After Lymond (which you'll finish in two turns, no problem), Noble Zarkon is your slow-step GP generator. There's a little tile optimization you can do here which is probably worth the effort. Getting NZ to 800 from its current 639 will require 161 more GPP; at 9/specialist/turn, that's 18 specialist-turns. 3 turns at 4 specialists and 2 turns at 3 specialists. The challenge is that with your current tiles, it will not have enough food for that - so either it would lose a pop due to starvation, or you'd need to take an extra turn getting the GP from NZ and Fippy; delaying them both a turn might even end up delaying your attack a turn.
But juggling tiles with Sampsa, it can run coast + fish + 2x floodplains cottage + 3x merchant for 1 turn (+1 food, 3 stored), coast + 2x floodplains cottage + fish + 4x merchant for 3 turns (-1 food each, 0 stored), and 2x coast + floodplains cottage + fish + 2x coast + 3x specialist for 1 turn (food-neutral). Getting it to 801/800 GPP in five turns. That unfortunately means Sampsa has to give up the second floodplains for 4 turns. Which means Sampsa needs to steal a farm from Krikav for four turns, which means Krikav needs to steal the pigs from Thebes for one turn. Which Thebes is fine with; it has enough stored food to survive a turn without those pigs.
After Noble Zarkon's GP in 5 turns (turn 169), you can easily get Fippy's in 7 turns (turn 171). If a Great Merchant, that guy can be doing a trade mission in Kish by turn 173; your current GM from Krikav should be in Rome turn 172 or so.
So I think turn 173 is the turn you'll be done spiking upwards in gold, and will make a wave of upgrades. 1700 gold from the Rome Great Merchant means worst-case, if you get no additional Great Merchants, you'd need 1660 more gold to upgrade all your chariots and horse archers. 0% gold slider would get you there in time; if you're lucky enough to pop more Great Merchants, you'll be able to turn back on research sooner and push along towards Rifling.
You ought to be able to attack Zara Yaqob on turn 174; you'll have about two dozen Cuirassiers at that point. 10 turns from now. So do not make any deals (like begging gold) that would enforce a 10-turn peace treaty with Zara Yaqob after this point. If you invade his territory on turn 174, you'll be attacking Aksum on turn 177. Which means you want the spies stationary in Aksum on turn 172 to build up the 5-turn stationary spy bonus, so you want to start moving them out of your territory on turn 168. I think Fippy's current spy build will finish just in time to barely make it.
Edit: Also, Sampsa needs to hop on that plains-hill and even the desert hill instead of merchant specs now. I know you got no end of complaints for working it earlier; times have changed. It's not going to make a Great Person, and hammers are more important than gold at this point. And now that I look at what your workers are doing, stop replacing mature cottage villages and towns with workshops. The time for that has not come yet; just any new-built improvements right now should not be cottages because they won't grow fast enough, but losing a town tile to get a non-Guilds, non-Chemistry, non-State-Property workshop is not a good trade.
You could put workshops south of Lymond on the plains, a mine on the desert hill by Sampsa, a mine on the desert hill by Krikav, a mine on the desert hill by Noble Zarkon, mines on the tundra hill by Jnebbe, a workshop north of Fippy; these would all be productive things for your workers to do now.
But juggling tiles with Sampsa, it can run coast + fish + 2x floodplains cottage + 3x merchant for 1 turn (+1 food, 3 stored), coast + 2x floodplains cottage + fish + 4x merchant for 3 turns (-1 food each, 0 stored), and 2x coast + floodplains cottage + fish + 2x coast + 3x specialist for 1 turn (food-neutral). Getting it to 801/800 GPP in five turns. That unfortunately means Sampsa has to give up the second floodplains for 4 turns. Which means Sampsa needs to steal a farm from Krikav for four turns, which means Krikav needs to steal the pigs from Thebes for one turn. Which Thebes is fine with; it has enough stored food to survive a turn without those pigs.
After Noble Zarkon's GP in 5 turns (turn 169), you can easily get Fippy's in 7 turns (turn 171). If a Great Merchant, that guy can be doing a trade mission in Kish by turn 173; your current GM from Krikav should be in Rome turn 172 or so.
Side note: there's a micro trick you can use which you may or may not already know. If you select your Great Merchant, hold down Shift and give a move command to a target city, then (still holding down shift) mouse-over the Conduct Trade Mission ability, you'll see how much gold you'd get from the trade mission. From that you can see that Rome is worth 1700 gold, Kish is worth 1500, and a quick check on other big coastal cities like Lagash confirms none of them are going to do better than 1500. Then you just cancel the move order before releasing Shift.
So I think turn 173 is the turn you'll be done spiking upwards in gold, and will make a wave of upgrades. 1700 gold from the Rome Great Merchant means worst-case, if you get no additional Great Merchants, you'd need 1660 more gold to upgrade all your chariots and horse archers. 0% gold slider would get you there in time; if you're lucky enough to pop more Great Merchants, you'll be able to turn back on research sooner and push along towards Rifling.
Second side note: Tech trades are generally a very, very good thing for the human player. But in this case you're moving into a mopping up phase. The value of additional gold or tech to you is fairly limited from here on out (you've got your really important key techs), and the AIs are backwards enough that whatever they get from you is practically the primary source of research for the whole world and you won't need help from tech trades to stay comfortably ahead of them the rest of the game. I would simply stop tech trading at this point; it will meaningfully slow down AI research and help ensure their military tech is slower to progress. This isn't a habit to get into for future games, just something I'd do in this particular game because you're so far ahead and are looking to make the wrap-up go more smoothly.
You ought to be able to attack Zara Yaqob on turn 174; you'll have about two dozen Cuirassiers at that point. 10 turns from now. So do not make any deals (like begging gold) that would enforce a 10-turn peace treaty with Zara Yaqob after this point. If you invade his territory on turn 174, you'll be attacking Aksum on turn 177. Which means you want the spies stationary in Aksum on turn 172 to build up the 5-turn stationary spy bonus, so you want to start moving them out of your territory on turn 168. I think Fippy's current spy build will finish just in time to barely make it.
Edit: Also, Sampsa needs to hop on that plains-hill and even the desert hill instead of merchant specs now. I know you got no end of complaints for working it earlier; times have changed. It's not going to make a Great Person, and hammers are more important than gold at this point. And now that I look at what your workers are doing, stop replacing mature cottage villages and towns with workshops. The time for that has not come yet; just any new-built improvements right now should not be cottages because they won't grow fast enough, but losing a town tile to get a non-Guilds, non-Chemistry, non-State-Property workshop is not a good trade.
You could put workshops south of Lymond on the plains, a mine on the desert hill by Sampsa, a mine on the desert hill by Krikav, a mine on the desert hill by Noble Zarkon, mines on the tundra hill by Jnebbe, a workshop north of Fippy; these would all be productive things for your workers to do now.
Last edited: