I played 11 turns to take us up to 600 AD.
First part of the round went according to plan. The Great Scientist gave us Philosophy, ushering in the Medieval Era and, more importantly, founding Taoism in Nanjing; I waited for Monarchy to complete before making it the state religion. The free missionary was used to spread the religion to Ptah.
In 425 AD, FDR was finally ready to talk, after losing a few more units.
I immediately arranged a simple peace treaty - he wasn't willing to give us any techs (he only had Calendar up his sleeve) - and so he dropped back to a Cautious -2 in relations. Interestingly, although he not surprisingly still considered us his worst enemy at this point, by the following turn he had changed his mind and was complaining about Alex instead - and that is how things remain at the end of the round, with Alex and FDR seething with mutual loathing.
Alas, on the very same turn that we made peace, disaster struck. Mansa grabbed Theology and founded Christianity
So much for our hopes of uniting this continent with Taoism. We will also be at a disadvantage due to our currently closed borders - I judged opening them to be still too risky, and my suspicion was justified a few turns later when I saw an American settler leaving Philadelpia, looking for a suitable spot. More annoying still, one turn later Mansa also built the Church of the Nativity, increasing his chances of religious domination still further.
Meanwhile, Alex had just issued his first demand:
I told him to take a hike, knowing full well that his lack of OB with either Mali or America prevented him from reaching us - and his army couldn't have been up to much anyway if he was lacking copper...
Monotheism was completed in 500 AD, and I decided to go for Construction as no one else had it at that point. However, it was time to revolt to OR / HR first.
In case you're wondering why I didn't go for Currency instead, I'd already tried to get it from Mansa, but he refused to part with it (or Metal Casting) unless I included Philosophy in the deal. This was the best that was on offer...
...but I wasn't prepared to let him have Philosophy, even in exchange for two such useful techs. Instead, I waited for a few turns and took this deal instead in 520 AD:
Mansa removed Metal Casting from the agenda shortly afterwards ("we have our reasons"), so I guess he may be building the Colossus.
Alex converted to Christianity in 580 AD, and worse still, the cult spread to our own city of Guang in 600 AD! America still seems to be free as far as I can see; we have a missionary due at Nanjing next turn and I was wondering if it might be worth opening borders and sending it to Philadelphia to try to get FDR on our side.
I prepared another settler and he is ready to found a city at Pink Dot next turn (I overshot the location slightly so you will need to move him and the archer escort 1E to include the wine).
As you can see, the iron has been connected and a work boat will be completed in Shanghai next turn to hook up the fishes.
This will take up most of the best land so there's probably not much point in blocking off the south for much longer. BTW, thanks so much Maquis for not telling me about that barb city that had popped up in the SE...
There are various possible trades open for techs and resources (irritatingly, Mansa has just finished Construction), but I've left those up to the next player. Just remember that trading with Alex will probably give us demerits with FDR, and vice versa.
How the hell did hiring a scientists shave off a turn for production?
We got Great Library! 
It's a shame we missed on CoL, but I'm hoping the other Civs all have different religions and will start fighting each other (otherwise we may find ourselves in a bit of a tech hole come Caravels)
