Ok, here is now finally my input.
First of all, I need to give some criticism. I hope it won't be too harsh and won't offend anybody, but I have to get this of my chest...
I think the team is not cooperating smoothly yet!
Point 1: We had no decent discussion about the early research strategy, and especially the early phase is most important! Overseer just picked Iron Working as first tech and went with it without consulting the rest. I think from a strategic perspective IW was a mistake for the following reasons:
- IW is a risky gamble, because if it turns out that there is no iron (as it indeed did) we just wasted 31 turns for a tech that doesn't give us any benefit! This is even more annoying as Germany has no need for IW: it starts with Warrior Code so can immediately build archers, and these are sufficient for the early passive phase.
- In the beginning we have other more urgent priorities than IW: we need to win the race to Philosophy (the free tech it gives is essential as we can't trade, even if you don't want to go for the Republic Slingshot), and we need to get out of Despotism asap! Iron Working does nothing for either of these two objectives. We jeopardize the race to Philosophy and we will be 31 turns longer in Despotism as we would otherwise have been.
- And finally: as we need to research every tech on our own, it is essential to do the cheap techs first and the more expensive ones later, when there are more towns. However, Iron Works (at 160 beakers) was the most expensive tech that we could pick. Every other one would have been cheaper.
Let me explain this point with a little calculation: It took us 31 turns to finish IW. Suppose for a moment, we will do Pottery next and then Alphabet. Pottery (48 beakers) is currently at 13 turns, but once Berlin grows back a bit, it will probably go down to 9 or even 8 turns. Suppose that we would choose Ceremonial Burrial (53 beakers) in order to get to Monarchy quickly. It will probably take 8-9 turns again. So in total we needed ca 49 turns for these three techs.
Now suppose we would have done it the other way around: Pots first, followed by CB and then finally IW. Pots is so cheap that it can be done in 10-11 turns from the start. CB would then take 10 turns as well, and by that time our empire has grown so much that IW can be done in around 20 turns instead of 31! So in total we needed only around 40-41 turns for the same three techs, just by doing them in a different order!! I think considerations like these are of vital importance, if we want to keep up with the tech pace, as we have to research everything ourselves while the AIs will be trading with each other.
Point 2: Leipzig is misplaced. Didn't anybody listen to DWetzel? He indicated the
perfect location for our second town in post #85. I would have suggested that spot myself, but as I was short on time the last couple of days and as I noticed that DWetzel had already recognized the power of that spot, I thought everything was going well and did not post it again. Now I come back, download the current .sav file and have to realize that Leipzig is on the wrong spot!
Let me reiterate, why Leipzig is badly placed:
- First of all, we already realized that we are in a tight corner of the world, so we need to pack our core towns closely. Leipzig is too widely spaced.
- Next, as DWetzel already mentioned: we want towns at distance at most three, so that defensive units can be moved around from town to town in a single turn. That will allow us a flexible defense. The consequences of that mistake can already be seen in the current .sav file: Berlin is threatened by two warriors and there's only one spearman inside. With Leipzig being close by and connected by a road, we could now move the warrior protecting Leipzig into Berlin and fend off that threat. The way it is now, we have to keep our fingers crossed and pray that the lonely spear will survive the attack...!
- Leipzig is one square away from the coast. Never put a town one square away from the coast! Either put it directly on the coast, so it can build a harbor and ships, or put it at least 2 squares away from the coast, so that it doesn't block the space for other coastal towns! We may be on a small island in this game, so this might also become a major factor!
- And finally: Leipzig is not on the river!! The spot indicated by DWetzel would have been. This means we are now loosing 1 gold every turn. At this early stage (with 7 gpt income) this means you just blew 14% of our empire's income! This may mean another turn or two longer for every early tech we research. And it also means Leipzig will have to spend 100 shields on an aqueduct later on!
Ok, after these harsh words let's get back to the current situation.
We have an SGL, great! This might be a game breaker (provided Berlin survives the attack next turn...
). So Iron Works turned out to be the right choice after all...
I see most of you want to use it for the Pyramids. Makes sense. However it also means that with Masonry we will now need to research yet another tech that doesn't bring us any closer to either Philosophy or Monarchy.
However, there's one other point to be considered: if this indeed turns out to be a small island, the Pyramids might be wasted: in that case it would be cheaper to build let's say 5 granaries by hand in some important towns and keep the SGL for the GLib.
If you guys would be willing to give Republic a try, I would recommend the following approach:
- Do Pottery now, so we can get the 4-turner online asap.
- Afterwards do Alphabet -> Writing -> Philosophy. On Monarch level there is a slight chance that we might still be first to Philosophy (but there will certainly no time anymore for the full slingshot). So we choose Literature as free tech and can immediately rush the GLib. I estimate that in less than 60 turns we can have the GLib up and running. (At the same time Alphabet will give us the ability to send out 2-3 early curraghs and find the necessary overseas contacts, that will make the GLib worthwhile.)
- Afterwards we will only need to research Code of Laws and Republic to finally get out of despotism. Then we shut down research and wait for the techs come rolling in...
But then, if most of you are in favor of Monarchy, I can live with that as well. I only thought: this is not a competitive game, so we can experiment a bit and see how it turns out. We won't discover new strategies by always following the trodden paths...
And after all: Monarch level isn't that hard is it? We should be able to get away with just about anything and still win, so why not even get away with Republic when all the AW experts say "Monarchy!"...
However, if you do decide to go for Monarchy, then please somebody draw up a decent research plan that can combine the three objectives "getting something out of Philosophy", "making good use of the SGL" and "getting out of despotism asap" in a smooth way. I think the plan that I outlined above, combines all these three objectives in an elegant way.
Cheers, Lanzelot
I will post a save and you can copy my turnlog. 
Overall, a decent turnset. I think Lanzelots right, lets not hurry this. Sparthage, try to wait until there some more team input before playing tomorrow. As the enemies mount, we'll need to discuss strategy more often. Also, we need to decide tech choices and whether we continue if we are on an island.
Not sure where you got the first part of that, at least from the discussion I've been reading! 
Hey but we got a SGL out of it. 
