Dawn breaks on the glorious Russian empire as intreped Russian settlers, as controlled by their ferocious leader, Team Fifth Element, settles Moscow. Fifth Element, despite being forced to take on a new member (some noob named Civicide), enters the game with an aggressive and distinctive plan, starting with the inauspicious tech path of Fishing >> Masonry >> Mysticism, with a plan of settling our first expansion city on the plains hill 3NE of Moscow, just south of the stone. As we researched Mysticism before anyone discovered Hinduism, we decided to make a go for it. We didn't get there, missing it by a mere 3 turns, but in a move that we acknowledged as odd for the Russians, particularly on a map with so many foes, we decided to gamble a bit and make the run for Monotheism. Against all odds, we got there, founding Judaism in Moscow in 2230 BC. "L'chai-im!" came the cry from every citizen of Moscow, as many a toast of vodka was raised in celebration.
We founded St. Petersburg shortly after, in the position to be a decent production city on this hammer-starved island, immediately working to hook up the stone and begin work on the Pyramids.
The Jewish faith begain spreading rapidly, both within the Russian empire (we got a lucky early spread to St. Petersburg, and later to Novgorod), but also to rival empires across the narrow sea: Alex took to Judaism straight off, and Mao not long after, functioning as an unofficial scout in the absence of early galleys. Some nervous Russians noted with some trepidation that that Greek city of Sparta was built directly on top of a stone quarry, and thus represented a potential direct threat to our plan for the Pyramids. The vodka helped to attenuate our nerves, but it was still with relief that we saw the greeks erect a massive stone wall to protect itself from barbarians that did not exist, in 1480 BC. Against some kind of odds, this was also the turn in which the Oracle, in a far away land, was built. While the Russian people had some aspirations to potentially work on an Oracle of their own some day, the fact that the Pyramids were still up for grabs led to the consumption of much vodka in celebration.
The technology of Monotheism was followed with Bronze Working, which revealed copper across the bay, and was followed with Sailing, Animal Husbandry (revealing Horses, also across the bay), and Priesthood.
Novgorod was founded next, across the bay, to leverage the copper, horses, and multiple gem deposits in the jungle. Much to our surprise, though, not long after its founding, some intrepid explorers that named themselves "Indians" settled on the land to the Northwest of Novgorod, in a precise spot in which the Russian strategists had hoped to expand to someday! The city of Calcutta was a blot on the notion of Russian manifest destiny, the desire to encase the entire island of our homeland in a distinctive orange-ish hue, and with impertinence emboldened by a particularly smooth brand of vodka, the calls to war were immediate. The case was only strengthened by the fact that the Indians believed in an entire pantheon of gods whose very names were queer to our (admittedly vodka-slurred) tongues, referring to themselves as followers of the "Hindu" faith. However, the liquid courage wore off soon after, and the cooler heads noted that the city of Calcutta was actually a quite remote and backward place, surrounded by jungle, with the surrounding land of little use to anyone. Indeed, with the culture of Novgorod ever-so-subtly inching in Calcutta's direction, it was hypothesized that it may eventually be possible to persuade the residents of Calcutta to embrace the warmth of the vodka produced by the mighty Russian empire without any military interdiction whatsoever.
Noting that the Egyptians, located to the Northeast across another narrow sea, could potentially follow India's lead and stick its impertinent head onto our continent as well, the push for consolidation was swift and strong, with the cities of Rostov and Yaroslavl' founded in short order to follow.
For a time, the mighty Russian empire was quiet, at peace, with many a quiet night ending with an empty bottle of vodka. The Jewish faith was spreading quite prodigiously on its own accord; joining Alexander and Mao in the embrasure of Hebrew traditions were the Romans, the Egyptians, and the Malinese, as the spread of religion acted as a scout in its own right. Several Indian cities embrased the Jewish faith as well.
In 655 BC, the steadfast builders of St. Petersburg rightly celebrated for a fortnight, draining the city's ample vodka supplies, to mark the completion of the first of many great Russian acheivements, the Pyramids. The leaders of the Russian team (also celebrating with vodka), the Oligarchial collective known as Fifth Element, noted that this remarkable achievement allowed for the citizens of Russia to embrace a new form of government, known as Representation. It was also noted that this achievement would inspire engineers for years and centuries to come, the remarkable engineering achievement standing testamony to the skill of the Russian people.
It was still noted, with some despair, that the technology level of the surrounding civilizations seemed quite superior to our own. This caused much anxiety, and the consumption of vodka could only quell it so much. Jewish scientists quickly gathered the secrets of writing, and pushed immediately on to that of Alphabet, which in turn created a flurry of technology trades with several of our rivals. When the dust had settled, our glorious civilization had knowledge of Mathematics, Iron Working, Meditation, Pottery, Archery, and Agriculture. The discovery of Iron Working led to the sighting of Iron within our Cultural Borders, but unfortunately, not in the range of any city's workable tiles. This led, of course, to the drinking of much vodka in despair.
