Timing Despot -> Republic - What to do?

[sicanjal]

Hello! I recently picked up Civ III again, only find to find Civ III Complete was available for cheap, so I'm finally playing Conquests!

After playing a couple of games and finding I was out-expanding the AI to a large degree, I started a Regent game on a large continents map. I've now researched The Republic, and traded it to the Mongols for 861 gold and the last required tech to get to the next era.

I had a fairly poor starting area and have thus far been unable to irrigate anything. However, my core has served to be a useful settler factory:

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w221/sicanjal/luftofthesicans10AD_1.png

The huge quantity of gold I've gained would be perfect for boosting my infrastructure, but looking at CivAssist II shows that I'm going to be running a -35 gold deficit on an equivalent science level. Republic would be great for finishing my expansion, but I'm going to have to pay 82 gpt for a rather displaced military. Most of it is located at this chokepoint, blocking all access by land to the rest of my territory:

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w221/sicanjal/luftofthesicans10AD_2.png

I'm not sure of what to do from here, as I haven't really played many games of this. What I do know is that the AI is being incredibly slow at expanding, and the Germans near my territory chokepoint are at a needlessly pathetic state.

What can I do to better utilise what I have at the moment? Should I stretch some irrigation over to the rest of the land, and what should I do once I have finished expanding?

Attachment 1: Current state of game; 10 AD
Attachment 2: Start of game

 

[drakdan]

Revolt immediately. You need more workers. Lots and lots and lots more. I'd also run all your units into some city that needs some building rushed and disband the whole lot of them. It's the ridiculous amount of worthless units you have that will make you bankrupt if you switch to Republic. Really you only need about 3 hoplites in your furthest canal town and some horsemen to respond to galleys. (Plus some units at your strung out bases, but I wouldn't have made those liabilities in the first place.)
Also more workers working on the same terrain tile means it finishes faster. 3 workers for a road, 6 for a mine. Your city spacing is also pretty far apart. You can handle probably 1.5 to 2 times the number of cities you have crammed into the same space.

 

[Pyrrhos]

Sound advice! Before I'd revolt, I'd make a new city north of Great Sican Canal as its position has gifted any attacker great defensive terrain inside its city limits.