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Welcome back. Last time we left off with a tech choice and a settle choice. Chucat made the point that Music (and Drama, which we'll have to go back for to make sure we get Music first) will help us deal with enemy culture, and we are smack dab between two Creative leaders. If we get Music first, none of the other AIs probably will until they decide to try for a cultural victory or need it for Military Tradition, which will give us plenty of time for Sistine. Or we can decide to trade it, of course!
Given that, we're going to settle near the Copper after all. We'll get Metal Casting next and use the Copper to build the Colossus, settle that island city, and should come out ahead enough on commerce thanks to 3-coin coast to get Civil Service. While we're teching, we'll be training praetorians and whipping them into these wonders as we get more citizens than we have improved tiles, and sending them to Neapolis to get ready to deal with Kublai.
Music is an expensive tech, so I check the Resources tab to see if we can sell (that is, trade a resource for GPT) anything. And we see:
Lincoln not being on the network makes sense, we met him last so he's probably the opposite shore from us; but it's strange Alex isn't. He probably never connected his roads to Victoria, them hating each other and all. 
I end up selling the Clams to Cathy for her 4 gold, then trading Wheat for Bismarck's Clams to start getting diplo points for "providing resources." Keep that in mind: if you can trade away all your copies of a resource, you can trade for someone else's.
Honest Abe makes a demand, I make a dismissive gesture in his general direction. He's not going to declare from that far away, and even if he wanted to, he doesn't have Open Borders with the civs that hate him to march his army through anyway! (Plus those civs aren't going to be impressed if I "trade" with him.)
...but that doesn't mean I won't still do business with him when I need the money. 
This is taking advantage of the fact that Priesthood is such a cheap tech, and I'm getting near fair (not "fair and forthright" ) market value for it, so nobody really cares. How much a Worst Enemy hates you for trading is based on the same modifiers as making the deal in the first place, so dealing with someone you've recently met, and giving them a pittance for it (which is why Vicky hated me accepting the beg from Alex so much), matters more. And indeed, nobody gives me a -1 for this deal with Lincoln.
We found Mediolanum, and sure enough it looks like Cathy was going for it.* 
Well, we'll see where she ends up settling. I'm going to grow to size 2 here on that floodplain and then build a worker, we have 7 and now 8 cities, and you want to have at least 1:1. If we do end up with a Theology monopoly the Hagia Sophia will help the worker woes, but again that's a little ways off. I also sell Priesthood to Kublai for 40, he's the last one to get it and I won't need it to trade Horseback Riding once he's willing to part with it (which may well be in his surrender terms, we'll see 
).
* Editing this in later to note I was wrong, she was settling way over in the west to sew up empty territory.
I decide to set up to 2-pop whip a worker in Rome instead of another praetorian, since the worker need is just so acute, and I need to chop more to get these wonders done ASAP. The sooner Schwedagon is done, the sooner I can churn out 5 XP Theocracy-boosted legions.
Whoa, there's some failgold! The Pyramids cost 500 hammers, so she was at least halfway there. Only problem is... do I want to give up the Aesthetics quasi-monopoly to get it? I have a head start on 2 of the wonders, but only a little on the Statue of Jupiter. Part of the whole reason I started a war between Vicky and Alex was to keep her from getting ahead of me on this stuff. On the other hand, Boudica likes to chase military techs (if you remember in the Saladin game, she actually beat me to Chemistry and Military Science), and this gold will keep me going for a long time. Ultimately, I decide not to, because she's the tech leader and she'd just trade it to make her position even stronger. Farewell, 200 shinies....
I sell Meditation for 40-60 gold from the AIs who don't have it, and notice that Kublai plopped down a city to steal another resource from me! With a Library and Monastery I should be able to fend him off, but Corfinium is already missing most of its tiles and I was counting on that mixed food + production from the cows to get it going. 
