Well it took a little longer to play than I thought, but I think the results will speak for themselves...
(0) 250AD Athens is running a huge food surplus; too bad we can't do anything about that, since all of its tiles are already mined. I plan to pop out workers periodically from Athens whenever its growth is maxed out. Since Athens has 0 shields in its box for a bank, I swap it to a worker right now. (Bank is the right call though.) At size 7, Sparta has no need for a cathedral and is swapped to a bank. Sparta's slow growth can be fixed by irrigating some of its grassland tiles; this will also allow us to get its gold hills into play. I will reconfigure it with workers this turn. Thermo not working a bonus grassland tile? I swap it over. Thermo on palace PREBUILD for Forbidden Palace, which we need one more city to be able to build. Note to Chieftess: we have two stacks of 5 workers each clearing jungle. Since jungle takes 24 worker turns to clear, you want to use stacks of 4 or 6 workers to clear it - not 5, since you lose turns to waste. I'll be swapping workers to get groups of 6 on our jungle. Delphi swapped to MDI; if we're going to fight Shaka, we need to make at least some effort to do so. Knossus shouldn't be building non-vet MDI; it gets swapped to a barracks.
Keep in mind that in this game we can build Wall Street when we get 5 banks, NOT stock exchanges; I modded it to that effect to make it more like original Civ3. We'll want to do that as soon as we can.
On the diplomatic front, I first run the map trading game and pull in about 100g. And yes, that is a lot of income. I send the highly outdated Chemistry to Bismarck for Economics; sure, we probably won't be running wealth, but a free tech is a free tech. We need to get Physics so we can see the next brokering opportunity. I think I can pick it up from the Aztecs soon by trading away our saltpeter, but we need a little more income first. Or maybe one of the other slacker civs will pick it up and aid our cause. We'll see. Got to get into the Industrial Age soon though to make use of our freebie tech.
(1) 260AD India completes Shakespeare. India has also jumped into the Industrial Age this turn. Aha! Deal time opens up, and all we have to do is send away the saltpeter we're not using anyway. The big thing good that happened was Japan getting Metallurgy but not Physics. So here we go: Saltpeter + 237g + 3gpt to Aztecs for Physics. Then Physics + WM + 3gpt + 6g to Japan for Metallurgy. Aztecs have TOG but not Magnetism; if only there was some way to pick up Magnetism now! But we are far too short on income for that. And yet... if I really gamble, I think I can get us into the Industrial Age next turn. I am going to set that plan in motion, and see if it works out. A worker is taken off jungle-clearing duty to form a colony on the spices just outside our borders...
(2) 270AD I start the turn by pulling in another 60g via map trades (it's so effective at this point, it almost should be an exploit). Now it's time for the big gamble. Our worker forms a new spice colony in the jungle. This lets us send a spices luxury away for Magnetism. We can't afford that at the moment, but I can but the luxury rate down to 0% temporarily and get us more income. The deal: Spices + 88g + 53gpt to India for Magnetism. Now our actual income is only 26gpt, so we better get something out of this deal! Then Magnetism + 15gpt to the Aztecs for Theory of Gravity. We enter the Industrial Age!!! [dance]
At this point, we have 2g and are making 0gpt - and this with running 0% luxuries, which we cannot do. But we've drawn Medicine as our freebie tech; let's see what that will give us.
OMG - NO ONE HAS MEDICINE YET!!! ![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
We've got a MONOPOLY tech on our hands! Wow - we're gonna pull the mother of all Nationalism, errr Medicine, slingshots here.
OK, the AI civs in the Industrial Age are only up Steam Power and Nationalism on us. It's clear that Medicine even at monopoly is not worth both; in fact, we can't get Nationalism even straight-up for Medicine. So I focus with the first trade on getting Steam Power and the maximum possible gold from an AI civ. Joanie has the best price: Medicine to France for Steam Power + WM + 135g + 85gpt. Woohoo, we're rich!
We've got coal now too, THREE sources actually (2 hoooked up). Not really a surprise when you consider our jungle start, hehe. The Zulus have two more coal sources as well, so we're in prime position to be the world's broker of coal. And it gets better: Babylon, the largest civ on the planet, needs OUR coal!
