I usually play on Marathon, so I can't comment much on whipping at Normal speeds, but spending 2 pop on a single axeman does not make sense unless you want to pay for the poprush penalty. If you had that much extra unhappy population, you could whip a library or planned from the very start not to grow this largeanyway... i like the pictures, and i like the detailed early game walkthrough...
Well I could be wrong but the way I see it is that I want to work the "best" tiles. In Babylon it's the two clams, the wheat and the two plain hills (both 6 hammers thanks to event). But using those tiles will result in growth over the happiness cap so I whip for as much pop as possible once it does. That way it allows me to keep working those best tiles instead of switching to less productive tiles to halt growth and I get the most out of my -1 happiness penalty. I could of course use the prevent growth option but that would kind of defeat the purpose of being in slavery and would be a waste of food.
Finished my game, CE and my first space win ever, it's true whether you believe it or not, always hated space, my entire HoF is filled up with domination wins.
It was pretty much what I always thought it out to be - boring. I'm a warmongerer by heart, no contest there. Regret not doing my usual apporach as I wasted a really fun map, think you're going to love this one BurN and the others, especially considering your neighbours.
As to your game; whipping courthouses should be the way to go right now, especially seeing as you're organized. Another tip would be to prioritize the Forbidden Palace as the distance between Babylon and your conquered cities is quite big. I messed up my game and only had 7 cities, pretty stupid by me, you should make sure you get 8.
Looking forward to reading on, your write-up is both funny and good skill-wise, keep it up.
Edit: Just noticed you said you were moving the capital, then Forbidden Palace is obviously lower on the list of things to do. I moved mine as well, to Hamburg actually.
Gratulations on your first space victory.
For me it's pretty much the opposite, 90% of my victories are by space and the odd ones out being domi. I'm glad to see you settled in place as well and that you had the same idea of moving the capital to Hamburg. Food/hammer/rivers just asks for a cottage capital. Though I'm somewhat divided on when exactly I would want to move it. I could move it early to fight maintenance but I'm not planning on cottaging soon. Or I could move it once I start moving out of SE, which I assume would only be near democracy.
Doing it later is slightly favored as I'm not looking forward to spend hammers on building a palace but I'll see how long it would take to get it up anyways. Which bring me to another debatable point about what to do with the first GS which will pop in 2 turns. As Hamburg would be capital eventually, I'd reckon settling the GS there would be the best choice in the long run but it will function as unit prod city for quite a while still. (the same dilemma will be with the second gs for academy which won't do much in hamburg if I don't cottage early, I might bulb him on phil)
Interesting view of putting an academy in Akkad. It might be the best science city once I can raise the science slider and it works 2x gems+gold. Though that would prevent me from going back to 0% research in future wars as it would put the academy to waste (the commerce will be in gold at that point, not science). Also it will only be a temporary "great science" city as there is not enough food to cottage if I want to work that gold, I will have to farm a bit.
I think the first scientist would have the best use if I settle him somewhere. He's not influenced by the science slider and will shave quite some turns of col. The second GS will be debatable as an academy could be used in Hamburg/Babylon/Akkad but (!) could be possibly used on bulbing phil as well.
I agree hunting would be nice, I hope to get that in a trade from col someway. And I also agree on attacking Bismarck rather sooner then later but I doubt I have the units to declare after 10 turns. Especially if I want to get libraries+courts up so it might have to wait a bit. But I'll see how many units I can get out in 10 turns while building libraries and running scientists, there's quite some forest to chop in those ex-german cities.
And I'll keep your suggestion on NE+Maoi for Babylon in mind. Though it might take quite a while before I'll get those up eventually.
A few suggestions.
Make Hamburg into a hammer powerhouse. early with mines/farmes etc, later with state property this will be very powerfull with watermills/workshops.
About the capital/palace city... put it into Akkad if you want the 50% commerce bonus (3 high commerce titles).
It will take a long time to grow a lot of cottages around Hamburg and Hamburg just screams for IW or HE with watermills/workshops, when going for domination. The rivers will be even more use full for hammers... +1 with leeves. If you move the palace to Hamburg it could be used for the 50% hammer bonus, but there might aswell be other civics to run besides bur.
Berlin would make the second production city with either IW or HE. These 2 cities could produce all the troops you will ever need.
As for Babylon. Run a GP farm for now... as the GP points increase later in the game.... mao would be nice for extra production + no other city really have alot of water titles.
Hm, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree on putting the capital in Akkad. The city has some great early commerce but it's very food poor and doesn't have much going for it long term. IW will definatly go into Hamburg sometime and as you say a levee there would be awesome. I agree with HE in Berlin indeed.
And another vote for Maoi in Babylon if I ever find the hammers to build it.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, I'll keep them in mind for the next session. The main issue will be that I have to watch out for not overdoing it on building infrastructure. As I'm trying to play a military game, every hammer not spent into units, might be a lost one.
edit: On another note if I would want to "show" how we can recover from 0% science, I could just go heavy on infrastructure and change the tech path. Think courts, markets, cottages, peaceful settling to the south, some wonders, etc .. and only dow again mid game.
But it might be interesting to keep a low economy and continue our war, which will require some bulbing to prevent falling too far behind.I'm not quite sure where exactly I want to take this thread.
boost from bureaucracy as well, so don't move it to Hamburg or any other city before you have your cottages matured, use it for hammers in Babylon instead. The 50% bonus to hammers is the most underrated thing on these forums imho, you don't "have to" keep your capital in a commerce-heavy city in the middle game.
He couldn't really offer us anything but we get him to waste a turn .. or two turns if he decides to switch back to OR. He doesn't look furious to me. He seems to be in a state of unbelief about how he lost all those cities.
It already had a good amount of hammers but now it got even better.
He didn't capitulate though. At least I think he didn't .. I don't think it matters much.
):
Obviously he has the statue of zeus. Dammit. 
We also capture Florence with a small secondary sod.
I stopped playing here.
