have decided that Ragnar on an Archipelago is overpowered, and have given us a very tough starting area to compensate. 
The way I see it, if we can't find other civs by boat/borders, we've got a twofold problem. The first issue is how to power the economy to reach Astronomy without getting left behind in military and economic techs. The second is how to generate enough hammers to build the army/navy we'll need once we can traverse the oceans.
We have two wonders built so far, only one of which has a direct economic benefit, and that is severely nerfed while we're isolated. Once we get Astronomy, the GLH will become very powerful, but until then we're going to have to power our research by other means.
There's a fair amount of cottageable tiles available, but if we cover all of our land with cottages, rather than workshops/watermills, we're going to be very production limited - which will really hurt when we we need a swift military buildup.
What we do have is the Financial trait and a whole lot of coastal tiles, as well as Stone, plenty of seafood, and a reduced need for military early on. To me, this cries out for a Pyramids-powered SE, using our coastal income to pay maintenance costs, while covering much of the land we have with hammer-producing improvements.
That way, we can tech swiftly to Optics, then Astronomy (maybe through Liberalism, but directly could be more effective), whilst building up a latent production capacity to be unleashed when war beckons. At that point, all those juicy international trade routes will keep the beakers flowing as we switch from scientists to hammers.
Again, meeting even one AI within galley range could alter our situation dramatically. But until that happens, I feel we need to be aiming for Optics and Astronomy as soon as we can, which makes any diversions to grab the GL or other wonders less attractive propositions.
The way I see it, if we can't find other civs by boat/borders, we've got a twofold problem. The first issue is how to power the economy to reach Astronomy without getting left behind in military and economic techs. The second is how to generate enough hammers to build the army/navy we'll need once we can traverse the oceans.
We have two wonders built so far, only one of which has a direct economic benefit, and that is severely nerfed while we're isolated. Once we get Astronomy, the GLH will become very powerful, but until then we're going to have to power our research by other means.
There's a fair amount of cottageable tiles available, but if we cover all of our land with cottages, rather than workshops/watermills, we're going to be very production limited - which will really hurt when we we need a swift military buildup.
What we do have is the Financial trait and a whole lot of coastal tiles, as well as Stone, plenty of seafood, and a reduced need for military early on. To me, this cries out for a Pyramids-powered SE, using our coastal income to pay maintenance costs, while covering much of the land we have with hammer-producing improvements.
That way, we can tech swiftly to Optics, then Astronomy (maybe through Liberalism, but directly could be more effective), whilst building up a latent production capacity to be unleashed when war beckons. At that point, all those juicy international trade routes will keep the beakers flowing as we switch from scientists to hammers.
Again, meeting even one AI within galley range could alter our situation dramatically. But until that happens, I feel we need to be aiming for Optics and Astronomy as soon as we can, which makes any diversions to grab the GL or other wonders less attractive propositions.
heavy tech that does not add much to the economical infrastructure ( windmills and watermills will only shine much later )... I would prefer a Education beeline passing by CoL, CS and Currency.
. ATM we only have a pretty small part of the picture avaliable and making decisions with just part of the intel is as good as wildguess ( sometimes even worse.... 
)
to economy is good at this point. In the (unlikely granted) event we get a GM around then (18 turns to GP) we could net up to machinery in one shot. Otherwise some 
are still something.
coastal tiles. Those trade routes from the lighthouse aren't useless since all the routes are intercontinental. One size 15 city on the west continent will give you a lucrative trade route every city can use. Also, not building a standing army will save you about 30
