I settled the spice for faster lux, Nineveh on the gems (had Music Guild there), Nimrud 4 south of cap I wanted to stay behind the river from Alex. I headed NE for 4th city and settled 3 west of pearls. I considered leaving space for a 5th city near horses, putting Kar-Tuk on the hill next to pearls, but I knew I wanted watermills and high pop if I could. Alex settled 4 south of pearls, and I had to buy 2 tiles to get the 6 iron, which pissed him off plenty, something I wanted to avoid. But all the iron and horse sales were great.
BO was scout, scout, shrine, granary, (bought worker), partial caravan, archer, settler, finish caravan
Expos did granary/shrine I believe. I went pretty hard for shrines and temples, setting me back with everything else. Only stole one worker from Ife, too many barbs near home and my scouts went far and wide, tough to reveal the map. I had 2nd pantheon, Stone Circles. Founded with Tithe and Choral, as Temples were built and my cpt sucked. Only building left was Monasteries, and I wasnt sure if they would pay for themselves
Enhanced with Swords-Plow 15% and Itinerant Preachers. I tried to spread some religion early, esp after Poc got knocked out, as he was the big spreader threat. For a while I thought Rome would adopt my religion, but no go by Industrial. I think I had 2 GP for quests and spread. My 4th city took forever to adopt ugh. By end game I was getting 60+ gpt from Tithe.
Milestones were meh, NC 122, Rat 151, Sci Theory and Secularism 172, Order 185 (400s bpt), Plastics (Oxford) 209 (600s bpt), 1st in science 215. Bpt stuck in 800s a long time, as I worked max river and bonus tiles and only manned guilds and science buildings. Didnt hit 1,000 bpt until near 260 and finished at 1,161 working all engineers and coast cities maxed specialists (needed to stop growth, I never went below 0 happiness). Only had maybe 5 RAs total, Iroq and Aus, let the DOF expire after Ideologies to mollify Rome and Alex.
Early on I bribed Cath Vs Alex, later Alex vs Cath. Cathy never won anything, and slowly lost cities all game, finally being eliminated about T300. Austria was down to 2 crappy cities by the end. Bribed Rome vs Poc early, and that screwed up the entire game, as Rome steam-rolled Poc, taking his cap on T119. Mosan Kahni was Rome's biggest city at 36 at end game (Assur made 35, others 32, 27, 24). One of the biggest challenges was to keep Rome and Alex always warring - I always had to leave them one fresh foe to DOW. I only got them engaged 2x - first time no encounters and quick peace, argh. Second time Rome wanted 60+ gpt and goodies, I waited for 28 gpt. They were finally meeting up in Austrian lands south of the mountains at the end.
Rome and Alex spent half the game flipping CS allies. Alex, Rome, and USA all went full patronage, so I had to fight hard to have any allies. I had 7 max, 3 for quite a while, Budapest, Singapore, Sydney, sometimes Ife. By the end game I was down to just Budapest, and Alex had over 3x my gpt (400s to 100s). I was able to make a few proposals, first was WF - otherwise I did everything I could to make Rome happy. Multiple Leader votes, voted for almost anything he and Alex proposed, I proposed the Wonder +3 culture because Rome and Alex wanted it, I think I had no wonders at the time. Rome ended with 17 wonders, inc all of Poc's and Austria's. My only sweet resolution was to repeal Arts Funding that brought my GS roaring back.
Alex made a few serious attempts to mass at my borders. Mid-game he dropped two GGs SE of the pearls to get them and Ifes coal, and later my 6 iron. I was so vulnerable, having only aluminum, so I only built 2 Battleships to hide in ports, no air, buying coal and oil from Rome and my pals knowing the spigot could dry up any moment. Rome even sold me 6 uranium LOL.
My playstyle was based on Tichs Shoshone Overview
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=506043 . I went straight Tradition, and knew I would only get one policy before Renn, so went Commerce opener instead of Patronage and Consulates. Went Order T185 after only getting Rat and Secularism. Went six deep, then back-filled Rat, but I blew my tech order, so had to burn Commerce Wagon Trains before Rat finisher tech, which ended up timed perfectly after bulbing Ecology (tree splits in two after it). I had several GS near the end, last 4 techs went fast, ending at Part Phys.
Order order: Hero People/Soc Realism, Worker Facilities, Young Pioneers, 5 year Plan, Spaceflight Pioneers. Policies came slowly, so I had Hydro Plants in most cities before Factories.
Both Rome and Alex went Autocracy, but lucky for me Iroq, Cathy and Austria all went Order. USA went Freedom, so Iroq DOWd him like 3x, and hence lost cities to Rome. Alex had happiness problems with all that conquest, so spawned rebels once that I saw. During one of his friendlier moments I kept a GM scouting his lands, which seemed kind of funny to me
Where I departed from Tich style was I finally built up to Opera Houses to get Hermitage, and I put 4 GW in Library slots for border spreading (burned all GA for GAges). I did not oversell lux much. I knew happiness would suck at some point, plus I wanted max GAges, so I was in the 20s a lot. I tried to sell luxes smart, sell my multiples in stages to try for WLTK never worked, first time ever. Always a CS or single of a Civ, ugh. Once I built a nuke, Alex was Afraid my first nuke I ever built, I was all LOL, and bought 3 luxes at fair value, ha.
Early growth was horrible as I couldnt get WLTK often enough. I often only had one food caravan to cap, only had 3 for a while mid-late game. I always ran caravans to Rome and Alex for modifiers. Getting the two coastal cities to start feeding each other was great. Once I started building space parts, and needed military, I switched some to production trade routes.
I was only able to buy science buildings in the cap. I was paying for luxes and wars constantly, and sometimes CS buys.
My army was small a fair amount of the game, but CS quests gave me many Mil CS units over time, and good ones, esp late. I only deleted one Swordsman. The last 40-50 turns, once I knew the SV was rolling, I built many units, built all defensive buildings, and roaded everywhere to battle Alex esp.
Some weirdness - several CS took other CS and quite a few civ cities. Sydney puppeted Montreal, I have never seen a CS puppet a city. Damn Montreal had crab which I needed for WLTK, and did not develop it while I waited for WLTK for like 60 turns, ugh.
Rome ended with 124 happiness, 66k gold, 645 gpt, and led everything but Literacy and Approval. He led WC until near the end when Alex got 2:1+ ratio. My only tech steal was Rome and he caught me first time but didnt kill spy. That was my only blemish (other than Ideology). He or Alex could have squashed me any time nearly the whole game. Quite the nail-biter!
I'll let you know how it goes... Gah...
I have 3 great cities and 2 so so cities. Still, every one of them is pulling its weight, so it's all good. 