Now here's a case of a tech being way too overvalued: Babylon won't trade Nationalism even for Medicine @2nd + coal + 88gpt. Your loss Hammurabi! Next I try to pick up Military Tradition and as much gold as possible. India has the best deal: Medicine to India for Military Tradition + 88g + 45gpt. This bankrupts India, btw. Next I pick up some useless optional techs, just in case we should need them: Magnetism + TOG to Rome for Democracy, horses, and some change. And more useless techs to pick up for fun: TOG to Japan for Free Artistry and some change. We now have all Middle Age techs.
Time to finish selling Medicine for whatever we can get for it. Babylon has best price: Medicine @3rd for 84gpt. Then to Russia: Medicine @4th for 106g + 72gpt. While we're at it, let's end this silly war with Egypt; I give Cleo TOG to make peace. Now that we're at peace with Egypt, we can trade for Egyptian furs; I give away Magnetism to get them. Now we can run 10% lux instead of 20%.
After this monstrous round of trading, we have 371g in the bank, are making 271gpt (!) and are behind only one tech, the obscenely expensive Nationalism. I start swapping workers off of jungle clearing duty to rail our core. 40-turn min science on Nationalism started, using a scientist in Knossus who would have become an entertainer anyway. The game's well and truly afoot now, my friends!
(3) 280AD Russia completes Newton's. I establish embassies with all of the major Industrial powers to better relations and keep our options open. Many cities swapped to workers to help up rail our territory better.
(4) 290AD France completes Smith's, ending the wonder cascade. We're in prime position to land TOE, as soon as factories come along we can rush a factory/coal plant combo and grab the wonder.
(5) 300AD Sparta finishes our first bank. I put it on a cathedral prebuild for a factory.
(6) Industrialization appears among the tech leaders. Normally I would hold off for a brokerage opportunity, but this tech is too important to avoid picking up immediately. I'll pick it up from Hammurabi next turn when I can pay in a flat sum without gpt.
(7) 320AD Caesar's up to some actual money now, so I'll send him Medicine @6th for 40g + 25gpt. I can get Industrialization this turn from Hammurabi for a huge discount, thanks to our coal: the price is only coal + 21gpt + 983g. Sparta swaps to factory. Athens will finish its bank, then cash-rush a factory + coal plant.
(8) 330AD Gandhi's up to a real price on Steam Power, so I send it to him for 80g + 44gpt. Ooh, and Monty can come up with some cash too: Aztecs get Steam Power for 3g + 36gpt.
(9) 340AD Athens finishes its bank; I cash-rush a worker and then a factory at a cost of 1080g.
(10) 350AD Athens cash-rushes a worker/coal plant combo at a cost of 680g. It should go to build Suffrage next, from which we will either get Suffrage itself and kill the cascade or TOE. Either way, we win and secure TOE for ourselves. I send Medicine to Japan this turn @9th (I think) for 30g + 18gpt. That tech has certainly been useful!
Goals for next round should focus on getting Athens either Suffrage or TOE, railing our territory, and continuing to stay among the tech leaders. It's OK to fall behind and wait for a brokerage chance; only the most important techs (like Industrialization) should we buy in at 4th or 5th civ price without being able to swing a deal. Trade maps every turn if you can, we can easily get 30-40 gold extra per turn. Regarding the Zulus, NEW plan is to build factories first, then hit them with cavalry. They don't have anything better than impis in their cities, so...
It was a really fun round, perhaps my best trading sequence ever. Good luck Reagan!
RBP9 350AD
No way I would have been cognizant enough to make that many trades with the currently high stress level of finals. Next time through the rotation I should be ready to go. 
Let's see if I can fix that. Coal Plant rushed in Sparta at a cost of 320 gold. Cleopatra demands Industrialization. What did Antony see in her? I ultimately decide to give it to her because A) Our military is so weak, B) We do not need a dogpile right now, C)She'll get it soon enough, so it may as well be from us as a gift. She doesn't even go to Cautious from Annoyed. What a meanie. France signs an alliance with Russia against India and we turn down the same alliance.
She said should France would do so "in the interests of world peace." I guess everyone is afraid of those hoplites and MDI we're packing! 
