I randomized the order of the roster, putting Mitchifier last. I came up first.
I vetoed the first roll, although it was very interesting in that the AP was built by Japan. I thought that would make it too much of a turtling game, without enough foreign entanglement. Also, China had already collapsed, making the start too easy.
The AP has been built recently, under Christianity. Jerusalem was probably razed and it looks like there are a variety of religions extant, which I think will be fun.
1. Turn 210 - To start, I just wanted to take over China and see what we can learn and what relationships we can establish. I saw that China had Shenyang, which is in our flip zone in Manchuria. Moving onto a hill, I saw Pikemen in Baotou. I thought Beijing might have a Castle, or be able to whip one. He was in HR/Bureau/Slavery. So I thought we might need to build some siege and rather than encourage him to build units while we did so, I did not declare, and switched to Serfdom as well as HR + Vassalage to kickstart Siberia. Moved NE to get both Sheep for our capital.
2. Turn 211 - settled Ulaan Ude, started a Worker (we'll get some, but not enough), and set research to Engineering for road movement and Trebs. Two settlers are headed NE and two NW.
Shenyang and Baotou flipped and China declared.
Persia had Seoul.
Darius was Hindu and Pleased at +1 for wise civics. Signed OB. He had Mono, Sailing, Alpha, and redlined Engineering to our COL, Guilds, Currency. I remembered that we needed Calendar for the resources in China. In general I think we should be careful about trades when we don't know what "you have traded with our worst enemies" penalties they will incur, but I thought we should trade tech with Darius, because
- we really do need Calendar soon
- we may not meet a lot of civs soon, and our neighbors aren't friendly
- Darius may if we're lucky be a bit isolated
I took Alpha, Sailing, and 30 of his 40 for Currency. This revealed that China lacked Currency and Feudalism.
Beijing did indeed have a Castle and a whopping 125% defense including ****oo Clock, but it was lightly defended by 2 CG2 Archers and a Barrage2 Cat. It was also the Confucian holy city.
We got 2 Pikes in Baotou and 2 Archers and a Treb in Shenyang. No Workers or other Chinese units were visible. I moved our Keshik stack toward Beijing, along with with the Treb and an escort. Started a Cat in Shenyang and a Monument in Baotou. At the third border pop Baotou will get the Cotton, and then we won't have to settle any other crap silk road cities to get that resource. We got our second wave of units and I sent them toward Beijing. The NW Settlers had a light escort but I took the chance of giving the NE Settlers none.
Feeling optimistic about China, I switched from Engineering to Calendar.
3. Turn 212 - plague hit Pura
NE Settler met Toku, who did not seem to be too strong. He hated Persia and China equally and was at zero / Cautious with us. I don't think we need his land and thought we might be able to keep him cordial, so I threw him Alpha for 20. It wasn't enough for OB, but that was to be expected. I'm sure we will have to choose between him and Persia pretty soon, but we might want Korea for ourselves, so I thought staying with Japan might be viable.
But it did open was Calendar for HBR, which is hottt. Really quite unexpected. I hope this game won't be too easy.
I didn't mind that it wasted the hammers into the Monument in Baotou.
4. Turn 213 / 1230 AD - found the first Siberian city for Fur + Gold and move units. I'm choosing the location on my own because I want to get the game going promptly.
5. 1240 AD - Angkor Wat built
Baotou cancels Monument -> Buddhist Monastery
Beijing has been lightly reinforced but our Treb has gotten there too, and I suicide it as an opener, then take it at a loss of one Keshik. Khanbaliq has a settled great scientist and the Colosseum appears to have a bug where it still gives 8 culture after being captured. So I set it to a Catapult right off the bat.
An Ainu Spearman mercenary with Combat I, Woodsman I, and CR3 is available for 65 + 6/turn. I hire him, intending to suicide him, and to deny him to the Chinese. Also available are an unpromoted Swordsman and Warrior which don't interest me.
IBT a Maceman comes and kills my first reinforcing Cat. Oops, he has 3-tile road movement. (I once lost a Great Prophet to that in an MP game).
6. 1250 - Qingzhou, on the coast, is next. No Walls, Combat I Mace, 2 CG 1 Archers. We'll lose some units taking it but I don't want to wait for this particular one. I'd like to induce a collapse if I can. Qingzhou actually looks pretty razeable, although I have no idea if it would trigger the UP. I suspect not, as the southern cities probably have a lot of food for high pop. I can't tell where they are from their names.
