This game presented some problems with initial decisions for me. I really like BW for the pop-rushing, but not having Mining would mean researching 2 Techs to get to it. The remote scout revealed some nice territory on the nearby island (before getting killed within a few turns of the start
) but I'd need to research Fishing AND Sailing to take advantage of that territory. Being Deity I knew I'd want Alphabet fast, so I decided I could research Fishing (for the Clams) then forget about Sailing or the BW path, and go straight to Alphabet (through AH).
I built Workboats for the clams, and eventually a Worker. Workboats also did scouting for me. Washington, the Khmer, and Rome made early contact with me. I found Mansa Musa with a Workboat; Mongols found me later, and Korea much later. So all contacts by around 0 AD.
One gut check moment early on - a barb Warrior attacked while I had a single Warrior, but he did little damage. Random events were unkind early on - a Barb city popped up about 6 spaces to the East choking off my expansion, and the first 2 random events caused me some extra disorder when converting to Slavery, and emptied out my grainbox after building a granary.
I got to Alphabet by around 1700 BC (for some reason the first session did not store dates in the log file). Only Rome had Writing already, so I was able to use Writing to get most of the initial Techs. Alphabet got me BW and Math, and most anything else already learned that was tradeable (except for Theo which Mansa Musa got for the Oracle.)
I have 3 cities - my capital founded in place, Prague founded NW of the Stone on the coast, and Vienna founded on the Iron to the West. A barb city 3 moves NW of Prague has been putting some pressure on the city, but the Archer bonuses have allowed the city to hold its own; I eventually expect to use Iron-based units to eliminate this problem.
I continued on a Currency - COL - CS - Paper route. I've traded for MC, the religious Techs, Const. and Calendar along the way. I'm missing Aesth, Machinery, Theo and Feudalism vs most, I'm up Paper (except MM), CS and Paper vs Rome, and Rome has Phil, Korea has Compass. I just got my first GS - Philosophy would have been a great trading Tech, but with Paper, the GS goes to Education and I wouldn't want to trade that away. So I plan to learn Phil, trade that for most of the missing Techs, and use the GS for Education to get a jump on the Liberalism Tech.
I've managed to keep out of any wars up to 520 AD, and have given in to about half the demands along the way. I gave COL to Rome when Julius demanded it, but recently the Mongols demanded 210 Gold and I said no - he was at war with Rome, Korea and Mansa Musa so I didn't think he wanted a 4th. Rome vassalized Korea early on, so currently Rome and Korea are at war with the Khmer, and separately with the Mongols. MM is also at war with the Mongols. America and I are the only peaceful civs at the moment. The Khmer captured the barb city just to the East of me, so I expect at some future time I must capture it from him, with help from America.
Long term plans - I don't really know. Perhaps a SS attempt, but I will need more space and have to take at least a few cities, so I'll see if I survive that attempt.