So let's bring this one on home.
Now Rome also went Free Religion, so I went to... *Hinduism*. Now nobody else in the world was Islamic or Confucian, but Napoleon was still Hindu, so I could pick up some diplomatic credit by swinging that way. I immediately spread Hinduism to all my cities via missionary. Also, I was toying with a backup plan of cultural victory in Delhi, Bombay, and Neapolis; I built all the Hindu and Islamic temples and the religious cathedrals, and the Hermitage in Neapolis. This didn't really amount to anything; the cities barely reached over 10,000 culture by the end of the game.
The world had been entirely at peace for quite some time, but the armies were building up and they had to go somewhere. Now Saladin declared on Khan - fine with me. And Cyrus joined in shortly later.
Bombay started the Internet, which is quite a massive project to undertake without copper. But Bombay was up to the task, having been entirely lumbermilled and workshopped. It had already built the Space Elevator, too.
The Iron Works was only at half capacity without iron, but this was still good enough. You can also see how this city is still supporting my entire cash economy, thanks to that shrine and the two super-specialists working with Wall Street.
Once I knew I was a lock for the Internet, I didn't want to waste time researching spaceship techs yet, so I went for Mass Media instead to try to land control of the UN. Next came Genetics, as I could use the health in the shorter term, and that's the spaceship tech that the AIs most often leave for last.
And after the Internet, here's the tech situation:
Four civs are posing no threat at all for space, but Saladin is scaring me slightly, especially since there's no second civ on par with him to feed me techs via the Internet. I'm still ahead by two spaceship techs (he's got Fission and Ecology; I'm up by Computers, Genetics, Robotics, Fiber Optics). But I just got my Apollo done now, and I'm a ways behind on the actual building of the spaceship.
And let's not forget that the power graph looks like this. Please don't sneeze in my direction, Sally baby...
After Mass Media, I shut off research. I'd wait for the Internet to land either Fission or Ecology, then research the other. I wanted to rack up cash in order to buy instant military upgrades (I'd kept all my old warriors, archers, and elephants; they were useful as police) if ever necessary. I even got a bit preemptively paranoid and clicked Alt-upgrade on the warriors:
Saladin asks me for "help" vs Khan, who's already quickly disappearing under a dogpile. I join in, but Khan is eliminated before I fight a single fight. That leaves a few giant armies on the globe with no targets. Who's going after whom next?