Since we're one turn off I'll play 11 turns...
TURNLOG:
Turn 01 / 1525 BC - Change Luxuries from 10% to 0% - no need for them currently. Change Research from 30% to 90%, running at -2 GPT, Philosophy due in 9 turns. Notice a Goody Hut due South of Chicago - dispatch a Warrior from Boston to go pop it. Since I suffered a power failure while doing this turn the first time I know Workers in Washington are on automated move -
do not do this please. Also, having workers work individually is just a waste of time, especially when we're Industrious and paired workers can complete a road a turn. A check of the Wonder screen shows both the English and Dutch working on the Colossus - it seems highly unlikely we could get it in time at this point, which really sort of irks me as with New York being costal, with a river, and having two gold hills, it was a perfect massive commerce site - kinda ticks me off as I think it would have helped us more than a fairly slow to develop town like Seattle. Based on city size difference I say the Dutch will get it. Not happy with this at all - that city could seriously have been a commercial monster.
Dispatch the Settler in Boston there for reasons I'll explain shortly. Move Scouts around. Considering there's an Ivory source right outside Atlanta I see no reason to send a Settler way off to the East of Philadelphia to get Ivory, especially when Atlanta is relatively food and shield poor and will remain so without Worker assistance, when there are better things they could be doing. Switch the Granary to a Temple to snag the Game and the Ivory. No clue why Chicago is working on a Swordsman when it has no Barracks and no Shields - switch to a Worker. Diplo shows we're down The Wheel but nothing else - not worth trading for at this time. I think
Bede has a point about the cities not dipping below a certain population level and so Washington is switched to a Swordsman. IBT French want to trade Writing for the Wheel - rebuffed.
Turn 02 / 1500 BC - Switch Boston to a Barracks as we have no high priority city sites at this juncture, IMO, and going to a Settler too early would reduce its size too much. As GPT costs are down to -1 GPT, set Research at 100%, Philosophy due in 7 turns at -4 GPT. IBT Tours is founded at the Ivory gathering East of Phily - we never would've made it there anyway.
Turn 03 / 1475 BC - Goody Hut gives a Conscript Warrior, weak. Notice there's an irrigated BG by Washington, unroaded, and an unroaded mine - big waste of turns to work on a tile and not road it... irrigating grassland is also worthless during Despotism. I'd rather have this shields adding up and redo it later than a worthless improvement that only becomes useful later. Put Washington on another Swordsman - we're going to need to do some pointy-stick "diplomacy" later anyway.
Turn 04 / 1450 BC - Unit movement.
Turn 05 / 1425 BC - New York founded, already hooked up to trade network. Put Chicago on a Barracks to try and churn some units - it can't do much right now anyway. I really don't like its positioning and if I have any say it'll get abandoned once Rheims is history. Sacrifice the Conscript Warrior and chop a Forest to speed up construction there. IBT the English offer The Wheel for Iron Working and 14 Gold. I tell Elizabeth to sod off.
Turn 06 / 1400 BC - Unit movement. Put New York on a Barracks since we lack any commercial options.
Turn 07 / 1375 BC - Chop another forest near Chicago. Washington finishes another Swordsman, switch to Settler. Set Research at 50% without reducing Philosophy time, going to make 10 GPT. IBT we learn Philosophy and get The Republic as our free tech. Set Research at 90% for Mathematics, due in 9 turns at -1 GPT - Statue of Zeus will be our lord and savior. Opt not to revolt just yet.
Turn 08 / 1350 BC - Boston starts on a perfectly timed Settler that will bring it to 4 Pop. Washington goes back to Swordsman to round off and not sink below 4 Pop once the Settler completes. Switch New York to the Mausoleum of Mausollos as a prebuild for the Statue of Zeus. Set Luxuries at 10%, Research at 90% - move Warrior from Chicago to Boston, Warrior from Philadelphia to Washington so can lower Lux to 0% next turn.
Turn 09 / 1325 BC - Set Luxuries at 0%, Research at 100%, Mathematics due in 8 at -2 GPT. Begin moving Scouts home for disbandment as we know pretty much the enitre continent's disposition. IBT Washington completes its Swordsman and starts a perfectly timed Settler to bring it to 4 Pop.
Turn 10 / 1300 BC - Unit movement.
Turn 11 / 1275 BC - Unit movement. Ivory roaded outside of Atlanta. Rename Chicago to Fort Minot because it really is, in my eyes, a terrible permanent city location and should be thought of more as a grab for the Silks. There's a Swordsman on automove to Philadelphia and two Workers on automove through Washington towards New York to mine alone the river.
NOTES:
Although it's really my fault, since I should've been following the turnlogs closer and insisting on it, I'm really unhappy that New York did not get placed until my turn set. I've been playing some 20k games lately, and the power of the Colossus is truly awesome. With gold putting a +4 commerce bonus onto a tile, and a road on a hill putting a +1 commerce bonus, each of those gold hills near New York could've been making +5 commerce each under Republic. With another 8 tiles with River access in New York's radius, each roaded capable of producing +2 commerce, that's a grand total of an additional 11 commerce per turn (including the city tile) that the Colossus could've been netting us, plus the eventual cash it would've been generating as a tourist attraction. It could've been an incredibly powerful science city down the road if it had had Copernicus and Newtons built in it, which seems likely given how slow the AI is to research anything in this game. In my eyes, an opportunity lost, but again, my fault for not insisting on it.
We currently have 5 Swordsmen online and the force is slowly growing. Odds are we can knock-off The Hague sometime in the near future and then sue the Dutch for peace, then attack Rheims and eventually wipe out France. A key military concern will be finishing Mathematics and then getting SoZ online for awesome ACs and getting some Catapults build to support a stack. I'm also in favor of getting our Scouts back and disbanding them, as they serve little further purpose.
Regarding expansion, we've effectively run out of really great spots that won't require fighting for except one, which will require culture warring itself. The rest are mostly fill-in-the-hole to grab some costal spots that might be good later on after development. I am also absolutely in favor of abandoning Fort Minot later on and replacing it with a better lay out either after culture warring has started against Rheims, or it has been destroyed, because its position is awful.
I recommend starting the revolt to Republic immediately after Washington finishes its Settler.
Regarding Ivory, Atlanta's Temple will finish in 3 and expand in 5, getting us Ivory in 8. I also advise, after filling in some more cities, converting over from Settlers to Workers, and getting some of those Gems hooked up, as there is only so much more space worth expanding into. For more on that, see below:
DOTMAP:
In my opinion as to order of importance: Lime, Purple, Yellow, Red, Orange, Pink.
Lime is important mostly because it's the best site left. Rheims has not yet culturally expanded and seems somewhat unlikely to do so, making cultural warfare with a rushed Temple possible that might flip the city and save us a few turns of combat. It also takes advantage of the river, and would ultimately snag both the Iron and Silk. Purple gives a port city with some room for growth and also secures the passage down to New York from the North, further hampering any efforts to try and get to that odd little peninsula except by sea. Otherwise it offers no real benefits other than to occupy space. The same is true for Yellow, except that Yellow has no real strategic value, and is mostly just a costal city that has decent shield capacity. Red seems valuable to me because it blocks the direct route from Paris to Washington even if the city itself is rather lackluster - its positioning also enables another city to be placed to the SE of the mountain near the two sugar which could have high food production once Paris is eventually destroyed. Orange is much the same as Purple and Yellow in that it merely fills space, but it's position is even less important and it would take effort to bring infrastructure to it. Pink is non-critical entirely and merely serves as Fort Minot's replacement, because if you're going to have a worthless tundra city it may as well be on the coast.
And the save:
