chunkymonkey
Procrastinator
Sorry Mach, I started playing before you posted, so I started building the FP in Edirne. I think this was the best solution. Time will tell i guess.
0 - 350BC - Change Iznik build to library. Upgrade 2 wariors. Modify Kafa to give taxmen, since all the food there is useless.
1 - 330BC - Edirne horse -> FP. Bursa spear -> spear. Uskudar worker -> worker. Arrange troops in Istanbul for invasion.
2 - 310BC - Ist horse -> sword. America is building Sun Tzu. Land troops (3spear,2sword,3workers). Prepare next wave.
IBT - Here come some impi and horses. Hang on, they didn't have horses a second ago did they?
A barb galley moves onto Istanbul oysters, and so it riots due to commerce denial (I should have anticipated this, sorry.)
3 - 290BC - Bursa spear -> spear. Uskudar worker -> worker. Aydin catapult -> sword. Sinop catapult -> catapult. Ankara lib -> cat. Attack barb galley and defeat it. Land second wave.
IBT - Most impi fortify next to us. Zulu horse attacks, but retreats. We learn Feudalism
. Persians are building Sun Tzu.
4 - 270BC - Kill vet zulu warrior. 1-0.
IBT - Fort completed. 2 zulu archers attack and lose, spear promotes. zulu horse attacks and retreats. 3-0
5 - 250BC - bombard some impi. upgrade some spears and swords.
IBT - our fort tile gets encompassed by zulu culture.
6 - 230BC - Istanbul horse -> horse. Iznik lib -> medinf. attack impi with medinf, it retreats. attack impi with sword, win. attack archer with horse, win. 5-0
IBT - barricade up. zulu warrior attacks pike, loses. zulu archer attacks pike, loses, pike promotes. 7-0. zulu impi attacks, loses and retreats.
7 - 210BC - Kafa builds settler ->worker. bursa MI -> MI. MI attacks impi, wins. 8-0
IBT - persia lands two immortals. 2 zulu archers attack pike and lose, pike promotes. 10-0.
8 - 190BC - Istanbul horse - market. need some cash. izmit cat -> cat. konya pike ->pike. 2 MI take care of immortals. merge worker in Ist to give 20spt. sword kills zulu archer. MI makes impi retreat. MI kills impi. sword kills impi, promotes. horse kills archer. decide its more efficient for shields to be in edirne at moment so give it Istanbul sheep, return Istanbul to 15spt, and set istanbul to horse. 16-0
9 - 170BC - Uskudar worker -> worker. Salonic cat -> cat. Aydin MI -> MI.
IBT - two american galleys show up.
10 - 150BC - Ist hoss -> market. Sinop cat -> cat. MI kills impi. MI kills impi. Final kill ratio 18-0
Lets try and keep a tally of our kill ratio. Will be fun to see at the end. I think adding together past three turnsets where we have seen some action, total is 25-4. That's good.
Istanbul is at 20spt to build market. It would probably be best if we could keep it like this so we can built MI here. If we don't agree on building market, which will probably only net us an extra 4/5 gpt max, then it can be set to build MI.
Edirne is starving at the moment, but when it finishes the FP, the taxman can go to work since there should be enough luxury there. BTW, i'm hoping completion of the FP will be a major boost.
We currently have a stack of 2 archers, 7 catapults, 2 horsies, 6 MI, 4 pikes (2 elite), 1 elite sword, and 1 elite spear, and 1 settler. I think the lull in the zulu attack will be soon, so we should probably start razing, maybe with a few more MI in place.
Americans are about to land on the west coast. There should be enough forces there to deal with them.
I can only see markets being worth the production time, and maintenance cost in Istanbul and Edirne for now. Military is better in other towns.
Apparently, we have a strong military compared to America and Persia, an average military compared to Zulu, and weak compared to India. Dunno what to read into this.
Can't think of anythin else right now, i'll post if i do.
EDIT: Oh yeah, since our galleys have minimal work to do at the moment, i figured i'd send one north through the zulu/india strait and around zululand for a bit of recon, and one around india for the same purpose. some corrupt towns could replace these as they may get mauled along the way.]
I'm a little concerned on on to proceed in Zululand. Them getting horses from somewhere makes things trickier, but i still don't see them being a massive threat. We just need to make sure we have a decent SoD before we move off. We might like to leave a couple of pikes hanging back to protect the fort, as a sort of refuge point or something.
Also, still nobody has Literature. Looks like we were doing all that fretting for nothing.
And India doesn't even have Writing. I think they may be killing themselves with high upkeep costs.
Here's the save...

