No RA, no stealing
Settling on the coast seems best, for the all-important fast food, also known as Sid's Sushi.
So, that's where Kyoto is, settled in place!
Even without RA's this will be a quick game, but we need to build up before we can make an army. Most importantly, we need two Workers asap. That means Liberty before Tradition, and a Scout to find those city states and rivals, so we can buy one of the needed Workers.
The early game plan worked out well enough, as we were able to lend from Rome and France (yes, our Warrior checked for land behind Sydney - the Scout took care of the east, after all) and buy our first Worker on turn 15. On turn 25, we bought the Deer tile for 165g. Turn 26 had the game give +1 food to both Bananas and Deer.
That meant no gold left to buy the Library, but instead we chopped some forests.
Bad news arrived on turn 43, when Kyoto announced that it wanted Gems. None was around...
When Meritiocracy arrived on turn 47, we picked a Great Engineer and sent it to put a Manufactory on the Bananas. +4 Production on a tile that will always be worked, useful for around 70 turns, plus multipliers, is better than to save it for the Great Library, which we still hope to build by hand.
It is currently turn 64, and since the AI hasn't built it yet we'll give the thing a try, timing for it to give Civil Service.
We are somewhat short on cash, mainly because we bought a Water Mill and both Seoul (culture) and Sydney (food) are our allies.
In the west we noticed a lot of extra coastal tiles behind Sydney early on, so Optics was made a priority. Our Scout just found the Iroquois on what seems to be another continent. They have Gems, but refuse to trade.
Kyoto is currently size 9. There is a 6 Iron tile nearby which is next in line, and Sydney has Iron as well, so it looks like some Samurai will eventually see the light of day!
Kyoto
9 Monument
15 Worker 310g
25 Worker (policy)
26 Granary
30 Library
44 NATIONAL COLLEGE
47 Great Engineer (policy)
49 Warrior
53 Work Boat
58 Lighthouse
64 Stable
Policies
14 Liberty
25 Citizenship
47 Meritocracy
Technology
9 Mining
16 Pottery
26 Writing
30 Animal Husbandry
36 Trapping
41 The Wheel
45 Masonry
48 Calendar
50 Sailing
53 Optics
57 Horseback Riding
59 Bronze Working
64 Iron Working