Early strategy is naturally dependant of the map, but what do you think about these alternatives/questions:
If horses available, try Immortal rush (Rivals might be too far for this) or try to hinder the development of the nearest rival by declaring war and keeping rival away from metals using immortals. Or is it bad idea to go to early war just to freeze the development and let other teams to develop peacefully?
Distances between civs will probably be too large on this map for effective early wars. Still, Immortals should at least be useful for warding off barbarians.
If marble, go for oracle to get Code of laws.
Depending on the situation, we could go for the Oracle even without Marble, since nobody is Industrious and it's a very cheap wonder. An early jump to Code of Laws would certainly be quite valuable, especially with Darius.
If stone, go for Great wall, Stonehenge or Pyramids.
Sure, but no rush on those (unless stone is
really nearby). It's probably unlikely that we'll get Stonehenge unless we delay expansion for it (which I don't think is worthwhile). The Great Wall might be possible at a push, but I don't think it will be hugely valuable for us (our Immortals could use the XP from barbs anyway). Pyramids would probably be the most interesting option if we have stone nearby. As for other options, the Great Lighthouse could be on the potential wonder list too - it's usually quite powerful.
Overall though, I think that the Oracle is still a more important wonder to prioritize, if the situation is right.
Neglect early wonders and religions (except code of laws that probably should be in high priority in most of the strategies), and concentrate on fast early expansion where low science slider is compensated by running specialits in most of the cities.
First of all, we should build cottages (preferably on rivers) instead of running specialists in most situations, to make the most of the Financial trait. Secondly, while fast expansion will be good, let's not expand so much early on that it starts hurting us badly. Of course it's not a good idea to spend a lot of time building wonders in the early game, but building just one or two doesn't hurt expansion too much, and can actually help to put us in a better position.
So I'd say we should get a few cities out, then perhaps think about trying for a wonder or two.
Early religions are probably not nescessary although Mystisicm might be needed relatively early to get monuments.
With Team 5 being the only team that starts with Mysticism, the early religions are probably out of the question for us. However, if we end up going with the Oracle plan, we could very well grab Confucianism. We'd need Mysticism, Meditation and Priesthood though, and we wouldn't be starting them until after quite a few other techs (see the
Starting Position thread for current plans).
How useful The Great Lighthouse is in MP? Are there usually open borders to take advantage of foreign trade routes?
As I mentioned before, the Great Lighthouse is certainly a useful wonder. We can almost certainly count on Open Borders with at least one other team (and probably more), since it benefits everybody to have those foreign trade routes.
Perhaps we should continue this discussion in the other thread, so that all of the strategy stuff is together?