My only previous play was a 100 turn demo game as Persia.
I loved it! The game was not working very smooth on my laptop (from work), but it runs and I am very happy because of it.
So now I bought the game and will try my first go as a Roman emperor. Who knows what I may find? The demo was going well so I hope to continue on that way and use the things I learned there and by reading Lemmys story!
As I see the starting point is rich in fish and other resources, I settle immediately. No reason to think too much about it. Because of the fish I will like to research sailing very soon so I start on pottery. My city starts on an explorer to find about the surroundings. The warrior is set to explore the immediate surroundings.
3800BC Rome has grown already. Very nicely it is now working 2 fish tiles making sure it continues to grow rapidly! And who is that having ivory?
The next turn I contact them, Budapest they call themselves while they give me 30 gold in greeting, and they seem to be militaristic.
3720BC and my scout is ready. I start on a monument, but actually want a settler. That will have to wait until the city has grown to size 3. After the settler and finishing of the monument a worker will be next to develop the lands and making a traderoute. Remember to research the necessary technologies though...
3680BC we find the first ruins and barb encampment to the north. The ruins give me 65 gold, very nice! A few turns later I attack the encampment with my warrior, using the scout for flanking bonus. I need two attacks to finish them off, but it nets me some more gold and gives the warrior necessary experience for future fights.
Surprise! Instead of being able to finish the encampment off with my warrior as planned above, I need to think again: a brute spawned on the swamps below the camp... so I first finish of the camp with my scout and then the brute with the wounded warrior, which works nicely since the brute is with its feet in the swamp: a kill in one attack!
And then 3440BC I meet Bismarck! Will he be as annoying as he was to Lemmy? Probably not, we immediately sign a pact of cooperation.
At 3280BC I learn sailing, and the next priority is to be able to build roads... or do I want to be able to spearman? As I also need to put workboats in the building queue. I decide to go to bronze working first, and after that I will go for the wheel.
The next turn Bismarck already starts acting hostile and ends the Pact of Cooperation. What is he playing at?
Also (it is 3200BC) I adopt Honor as I expect encountering some more barbarians. And of course it will help in conquering all the capitals.
At 3080BC a Brute shows up near Rome. I had my warrior remain in the city since I wanted to be prepared for something like that. First I have the city bombard the brute (-5) and then let the warrior finish him off. The settler also is finished and finds a spot near some nice resources. We are started to first finish the monument (so we can also built one in the new city using the Romans special bonus!).
By 3000BC my new city Antium is founded northwest of the cows, to include some more fish and speed the growth. Science will be quicker now, but happiness less. First I start on another warrior as I will need to be able to defend this new land. Then a monument is next.
Venice is met: being maritime would make them superb allies. The food you get is amazing for growth of your empire!
2600BC a lot of quiet turns, building in my cities, discovering bronze working and getting to know the map. After noticing I couldnt find any more land in the north I went south with the scout thinking that behind the Budapest land would be more mass. I am surprised to see there is not: so if there is not passageway of any way in the south, that means the land is behind Bismarck! I need to either get open borders with him or conquer him to get to know the others. Or make some boats... yes, lets put in another boat in the queue for after the worker! Well, looking a bit better at my hoarded cash: I can simply buy the boat now. One trireme on the double please!
Darn I was expecting the workboat would give me extra food... instead it gives me gold. Remove the second workboat from the queue. Differences from Civ 4 are annoying when you don't expect them.
2440BC indeed there the fertile lands are: behind the Germans! Lets explore them with my nice trireme. Should be quick with these 4 moves each turn. Meanwhile the worker is almost finished. Happiness is my weak spot if I want to expand, so I will need to connect some wine soon. Research will be set accordingly.
The first new leader I meet is Oda of Japan in 2320BC. Again I try to be friends. Meanwhile I am thinking about my path to glory. Since I will be militaristic I will soon need to discover archery after Calendar and then go on to iron working and mathematics. I will built an archer or 2 that will together with the warriors take out Budapest. When I have built a catapult and 2 legions I should be able to take on the Germans.
Then Wu is met from the Chinese, she just as Oda wont sign a pact of Cooperation, but she does give me open borders.
Venice request assistance against invading barbarians. Let us see what we can manage. I did kill a brute this turn with my trireme, but I didnt get any influence for it: probably it must be a barbarian near the city state. Speaking of the trireme: it is enclosed by land! I will keep using it to attack some barbarians and then maybe gift it to a city state to gain some more influence.
In 1920BC an unmet player enters the classical era, so I am still behind in technologies to at least one player.
1680BC I destroy the camp that was menacing Venice, returning a worker to them earning me 30 influence. I didnt need it myself as I already had two (bought one extra in Antium). In the south a new camp spawned and Budapest immediately asked to remove it. There were already units en route so I will.
1520BC I research mathematics and finally enter the classical era myself. If I remember correctly as the fourth after unmet player, Oda and Bismarck. Also I see a notification of a research agreement between Germany and Japan. I need to find out how to get one of those! Budapest is friends with me and I will first pay some money to become friends with Venice as well as I can use their food.
Start Stonehenge in Rome to be finished in 17 turns.
1480BC as my scout approaches the German border we agree on an open border agreement. Finally we will be able to search out the lands!
1400BC my first golden age! That should make a nice impact on gold and production.
1200BC right after receiving a warrior from Budapest I declare war on the city. I need more space and the units arent good enough. Ivory will soon be mine!
Meanwhile I finish building Stonehenge. Hopefully the culture is going to help me a lot! Also I am curious what the great people will be able to do and how long it will take me to get one. Hmm 100 turns is a long wait! I mostly used them on starting golden ages by the way, they are powerfull!