Addendum to above, I got Hunting from Kublai (who had the least gold to offer). I only ended up training 2 more warriors, but once I saw he had Construction, I figured I'd want to start knocking out techs to get Horse Archers (who are super effective against catapults). I'll wait a turn on selling Meditation to Alex because he can't trade anyone anything, so I know I'm safe trading it to him for Archery. I'm counting on Cathy coming through with either Horseback Riding or Construction herself that my spies can grab while I'm going after Civil Service.
Also noticed that Bismarck can be sicced on someone at Pleased. Good to know....
150BC, and we finally find Lincoln, all the way on the east like I figured. Without Open Borders (and not planning on getting them open anytime soon ) I send our boat on the lonely trip back to get ready to fish those Clams on our island.
I decide I can probably crank out the Parthenon reasonably quickly in Neapolis, thanks to its forests and hills, and with the Corn I can whip a time or two as well. Unfortunately, it's one of my few cities Judaism didn't get auto-spread or a Cathy missionary to, so I put the overflow from that worker into a praetorian, and put Rome to work on a missionary (its new worker will finish a chop next turn, so instead of it going to Schwedagon, it'll finish that missionary). If any of Neapolis's chops finish before the missionary gets there, I'll do the trick of putting it on building wealth, and put the wonder back on top once Judaism and thus Organized Religion kicks in there.
Speaking of auto-spread... Mediolanum's was probably as quick as it was because it's close to the Jewish Holy City, which is... uh... someplace in her territory my warrior never saw. 
I need to scout Kublai anyway, I'll train 2 and have one check out Russia.
100BC, and we finally get our first Great Person. Theology is a no-brainer here: it's a valuable tech to trade, has a useful wonder (the only marble-based Great Engineer one), and we can trade it to Cathy to ensure she wastes time and hammers on the Apostolic Palace and it goes in the faith I already have. Granted, that does mean she can pull some shenanigans as Resident since she'll probably have more votes than I will, but... that'd be true if I built it, too!
Neapolis gets chosen as the Holy City, maybe because it's the only one without Judaism? Regardless, since we have another state religion this doesn't really do anything, but... it happened? I'm going to send the free missionary to Boudica: you get an espionage discount if you control the holy seat of a religion present in the target city, and we're probably going to want to steal some of her military tech later in the game, especially if Cathy keeps researching the same stuff I already have!
Oh, now she sends another missionary my way! The only place this guy can go is Neapolis, so I'll send the one Rome just trained back home, and whenever I go settle that island, I'll just send the missionary along to get the immediate culture boost.
It's the last turn of the BC era, and it's a pretty eventful one. I finish the Great Library, and Lincoln joining the Calendar Crew means that it's now up for trade. I can start dropping plantations on the dyes around Neapolis as well as the Bananas at Cumae (finally giving it a decent food tile!).
So once again I make the deal with Lincoln, making sure to make it as equal as possible (the final tally is me offering Currency + Monotheism and him adding 40G) so nobody gets annoyed, and I don't have to trade anything important to Boudica. Then I put my workers to work! And just a note here, too: sometimes an AI will put a tech up for trade upon researching it, if it's not a monopoly tech or they hate you or whatnot, and then decide later to build a wonder it unlocks. If they do, they'll pull the tech (sometimes even if they're Friendly and otherwise drop all restrictions), so think about jumping on a deal if you really want it, otherwise you might be waiting for awhile!
Cathy is still Cathy. But the important news is that she's now Friendly, which means I can ask her to go to war....
...theoretically.
25AD, and you can see I'm slow-building the boat and settler, as well as focusing on wonders. I'm about to whip a few more praetorians to help speed the wonders along (Ravenna doesn't have a Barracks, but that's OK, it's more of a commerce city), but I'm letting the cities grow a bit first. Apparently the Hanging Gardens are still unclaimed, if I had stone they'd be an awesome "get," adding +1 population to all these cities I can then whip into military units. If Cathy still doesn't have Construction after I get Civil Service, I'll get it myself and that'll be the go sign to go after Kublai. A Bureaucracy capital is strong enough to pretty much single-handedly fund an early war, and since I'm solid on production and only weak on food, once I go into "war mode" and start cranking out units I should be able to get the momentum.
