The round began with some key trades from Aesthetics and Compass. I did:
Aesthetics for Iron Working
Aesthetics for Mathematics
Compass for Currency
Compass for Code of Laws
Compass for Calendar
Currency for Monarchy
Code of Laws for Alphabet
After these trades were made, research continued with Civil Service.
Unfortunately, I was not able to demonstrate the use of Vassalage in this game, due to the very poor commerce situation in the early game. There was almost no time to develop "trade fodder techs" by researching Music, Theology, or other less researched techs. Furthermore, the lure of building an easy Oxford University made it too tempting to pass up early Education.
In addition, Zara Yaqob and Gandhi were very advanced in tech, each independently getting early Philosophy. I kept my cool and headed straight for Paper and Education. After this was finished, and it was seen that no one else had Education (and I could also get the full trade value of Education from all the other AIs), I researched Philosophy myself.
So far, I have gained only 3 GSs, used as follows:
1) Academy
2) Bulb Education
3) Bulb Liberalism
After the Liberalism bulb was done, I did a massive surge of tech trades, including the following:
Drama + Philosophy for Machinery
Education for Printing Press
Education for Feudalism + Optics
Education for Engineering + 500 gold
After experiencing a wave of good luck in the form of AI tech choices, the Liberalism race was won at 640 AD, and I picked up Astronomy.
I then traded:
Astronomy for Nationalism
The current empire, at 800 AD, now stands at 8 cities. Moai Statues has been completed in New York, with the potential of 9 water tiles.
The capital will have Heroic Epic and Oxford University. I may need to wait until Oxford is done before ramping up military units from the capital. In the meantime, other cities will need to provide the few units needed for garrision duty.
Techs...everyone seems to be teching fast in this game, and I'm able to use their momentum to help propel my own research.
I may be able to make some trades right away with Gandhi and Montezuma, but I'll need to be careful about Montezuma's diplomatic standing. Right now, he hates Gandhi, so trading with Gandhi may give me a -1 penalty.
The good news is, however, is that Montezuma has only a +1 "fair trade" bonus, and is still Pleased. If I can make a generous trade with him, I can raise this bonus to +4, and this will cover up the -1 penalty I might get from trading with Gandhi.
Diplo...Tokugawa is still Pleased, partly thanks to my constant generous trades with him. As expected, he is far behind the others. In preparation for the war, I will probably finish Oxford University before massing military units.
Religion...absolutely dismal. I intentionally switched to Bureaucracy + Organized Religion in the hopes of using Organized Religion to quickly spread Hinduism, once it finally spread to my cities, but this never actually happened.
Now I am stuck with 3 useless religions. I will probably switch to Free Religion soon, but the question is can I switch a 2nd civic to minimize anarchy.
I could try starting a Golden Age, but I'd rather save that for Emancipation.