I have stopped at 1AD in a very odd game. Strangely reminiscent of Tachywaxon's game.
The main feature was that the enemy civs simply dissolved in front of me! I have only had to beat warriors so far, until the final city that I took, which built an archer.
I have been looking for starts (as shulec said a few posts back) where desert or floodplain is visible, in order to make my 'Trek North' as brief as possible. This time Thebes was founded on turn 11. I found that it was sandwiched in between Willem and Isabella. The horses were not in the bfc, but were beside Willem's border, only 4 or 5 tiles from Thebes.
A bit of exploration revealed that I had arrived in a central position on the North coast.
As borders were opened, and my War Chariots were being produced, I could see that both Amsterdam and Madrid were defended by a single warrior!
I took Amsterdam on turn 67 and the Dutch were gone.
Exploring further East, I had found Pericles, and this time he was using warriors only.
I declared on Isabella on turn 67 and Pericles the next turn.
By turn 70 I had eliminated both Spain and Greece. Madrid and Barcelona were kept, but Athens I razed since it was misplaced and had nothing of value, and then Sparta, which was well placed, sadly auto-razed.
I now had 10 War Chariots and turned my attention to science. I had gained the Hindu and Buddhist holy cities. Soon I founded Confucianism myself.
I was amused to get a random event offering rewards if I built 10 War Chariots. I succeeded without doing anything, and the reward was to spread Hinduism to 4 more of my cities! Thank you!
I pondered attacking Gandhi in the South, as he was the founder of Judaism and was already unhappy at me for stealing a worker early on. But he was so far away that my empire would have been in danger of economic troubles, being so far-flung.
Then I investigated my next neighbour to the West - Lincoln. Since this was about turn 80, I was stunned to see that he also defended Washington with a single warrior!! I sent only a handful of my War Chariots over to deal with him.
It was in New York that I saw my first archer, but that was easily dealt with and America was eliminated by turn 86. I kept both Washington (which had Judaism) and New York, which was productive and well sited.
So, at 700 BC I had a vast swathe of the Northern territory, 7 cities and 4 religions.
I also completed the Oracle sling-shot to CS on turn 90, so my tech progress was looking good. My 8th city was quickly founded to get access to Marble, and then my 9th was at one of the pleasant sites in Pericles' old lands.
The next tasks were the courthouses, and the religious buildings.
So, at 1AD my empire consists of 9 cities, and I have locations for 3 more if I choose to expand that far. I am researching Music - still about 15 turns away since my tech rate has had to be lowered to 50%
. I am in the process of spreading my 4 religions to all cities, and building temples everywhere.
I now need to stop and think clearly and carefully before I continue. I don't want to mess this one up!