Once again, very well played Shafi!
With Shaka disposed of, youve taken a big step on your way to victory.
So where to from here? Well, I think kossin has done a great job summarising your next moves and I agree that Ondini may as well be gifted to Nappy...sooner or later I think Paris and Tours culture will simply overwhelm the city. If doing this though, just be aware you need to get those culture buildings (and a forge) up in your holy city to protect it.
Now that war is over, Id advise looking to boost your economys infrastructure, so the points that kossin raised re: forges and Oxford are very well made. Although war vs Nappy may sound appealing, a look at the power graph and info screen (where Im betting that Nappy is the only civ with more troops than you) suggests that this is best avoided right now. Indeed, with Nappy seemingly trying to complete the Taj Mahal (NB we have our reasons for not trading nationalism), DoWing any time soon could see you attacking when he spams troops in a golden age. All that said, I would not yet rule out a later war with Nappy (meaning that Novgorod keeps pumping military), even if youre going the space route. After all, you dont yet know if you or he has aluminium that would prove awfully useful. (As it happens BTW war with Nappy, if needed, will be easier than you think....I see he has just one source of oil which spies can easily keep destroying once you DoW
- until plastics.)
These points, taken together with the fact you are currently 3rd in GNP, also suggest a way forward. Once again, kossin is right IMHO to suggest that astro is good for you right now, even though you wont get any foreign trade routes until other civs come out of mercantilism. Aside from being able to trade for resources, building observatories will boost research and increase your chances of being able to secure techs ahead of Nappy, so you can subsequently use them to bribe him to direct his military as you see fit....if needed, you could then even backstab him when his military is engaged overseas.
After astro, Id be inclined to tech towards industrialism to see if you have aluminium. Only then will you know whether you need to spam military to invade Nappy or can concentrate on defensive military builds and tech to space. In addition, itll also grant you access to levees, Wall Street and maybe a free GS from physics as bonuses along the way. Moreover, by getting rifling and combustion (perhaps via trade), you'd also gain quick access to tanks and marines if you need them in a war with Nappy.
Before you switch to astro however, Id ask whether its worthwhile teching a turn or two into RP to lower its price. That way, you might then be able to trade Nappy liberalism (instead of sci meth) for it, keeping SM to maximise your chances of getting to physics first for the free GS. If you could do this, you might still then be able to trade liberalism to Sury and Toku (rather than gift it) and maybe get some of their gold in return (as well as a boost to relations.)
Looking at the other tech paths meanwhile, biology also has some merit (even though youre running a CE) because it would help Uxmal, Bulawayo and Lakamha. For that reason, Id therefore make it or physics (for the GS and its en route to industrialisation) your tech after astro. IMHO, democracy can wait until the Taj is built...Nappy may then be willing to trade you its pre-req nationalism. Whilst emancipation will help your CE, you dont have enough towns right now IMHO to benefit from US to justify beelining democracy. Id avoid communism unless you want the GSpy points on Nappy.
Talking of civics, the adoption of mercantilism by the other civs means, funnily enough, that this civic is actually likely more valuable than OR right now. After all, neither Toku (fav civic) nor Nappy (pyramids) have any incentive to switch out of merc any time soon. As a result, youre therefore likely relying on Van Oranje or Sury to switch to free market to get overseas trade routes.
Whilst I would therefore just about advocate switching to merc against this backdrop (it depends on how quickly the AI implements free market), it also means IMHO that (a) theres little value in teching economics at the mo and (ii) it emphasizes the need to look at which civics offer value before revolting. I say this because, whilst revolting to OR as kossin suggests would normally speed infrastructure builds, its effect on your civ will be very limited at the mo because Buddhism is not in any of your key cities. For that reason, if you also decide to implement OR to boost infrastructure builds, youll need to get Rostov or Nongoma (neither of which has a forge yet) to pump out missionaries into your cities before OR has value. (Admittedly, OR will also boost diplo with Sury but I think this can wait at least until he gets astro; until then, hes not a military threat.) With that in mind, maybe you could instead switch to OR once this has been done as part of a bigger civics change to emancipation and US?
Another factor which argues against multiple civics changes right now is that you also dont yet have enough cottages to benefit from switching from bureaucracy to free market. Note also that youd lose the 50% hammer bonus in Moscow too if free market were implemented right now. This is key since you currently have a 31H overflow in the city and, with bureau, each person whips for 45H rather than 30H. This means you can switch production right now in Moscow to a forge for one turn, then whip it for just two pop (instead of three normally.) Better yet, because youll then be in a sweet spot, youll regrow one of the two pop whipped very next turn, when Oxford becomes available. Sweet.
Returning to the issue of missionaries for a mo, if you do spend time building infrastructure here (and eventually adopt OR), consider also designating a city such as Uxmal, or perhaps even Bulawayo, (after its infrastructure has been built) as a long term missionary pump, to spread both Buddhism and, most importantly, Judaism. After all, spreading Buddhism to maximise the benefits you get from OR only gives Nappy more gold since he has the Mahabodhi. Now you have the Temple of Solomon, it makes sense IMHO to spread Judaism far and wide and boost your coffers more than you boost his by spreading Buddhism.
On the issue of troop numbers, whilst I concur with kossin that having large numbers of old troops milling around is not a good idea, I wonder if its worthwhile keeping them for a little while longer until (i) you know if you have aluminium and therefore need them to invade Nappy and / or (ii) until you get a GM for a trade mission that you could then use for upgrades if they are needed. To that end, how about re-assigning tiles in Mutal to give you four merchants and an engineer specialist (as opposed to the 2 GS you currently have) instead of working three mines? If done, 17 - 18 turns from now, youll then have another great person (as well as the one you get next turn) thanks to the NE.
Looking at the micro, kossin makes some excellent points. For my part, Id ask if theres any reason why workers are currently congregating to build forts? Perhaps theyd be better deployed farming 1N, 1NE of Ulundi so that irrigation can be spread to Bulawayo? How about also cottaging St. Petersburgs and Moscows watermills? Meanwhile, whip the theatre in Nobamba for 1 pop and start a forge. With the Moai in CI, Id also agree with kossin re: farms in this city and a forge when you get a mo.
As mentioned, very well played to date and, as always, I look forward to reading the next steps on your road to victory.
PS Re: corps. Is there really a straight forward mathematical comparison to illustrate whether SP or corps are better? After all, I confess that all Ive done to date is to use the corporate advisor to tell me the current benefits of adopting a corp (by holding the mouse over each corporate symbol in turn when in the advisor) and then comparing those benefits to what I can work out would be obtainable from SP. (Assuming this is the correct way BTW, you can show that the hammer bonus from Mining Inc will beat SP in all but 4-5 cities (but those of course may be the very cities that produce the space parts). However, the better corp may well be Sids for the 4F and culture to beat back Nappys borders. In either case, it strengthens the need to reconfigure Mutal as pointed out earlier.) If there is an article which illustrates a better method, would someone be kind enough to post a link so that I can learn? Many thanks.
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while you have a plains workshop 4 
