Round 6: 1140AD - 1370AD
After evaluating the situation for the final time, I decided that continuing the war at this point was not advantageous. Other issues (which are quite subjective) aside, one thing was certain: Augustus was already eyeing the barb city to our north and we needed to expand to that part of the continent asap before someone like him does. With our forces tied down in the south, we could not make a move on the now longbow-defended barb city. And, hence, peace it was. But I listened to the WFYABTA advocates and did not take Archery from Louis:
I don't know what consequences not ever knowing Archery might have in the future (realistically speaking, it's a bit absurd not to know archery by this age), but I believe, and have been told, that there is none.
With WW weariness lifted, our cities were not at their happiness caps, so we converted to no state religion to improve relations with everyone. It should make us a little safer and the civs from the other continent more willing to trade.
We used the gambit of researching Machinery for one turn (without losing any money) and then checking again if we could get it for Philosophy from Augustus. True enough, it worked:
Sweet. Now we could go on with our beeline to Democracy, which is, IMO, the best option we have. We would unlock the cottage civics and we might even be able to trade our way up to near parity with those techs. The first tech in that line is Nationalism, so that's where our research took us next.
I also took lilnev's suggestion and sold Philosophy to Shaka at a bargain:
Indeed, that gave us +4 for 'fair trade' right away and made him Pleased. He was now willing to trade his techs
Then, while looking at the diplomatic advisor, I realised that Augustus had a lot of gpt to give, so I made a deal with him:
How could I not have noticed earlier? This would really help us research the Democracy line more quickly. Maybe it just wasn't there before.
A little later, we met another civ from the other continent:
He's not as advanced as Huayna, but still way more advanced than us. The good news is he's willing to trade, so we might be able to get something from him for Nationalism soon.
And, indeed, we could. He wouldn't give us Printing Press, though, so we settled for this (after again taking Archery out of the deal):
That gave us +4 for 'fair trade' with Mehmed. But why Drama? Because the Zulus did not have it and we could trade it to Shaka, as you shall see:
Printing Press gave our economy a little boost, and it's on the way to Democracy. What's not to like?
Constitution was researched next. This is a key tech. Not only does it lead to Democracy, it would give us further trade opportunities and allow us to accumulate shared civic diplomatic bonus with Augustus, who we cannot afford to fight anytime soon.
But look what happened next:
So the Turks don't like the Romans? Uh oh. We had to decline the request, of course. It would be scuicide. But I wouldn't say I'd take Augustus' side over Mehmed's. We might eventually still go to war with the former after all.
And after the pitiful expedition by the Roman knights have failed, we took the barb city:
It's surroundings are quite developed (thanks, barbs), and it came with 3 free workers too. Yum.
Then, as if to annoy us, Louis snuck a galley up and planted a city to steal our iron:
But, then again, he probably did that to annoy us
That screenshot also shows what Augustus could field by then - cavalry

See, all you warmongers be content. We would've been totally trashed if we went to war against the Romans. I don't think we could get grenadiers or cannons in time, and even they would die, since we probably would not have more than a handful. Macemen vs. cavalry. We're not the AI Monty, you know.
[to be continued in the next post...]