Pre-turn
Everything looks fine.
Makkah is already at 5 food per turn, but a bit low on shields. I'm not sure we can make a 4-turns Settler Factory in Despotism.
Turn 1 - 2550 BC
Pop growth in Makkah means Mysticism next turn.
The faraway settler.
Hhmmmm...
I know it may be unpopular, but I will move it towards Makkah, with the Scout scouting ahead of him. It is going to take around 20 to reach the mountains east of Makkah. Not
too much.
Of course, we can always build a city along the road, if necessary.
Stupid Gandhi must have got Mysticism from a stupid hut.
Turn 2 - 2510 BC
Mysticism. Polytheism in 40 turns (to be reassessed in the future).
No trades possible. Looks like Ottomans have Mysticism too.
Gift CB to France and Alphabet to Egypt, lest they lag too much in tech.
Turn 3 - 2470 BC
A scout ends its turn right in front of a Barbarian. Typical...
Makkah reaches pop 6; Settler in two turns.
Turn 4 - 2430 BC
Some scouting. There seems not to be too much room to the East.
Turn 5 - 2390 BC
Makkah: Settler - Worker
Turn 6 - 2350 BC
Goats are on the tile we had chosen for the next city.
I decide to settle in the desert 1NE, closer to Makkah (but as long as we keep building settlers, overlap will not be a problem).
The city will need an Aqueduct, though. And a Temple.
Settler moves in position. Worker is on Flood Plains.
Xerxes has found 25 gps, which he gladly gives us for The Wheel.
Turn 7 - 2310 BC
Madinah founded (at last): Warrior.
No trading opportunities.
Turn 8 - 2270 BC
Not much. Still no new techs around.
Workers on the Goats next to Madinah.
The second warrior from Makkah has been scouting to the NE. He'll be waiting for the Settler to come.
Turn 9 - 2230 BC
Still not much. No trades, some exploration.
Turn 10 - 2190 BC
Shaka had 28 gps, which we gladly receive for The Wheel.
The situation:
We need to reassess our city placements. Those goats forced a different distance from Makkah. It looks like the second city could go where Alan was originally suggesting (much as I don't like building on Flood Plains).
The northern cities can also be brought a little closer to the capital (sorry, I didn't have time to prepare a dotmap).
If we want to start building the FP, it could go in the area between Spices and Horses (3E of Makkah? 3E+1NE?).
I would have Makkah build another worker after the next settler (taking some care in managing the worked tiles).
Madinah could build a Granary to help with Settlers and workers, as it has both food and shields (plus a Temple sometie in between).
The next couple of cities could go for Barracks and Warriors (maybe the Temple for border expansion), and nothing else for some time.
Of course, this is just an idea -and maybe not even a good one.
One more point: no new techs came out during these turns, so I would expect IW and Writing to come out fairly soon. It would be nice to use Mysticism (and some money) for a good trading round, so remember to check the Diplo screen every turn.
Ops, almost forgot THE SAVE!