I was about to post the stuff below a few hours ago, but RL forced it to wait.
I agree the tech path is a tough choice. IMO our biggest challenges now are the low commerce and low happy cap.
The Pyramids would solve them both - with Rep we could REX at our leisure employing 2 sci in each city with slider at zero and still have a decent tech rate. GLH would help with economy but not directly with the happy caps. Do we have an estimate of when can we get GLH in Orleans?
IIRC the fastest we could get a GP, if we hire just 1 eng spec (before we get a lib in Paris), is in 17 turns. According to Ozbenno, it is the same time we'll take to learn Sailing+Masonry. That would be 550BC. I think it is a reasonable date on Emperor, but Ramesses got a reasonably early SH, maybe he has stone and Mids will be gone earlier?
I believe our GP odds would be 54%GE 46%GP before popping it. But even if we get lucky and get the GE we would still need the masonry tech. Trouble with going Alpha is that if it really takes 34t (hadn't noticed/checked yet) we won't have masonry by then. So if we go Alpha, we basically say goodbye to Mids.
Bottomline, IMO it seems that sailing/masonry has higher risks (not only dependant on GPP luck, but we might still get beat to one or both WW's) and higher returns, while Alpha is a safer route. What do we want?
I can be convinced either way - I think we can adopt Sleepless' suggestion and turn off science for a while. But disagreeing with my own earlier posts, I'd put that 1 free bpt on sailing. If our exploring chariot manages to uncover an eastern coastal trade route to our southern neighbors, it will be even better. BTW, as Ramesses sometimes hates his other neighbor even more (and Ramesses has no religion yet), I suspect he's a warmonger like Alex, Genghis, Ragnar or Monty.
@Griff: I like your city plan, but 5A will be completely useless until IW. City 6 still has corn, grass hills and forests which makes it a decent city even before clearing jungle.
Maybe we settle 6 (better blocking) and 7A next?
On Sleepless' PPP:
Paris: agree settler is better than worker now. However I'd build it for a few turns and then whip the settler with high overflow into Lib. That way we allow the city to regrow - not possible the other way around. Definitely do not fire the engineer.
Orleans: will be happy next turn, and stay happy until pop5 in 4t. I'd rather not 1pop-whip. Instead let granary finish (maybe work a 3h tile next turn), then 2-pop Lib after that at size5.
Lyons: agree with 2pop whip, but next turn (not this turn) or we risk not learning Writing as you already noticed.
Rheims: net fish (I should have already done that before uploading for better understanding), but I'd finish granary (whip it ASAP) before lib.
Agree with Ron's suggestion on forges as placeholders while growing.
If we agree on a PPP before Sleepless is able to play, I can resume the game where we left it for a few more turns. I stopped mainly because I was too eager to capture that worker, so you could stop me from ruining our game.
I was also hoping someone would have suggested HBR as a possible next tech
, but since noone mentioned it....
Without IW, all those southern city sites would just be for blocking Brennus' expansion. The city I marked as 7A could be productive fairly soon now that we know Fishing. It could build a WB for the Fish in ~7 turns, net the fish 8 turns after founding, and start a 2nd WB for the clams. Perhaps it should be City #5?????
