I jsut joined in the game today, so don't really know our past, but
IMHO, I believe we should make friend more with Genghis Kahn, because he is more technologically advanced than all of us, and as it was stated before he seems to be agressive, it would better us if he were our friends, until the status quo changes and we can topple him. For now though, if Old Sari grows, we will need an open borders agreement to get anyway else in the world. You must remember we are a penninsula, and we failed to control any of our surrounding lands, (unless you decide to put the settler to the north of Old sari, look below im providing pictures)
Now as to Russia, they seem weaker then us (which actually is saying something) and I think we should let them grow a little and watch them. Hopefully they'll be an empire witch it's military is to weak to either keep up with ours, or it military is too weak for its size.
Now he are my proposed plans we should settle where the red highlighted tile is:
I also think that we need to gain the upper hand on Germany. All the way to the south (farthest southern land we know of) we should try and place a city. Doing this would allow us to monopolize the silver industry and would also allow us to potentially take one square of copper. I know its a long way off from our empire, but taking a few turns to build escort and garisson units (and one worker) would give us a huge upper hand on Germany. Making a city here and heavily garissoning it would give us a stronghold not only economically, but if our mainland was to be attacked, we'd have one retreat city. Here is the area I'm talking about:
Lastly, I have never played the demogame before, so is there a way I can lobby my ideas. I see a great amount wrong with our civilization (not to be mean), and I'm not experienced enough to run for any offices. Is there a thread for lobbying, or would I just have to make my own threads for each reform I have? Also where can I find out when the next elections are?