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Welcome back. Last time we left off with a dilemma over where to settle city #6. If you're wondering why we're not legion-rushing, by the way, it's because you don't need to rush if you can peacefully expand. In fact, marching a stack in the BC era over empty land to attack someone too far away can actually be counterproductive: your reinforcements take longer to arrive, which can actually lose you the war if you get there too late and the enemy has enough cities to build an army to fight you; and even if you win, you'll pay tons of distance maintenance which can crash your economy (since all those soldiers out of your borders cost you too).
Rest assured, though, 
is coming.
2 things first, though. First, I decided not to trade Sailing just yet. I did some math (not Math 
) on what I assume Cathy's tech rate is, since Monarchy took her 13 turns to start so she's about halfway done, and figure I have one turn left to get max value from the trade. I don't have Currency yet, so I can't get any spare change for trading more beakers than the other party. 2nd, take a look at Antium:
It's at the perfect point to 2-pop whip for maximum overflow. But here's the thing: I don't want to whip away any tiles besides probably those Pigs, which would slow down the city's regrowth. And while it's about to go into Unhappiness, once I swap civics into Hereditary Rule I'll get another population point to work with. And it can work that mine, and now that my worker is done roading to Cathy, I'll be sending him back to put another cottage up too, and I'd like to work it promptly. So we're not going to whip, and instead:
Trade for some Ivory. Not only will this make getting the Statue of Zeus easier, it starts getting some "You supplied us with resources" appreciation. Right now we're happiness-neutral on the deal, but once that worker hooks up our 2nd gold mine, we come out ahead. Also, while I'm talking to her, I check what the prospects are on getting her help against Kublai later, and....
Looks like she can only be bribed in at Friendly! Well, that's a pain, but since Kublai and Kate are only at +1 with each other, he can't sic her on me, either. It also looks like Victoria now views Catherine as her worst enemy instead of Alex (or me 
), so I guess that "warmonger [dis]respect" thing isn't listed the way peace weight is (that's the "First impressions..." modifier you might see sometimes).
Finally, before I hit End Turn, I have the settler build where he is thanks to input from Chucat, and revolt this turn, so I don't pay any maintenance yet and the worker has time to finish his road so I get the trade route benefit from it. (That also means I don't actually make the Ivory trade until next turn, but I wanted to group all the Foreign Affairs stuff together.)
2 turns later I make the trade... but with Alex, not Cathy. See how her turns to get Monarchy have gone back up? That means she has to turn her slider down to build up gold to finish it. The AI gets to cheat (and at this level, cheat a lot ) on maintenance and upkeep, but it's not 0, and Catherine's over-expansion is slowing her down. So we're going to let her struggle a bit and give Alex some cheap stuff he's going to get eventually anyway.
Currency comes in, and thanks to Catherine having a road network to Bismarck already set up, all of our cities get the 2 coin foreign trade routes, for a huge boost to our research (going from 1 to 4 free commerce in each city). We also finally meet the last AI, the Great Emancipator, the--
...absolute pariah state of the seas. 3 worst enemies, geez. If you don't keep up on diplo much and you always wonder why Gandhi and Lincoln and such get taken out so quickly, this is why; peace weight has made him heavily disliked by the warmongers.
Next turn a barb axeman pops out of the fog, and I ready Rome to whip a Praetorian. I may have to suicide the warrior (or overflow into another axe or something) to help ensure a win, but I'd like to use it to help build the Jewish temple. The reason being is I'd like to run a priest specialist and get toward Theology, which is good trade bait, unlocks Theocracy, and can let me stir up some mischief by putting Kublai and Cathy in different religions. I'll also switch to Judaism next turn so the overflow gets the +25% bonus (don't forget to actually get a State Religion when you use religious civics!).
So that was a pretty eventful turn! The praetorian actually had decent odds so I just did the fight straight-up (I could've overflowed into an axe if he didn't win to save Rome, plus the axe probably would've pillaged the Quarry first anyway). Kublai converted to Confucianism, which saves me the trouble of trying to make him Christian later on. It's also kind of interesting how many religions are in play: Lincoln is a bit chillier to Vicky than he would otherwise be because they each founded a religion, and Kublai will like her more because he joined her religion now (when otherwise due to peace weight he wouldn't).
It's always funny when the game tells you exactly how much gold a trade is worth, you won't see "23" in the column very often, heh. I tell her no, not because it's a bad deal (there's nothing else I can get for Monarchy), but because I don't want Hunting until I've trained a few more warriors for cheap garrison duty.
Speaking of trades, I didn't know Lincoln traded at Annoyed! Turning this deal down for the same reason... and also because everybody hates him. Also, Victoria got Aesthetics this turn, so the race is on! I'm leaning toward Schwedagon in Rome and the State of Jupiter in Ravenna (it'll mostly be chopped/whipped there, but I want the culture to help fend off Kublai's Creative border pressure). The Parthenon would be nice, but that's all; it's a "would be nice" and I won't bother if it slows me down too much. I want to start getting my army in place by 1 AD, and hopefully I can trade/steal Construction for catapults by then.
