Well here it is - if we want the Great Lighthouse we will have to remove it from Asoka's hands, and I think we want it. I checked the city screens and his towns contribute zero to our trade route income, he has a resource we could use, he is a very small nation (exceeded in his smallness only by Mansa) and I think we could capture his two towns on our side of the peninsula, then send a couple-six boatloads of 'zerks, cats and axes at Delhi, capture that town, also the Holy City of Buddhism IIRC, then sign both him and Mansa into peonage and take whatever resources they have we might need. We would get a nice boost to the economy and a big run up on score and be sitting pretty to take the Japanese out of the game. And Delhi would make a nice spot for the Forbidden Palace, or even Versailles if we can do all this before Huyana builds it.
There is only one problem with that plan - actually two, no three, we have no, or not enough, boats to even consider it, we have no catapults, and we really don't have enough axes to capture one city defended by longbows, did I mention Asoka learned Feudalism? So here it is in a nutshell: One frustrated old warhorse.
So, finished Sistine Chapel in the capitol, markets in a lot of places, a harbor and a library in a couple of others. Pushed the research towards Liberalism with Paper, sold the map around to bulk up the treasury for the run through the Machinery/Optics/Philosophy line so we woould be ready to burn to Education, then Liberalism, then Astronomy, we do need to find that mythical third landmass and if it means obsoleting the Colussus, so be it. By that time we sshould have most of the infrastucture in place to deal with it. And finally trained a zerk and a catapult, still need a boat though.
Oh, and a scientist built an Academy in the capitol, if we are going for space we better bulk up. Note I did not train any Muslim missionaries, as I had better, commercial uses for the hammers at that town. Besides, Delhi has the Buddhist shrine, I can almost swear, and that religion has the widest spread of any, so why not just capture it and the Lighthouse all at once
Here is what the world looks like after I whored the maps around
Did a couple of deals with my Inca buddy, mainly to bulk up the happiness factor before we start whipping military.
and to secure the tech needed for a strong defense at home and vassalage abroad
WE are doing great in all the categories that matter except one:
And I get nervous when that happens, especially when Huyana, Toku and Shaka are on the other side of the strait.
We are the effective leaders in technology
Huyana holds a couple over our heads, but not by much
So let's train some troops and build some boats and show the world who is really the boss!
(would imho be more fun than hammering any contender into the ground)
Ah ... I forgot something important:
... oh lord ... cumbaya! Our first Missionary goes to Timbuktu for the cultural battle against India. Civil Service is next in tech schedule. Negotiating with Tokugawa we get Dyes and 3gpt for Ivory.
We should plan a little bit on this. For us traders it could be very profitable with a Shrine now that we have our state religion.
. 
!
Got it.
Liberalism the same, next one can choose the free tech and this wilk give us a nice advance. We have to be careful thereafter that we research the right things to maintain our tech lead.
