Round 1, 4000 BC - 2920 BC (27 turns):
Tech order: Ag, AH, Archery
I researched Agriculture first, followed by Animal Husbandry and built a worker. He proceeded to irrigate the flood plains next to the cow and put a pasture on the cows after that was finished.
Meanwhile my scout explored what revealed itself to be an island I alone inhabit. I popped three huts getting another scout and 70 gold total. At the western end I encountered Sitting Bull's workboat in 3160BC coming from what appears to be his capital on another landmass just off my northwestern coast.
I pondered delaying Archery since the fogbust area and angles of attack are narrow for the barbarians, but opted to go for the safer route and picked Archery as third. I think I could have skipped it but it might have delayed my expansion somewhat. I've encountered three barbarians so far and all of them have been archers threatening unprotected expansions. After discovering the lay of the (rather poor) land I have to work with I have a feeling that I'll want to expand quickly here to make the most of it.
The western end:
The eastern end:
I have marked some proposed city-spots, they might need some adjustments. Our worker awaits his third job, another farm or elephants? I put a barracks in the build queue but it has no hammers yet, what should we build? I have one turn left on archery, what do we research next?
Being creative means we don't have to worry about production for culture and should consider all spots on their BFC merits only.
The question I ask is how to be competetive in this game with such poor land and (so far) only 1 contact. At least we have 5 health and 3 happy resources (2 of them early ones) which is pretty good given the small size of the island.
I'm afraid we'll have to expand however sooner or later though SB is one of the worst AIs to rush.
If we're playing on an archipelago type map with connected islands the GLH would naturally be huge but with no coastal capital there's no guarantees of getting it.
I think getting gold and fish to the northwest is important as we don't know the size of SB's lands and consequently how quick he will be looking to expand by sea. Also working gold is almost always better sooner rather than later.
This looks like a tough game, looking forward to your input!