...I swear this game can listen to me sometimes. Kind of wish we could see the chart of every player like you apparently could in base Civ4 (in Beyond the Sword it's an espionage feature), seeing who just shot up in population would make it easy to see who built it. ...or I could just use the "top cities" tab, let's see... ah ha! Khaaaaaan! Interestingly Alex got the Pyramids, he must have stone too.
The game is afoot! Normally Kublai would probably be going after Victoria, a neighbor with opposite peace weight, but they share a religion now so we know he's almost certainly plotting on me. The next batch of praetorians will be arriving just in time, and Catherine is researching Construction as predicted. Since she's Friendly, I can trade Theology for it and get started on the AP master plan, and save those EPs for later. In fact, I'm going to switch my espionage target to Boudica now (and probably should have earlier).
Sweet, that's one goal down. AIs get reduced war weariness too, of course, but you can use this to make them suffer in an extended war as long as you're winning it. Snipe units outside their borders for best results!
After finishing the Statue I check to see if Victoria has any failgold, and she doesn't, so it seems like the plan to make her too busy dealing with Alex for that worked like a charm. She does have 60 gold, and Kublai about the same, so I sell them Monotheism and start research on Civil Service. The pic is on Bismarck, to note that he's the first to Metal Casting, meaning I probably won't be getting the Colossus either; and I sell him my Gems for 4GPT. The silks and dyes are getting hooked up soon, so I don't need them for happiness, and once I get Metal Casting (and thus Forges, which double happiness from gems) I'll cancel the deal.
It looks like Kublai hasn't been bothering with building culture besides the +2 from his trait. The cows near Corfinium, which is now making 3 culture thanks to religion + Library, have been becoming about 2% more Roman every turn, and he was nice enough to pasture them for me!
With Civil Service coming up, I start my workers on building farms that I'll be using for irrigation shortly. Antium will be whipping a worker as well, it'll chop the tile 1N for another farm (in this case, the Wheat is already riverside, so it's irrigating a new farm) and into a praetorian and then Monastery. I need the food to run 2 scientists there, might as well since I already have the 2 from the Great Library. I'd really like to get an Academy as soon as Rome goes into Bureaucracy mode.
Well, this is what I get for not selling it to her earlier! Nah, she would've just demanded Literature or something instead. This is a tough one, since I want to try to get her to Pleased (it'll reduce the risk of an attack, I assume she can still plot, though, being a warrior type), but I don't want to increase her tech lead. Some of the AIs are starting to pop up with Metal Casting, and this will help her snag that from them while still teching along the middle of the tree (I assume she's going for Civil Service's macemen). Since she has a worst enemy and no border with me, I say no. Drops her to Annoyed, but not [yet] plotting. This may have been the wrong move, but she's going to be a problem and she's too far away for me to do much about directly.
I am normally all about phony wars, but this one has been going on for awhile, which makes me think Alex is planning on bailing (AIs love to do this). And once Kublai declares, Victoria is next to him... that war suddenly won't be so remote! So I turn him down too... and he also drops to Annoyed! I think my best bet is to try to sneak some missionaries into Greece while our borders are still open and ask him to convert as part of a tech deal later, you don't want an angry Alex anywhere close!
Comfort me, giant gold shrine to how materialism is bad, these leaders are being mean. 
And then once my turn actually starts, Alex is back to being Cautious. Okay...? Well, let's do a trade deal, that'll help even things out.
Arpinum founded, and while the "intercontinental" trade is pretty small now, eventually it'll be a good 3 or so commerce per route better than the landbound ones. It's still making a profit as-is, and that's before it starts working that coast. With 2 food resources, I'll probably run Scientists there too. I'll probably hold off on Moai until I see if I can secure Kublai's stone.
