Ok, so after actually looking at the tech tree I'm really liking the idea of going for gunpowder and military tradition (and construction and horseback riding and iron working) as our military techs.
Miltrad is only slightly more expensive than nationalism though (2860 vs. 2574) so we should definitely lib nationalism. If we want to field cuirassiers in any significant numbers we'd better get some forges down first, anyway. (And stables too, perhaps.)
The nice thing is we can skip all of monarchy, feudalism, machinery, and guilds. That's 3861 beakers that we won't have to research until we set our sights on banking and economics. Also, by not researching machinery, we can use scientists to bulb astronomy if we want to. Or, we can get machinery and printing press and then bulb astronomy. (Chemistry requires engineering so it won't get in the way.)
In other words, I think we should get gunpowder right after liberalism > nationalism, so we can start drafting muskets. Then get construction, horseback riding, iron working, and military tradition. If tensions are lowered, we can detour for machinery and printing press.
Another option, if we think getting gunpowder will be too slow, is to get machinery first, so we can start drafting maces, and then gunpowder at some later point. But I have a feeling this will end up delaying gunpowder quite significantly. It would let us bulb most of printing press, though...
Just to keep them handy, here are those great scientist bulb preferences again.
