Emperor Level Greeks: What next?

[Midnite_Rambler]

After several successful warmonger games on emperor I decided to try it as a builder. Despite never having played as them, I chose the Greeks for builder-oriented traits and a UU which would hopefully deter any early game agression. I was really happy with my start and subsequent city locations, expanding first to the north to keep the English at bay and eventually winning a breif war with them over the ivory on their southern border. I popped a SGL shortly after and rushed the pyramids. I've fended off several small invasions from both the English and Babs.

It's now 130AD and I'm not sure what steps to take next. As far as I can tell, my strengths and weaknesses are as follows:
Strengths
-Promising city locations occupying a *decent* sized penninsula
-Tech lead over England (tied with Babs)
-Resources (Iron, Horses, Spices, Ivory)
-Pyramids
-An unused GA

Weaknesses
-Lack of infastructure; couldnt get those workers out fast enough
-Lack of exploration
-Unhappiness; can't keep up with pyramid-induced city growth
-Despotism; I've delayed Republic (stupid?) until i have more workers. I also fear a lack of military police.

I've attached my save file. Any advice/input you could give would be great. I would love to avoid war if i can but part of me feels two luxuries just wont cut it on emperor. Also, advice on greek-specific strats would be nice, seeing as how i dont have any experience with them. thanks

 

[anaxagoras]

Weaknesses
-Lack of infastructure; couldnt get those workers out fast enough
-Unhappiness; can't keep up with pyramid-induced city growth

I can't take a look at your save at the moment, but it is obvious that these two cancel each other. Change your build priorities and crank out the workers to both reduce population (and therefore unhappiness) and to bolster your workforce. While you are waiting for the workers to complete, use your lux slider and go conquer another lux or two. (I like to have four of them by the "zero year" if the map permits it.)

 

[Equatore]

1. Go to Republic - now!
2. Don't build temples
3. Build more workers (8-12)
4. Build Statue of Zeus
5. Build Forbidden Palace
6. Don't build units without barracks
7. Build some barracks
8. When in Republic - use luxury slider to get hapiness, and:
9. Disband all warriors
10. Don't hire clowns. If you have to - hire specialists
11. Build more roads and irrigations
12. Pack more cities in your territory
13. Build two galleys and send them around the world to get some contacts
14. If you still have deficite, slow down research a little. Watch neighbours from time to time seeking good trade opportunities.

 

[Spoonwood]

1) Get to Republic NOW.
2) Do not use specialists in your capital unless it's already worked every single tile it possibly can. Raise the luxury slider. Using specialists elsewhere can work out well, but not in your capital or really your first ring.
3) Train LOTS more workers.
4) Build marketplaces before temples.
5) TRADE for luxuries. You don't need to have more than two luxuries yourself for this game, but if you trade for more, then markteplaces will work out very well.
6) Stick to the top path of the research tree until you've traded for Gunpowder and you can research Chemistry. This game could concerivably work out as an exception to that, but it comes as a rare occurance in my experience.
7) Don't worry about building more units for quite some time. Get univeristies as soon as you can (you're scientific, so that's pretty easy) as well as marketplaces and courthouses *where needed*. Temples and cathedrals *may* also help, but you'll have to play that by ear.
8) Build Copernicus's Observatory as soon as you can.. maybe even pre-build it with Bach's and then put Newton's in that same city later.
9) Develop your land.
10) You can put more cities in the tundra area and north. Make it so that you can use as many tiles as you can eventually at some point at least.
11) Don't worry about barracks until the industrial ages when you'll have very few useful improvements or wonders left around to build.
12) Use CivAssist 2 or MapStat and check it every single turn for happiness problems (as well as for tech) and adjust your cities accordingly.
13) Sell tech for gpt to pick up your science rate.
14) You might want to check the threads here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=281173 or here
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=122419
You don't need the Great Library, of course, and it's not a huge map, not a pangea, etc. But, many of the same basic ideas still can help for a builder game.
15) Build the Forbidden Palace NOW.

 

[nerovats]

Changing clows to scientist will take of 3 turns of science.
You're average to England. Build rax's and units, no buildings. Change to republic. Build ship and land to hoplites on the English Iron, and pillage, thentake their land.
Indeed build SoZ, and don't build any more hoplites.
Manage cities better as most are waisting shields or commerce.
Next time build cities closer together.
Argos and Mycenae could be settler farms. You should have more then 13 cities by 1000BC, not just 13 at 130AD.