[Not-so-]quick note here. Since I have Music, I can "build Culture," turning production into culture points. This is typically the fastest way to get a city to expand its borders (you only need 1 good production tile), and you still get the tile's other benefits, unlike, say, running an Artist in Caste System. Normally I don't bother and just build or whip a Theater or something, but in this case I want those Clams back. As long as your city has expanded at least 1 ring, the farthest ring gets your listed CPT (culture-per-turn), but the inner ones get +20 culture for each expansion. So for example, with my only culture right now being religion's +1, once I get that border expansion, the first ring will get 21 CPT on the tiles, and the 2nd ring would only get the 1 you see. This will quickly drive out Cathy's culture, since it's her furthest ring and thus not getting that +20. So far as I know the game never explains this, so... now you know! That's how Samarqand overwhelmed the horses so quickly.
Going back to Kublai, I sent a fresh praetorian to Samarqand to see if he's stacking there, since I haven't seen any movement near Ravenna. Pretty meager army so far, is he going after Corfinium first...? He might be building up in his capital and then marching them out, that seems to happen when an AI is gearing up for its first war (otherwise it leaves its stack near where the war ended).
Since Cathy is Friendly, she accepts the Theology deal, tossing in her 60G as well. This means I need to finish the Hagia Sophia, so she can figure out which wonder to build. It also lets me finish Civil Service, since-- well, let me show you:
I'm 219 beakers short, producing 180 per turn. I have one prereq (this is also the moment I realized every prereq counts, not just "each one you have after the one you need" 
) met, Code of Laws but not Feudalism, for +20%, taking me to 216. So I put Arretium and its 3 meager hammers to build Research, and... there we go, next turn!
Some players advocate shooting for Civil Service by 1AD (and it is a good benchmark), but 225 isn't bad, considering we also grabbed Music and built a few wonders. Chucat suggested holding our Great Artist for a Golden Age to cover our Bureaucracy civic swap, but I have a military use for them (no, really) I want to show off instead. And it's still only 1 turn of anarchy for 2 civic changes. In any case, no revolt just yet: I'll do Theocracy at the same time, and that means no Organized Religion, and as long as I'm finishing wonders I want to keep the production bonus.
"Peace-loving," huh...?
I end up dropping my missionary on this coastal city. My logic is that Boudica is pretty far, and at some point it might be faster to send some spies over there on a ship rather than walk the whole way. Plus since it's coastal, it can only be lost to my trade network if it's blockaded (either by a hostile ship or coastal culture if I end up at war with Cathy or Bismarck), you get an espionage discount there too.
Between these 3 cities, I think I've found most of Kublai's army (especially Samarqand, the catapults are a dead giveaway). Definitely not the numbers I was expecting for the AD days, but then he is a little behind in tech, and production only goes so far (the AI will heavily use building research, but that's not generally as efficient as building wealth and using the money to research at 100% longer).
Oh man, the temptation is real! 
Let's analyze this. Boudica has a ton of cash (640, if you can't see it) and we want it. We want it bad. Some of that's failgold (Bismarck just finished the Colossus) and some of that is presumably Boudica selling techs (well, the AI doesn't sell it, but it makes deals where gold makes up the difference, and they trade at equal beaker value). Regardless, we want her stuff and we don't want to give her Civil Service (she'll get it anyway, but giving a leading AI Bureaucracy is just asking for them to pull even further ahead). Aesthetics is starting to go (Cathy almost has it, only offering 25G for it; Victoria and Lincoln already do) so it's safe to trade, ditto but a little less so Code of Laws. Theology is safe-ish, but I want Cathy to build the AP and I don't know how far along she is (she has enough cities she's almost certainly building it and the Hagia Sophia somewhere). I offer Civil Service and verify she hasn't started on it yet (I assume she's going Machinery, she probably wants Guilds for Knights). I can probably get Metal Casting from Alex as soon as any other AI gets it, now that the wonder's gone. So....
Do I dare? ...not yet. I can't get most of her money anyway and she can't spend it all in 1 turn. So I'll wait a turn and cross my fingers I don't waste this chance....
I was thinking that longbows will make me Kublai-proof, and that reminds me to check in on him. He's moving his siege out of Samarqand, so I'm going to follow it. He might well be going after Victoria after all, which would be great, I can backstab him while his army's away! I end turn after taking Cathy's spare change for Aesthetics, and it looks like she's going Drama next. Sounds about right. That'll probably be the tech I steal from her with my accrued EP.
