Mike Hussey, I took a look at the save.
Looking backwards:
I don't know how Sumeria got to be such a powerhouse compared to the rest of the world, but I think that could have been avoided. I also don't recall if you had iron, but it seems like you could have wiped out the Mongols a while back. I really like China, and I really like them for early wars. Some cheap raxes, some archers and some swords and those Mongolian lands could have been yours a while back. The Mongols aren't agri, aren't scientific, don't have a particularly good UU . . .
Why are Shangnai, Nanking, and Tsingtao making cannons? They've got raxes and plenty of shields to be making Riders.
I see a stack of 21 Riders sitting at New Xinjan. That's plenty to go and wreck the Persians. You have several unprotected border towns along the Mongolian border, and lots of workers that they could grab.
Diplomacy:
I see that you just made peace with Persia. Let's not go wrecking your reputation just yet.
You sold something to the Sumerians for Silks. What was it? I hope it was important. Best advice: don't sell the Sumerians any more luxes. The AI is rotten with the lux slider, so let's not make that any easier on Gilgamesh.
Not a single embassy.
Military:
1 pike
1 musket
15 cannons
1 army (riders)
33 riders
3 trebs
Comparisons vs.
Egypt -- strong
Japan -- strong
Mongols -- strong
Persia -- strong
Sumeria -- weak
Korea -- average
Aztecs -- strong.
Trade:
Sumeria has 1916 gold. I want it, but I've got to figure out how to transfer that gold from them to me. I have nothing to sell them. So, we'll look around and see what else there is to bargain with. You share a border with the Mongols, so I don't really want to do any per-turn deals with them. Why? Because they're the most promising target. It looks like they have horses, but no iron. They do have wines, which I could use. If I had their horses, that would give me an extra set to trade, if I so desired.
The only ones to whom I could sell a tech is Egypt. Unfortunately, Egypt doesn't look like it's long for this world and it has little or nothing that I need.. It's sandwiched between several more powerful nations, so I don't want to waste a lot of gold making deals with them possible.
I build an embassy with Xerxes. You just made peace with him, and you share a land border with him. That means that trading with him is relatively safe. I also know, from reading your posts, that Sumeria is about to invade. The Persians wines, gems, iron, horses and saltpeter. They're building knights. Persepolis is pop 7, 2 of which are clowns, and guarded by one musket.
I try out some trades with Xerxes, but I just don't think he's got any money. I try to trade a lux for tech, but he won't do it.
I wake some of the 21 riders and send them west towards the Mongols. I'll use the rest to leader-fish on the Persian/Sumerian side of the world.
Scrolling through cities:
I swap Tatung from a university to a granary. Why a granary? Because a rax would have wasted 38 shields, and the granary will help it grow faster. Once it's up to size 12, sell the granary. Swap Macao from a cannon to a rax, due in 1, no shield loss. It's netting 7 spt, plenty to warrant a rax.
You've got several cities that have more than 1 foreign citizen. Be more careful in starving them down.
Swap Hamadan to a cannon. It was building a musket, but does not have a rax.
Shantung is building an aque, but it's only at size 3, so it doesn't need one yet. Build a musket (due in 5 & Shantung has a rax) instead.
Get someone to Baruun-Urt to quell that last resistor. Swap the aque that you're building there to a LB for that reason. BU has a rax, LB due in 4.
Ningpo is building a worker, due (allegedly) in 1. Production box is full, growth in 5. Any idea how long that's been hanging like that? Swap to a cannon.
Swap Yanghow from a temple to a musket. No rax, but you're a bit short on raxes for my taste. Besides, Yangchow is right on the Mongolian border, where there's fixin' ta be a war.
Swap New Beijing from LB to MDI. Better defensive score, same cost. I like attackers, but I have 12 Riders on the way to this border. An MDI will never keep up with them.
And back to Beijing. The only thing I see here is that you need to road the two forest tiles, and swap production to a Rider. Otherwise it looks good.
Going forward:
1) Fortify the Mongolian border.
2) Move Riders over towards the Mongols.
3) Use mostly vet riders to take out the mongols in the west.
4) When the Sumerians attack in the east:
a) see if you can buy Xerxes into an alliance with luxes.
b) If that doesn't work, leader-fish on Sumerian cavs.
Hope this has been of some help.
Just 1 turn after this save game is at, the Sumerians will invade with Cavalry on the Persian border. I tried a pre-emptive strike on the Cav stack but then they would drag the Mongols or Korea (or both into war with me). I didn't even have enough gold to support a layer of attackers to fortify on the Mongol border as they were all focused on the Persian war. The most assinine thing of all though is that I totally forgot to build embassies with all the other civs, and at this crucial juncture in time have insufficient gold to build them instantly and needless to say can't buy alliances etc. To compound the situation, I unwittingly broke a trade deal with Sumeria thousands of years ago and now my trading rep is totally broken.