Whew, glad I had that praetorian in range! Kublai sends a single Keshik and attacks, which prompts the other AIs to join in. Only 1 barb archer remains, so to the victor go the spoils. 
I'll put the workers on road duty to connect Circassian Corfinium to the network while I wait the 4 turns for it to come out of revolt.
Kublai also settles Samarqand right next to Neapolis, trying to swipe those horses. There's no way to win a culture clash against a Creative civ this early, especially if the tile you want is closer to their city, so we'll have to write it off for now and fight back as best we can with a Library (and Monastery once we get the religion and Meditation). This'll probably be where our war against him starts, it's the closest to his core so far as I can tell. I was hoping to get a chariot to scout him out more quickly, but I'll get a Scout scout once I get Hunting instead.
I'm focusing here to talk about something else, over-expansion at crucial points in the game. See, the #7 tile (I guess #8 now thanks to Corfinium) is making the most of a bad situation here: I want that copper, but there are absolutely no other resources nearby, especially food. This puts it in range of an unclaimed floodplain, which I can then farm (and after Civil Service, irrigate the grass tiles next to it). That's actually not terrible, cities survive on Rice, right? But here's the thing: this proposed city does nothing for me for a long time, besides give me forests to chop (which takes workers I also don't have yet, and a new city would make that problem more acute), and that's time (and more importantly money) I need to get ready to deal with Kublai. I'll be adding a lot of cities if all goes well attacking him, and subpar cities just deepen the hole I'll need to get out of later. Now, the problem is that Cathy is probably going to settle here instead, and choose a worse spot, but that's OK. I have enough cities with enough production to get rolling, I don't get enough here to justify the investment, so I'm going to pass on it. (That means I reload my quicksave and send my worker north to road those cows to Rome and be in position to chop once Aesthetics comes in, he'd put 1 turn in a farm on the floodplain the previous turn.)
Silly Victoria, bulbing Philosophy is for humans! 
Yeah, a lot of people recommend running Scientists and doing just that, getting your own religion and a solid trade bait tech (I think it's the highest beaker cost tech a single Great Scientist can bulb at the start, without needing you to spend any research on it) and discouraging AIs from self-teching it. Boudica no longer wants to trade me Meditation, so I'll have to get it on my own to build Schwedagon Paya... but seeing that Vicky just got Literature, I figure it's more important to get that first and secure the Great Library first. I can always bulb Theology to get Theocracy (the main thing I'd be using Paya's bonus for, probably), but I'm so food-poor those two free specialists are much-desired. Also, see how Bismarck and Boudica both have Calendar? Looks like another game I'm not getting the Mausoleum. 
Turn 100, and I beg 30 gold off a freshly converted Bismarck to help finish my research. I also look around to see if any of the warmongers who don't like Victoria are willing to throw down, and while Cathy requires Friendly and it seems Kublai needs Pleased (he's also doing a "We just don't like you enough" on war bribes), Alex is game. (All those other refusals are "We would have nothing to gain," which is odd, he has to have 1 other neighbor.) The price is dear, shooting him up to the middle of the pack tech-wise, but I have to make sure Victoria won't swipe my wonders (and Alex is still Cautious, this keeps him off me, too).
Cathy trades for Alpha (she suddenly switched from it with a few turns left to Currency), so I check in on her and see she has about the most gold you can ask for this early in the game, and... ask for it! I was planning on saving this for when I declare on Kublai, but since no one has Construction yet (and Math is going pretty slowly too) that might be a little in the AD period by the time I get it myself and build up, so she'll probably have forgotten and I can just request again. It lets me 1-turn Meditation so I can start on Schwedagon in Rome, I forgot that Antium still had a settler queued up from my demonstration earlier, so I guess I'm settling on that island now instead of later, and I'll whip a galley into the wonder.
...and this update wasn't as long as the last one, but I think I'm going to stop here and see if any of y'all have any input on what I research next. Code of Laws -> Civil Service is popular, but I'm in position to snipe Music from the only other AI going the Aesthetics line, since she's at war ( 
). Maybe Feudalism -> Civil Service instead so I can try to vassal Kublai? Metal Casting to get the Colossus and forges to help speed along the war effort (and thus maybe grab that city near Cathy for the Copper after all, and not the island)? Construction to start the catapults for war instead of Feudalism? I think it's safe to put off Calendar, as useful as it would be with our dyes and stuff, because we can trade for it sooner rather than later. Similar deal with Compass; not immediately useful and we have nothing to trade for, so we don't need something to trade with. But still lots of good choices. Big decision!