I think we should refrain from building the GL ,and go millitary all the way ,with researching Iron indeed.I can assure you that we arn't playing against some easy AI here ,were surrounded by groups of very eperienced players ,who understand the need for a fine millitary in mp ,and probbably will use it to try to conquer area's.In any case i expect a very bloody game ,with a huge number of wars ,we must be preparred for that.Not only that we need a large millitary ,but also alliances with other nation's are vital to our survival.Even with a huge army we'll probably won't be able to stop 3 civ's attacking us.
The GL ,we might try to conquer it anyway.Other tech's may be aquired by diplomacy anyway ,since all the civ's are human one's.But producing it ourself's ,i think that's not only a waste of recource's ,but would also make us an interresting target for the other civ's to attack.I can assure you that most civ's will want to wage war on us when we complete GL ,and i fear that the civ building the GL will get isolated from the start ,making it doomed to have almost all civ's waging war on it.
Go millitary all the way ,we'll need it.Let's be a happy warmongering bunch.If we research iron working early ,we'll know where iron can be found ,a vital resource to survive this game.
We better try to research every millitary advance as ASAP ,i know some other civ's that will.
Don't give peace a chance ,no other civ will neither ,or they will be dead meat for the warmonger's.I know for ex. the GC team will go warmongering directly at start ,i know these guys very well and i know there strategy's ,since i played some mp games against their leader's in the past ,and they are almost all warmongers themselfs (like me ,and warmongering has proven to be most of the times the best civ strategy ,especially in mp)