Pre-Turns: I notice that on turn 9 we will pop a hut through cultural border expansion on an island out there. I can't wait to see the outcome - a free tech would be tremendous.
It's a boring set of turns, so I'll introduce anachronisms everywhere to make it less uninteresting.
IT: A greek archer comes out of their borders at Pharsalos (the cornered jungle city) - and it will keep parading that way for 10 turns.
T 1.
IT:Rome completes Leo in Cumae
Greeks, Viks and Japs start Sistine
Englishs start Sistine and change Copernicus build to Warwick.
Warwick stats:
Max shields: 10
Plausible/likely shields: 9/8
Distance from London: 11 => ~35% corruption, down to 6 shields.
The pre-build is still safe for us to grab Coper.
T 3.
Gunpowder is in and there's not much more interesting to talk about in trades. Now that we know we can't get a twofer, I just go on with trades:
Everything we have would get us Astro from Japan - no thanks.
Dyes+gems to Rome for Wool WM and gold
Dyes to Jap for WM 17+11gpt
Trade world maps around to get the whole picture and 57 gold
T 7.
Japs complete Sistine.
Romans start Coper in Veii.
Veii stats:
Max shields: 13
Plausible/likely shields: 13/12
Distance from Rome: 5 => ~12% corruption, down to 12 shields.
Their cost for Coper:320, 320/12 = 27 turns
Our cost for Coper (as of now):248, 248/16 = 16 turns
We're good to go.
Dyes to England renewed snatches us 10+10gpt.
War is redeclared on the Chinese, full stack of junk 'o war is by their door.
T 8.
Now for the fun *turn*
"General Wolfe, we're receiving ... smoke signals ... from the Echo squad"
"What kind of calisse d'innocents are those??"
"Well general, we did have radio comm back in 2000 BC but our rent was only a very-long-term one, we couldn't afford an eternally-long-term one."
"Bullsh*t, let them on their own then, I'm not gonna speak in smoke signal morse codes."
On the other side of the continent, meanwhile, the Echo squad was reporting their -.-. .-. .- --.. .. .-.. -.-- --. --- --- -.. .-. ..- -.
and the -... . .- - ..- .--. Foxtrot --. .- ...- . them chinese .-. . --. losers.
Chineses on our continent are now only a legend. They're down to OCC at Tientsin; no unit ost in the process. They would take Shantung next turn however (eHorse vs rWar) so I abandon it.
WH allows for a lux drop, but watch it.
T 9.
GH over the ocean gives us 50g.
Very bad news: Rome flips its Sistine build in Antium to Copernicus and finishes it.
Good news is WST will finish its University right on time ...

There is also no way we can carry that one through to Smith's, unless we find a way to trade for Econ this very turn ... right.
T 10.
Inching in is now a hill city of size 8, with hoplites in it ... ring a bell? And it bombed our culture radius from Beijing.
I back the troops I can from the hill right beside it, some have 0 move and will have to be backed next turn.
Our force has consistently improved.
England can sell us iron, and we could buy chivalry, but it would be expensive. It might tilt our odds for a second greek war, but we'll have cavalries soon anyways.
The Save