2 turns later. Boudica has less cash but fortunately Alex and Kublai have more, and I sell them Aesthetics after I make the above trade to Boudica (remember that techs lose value the more AIs that know them; Boudica only gives 165G instead of the 190 before, for example; so do the trades in the order such that you won't lose money). She was indeed self-researching Machinery, unlocking Guilds. She could be going for like 500AD knights, not bad for Immortal!
Catherine is Friendly with Bismarck, courtesy of her missionary work and shared civics (hey, that sounds familiar...). Hopefully what I'll be able to do is wait for her to trade for his monopoly techs, and then trade her for them. It's easy to get locked out of the loop on this, though, since you have to offer more value than AIs do each other, and at any given point in the tech tree they're probably trading stuff you have, unless you've really gone off the beaten path for things like Compass at this point and, say, Refrigeration in the lategame.
Vicky wants me to cancel dealings with Alexander. 
Yeah, he sucks, but have you done anything for me lately? Or ever? In any case, not going to let also-ran peaceniks rain on my parade, because today is Wonder Day!
This just about wraps up all the wonders I care about. Since I'll be getting Scientific Method late and thus keeping monasteries, I do want University of Sankore, but I'll chop it out in Antium once I have stone. Since that concludes all the building I "really want" for the foreseeable future ("need" seemed a bit too strong a word, heh), it's time to swap civics around and build up for dealing with Kublai. I'll wait for him to declare on whoever he's going after before I join in-- no sense wasting that opportunity, I know he's plotting-- but I'll be ready.
Yep, Cathy was going for the Hagia Sophia, and I guesstimate built about 1/3rd of it. Fingers crossed she's working on the AP too! I trade her Calendar for her failgold. Why that and not Code of Laws, when both are equally valuable (4 AIs are missing each)? Simple: once she gets Drama she's going to trade with Bismarck, since they're Friendly. Since he already has it, she can't trade for it; whereas if I gave her Code of Laws, she'd probably just trade it for Calendar since they're equally valuable. Whatever she trades for, I can then use Code of Laws to help get it.
Yep, definitely looks like Kublai is joining in on Victoria. Perfect. Come back next time when we switch [even more, we already have 10 praetorians] to war mode and stick a knife (and hopefully a fork) in the peace-loving Mongols.
But first! A status report:
We're dominating in commerce, and that'll only go up once Bureaucracy kicks in (Rome isn't a great capital for it, but the civic is cheap as free courtesy of Organized, and we don't need Vassalage with Theocracy in play). We actually have quite strong production, there's just someone out there going all-in on hammers (possibly Kublai, since his tech is so bad). We have a paucity of food resources and it shows. The worst line of course is Soldiers, but that's a bit misleading, since on this difficulty level AIs tend to have hefty garrisons, that nevertheless won't be much of a problem against our main Stack of Doom. And naturally we haven't actually seriously invested in military yet; we're about to.
We're leading in technology, going down the middle of the tree while Boudica and Bismarck hit the bottom. Eventually every warlike AI is going to go that route, and I plan to just trade for it. I was expecting Horseback Riding to come up for trade by now, but since we can 1-turn it with the overflow research from Paper I'm just going to do that. I like using Flanking horse archers to weaken stacks and take out catapults, and any that survive will make good knights later. I don't actually have a Horse of course, I'll probably end up trading for some for 10 turns and build up enough to tide me over until I reclaim the ones at Neapolis.
I ended up using legionnaires instead of scouts, but we have an overview of Mongolia. The plan is to raze Samarqand (I'll drop a city 1 tile above it to get river access and 2 more river tiles later), drive straight to the capital and conquer east. Ideally I'll have enough units heading to Ravenna to also take Ning-hsia and then Beshbalik, they seemed more lightly defended. This is a good time to attack the Mongols, since as annoying as Keshiks are, they don't get a defense bonus.
And last but not least, our empire, hopefully the last time it'll all fit on one screen. We leveraged Imperialistic well, filling our fair share of land peacefully, but now it's time for war.