slaze
Deity
Then you'll want cottages in preparation for bureaucracy.
Due to the ease we have in switching civics I wouldn't doubt we'll be in Bureaucracy at some point, but I wouldn't rule out Vassalage just yet either. Hereditary Rule and Vassalage support a very profitable expansion on river tiles - each commerce gained is even more profitable the last as long as its unit support is free.
I anticipate us filling out our land with settlers/workers, with our capitol doing most of the heavy lifting, using farms/mines to make these units. This kind of capitol, a farmed, rivered capitol, is a Vassalage capitol, at least until you hit health and cottage down the farms. But balanced with the rivered and or commercial cites, this start needs to go through HR-Vassalage before anything. Once the other cities get to 8-10 slavery isn't worth what it was and you can run serfdom with even OR for cities not building units.
I'll shy away from all the Federalists with their Bureaucracy talk. I'm thinking we gotta play this one more like a confederacy with Vassalage and HR.
My experience is that the earlier you get economics/corporation the better
The death of the castle-based EE is Assembly Line. That's the first post-Economics tech you can't handle in the field.
stealing techs via espionage really isn't feasible nor desirable, and ever after it isn't that easy to accomplish.
If have the holy city bonus it can become desireable pretty quick. Think of it as bonus that puts 40% multiplier buildings in all cities instantly.
the best way to continually utilize espionage for stealing techs is to build the Great Wall, settle the Great Spy (3 beakers, 12 eps) and start focusing eps towards which ever AI has a tech your interested in. The next Great Spy gets scotland yard...
The best way is to infiltrate, as this greatly increases you spent espionage ratio, making performing espionage significantly cheaper. Spend enough espionage and the religious bonus gets you techs at one-third cost(this allows for an extremely expanded empire!)
However, the madrassa points in a different direction regarding great people, so we may not get the choice at all.
Castles are still not very hot as they expire with economics, however it makes UoS and SM cheaper...
There seems to be a choice to make in going science or espionage, with the UoS leading us down the science path.
However, if you get both temples and monastaries, things multiply quite nicely. Pre-existing madrassa's take them to 5