0 - 350BC - Change Iznik build to library. Upgrade 2 wariors. Modify Kafa to give taxmen, since all the food there is useless.
1 - 330BC - Edirne horse -> FP. Bursa spear -> spear. Uskudar worker -> worker. Arrange troops in Istanbul for invasion.
2 - 310BC - Ist horse -> sword. America is building Sun Tzu. Land troops (3spear,2sword,3workers). Prepare next wave.
IBT - Here come some impi and horses. Hang on, they didn't have horses a second ago did they?

3 - 290BC - Bursa spear -> spear. Uskudar worker -> worker. Aydin catapult -> sword. Sinop catapult -> catapult. Ankara lib -> cat. Attack barb galley and defeat it. Land second wave.
IBT - Most impi fortify next to us. Zulu horse attacks, but retreats. We learn Feudalism

4 - 270BC - Kill vet zulu warrior. 1-0.
IBT - Fort completed. 2 zulu archers attack and lose, spear promotes. zulu horse attacks and retreats. 3-0
5 - 250BC - bombard some impi. upgrade some spears and swords.
IBT - our fort tile gets encompassed by zulu culture.

6 - 230BC - Istanbul horse -> horse. Iznik lib -> medinf. attack impi with medinf, it retreats. attack impi with sword, win. attack archer with horse, win. 5-0
IBT - barricade up. zulu warrior attacks pike, loses. zulu archer attacks pike, loses, pike promotes. 7-0. zulu impi attacks, loses and retreats.
7 - 210BC - Kafa builds settler ->worker. bursa MI -> MI. MI attacks impi, wins. 8-0
IBT - persia lands two immortals. 2 zulu archers attack pike and lose, pike promotes. 10-0.
8 - 190BC - Istanbul horse - market. need some cash. izmit cat -> cat. konya pike ->pike. 2 MI take care of immortals. merge worker in Ist to give 20spt. sword kills zulu archer. MI makes impi retreat. MI kills impi. sword kills impi, promotes. horse kills archer. decide its more efficient for shields to be in edirne at moment so give it Istanbul sheep, return Istanbul to 15spt, and set istanbul to horse. 16-0
9 - 170BC - Uskudar worker -> worker. Salonic cat -> cat. Aydin MI -> MI.
IBT - two american galleys show up.
10 - 150BC - Ist hoss -> market. Sinop cat -> cat. MI kills impi. MI kills impi. Final kill ratio 18-0

Lets try and keep a tally of our kill ratio. Will be fun to see at the end. I think adding together past three turnsets where we have seen some action, total is 25-4. That's good.
Istanbul is at 20spt to build market. It would probably be best if we could keep it like this so we can built MI here. If we don't agree on building market, which will probably only net us an extra 4/5 gpt max, then it can be set to build MI.
Edirne is starving at the moment, but when it finishes the FP, the taxman can go to work since there should be enough luxury there. BTW, i'm hoping completion of the FP will be a major boost.
We currently have a stack of 2 archers, 7 catapults, 2 horsies, 6 MI, 4 pikes (2 elite), 1 elite sword, and 1 elite spear, and 1 settler. I think the lull in the zulu attack will be soon, so we should probably start razing, maybe with a few more MI in place.
Americans are about to land on the west coast. There should be enough forces there to deal with them.
I can only see markets being worth the production time, and maintenance cost in Istanbul and Edirne for now. Military is better in other towns.
Apparently, we have a strong military compared to America and Persia, an average military compared to Zulu, and weak compared to India. Dunno what to read into this.
Can't think of anythin else right now, i'll post if i do.
EDIT: Oh yeah, since our galleys have minimal work to do at the moment, i figured i'd send one north through the zulu/india strait and around zululand for a bit of recon, and one around india for the same purpose. some corrupt towns could replace these as they may get mauled along the way.]
I'm a little concerned on on to proceed in Zululand. Them getting horses from somewhere makes things trickier, but i still don't see them being a massive threat. We just need to make sure we have a decent SoD before we move off. We might like to leave a couple of pikes hanging back to protect the fort, as a sort of refuge point or something.
Also, still nobody has Literature. Looks like we were doing all that fretting for nothing.

Here's the save...