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Here's an updated overview shot. Bombay is getting the Iron Works because I need some kind of high-powered shield producer (Statue of Liberty, Space Elevator); I hate relying on forests and workshops for such a city rather than hills, but it's the best I've got. And Delhi is getting the National Epic just to plop it down somewhere; I don't have enough cities that I can spare one to run max food for a dedicated GP farm.
Yes, I mentioned the Space Elevator. I'm pretty clearly heading for a space victory here. Diplomatic is out with my relationship problems (only one Open Borders partner!), cultural is out as there's no way I can risk stopping military research, and I'm not going to get decisively ahead on the military front anytime soon. But the outlook for space looks good. Saladin is my closest research competitor. I've got about four techs on him, and seven to ten on everybody else.
I was presently researching Railroad, with Sci Method - Biology to follow next, then Astronomy. This may sound boring or easy, but it wasn't. Given my diplomatic problems, I was constantly on edge wondering if any attack was going to come and if I could survive it. In that war against Rome, I'd failed to promote any units enough to qualify for the Heroic Epic, so I was still running my military mostly on cardboard cutouts.
The wheel of Great Person Roulette was spinning in Delhi -- the city had at least one source of each of the five types. Unfortunately, the wheel landed on Prophet twice in a row. One waited for a Golden Age, and the other settled in Bombay. The next Leader, a while later while researching Industrialism, was an Artist who did team up to fire off the Golden Age some time later (I saved it to help build the Apollo Program.)
Anyway, it was time to take drastic measures to solve my diplomatic problems. Back when Lahore was built, Islam had somehow randomly spread there before I got Confucianism to the city. That proved critical, as now I was able to pull off this string of stunts. (Professional driver, closed course. Do not attempt with a non-Spiritual civ.)
1. Switch to Islam to get Rome to stop hating me.
2. Train an Islamic missionary in Lahore to send to my capital.
3. Since Org Rel would be mostly useless to me while temporarily in Islam, I went to Pacifism.
4. Hire several extra specialists in Delhi for a while to push an extra Great Person.
5. Sign Open Borders with Rome, and gift a resource to improve relations.
6. Send Confucian Missionaries to Rome's two cities that lack the religion (including a third missionary for backup when one failed).
7. Convert back to my native Confucianism.
8. Then ask Rome to do the same.
Unfortunately, step 8 failed, when Rome decided he still didn't like me enough to convert. I waited for the Open Borders and resource relations boosts to kick in, or perhaps a demand that I could oblige, but that didn't happen.
Instead, this happened: Rome demanded that I convert to Islam! I had to accept that demand. And Cyrus went Free Religion right at the same time. So that settles that -- I'm staying Islamic. (Given how late it appears, it's definitely rare to see Islam play this large a role! It's rare for even one civ to adopt it, let alone two!)
And speaking of demands, I wonder, really wonder, if I should pay up this one:
I had gone for Physics for the Great Scientist, but JC in Golden Age beat me to it. We have three uranium, none workable by our cities. One is under Calcutta, and the other two are just outside my city radii at Delhi and Bombay.
I next beelined Industrialism for the military security, trading for Combustion and Democracy (but not until somebody else built the Statue.) I built the Pentagon, Broadway, Eiffel Tower, Rock N Roll while beelining Computers next, then Plastics - Robotics for the Hydro Plants, mech infs, and Space Elevator. Then Refrigeration - I actually had three of the four Supermarket resources, and needed the health pretty badly. Then Fiber Optics -- I had not yet gotten Artillery, and someone else had just completed their Apollo, so I knew the Internet would be good for at least two techs.
