continuation:
draft 3 rifles and fill empty army with 4 rifles to defend Baghdad, hope this will be sufficient
IT India suicides plenty of elephants and Cavs at our Cav and rifle armies, the rifles get nicely promoted though the army is redlined
this city should be our killing zone
Kahun gets a factory and is at 45spt, goes for coal plant
6. 1480AD
found Beirut and Erewan,
get
7th MGL, decide to rush the coal plant in Kahun with it since we are still short of Cavs for armies
clear around 30 unit without losses clearing the space between 3 chokes
start to attack Persepolis, defeating 2 rifles
IT no units attack Bahgdad, but moer run towards it, I am a little puzzled here, Kahun is now at 60+spt
7. 1485AD
Kahun can produce the ToE in 10 turns, thus I go first for other stuff here like a uni
move Cav army next to Elippi to get closer to closing the chokes
clear most of the remaining units within the choke area
take city sinking many Russian frigates

selling the improvements lets us continue to run science at 70% (-33gpt)
IT we defend at Baghdad against 10 Mongol Cavs and then 5 Indian Cavs, army redlines and 2 pikes are defeated

we almost lose the town
8.1490AD
close the last choke, but unfortunately 15 cavs still made it through last IT
instead of giving the AI 3 tiles access to Baghdad, I get it to 1 tile that I occupied by Russian rifles
Mongols have impressive scary stack here
defeat another 3 units in Persepolis
IT we get a breather as the Russian rifles pillage some road and thus block the access for everyone else
9.1495AD
need to decrease science to 60% or we are bankrupt, however electricity still in 5
it was about time as we get
8th MGL
found 2 more cities, Izmir and Istanbul
raze Elippi at the northern choke
one of the armies that have been left behind disconnects the Indian capital, hope it will create some discontent
get
9th MGL, next army, we might want to fill another army with rifles later on
IT Mongol stack is back near Baghdad
10. 1500AD
get
10th MGL, rush a factory in Abydos
clear all remaining units within the new 3 choke area
found Armenia at the northern choke
finally
raze Russian Thermopylae
I put the empty army and 3 settlers in Alexandria
we have 118 cities and 25 armies currently
electricity is due in 4, I would strongly suggest to go for sci methods straight away, since we want to make sure we get ToE
Kahun can make that in 10 turns and I suggest to go for prebuild immediately next turn once we finished the uni there
the situation
the west, army holds choke
the north, 3 armies block the choke
the east with that Mongol monster stack. We can move out an army to block the city access or let them attack
I would let the city finish the walls first and block, but up to the team to decide
I am a bit unclear where to expand next. The AI has pretty scary stacks, I suggest to let Mongols waste their stuff first and then expand towards Europe as it is a bit secluded
save