I'll edit or delete this comment if I say anything unwanted here. I'd think any good advice on this quest you can find somewhere here, but perhaps this comes as better placed.
I read through your guys SG, and it inspired me to try a 5CC space race (I've done some 5CC 20ks on Monarch and one on Emperor where I used island block... which really didn't seem much harder than a usual 20k for me), with Persia in Conquests on Regent on a random map (it ended up archipelago once I finally settled into a game and got confidence... the first few starts I think I could have won in retrospect, but I felt I couldn't at the time). The game ended up a lot easier than I expected actually. I did play a bit differently, in that I played fairly peacefully. At first I didn't give into demands, then I did later on.
I built a fair number of the ancient wonders including The Colossus, The Great Lighthouse, and the Great Library. I then built every wonder from the early middle ages on using pre-builds, and setting my science rate as high as I could and adjusting it back as much as I could so that I would get my tech in N turns (except at the very end). The Great Library only served as a "slingshot" and then did little else but accumulate culture. About around the early middle ages I started trying and somewhat succeeding in selling my tech to other civs for gpt. This kept my science rate high, gave me some gold, and bankrupt most of the other civs. I had horses, but no iron. I ended up trading originally to the French for this, and then later to the Ottomans... one of the weaker civs. I had no saltpeter... I didn't care. I had no coal. I used ctrl+shift+m and checked the map. Scandinavia (also a weaker civ) had an extra coal, so I gifted them to steam power basically as soon as I discovered it. Unfortunately, they didn't have EITHER coal roaded. So, after a few dumb turns I decided to send a few workers out and sign an ROP with them, build some roads and get some coal. Of course, my ship stood about 2 turns from their shore and Korea had their extra coal hooked up. So, I traded with them... even though they ended up my closest competition.
I then railroaded all my squares and then irrigated ALL of them aftern I railroaded them. I let my cities grow to the max and then used my specialists mostly as scientists, with one noted exception. I used some of my specialists as civil engineers for, I think, U.N. and Manhattan Project. I thought I would use my specialists as civil engineers while building my spaceship AND mine all my irrigated squares to build the spaceship as fast as I could. It turned out as not necessarily and perhaps counterproductive, since I used my specialists as scientists to get those techs faster. Even with basically all irrigated squares, building spaceship parts pretty much outpaced techonological innovations... *when I considered that I didn't need to rush through building the first spaceship parts... I only needed to finish the ship the same turn I discovered the last needed tech*.
I had an intelligence agency, but used no spies. Korea may have had a part or two, but not many. I had two sources of uranium (lucky me), so the only "snag" I seemed to hit, other than the "coal snag", lay in that I didn't have any aluminum. Again, I checked the map. ONE turn before I got space flight I gifted Scandinavia to Rocketry and traded for aluminum immediately. I generally pre-built the spaceship parts using ICBMs or The Internet (why actually build it in a 5cc game??? I can build research labs in each city much more easily and faster) for my final part. I had well over 5000 gold still in reserve at the end, even though I had run a 200 or so deficit for a while (I stopped trading tech for gpt at the end of the industrial era... at least with Korea).
Perhaps you guys will need some different tactics since you have had some early war. From my 5cc Monarch 20k games (on conquests... may work differently) I'd think you should get almost all or all of those medieval wonders... if you want them. From what I recall also, you can outpace the AI... or most of them, with 5 cities on Monarch... given those intelligence wonders. So, even though this might seem radically premature... I'd guess you guys already stand at a "winning position" (unless you get REALLY attacked hard somehow). But, here's one thing I don't really get with your game...
It seemed like you had quite a time where you had JUST 4 cities. Why didn't you guys found a 5th "camp city" and then disband it once you got a settler over to that more ideal location? Would this have violated game rules? The commerce and production from that 5th city early on may have helped a bit more.
