So, expansion + block off Charlie & JC! And the Oracle! And clean up barbarian cities! And don't suck it up on techs!
A tall order for me on Monarch, but I think I managed well enough. Certainly this game is already won (or at least from my view at the end of this round it is), it's just a matter of how soon and which victory type
Teched (in order): Priesthood -> Math -> Currency (Oracle) -> Masonry -> Sailing -> CoL -> Meditation -> Calendar -> IW -> Construction -> Alphabet -> Monarchy + Hunting (trade) -> Monotheism + Archery (trade) -> Aesthetics -> Lit -> CS (in progress)
Stupid AIs just wouldn't get Alpha, so I ended up doing it myself, in the AD's no less

However, I was building stuff and running specialists which was probably just as good as building research or gold would have been otherwise. I think.
Cities Founded
Anasazi - T112 (1200BC) @ sugar/dye x3 (technically captured barb city)
Memphis - T120 (1000BC) @ horse/corn to NE of Timbuktu to block JC
Heliopolis - T123 (925BC) @ cow/spice/incense x2/(iron) to block Charlie
Elephantine - T127 (825BC) @ clam/silver/copper N of capitol for more

Alexandria - T135 (625BC) @ fish x2/deer/(iron) to pressure two of JC's cities and block any more expansion
<TBD> - T201 @ spices x3/sugar (1NW of where Djenne was, settler is in place and ready to go next turn)
Burned the other two barbarian cities as I was ready/needed the cash. Did not want to keep them (somewhat non-ideal placement and would have damaged economy more than helped).
Oracle was built by me on T116 on the same turn I finished Math, and used to grab Currency. Detoured to Masonry and Sailing before CoL for
Pyramids and trade routes. Started 'mids on T122 and finished them on T149 with some heavy chopping around Ulundi. Immediate switch to Rep to give an even bigger boost to my specialists.
Popped 2 GS in Thebes -> 1st went to academy, 2nd settled.
As you can see in my city list above, expansion somewhat stalled mid-round. Besides pausing expansion to work on courthouses and the economy in general across the empire, I had some fun with JC which caused production to be diverted for a while (and pretty much determined the bent of the victory I'd be going for now).
T158, JC is looking ugly and doesn't like me due to close borders and religion...he's Hindu like Asoka and I'm best-Buddhist-buddies with Charlie. JC demands I give him gold (the resource) - I agree, but that just delays the inevitable.
T168 (10 turns on the dot), JC declares on me, but I really don't see any big stack of doom. Guess he was just pissy, but war is war!
In fact, by quickly massing my WCs I am able to raze Mediolanum on T176 (city closest to Timbuktu), and Arretium on T182. I go check out Ravenna, but my army isn't quite up to snuff for going after it. Also, JC is willing to pay me cash for peace so I take that deal on T185. However, I don't trust him to not come right back after me, PLUS after having converted Thebes and Ulundi into mass WC production for the duration of the conflict I've got something like 15 WCs so I continue (albeit at a slower pace) with army buildup - this time including catapults and axes.
At end of set, I have an available (non-city garrisoned) army of 17 WCs, 3 catapults, and 4 axes.
Also due to the war, I'm just now getting buddhist missionaries built (from Thebes) to spread the religion around. It hasn't been needed for

but now that I got Monotheism and switched to OR, it will be useful for building stuff. Other than units, obviously.
Micro wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad either, so I'm pretty happy with this set. Leaning heavily towards a military end victory, but could always just beat up JC and then go be peaceful again.
Map shots and some status screens in the spoiler below.