yes, i got astronomy around turn 95 and rationalism that same turn
i always use manual city control with production focus. i did take irrigated 3 food 3 production tile over a 4 food tile, but i did try to fill up all the 4 food tiles before going for the raw desert hill trading posts, and at the end i'd fill a non scientist specialist slot before as i grew beyond the irrigated land. i had 0 wltkd luck and got to 36 pop before the final science push
avoid an extra great prophet by paying attention and buying missionaries. you should be buying at least one, probably 2.
first, i think the best beliefs are:
faith from desert (obviously)
2 faith for each foreign city
15% growth while not at war
1% production per follower
50 faith per great person expended
if you have time you can possibly build great mosque before renaissance and buy a missionary for 200. generally other things will take precedence, but that's okay.
wait for the 500 prophet to pop, and then finish the hagia sophia. my mayan calendar choices in order are scientist, engineer, admiral, general,
prophet. that prophet will hit before one pops and puts you at 1700 faith for next.
unless cities are close enough to convert on their own, you're probably best off using a couple of the extra prophets to convert the rest of the map. each prophet can convert >5 cities and that's >10 faith vs the +6 for planting, and as a bonus sharing your religion improves relations with non religion founders, and it will keep spreading on its own granting even more faith. i didn't think of this till afterward, so i had just planted my last game.
the only other thing not heavily discussed was RAs. you want as many as possible. it's probably better to sign a few on the turn you oxford astronomy before choosing the tech so you're in medieval and build the observatory. if you did sign 3 there, they'll get you to public schools at least 9 turns sooner.
you also want a few to push to research labs, and a few more that'll fire 6-7-8 turns post research labs. pick your finish turn and work backwards to figure out the turns to sign those
