750 AD: Decide to trade Japan for Wine. We don't need it so much now but it won't be available later because Japan will trade them all away.
I really think sending enslavers all alone is not a good practice (we lost one on Elephantium's turn). I wish we would stop doing that - or at least give them a normal speed 2 unit to protect vs other civs (with a guard they can attack out but be protected against the enemy retal). I will bring the one still out there back.
775 AD: We meet a Korean boat and find their border. They are up the usual tech.
Still weak to Indochina. Do want a war so building Military. More towns will help our tech slump long term.
850 AD: Declare war on Indochina. Our Military is at the limit we can afford. If too many units show up we can fall back a bit.
875 AD: Find backward China on the other continent. They are broke.
On our first loss with indochina, our gold goes from -19 to 11. My guess is our gold got recalculated when unit costs changed. We attacked Spear and then Archers gaining a worker.
900 AD: We kill 3 of the 7 Chariots from Indochina losing one and one or two Archers gaining another worker. One is injured an may retreat. The others will be able to attack us, but I think this will be their entire speed 2 force (catapults and ballistas still exist but move one).
Of the four attacking Chariots, we win 2 and lose 2.
925: Kill two Chariots. There is at least one coming. Our Pike are nearly at the front line. Our road is not that far behind.
IBT: We win the next Chariot battle so pretty good luck overall. Looks like we can advance.
950 AD: Don't move forward yet, the Hopolite are a turn away now so I wait.
I just missed getting Religion this turn (science 0 is still 1 so I buy it for 18 gold. That is likely the cheapest tech price I have seen (though I may have forgotten one).
I also get a serendipitous trade for older tech for Feudalism. Takes all 4 tech to afford. We are up religion only afterward.
Was going to stop here, but decided to squeeze in the final turn....
975 AD: More healing with the Hopolite caught up. There are fortified forces that could move, but I think we should advance with Hopolite protection next turn.
Notes:
Got the message about Divinity School. I did not place it yet in case people have opinions.
Pharsalos seem good longer term but will take a while to build it. It has the Iron hills, four other hills and some forest. Thermopylae seems the best fast build in 7 turns. I guess I would go with Thermopylae and Pharsalos for the Mil Academy (it seems too close to the Capital for the Great Palace and will be strong when Castle expire).
For the war, we are somewhat slower in tech with unit costs now, but taking all Indochina cities will double our city count with expected speed up after.
Indochina is still stronger than us but not by much from the Power graph. They may not send a lot of units until we take a city. In any case we need to be a bit on the cautious side. They have numbers but not speed. We have 32 units (some injured) at the lead stack outside their border.
We just got a Settler. I suggest the red dot on the map below. It has good potential as a high gold town with alot of coast and bonus cotton gold (weak in shields until dockyards). It also links our attack on Indochina and to keep our empire connected.
Edit: Image updated