T100:
With the mainland mostly covered, kept up with expansion and settled 2 offshore cities. This let Gandhi settle in the north of our landmass. And this is something I can't complain about: we'll most likely end up pleased/friendly with Gandhi (Judaism will spread) and this city gives us a good target for espionage. If Gandhi ends up very advanced, we can easily catch up with Constitution (Jails!).
After trading Aesth -> Alpha and researching Literature, Currency was the major tech target.
Now we're building wonders, expanding, building infrastructure, lacking workers...
T100. From north to south:
… And... when
Gilgamesh could have tried to settle or capture the hilly barb city, that's also the time when he, instead, started plotting against us, his only valid target. A thing you surely already had noticed... That was a fine point to lose the game since it demanded immediate reaction (non-existent military). Ensued some pretty difficult turns.
I actually replayed them as I initially underestimated the Sumerian menace. And so I found it convenient to have planned a t100 save, lol. I wished I could have reached 1AD without that trouble.
Also, I didn't realize, first try, that archers would defend before axemen against vultures. That makes a mixed force of archers/axes a very awkward combination against vultures/chariots (leaves axes as last defenders against chariots). Finally: 20% cultural defences = baaad. Archers die to Vultures at 20%.
So. I didn't interrupt the infra builds but wonder production was stopped in Seoul and Nampo. With three chops, it allowed to get Walls and 3 units in 4 turns. A 4th unit could barely be cold whipped when war occurred. It was, like, soon:
With Currency finally researched, this was a good turn to lay down a plan. Either we researched Code of Laws and headed towards Civil Service... Either we tried and get Construction but Maths was only known by Mehmed and it would take a while before we could trade for it (so Construction is a very expensive choice)... Either we researched Machinery, getting Crossbows and taking a step towards bulbing Astronomy with GS.
Demanded gold from cautious Mehmed (that Gilgamesh could bribe...), got a peace deal and a diplo hit. This is lucky, I guess. Since it meant we wouldn't get very good relations with Mehmed anytime soon (Mehmed, whose worst enemy is Gandhi), that flipped the balance towards researching Machinery and skipping Code of Laws.
I could do with killing Gilgamesh, killing Mehmed, reaching other hemisphere, stealing from Gandhi and winning UN.
Not sure how Liberalism fits into this. At 1 AD, Mehmed founded Code of Laws and Gandhi is researching Philosophy. I hold Metal Casting on them (Colossus finally in progress) but that probably won't last long. Machinery is just researched and that monopoly should hold longer.
Question now is Compass (maybe a little early to time with the bulb, unless I just want to bulb once into Astro... which should probably be the play) vs … Mathematics (still! HG built on other continent. Locks us from Music, an appealing tech that unlocks Constitution), Code of Laws (I don't have Meditation so Philo bulb is locked and things are safe that way. I don't want to unlock the Paper bulb, either.)
The plan:
At 1AD:
The war has been stalled. I'm not willing to sacrifice research at this point. Already sacrificed plenty of turns on wonders. Axemen have favourable odds in the field against Vultures, so I countered Gilgamesh a little. Lost axemen doing so but it prevented him from consolidating a siege, as he retreated behind the river. We had a stand-off, there, while we re-built the cow pasture that Glgamesh had smashed. Two workers (out of our 6!!) were necessary to help on defence and maintain Wonsan. Build one spear, then another, replaced axemen, some swords for all-around purpose...
Now copper city, in the north, has forge + barracks and another city is almost there. This will help, especially since we can now build (and 2 pop whip) X-Bows. Protective trait didn't really impact the decision to get Machinery but I can't complain, here. Extra promotions on our top unit won't hurt. Hwachas would be welcome too, soon, but I'd rather not research Mathematics. Surely we can trade for it by the time Optics is done or shortly after.
Our third offshore city is almost online. We're grabbing nice resources, there (and greatly reduce the Ottoman sphere of influence/research potential).
From north to south:
We're not researching Code of Laws, by the way. That's just for the screenshot. Compass -> Optics is the way. We've only generated 1 GP so far (hired 0 speciaslist until now!) so the next guy, a great scientist from Wonsan, will be born shortly. Once the Great Librar is done (if it's done, it's getting late), Nampo will make 12gpp with 2 specialists, 200 are needed for astro bulb, that's 17 turns. Maybe we can fit in the National Epic... not sure, yet.
Stats:
Techs:
Demographics:
I didn't play with map knowledge but I've read, maybe, 4 other shadows, not
all, and I think that, in a general manner, not enough emphazis has been put on offshore expansion. We have an inland start but offshore offers great possibilities and we can know this early. Also, conquest land seems a little weak with that desert between Gilgamesh and us. Oh well...
Save is attached. Oh I wonder which one.
Could you post a screenshot of the world tech picture?
)
But getting like 4000 
without cottages 
It shouldn't matter, because the economy is strong (Financial), Gandhi and Mehmed are at war, and I'll beeline Astronomy (for overseas trade routes) while ordering my vassal to tech towards Chemistry. With enough early cities and a strong army, it's fine not to win Liberalism. And there are usually one or two backward civs on a watery map (Buddhism and Hinduism were founded elsewhere, it's "our" area of the world experiencing religious solidarity).
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