1000BC Budapest is conquered, I leave the city a puppet state as I am concerned about my happiness. Now it is 7, and a settler will soon be produced so I can build a city on the iron. Oh yes, another thing I missed: first I researched mathematics for the catapults, to discover that I need iron for them and I dont have it until I research iron working. Now that I have this I see iron is outside of my cities! Ok, it is close to Busapest, but I will build another city anyway to the northeast of Antium near the cloth and cows. But first the camp here needs to be taken out and they have spearman. My archers will be able to target them.
Anyway, I leave Budapest a puppet state until I have more happiness and I am curious how this will affect my empire.
Last but not least I have adopted Discipline while fighting Budapest but it didnt help me much as far as I could see. Now that my golden age is over, I also adopted Piety for the extra happiness bonus.
925BC I found Cumae near an encampment: it can immediately Bombard! Nice way to remove barbarians.  Happiness down to 4, my next golden age will take a while
O no, it is 5 since I just see the Barringer crater so happiness jumps up 1.
875BC Bismarck is worried that I am settling to near his territory. As well he should be! But I tell him to not worry, we will settle where we want and assimilate his people soon. Right, didnt say that last part, yet!
Optics discovered! Embarking looks like fun. But I mostly want to have lighthouses in all these coastal cities of mine. To get the ivory at Budapest to work I still need to research trapping. I started on roads to connect Cumae and Budapest to Rome. Antium already is connected. Then I leave a warrior in every other city who can be present to solve any problems pretty quickly.
I now see that Hamburg is going to be a nice city as well with sheep, sugar and fish, with marble, horses and cow nearby. It will be my first target
but still no iron! Shall I try with two archers and two spearmen instead? Well, I guess so! As I now would like to get philosophy so I can enter research agreements I start on writing.
775BC after another archer shot on my scout my first great general Lysander appears! He quickly moves to the army up north that is assembling by Hamburg. He will be able to give them the edge in the battle. Or at least I hope so!
Then I meet Helsinki who have 6 iron! Now there is a city state I like to ally with
unfortunately I am out of gold now, just 64 pieces in my chest (befriending Venice is costly).
Bismarcks asks if I want war already, but actually I like to wait for the great general, so I tell him I am on a friendly mission.
By this time I find that there are a lot of city states at the choke point in the middle of the map. It made sure it took a long while moving units about. It was a small drawback in an otherwise fun map, but it also made sure you paid attention on moving your troops which is a lesson well learned!
675BC After the lighthouse, Rome starts on a library: still no iron available!
My trireme is getting useless and I gift it to Warsaw. Hmm, just 2 influence or something??
650BC I finally declare on Bismarck! Wu feels I am picking on the weak
her time will come! Oda now feels it is time to end our cooperation. Also Oda seems to be attacking Monaco! Why would he be doing that?
600BC I have lost a unit! A spearman was destroyed after an attack from the city by a German warrior. Ok, it was hurt a bit, but I had not expected it to get killed!
Philosophy is researched, but I dont have enough gold yet for research agreements. Also I need the gold to keep Warsaw as a friend in a few turns. It is getting difficult what to do with my gold! Next I research horseback riding so I can at least go for horseman if not legions. Somebody just built the hanging gardens. Still 7 turns for me for the Great Lighthouse!
575BC Oda and Bismarck both enter the Medieval Era! Coincidence or because of their research pact? I am not happy about it of course. Monaco asks for units, but I dont have any to spare.
550BC finally I start a mine for the iron now that a trade route is finished to Cumae. This should have been done otherwise; just build the city on the iron or immediately build the mine and then do the traderoute would probably have been quicker. In 10 turns I will have the iron connected! I capture Hamburg and make it another puppet.
425BC The Great Lighthouse is built. I didnt expect or plan when starting that I would be able to built two wonders!
In 375BC it is shown that besides me also Darius has built 2 wonders. Wu has one, the others none. Also I defeat Germany this turn, the old man being quite grumpy about it. I was wondering if something is wrong with AI. My very wounded scout was exploring and multiple times German spearman or scout was in view. Probably they could have taken out my scout. Why wouldnt he have done this?
200BC As I research civil service I am now also in the Medieval Era. My next target is machinery, so I start on Masonry!!
A turn later I remember I was waiting to take another social policy for when I was entering the medieval era. I take patronage.
150BC Hamburg starts on a temple which I dislike, I take over the city and start a lighthouse. Persia has allied Helsinki, which is a shame since the city is marvellous!
A few turns later they attack and conquer the other city state which has a lot of resources (12 iron)... that is a pity, Persia might become very strong indeed.
A time follows where I am moving my units to the east after healing them, not sure what I will do. The nearest opponent seems to be Oda, who also is the most advanced as he is the only Medieval opponent remaining. Oda has been attacking Monaco, who therefore requested help that I was not able to supply. Now however, I get near with my two archers and two spearman and a horseman approaching fast and I decide to intervene: within a few turns I get my bonus from Monaco making them my allies and taking Kyoto from the Japanese. I am offered peace, with Osaka included in the deal, but I decide I can best just move on. My archers and spearman are promoted to Crossbow and Pikeman respectively, the horseman following a bit later to a knight and I move on to eliminate Oda from the game.
After this everything goes pretty smooth and I take out China, then the Aztecs and finally Persia. China only had one city, Persia was doing quite well but my units were more advanced (a cannon, several crossbows, two knights and some (long)swordsman against swordsman and immortals is pretty easy). The only difficulty I had in the end was my happiness as I lost the gems from Venice after a barbarian raid on the city and in the same turn I conquered the Aztec capital and lost pearls because the allied status with another city state was lost. It was easily repaired, but it took me some turns. I should have managed that better, and started on courthouses sooner in the cities I took in my empire. Only did that with four cities though; puppet states are generally the way to go!