The turns that followed were of much despair to the Russian people. The Chinese, under Mao's leadership, once great friends of the Russians and brothers in faith, discovered and began to embrase a new set of monotheistic guidelines, founding Christianity in Shanghai, and aggressively spreading it to their larger cities. The Egyptians also lost some standing in Russian hearts and minds, embrasing the faith of Conficianism. While St. Petersburg began work on an aqueduct, with the intention of building a wonderous set of Hanging Gardens, its citizens began studying the Pyramids for clues to the genius of its engineering. Eventually a Great Engineer, Wilhelm Schickard, was born in St. Petersburg. He had the intention of building a glorious library, but found that his city of choice did not even have a regular library to use as a starting point, and while its building commenced, a far away land built a wonderous library of its own. His dreams crushed, Wilhelm sank one night into a great despair, consuming three bottles of vodka before, out of his drunken haze and slurred speech, he realized that his genius could be put to good use in the discovery of Machinery. This technology was of immediate use to his Russian people, and more importantly, provided a wonderful bargaining chip in the negotiation of the sharing of technological advancements.
The economists of the Russian empire noted, at this point, a somewhat disturbing trend: over the years, more and more of our economic resources had been put to sustaining our own cities and buildings, leaving less and less left over for our national research project. The cities of Rostov and Yaroslavl' were in particular blamed for this trend, as they cost more to maintain than they were generating for the good of mother Russia. But there was nothing to be done with this, and the Russian leaders used the knowledge that in time, they would grow into their own, along with vodka, to assuage themselves that their expansionary efforts so many years ago had not been in vain. Moreover, it was noted that the city of St. Petersburg was a nice production site, and that it was producing wonderous engineers at a very impressive rate. In 95 AD the truth of this was borne out, as it completed the Hanging Gardens, barely a challenge for such a glorious city. In secret, the Russian leaders began to devote resources to a grand army, the purpose of which was kept highly confidential, and was based on solid predictions coming from those wise in the ways of religion.
Research was devoted to the technology of engineering, to allow for the building of enormous counterweight-based catapult-like devices called "Trebuchets", while the capital of Moscow, and the Jewish holy city, produced in 470 AD a prophet named St. Patrick, whose holiday would, fittingly enough, eventually involve the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol (we Russians utilize vodka for this task, as opposed to the proper Irish drinks of whiskey and Guinness, but not everything is perfect). In 485 AD, at the precious age of 15, this religious prodigy oversaw the construction of a glorious shrine to the Jewish faith, the Temple of Solomon. And two predictions of our religious scholars were borne out: that the creation of this shrine, due to the massive prolificity of the Jewish faith throughout the world, would bring enormous resources that would allow for the funding of our entire empire, and that the Chinese people would abandon the Jewish faith in favor of that which they came up with on their own: Christianity, which was not well-endorsed throughout the globe, and left the powerful Chinese empire with precious few allies.
By 500 AD, the gravity of this slight had rankled with the Russian people. The impudence of it! The Chinese people had been the first to join us in Judaism, and had been our staunchest allies for four millenia! How dare they abandon our faith for one of their own? Indeed, how dare they! Why were they destined to have fertile and rich lands at their disposal, while the plight of the Russians reduced us to spending years upon years clearing out jungle to make our land habitable? What right have they to hoard their resources and wealth, while making empty overtures of friendship only to abandon our ties of religious belief? The cries from the people were loud: "We need an army!"
"We have an army", came the reply from the leaders, "one built up in secret, of catapults and men with axes and swords, of galleys and bowmen. We have not been blind all these years. We saw this development coming; we have seen it in the making for centuries.
"And there is an answer to your cries, a swift and decisive action that will remind our would-be oppressors that one does not abandon the Jewish faith so lightly, particularly for one that doesn't give you many large and powerful allies! One does not simply sit idly on rich, prosperous land, then toss insults to the Russian people without expecting a response! Respond we must, and respond we will, for the glory of our empire and for the good of the Russian people! TO WAR!!!!"
In Moscow's plaza, at the home of the world's most prolific religion, the cries to war were as the torrent of the sea, strong, loud, insistent, and endless. And it was to the sea that the brave Russian troops went, into the hulls of a fleet of galleys whose rowers pushed inexorably to the Southeast, into the rising sun, to decide the fate of the first enemy of the grand Russian empire...
, No-one was reckless enough to take his berth 
.
! A Compromise was reached: Mao Must Die! 
, like when we were trying to decide whether to settle in place or on the plains hill and he says out of the blue, “How about that swamp over there?” 
