Sorry for not responding sooner - I'm really busy this week. I took a (quick) look at the save and noticed a few things:
0. We can whip the HE this turn.
1. Kublai Khan
has enough on his hands right now! He's going to declare on someone. He's annoyed towards Mansa, has more power, and is quite close, so that's probably who he's going after. Nice.
2. Bismarck will declare war on Hatty (and give us 190 gold) for Astronomy. I suggest we take him up on the offer. With 1. above, that should put everyone but Mao & HC at war. Hatty is outresearching but not out producing Bismarck, so it should slow 'em both down.
3. Mao won't trade techs with us. Oh well, we're going to invade anyway.
4. We can trade Astronomy for Guilds + Paper + 210 gold from Khan.
5. Hatty will give us Engineering, Music, and her world map and all her gold for Astronomy.
6. The value of Astronomy will decline as we make trades, so we need to prioritize the good ones first.
So, due to Mao's recalcitrance we won't be able to trade for Gunpowder it seems unless we don't want to start the German war, but I think a war could help us more (we have some naval units to build before Grens, anyway.)
Here's my plan:
1. Astronomy to Hatty for Engineering, Paper, world map, gold (she might not trade if after we get Bismarck to declare on her.)
2. Astronomy to Bismarck for war with Hatty + gold.
3. Astronomy to Khan for Guilds and whatever else we can get.
4. Set research on Gunpowder at 100% with money we got from trades, due in 5 turns; in the meantime whip as many galleons as possible in the islands, happiness be damned
5. When Gunpowder comes in, lightbulb
Chemistry using the two scientists. Whip Gren's as quickly as possible in the islands with no concern for happiness.
6. Invade Mao, and get the ball rolling.
What do y'all think?
