Overall there wasn't much to do before I click next turn, naturally, as would be expected following Kylearan. Persepolis is working acouple of grasslands that are unimproved, so I'll divert some workers that way to get some more cottages built. I wake up an axeman in Susa and send him into Ghandi's territory under Open Borders to scout out the defenses there. Only other thing I notice is that we are at 100% science, losing 67 gpt. I am all for defecit research, but I decide to cut our defecit back some and keep some gold around, just in case timely upgrade is needed on the French border (see below).
However, as Ky mentioned it was time for some serious decisions about who to ally with, and the first step in that was the religion decision. After a little deliberation, I decide to immediately revolt to
confucianism. Here is my reasoning - Ghandi is our target, so hinduism didn't make too much sense. Both Alex and Hatty are confucianist, and number 3 and 4 in score, respectively. Ghandi is number 2 (after us), but he won't stay there for long, so allying with two relatively distant but strong civs seemed prudent. The most obvious negative is that it will alienate Louis, our next door neighbor. Worst case is that he attacks during the Indian war, which is a eventuality we should prepare for. In any case, the die is cast.
We only have one confucian city, which will start on a missionary as soon as its current build is complete. More on that later.
Decision is made, for better or worse.
Turn 1 - 800 AD - We enter confucianism, but all our build orders look pretty good. I am not going to revolt to vassalage / organized immediately, opting instead to wait until just before our next units finish building. No point in paying high maintainence for OR if we aren't using it for anything yet. When I revolt to vassalage I will, of course, throw in organized religion.
I agree that the great prophet decision is a toughy. Grabbing Theology is very tempting, although not the most efficient use of a great person (some of the potential is lost due to the cost of Theology, I think). I am torn between a super specialist and waiting for Divine right, and I decide to side with our fearless leader and go for the superspecialist. The earlier a superspecialist is created the more overall benefit is gained, so we'll see how this pans out.
Our axeman scout reveals a longbow in Madras. Catapults will definately be required, especially if he upgrades any archers.
Longbows are catapultastic
Turn 2 - Very quiet turn, as no builds complete. Hatty switches to vassalage. I think that's everyone in vassalage now. It's the deep breath before the plunge...
Turn 3 - A few of the workers are working on increasing our tactical road network connections. Other than that, see Turn 2.
Turn 4 - It's time. lots of units due next turn, so it's time. REVOLT! Vassalage, Organized religion. Obviously, nothing completes this turn. I had a nice screenshot, but Irfanview is giving me some nasty results (in fact, lost some Epic one shots as well). I'll take a pic using the shortcut defined by irfanview, and it'll take a pic, but often missing large portions of the interface (like cities). Any suggestions?
Turn 5 - Remember what I said about the plunge? Louis starts things off by declaring against Victoria!
I get the feeling we will see more of this (some of it initiated by us!)
Turn 6 - 2 catapults, 2 war elephants, 1 maceman complete, all with extra experience thanks to vassalage. I'm moving them to Susa to gather for the initial thrust against madras. I notice when the build cues come up that both Tarsus and Arbela don't have barracks yet, and were producing units! Ugh. I start them both on barracks, with serious thought placed into whipping them next turn. See next turn to fins out if I did. Here's my basic idea for this initial thrust: Red dot is staging area, blue dot is bombardment site, and then an attack along yellow line to avoid attacking across the river while maintaining defensive cover.
Napolean I'm not, but a simple plan is better than no plan!
We are doing well on science in comparison with all except Alexander. He will make a good trading partner, which fortunately fits into our diplomatic strategy.
Future trade material
).
I'm not sure what to do with him yet, so I save him until we've discussed this.
Missed that. 
