Working on it...

No, really Ghengis, have my only horses, iron, and spare furs, really. It's not like I don't have <checks> 3 furs, 2 irons, and a horse spare to hook up, or anything. It's also not like I'm going to rampage on you with vast hordes of horsemen, either. <click>

And then, suddenly, my people were some very Monotheistic Koreans. And everybody else was still doing that Polytheistic thing, which was, like, soooo 200s AD. Unfortunately, the rest of the world was poor. But Ghengis certainly wasn't:

However good the Mongol world map was, it was apparently worth 155 gold. And it was...

And despite the English having Monarchy/Fuedalism, there was absolutely no way in hell I was getting either, apparently.

And on a totally unrelated side note, what is it with the Germans sitting around on some uber-isolated island somewhere sucking a lot? It's not that they are this game, or anything, besides being my last contact, but really. Seems like every game I play, it's either the Germans, the Japanese, or the Russians get stuck out on this no-resource, ass end of the planet island somewhere, and are the laughingstock of the world for the whole game. And it seems like the Germans are "it" quite a lot. <shrug>

Oh, one more thing before the end of the round:

6 turn anarchy. Yuck.

OTOH, I get what may well be my only anarchy city founding:

Also, what appears to be my last city for the time being. This rock better have something worthwhile on it besides Ivory, or I'm going to be a very angry Korean head of state...

In 510 AD, Joan of Arc (who still looks like Napoleon. Gotta fix that one of these times...) offers to trade maps. I notice I can trade her my spare furs, which I do, and thusly net the French map and contact with the last civ - the Iroquois.

And have you ever noticed how much iron really is the greatest thing to have for trade?

Suddenly, I started taking serious drugs. Build a settler/spear/galley trio to go colonize the upper Russian penninsula, realize I can't get there in time, disband the settler, then realize there's another island with gems on it I want, so build another settler only to have the galley sink. <sigh>

720 AD - No, really. Iron is your friend. Iron/furs/180 gold to Ghengis for Theology and Invention. This is like singlehandedly keeping me in the game. Meanwhile, my other spare furs go to Beth for some cash.

By 920, unfortunately, the Mongols figured out to hook up their iron, shutting me out. Ah well. Furs, my map, and 580 gold go to Temujin for Education. Meanwhile, the English are running totally rampant, most of the way to Industrial in 930 AD, snagging half the wonders, it's ugly.

In 980, I give Furs, 980 gold, and my map to France for Astronomy, and suddenly I've got ocean crossing trade routes. My Ivory is all of a sudden hooked up, which isn't enough to allow me to crank down the luxury rate, but it's enough. Better yet, I can trade with the ENTIRE WORLD. Life as we know it is good.

In 1000 AD, the Vikings come around demanding Education. I tell them no, but since they've got Gunpowder and I don't, I trade them Education and 100 gold for Gunpowder. The next turn, I do 720 gold, 7 gpt, and my map to Joan for Banking. Mua. Muahahahaha. Bank building suddenly becomes all the rage in Korea.

In 1020, I finally return to the game after something like 2 weeks of not playing. It's not far to the report date, but I'll see what I can do anyway. First move is to start 40 turning Chemistry.

After clicking next turn, I make the diplo rounds. It appears that the Vikings have an awful lot of tech, and I'm up Astronomy and furs on them. I'm also up on the Russians by saltpeter, for what little that's worth. Accordingly, I make this trade:

As it so happens at that point, I have Chemistry, and the barbaric French don't. Unfortunately, said barbaric French also only have Navigation and Monarchy, neither of which I need. And of course the next turn the opportunity is gone. Never can decide if holding out like that is weed or not.

In 1120, deals start running out, and England gets 620 gold and Furs for Physics. That and 20 gold gets traded to the Vikings for Monarchy and Economics. My spare furs go to the Iroquois for wines, 11 gold, and their map.

Meanwhile, of course, England is entering the Industrial Age, and totally running away with the entire game in ways games should not be run away with.

And then in 1170, Germany gets uppity:

And what does he do when I tell him to go play with his little swordsmen and horsies?

Yeah, you guessed it. Bismarck Chooses Unwisely.

Thusly, the mighty industrial powers of Korea begin building... 2 knights? Er... Yeah. <flexes muscles> Well, it's not like they had anything to do but build universities anyway. And just on the off chance, I go trade Russia 750 gold and furs for Metallurgy. What does this mean? Cheap artillery in 1180 AD, you say? Why, yes, yes it does. Now if I could but build some.

And there's things like this:

Yes, yes, I do in fact appreciate your forbearance. Anything you say, babe.

And France, 2 turns later, gets 680 gold, furs, and my map for Magnetism. Getting closer... And just for kicks, I trade my extra iron off to Hiawatha for Printing Press, Navigation, his map, and some gold.

A few turns after that, my end run on Smith's goes down, and I trade 881 gold and 8 gpt for a chance at Newton's. This, incidentally, gets me into the industrial age, and pulls in Nationalism. Who's buying? France, of course.

And with that, I am now caught up to England. It's a sort of smoke and mirrors parity still, but. And apparently if I had moved P'yongyang 1 south, it'd have got to build the Iron Works. Ah well. Wonder if anyone will pull it.

He shoots, he scores.

And in 1285, I get peace with Bismark, extorting his 2 gold and world map. Yay me.

And then, for a good 50 years, I just sit around on the Eternal Infrastructure Christmas. There's this severe imbalance between my cities, with cities with maxed out infrastructure sitting next to other with not even the most basic infrastructure. Thus a ton of money gets dumped into it to improve things while compy can get some tech research going again. This is made all the better by the AI's researching Communism. It's also made better by my sudden realization in 1330 that I completely forgot about switching to Democracy. And thusly I drew a 5 turn anarchy.

During these turns, I note that the French and Iroquois foolishly built up money supplies, but that's easily solved... I toss some iron in front of Hiawatha, who like a dog that's easily distracted by some shiny object, runs after it, leaving me free access to his wines and his treasury. Joan takes one look at my quality Korean furs and starts shelling out the cash.

And then suddenly I come out in democracy making twice the gold I was before, and my peons suddenly get all kinds of faster. Keep forgetting how good democracy really is, even if you lose a few turns to get there. It pays for itself.

And the Russians appear to be, uh, invading the Vikings. Yes, that's it.