But I pause one turn for healing and to upgrade 3 HAs to Keshiks. Assuming that negative GPT still causes instability, I'd rather spend our money on stuff like that rather than research. Of course, as we found more Siberian cities our economy will tank (in fact it's at 0% / +3 now), so we will need to be careful. In fact, I do set research to 0%. We can easily spend it quickly on research later if we want, but for now I want to be sure we don't STRIKE.
The NW Settlers are in the spots where I suggest we settle, but I leave them alone to save money. The second NE settler does found Qiqihaer to block Japan. He does have a city on the coast.
IBT scouting Keshik kills Pike and dies to Crossbow.
7. 1260 - India comes along, Hindu and friends with Persia and unknown to Japan. I already traded Currency to Persia so I trade it to India for his World Map. I figure the intel is important. He offers Mono + 10 of his 40, but I decline the Mono so that we can get the diplo bonus. Also, I'm not sure whether we'll want or need OR or Theocracy and I think that when our economy gets on its feet, we can research Mono in one turn if needed. So I take Map + 40 and he's at +4, with OB.
His map is ancient, but at least it shows the middle east. The city with all those other wonders turns out to be Parsa, which I didn't expect at all.
Leaning Tower is built and I can see that it's in Athens, which is pimped out with Colossus + Moai.
I can't see the AP, but the city is in the top 5 cities list, size 11 and founded in 610 BC. That's not Italy or Greece. Maybe Albania?
Move Keshik stack up to Qingzhou. Some Chinese cities were on Asoka's map.
8. 1270 - Meet Ragnar and sign OB. The Persian Empire captures As-Sur from Arabia (so now it's no longer on our map).
Qingzhou is badly dotmapped. It misses the Fish outsize Fuzhou and has five tiles of overlap with Beijing. Xian is 4 tiles away and size 8, but unfortunately Qingzhou is now down to size 7
. Does it deserve to be punished anyway? It does.
I bag two of them with spare Keshiks.
We get a GG in Baotou who I think would be best for a Medic III - or maybe in Beijing for super-promoted Keshiks, but we would need Theocracy or another GG to build them with 4 promotions. (4 Colosseum + 4 Ger + 3 Barracks + 2 Vassalage = 13). But there are 2 more annoying partisans that I hadn't noticed, so I have to be cautious about moving him around.
I notice that we're awfully close to the deadline for the first UHV condition. It looks like Fuzhou is in the area that we need to control, so I don't think we'll get it unless China collapses.
IBT trade a leftover Keshik for a HA.
9. 1280 - decline Asoka's offer to trade maps.
For the UHV condition (which I don't consider essential, but the benefit of 2 would be nice, and it's a fun challenge) I have to press the attack fast, and so I throw some Keshiks at Xian. If I raze it we should get Guiyang to its south, and maybe that will trigger a collapse.
Our 2 uninjured Keshiks kill the 2 defending Archers and Fuzhou gets some partisans.
I start pulling back one of our squatting Settlers so that it can fill in China. Maybe the other one should be pulled back too, but I leave it there in case we need to block Russia.
10. 1290 - Guiyang does not flip, which annoys me excessively. But I do have one Keshik which can attack its lone defending Archer at 78% and possibly (but not necessarily) survive a counterattack. I win, and this introduces us to Surya. He hates us for trading with his worst enemy and everyone hates him for being Buddhist, so in case he's someone's worst enemy, I do not to let him into the Mongolian Currency club, and just leave him alone.
Qin will talk to us, but won't cap.
We're playing chess with a partisan unit around Shenyang.
Roster:
Jet - played
Úmarth - up
Legendre - on deck
AnotherPacifist
Mitchifier
. I tried reloading but got another great spy ugh. Well, I figure we might as well try and use it to our best advantage. I check out Darius and he has optics and divine right. I figure if we infiltrate him we should be able to get at least 1 tech, and I divert all our incoming espionage to Persia (a whole 22 pts/turn!!!!). I have Shenyang start on a spy and I send our James Bond toward Seoul. Still sending our keshik towards Europe and no AP found yet.
Netherlands asks to vassal but of course we decline for now. Got all 7 castles built: reward is either all melee promoted to city garrison I (useless since most civs already have gunpowder), or 3+ attitude from all leaders (chose that). 
