75 AD demographics, in case anyone wants a benchmark to compare between games. Not great not terrible, low to middle rank in most categories, with the #3 rank in Production being the most promising indicator.
The Great Lighthouse presently spawned a Great Merchant. What to do with him? There is no intercontinental land so a trade mission wasn't too attractive. Bulbing Civil Service was possible. But I think we need to think for the very long game here, so the Merchant just settled in Amsterdam. The food would actually help quite a bit; Amsterdam is slightly food constrained if it wants to work all the hills.
Finally captured Goth with two catapults and four swords. The pic also shows Moai Statues being built at the capital, and let me address that.
I realized this later than I should have, but the right move with Moai was simply to put it in Amsterdam ASAP. It's more valuable here than anywhere else because the hammers pick up the Bureaucracy bonus. Moai is often best used to salvage an otherwise terrible coastal or arctic city, but that was not a concern on this map because everybody would get a Dike down the road. Moai meant coming off those hills for a while to get the city grown to full size, but I'm pretty sure that was the right move too.
So I'm being smart about my city management, but maybe the AI isn't so hot. That's like 60 worker-turns worth of ice and tundra roads to hook up those wines at Delhi.
Anyway, as we all know, research is king in Civ 4. As a Financial civ with lots of coast, my research pace was decently adequate, and the biggest economic multiplier is tech trading. I had researched Calendar and traded for Currency and Aesthetics. And a bit later picked up Feudalism by trading away Civil Service plus Aesthetics. Playing follow-the-leader was fine; I wasn't trying to strike out ahead for religions or wonders or anything.
In the Renaissance here is where trading can always multiply really big. We know the AIs tend to ignore Paper and Education, rendering them lucrative trade bait. There's my four-for-one leverage for both of them!
But this was the tech picture before those trades. Lincoln got Education the exact same turn as me!
Can I see Lincoln's research? It's cheap... Run 20% EP slider for a turn plus all available spy specialist slots...
He shows 3 turns, while I show a soft 4. Dear god, I think I can do it.
First, whore out for cash to cover the deficit research. (The map was helpful too, although it could always come later.)
Then maximize absolutely everything possible for beakers. Build Research, swap off food tiles to commerce tiles. (Scientists never helped, strictly better coast tiles were available at every city.)
Look at that math: The tech is at 413/2366 so I need 1953 beakers in 3 turns. 542 beakers/turn times the 1.2 prerequisite bonus times 3 turns is 1951 beakers. HOLY CRAP I WIN LIBERALISM BY THE SKIN OF THE FREE BEAKER!!!
Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! This was the most exciting Civilization moment I've had in quite some time. 