At warlord level scientific oppponents will help, in my 540AD regent game I chose Babylon, Russia and Germany as I used them for free techs on the gift up, I chose these as they would give me SGL attempts at Masonry and Alphabet, then go writing, col and philo for slingshot.
All those wonders have value, with Pyramids and TOA being necessary, dont bother building temples, as TOA builds them for you,
Whip simply means pop rushing, for one population in feudalism (or despo) you get 20 shields, so if you have granary and 5 excess food per turn, then you can grow in 2 turns (pyramids gives you the granries), as agricultural not letting your town go below 2 (if you can work 2 irrigated grasslands) in feudalism. For whipping settlers if you have an area with excessive food, (10 food per turn) this works really well because to whip a settler you need size 5 towns.
My personel preference is to stay in republic until you have almost enough settlers for all your towns you need eventually (cash rushing) and have learned mono, feud and engineering, invention and gunpowder. And possibly theology, and have at least 6 luxuries hooked up.
The reason why Gunpowder is important is it gives you a sixty shield unit for part rushing, you want to rush a cathedral or library, you have a size 2 town with 2 irrigated grass and nothing else you can work except say hills, then after 2 turns of growth you need to make a pop rush, so you swicth to walls and rush for 20 shields, switch back, two turns later use a longbow or medievel infantry, then back to original building, then 2 turns later your musket, then two turns later you rush library
When a town has completed its culture Library, Cathedral, Colloseum, then turn it into a tax farm, you will need these as your building maintenance goes up.
Domination limit is the limit at which you trigger a domination victory, thus negating your 100K attempt. A utility will help you with this, or the F8 screen and stay at under 64%.
