I've started playing this one. The opening stage has been a bit of a struggle, because I didn't want to spend too much time + shields Settling the homeland (yet -- I've spaced my initial towns to allow me to ICS and farm it later), nor building up the towns I have founded there (probably built too many improvements, but I've been glad of the Raxes -- and the Iron to Colonise!). So with only 5-6 small towns for much of the first 50-60T, it took me quite a while (~30T?) to get Alph and start building my Curraghs; once that was done, I met 4/7 of the AI-Civs within ~10T of setting sail, and the other 3 within ~20T (IIRC, I still have 1 or 2 unsunk boats continuing to map coastlines). I tried for the Rep-sling, though I didn't really expect to make it; sure enough, the
Darkblues beat me to Philo by a couple of turns. Fortunately, CoL was still useful trade-fodder; some nifty tech-trading/brokering got me most (all?) of the other AA-techs that were available at that time. I then needed ~30T to get Rep, finally acquiring it few turns ago, not very long after the tech-leaders.
It's now ~T120, and I am a couple of turns into my 5T-Anarchy. Nearly everyone I've met has declared war on me at some point during the last 50T, either because I refused a tribute-demand (thanks for the WH, guys!), or because they allied with one of the rebuffed Civs. Most of my enemies have long since become willing to 'negotiate', but the more advanced Civs aren't willing to make peace without my conceding something expensive to them (like a town -- nope, not gonna do that). That's not a real worry, though; so far I've only lost 1 land-unit (vArcher vs. rSword) in combat against AI-Civ invaders (they've lost ~10 units collectively), although I
have lost a few units to Barbs (including my first Galley+Settler+Sword expedition, sunk by a Barb-galley just before it crossed the northern strait, which
really annoyed me!).
But I think the game is about to turn in my favour: although most AI-Civs have already reached the Mid-Age, while I still need Currency (being researched by my Geeks, while keeping my towns from rioting) and Construction (which I can get from the
Darkreds, along with some of their gold, in exchange for a PT+Rep), I am not last in the tech-race (surprisingly, that dishounour goes to the
Lightgreens). And I already have 5 towns planted on the southern continent (including one at the choke, which I need to rename as Panama -- and chop all the Jungle around it!); 3 of those sites are on rivers, and the 2 inland sites are potentially good for my new Palace and/or FP-town (I haven't fully explored up the southern river-branch yet, so there may be a better, more central site(s) in the fog; I'll know in 5-6T, provided my Swords survive the imminent change-of-era Barb-horse onslaught).
Short-term plan now is to explore/develop the northern end of the southern continent, and make the final decision on where I want my new Capital, with the intention of using the Palace-jump trick to put it there. Once I've founded that town, I'll chop-/cash-rush a Gran to grow it fast, while spinning Workers and Settlers off all the others, using Distance4-5, Cx(x)xC placement to Settle the southern continent (if the game goes as far as Sanitation, I'll put Hospitals in the 'permanent' towns, and Worker-shrink/Settler-abandon intervening towns down to Distance6-9 Cxx(x)xxC). In the meantime, the Tundra-towns can supply additional Workers, and vSwords for colonial defence. When the new Capital gets big enough to make it the decisive choice, I'll sell off most of the Tundra-island towns' improvements (keeping 1 Harbour for the Iron- and Spices trade-routes, and maybe 1 Rax for unit-builds/ upgrades), and then Settler-abandon Washington.
Haven't decided on the long-term goal yet: I like long, high-tech games, but IND+EXP doesn't lend itself well to Science, and I'm unlikely to get a usefully-timed GA early enough for it to make any difference to a research-game's outcome: Wonder-building/ -capturing isn't even on the table at this stage, and for a UU-triggered GA, I'll have to wait for the Modern Age
So I'll probably go for Domination...
