There are 150 turns left in this game. Currently we are in the box seat but all can change quickly here...
I whip a couple of buildings in unhappy cities, wince at the troop situation down south, upgrade a couple of CR maces to rifles and press enter...
Cyrus suicides a few rifles and knights against our troops at Pharsalos and manages to kill one rifle for his efforts.
No attacks from Willem down south, so he is in range from our seige in Luxembourg.
There was some talk of Nationhood. It will save us some cash and allow drafting and the value of Bureaucracy is long gone with a huge empire so we bite the bullet.
There is a GG lying about, I'll find somewhere to merge him. Otrar is our highest hammer city without a merged GG and is marked for Heroic Epic so its done here. I notice the GS marked 'for GA'
Another turn passes with no major attacks (2 random Willem suicides) and we are out of anarchy and can up the science rate 10%.
Our newly upgraded CR rifles, cavalry and trebuchets make mince meat of Willem at Luxembourg but I've only got 15 troops and 5 seige. After they all attack and win he still has 6 units inside, oh well next turn then.
We get another GG though.
Luxembourg is liberated.
Chemistry comes in, replaced by Steel.
The battle of Pharsalos has lots of carnage. We suicide 4 trebs and then teh fun begins. We win 15 or so battles but lose 4 rifles at over 60%. Next turn, we lose 4 more troops but take down many more. A third turn is required.
The drafting angle has hit a snag. We're taking 5
from WW and 1 from emacipation. An extra 3 for drafting is hard to take so we draft sparingly. The culture slider is put up as well, which meant a turn detour to Drama.
An extra city is founded as well.
The turn after I arrive with troops at Mainz, Huayna gets rifles.
We take Pharsalos though.
I play 11 turns so we get to Steel. We may need Democracy for getting some more happiness, so Constitution selected but no beakers. Military Science would also be OK.
Everywhere that can is building cannons.
We take Mainz last turn as well.
And generate a GG, who is sitting at Turfan.
The troops are healing in Mainz and Pharsalos and an expeditionary force has set out on the sea in Greek territory. We are very low on seige in the west and have some that can be upgraded next turn in Mainz.
There has been no counter from the Greeks for the last few turns so a quick advance (even without seige) might work.
Huayna must only have 3-4 cities left, so another quick advance might get rid of him as well (less WW). There is a rogue elephant just behind the front lines to clean up as well.
Tech-wise, Fred has Steam Power, Churchill has Military Science and 3 have Constitution.
)
But that just means it'll be mostly a builders set for me to get more siege to the warfront 
Now you can sleep better. 
