Mongolia!
Mongolias access to Copper is of clear concern. Furthermore, if they have Horses, they will probably bee-line Horseback Riding and we will have Keshiks all over the shop. Kublai Kahns Creative trait is also unhelpful, as his border expansion has already caused problems with our optimal city placement in terms of access to resources at the fringe of the fat cross. We will need Copper for Spears at worst, however I think that the Iron-based Medieval units will be crucial, and therefore Iron is the way to go.
did you forget that elephants are +100% vs mounted?
we need not fear keshiks if we have ivory and construction. That's exactly what i did : grab and camp the ivory and tech towards construction
But i must say getting iron is a very good thing. You did a great job there!
that's a bit of a spoiler!
I think you forgot the +2 from city center, didn't you?
+ you don't need to worry that much about berlin when it's size 20. I don't think it will grow that fast (even though happiness cap will be blown when you have a forge and a few religions)
My game
I was able to found Hamburg without Barbarians killing the unescorted Settler. It is river-connected to Berlin and with a few hills and a Rice tile (unfortunately later consumed by Mongolian cultural border), should make a decent production city. Bonus being that it is founded on a plains hill (good protection plus an additional hammer).
same for me, but different city
Without the rice it's a
city, don't you think?
Granary built in Berlin with the help of a chop while food is emphasised. Switch research to Mysticism and build (assisted by two chops) Stonehenge, partly to counter Kublais cultural expansion. As no Masonry so far, Stonehenge could allow a Great Prophet slingshot. Given our great science in Berlin, The Oracle was a less attractive option to me.
well, i think you're wrong there (first time i disagree with you
): we're an industrious leader, not a philosophical one. It's easier to build the Oracle for teching AND GPP than waiting for Great Prophet from stonehenge alone.
Finished off Archery for basic protection - and as a prerequisite to Horse Archers if this is the best we can do given the possible lack of strategic resources. Iron Working was next for Spears to eventually counter Keshiks. Some Iron was found to the east. Animal Husbandry for Horses and pastures (Pigs to north).
You obviously don't like elephants
Kublai eventually discovers Bronze Working.
We take a Barbarian city with two Archers where I had originally intended to put Hamburg, while settling Munich near the Iron resource to the east.
that's either a lucky shot or really well done!
Here you earn the best city site i've seen for a long time, without building the settler and without entering any war!
Metal Casting is being researched. Our cheap forges will clearly provide much productivity and happiness.
with the oracle (see armstrong's game) you'd have metal casting already
Theres still quite a job to do in terms of tile development. Berlin and Hamburg are each on Workers while recovering from some whipping. Berlin has a Library, Granary, and Barracks, while Hamburg has a Granary and Barracks.
you'll need those workers in Magyar!
Due to lack of units (and Horses), exploration has not been as thorough as it could have been.
still better than mine
Peace with everyone (no stolen workers as we were simply too weak to deal with a conflict). We have met Spain, and opened borders with Isabella. I would use her as our ally, and hope we get some Buddhism into our empire to strengthen this relationship. Hopefully Napoleon gets Hinduism before Buddhism so the two northern tribes will be fighting each other.
that's not very likely : Napoleon is nowhere in sight, so he very likely is north of isabella. Kublai isn't a big religion fan, while isabella is. I bet 20:1 Nappy will be buddhist if he doesn't found confucianism (which you didn't found!).
I like your game!
Must find some "scientific" way to weight your lack of tech (Metal Casting/CoL) and religion against your advantage in city numbers and grabbing iron. Is Oracle already built somewhere else, or can you still build it?
I think you could build it in hambourg for culture, grabbing machinery!
moves, although not 0), and that's the decisive part. At a point i had more pop than useful tiles so i pop rushed stonehenge : the city had room to grow again and i got the culture to expand just in time for my workers to build the pasture, so pigswill's city could always work worthwhile tiles.
(Funnily enough, for my goals your cities are better! 
, darn creative leaders!), and i'm pretty sure i could have killed the bugger in the next 40 turns (i had copper, he had only one unimproved city, i had loads of forests, he could not even send out a worker)
