Round 1: 4000 BC to 2280 BC
I decided to play through most of our existing decision points until we reached a number of new ones.
First off, I sent the Warrior 1 tile due north. This is what he revealed:
Gold--very nice, an early luxury resource and an excellent boost to the economy and research. However, relocating the capital to take advantage of it just didn't seem appealing. So I decided to go with the general consensus and settle in place:
Which, as you can see, revealed... more sugar. Whoop-de-do. Oh well, as was pointed out previously, sugar beside a river is like flood plains, only better, and I have 3 riverside sugar tiles which will likely be cottaged, leaving two I could potentially plantation (1 for the bonus to my civ, 1 for trading). As I said, we'll see how the trading situation plays out and then decide what to do with the sugar tiles accordingly. For now, I decided to farm them.
The first build was a Warrior; my existing Warrior went further north along the coast, looking for a site for a good coastal city. He found one, and didn't have to go far:
The tribal village popped for 78 gold--nice, that will support deficit research for several turns.
Shortly after that, I finished researching my first tech:
Back at the capital, a few turns prior, I had moved my one citizen from the sugar tile to a forest tile to speed the Warrior's build time, so he would appear as soon as possible after the city grew (1 turn, as it turned out). Once the new citizen appeared, I still had enough hammers to finish the Warrior build and work 2 riverside sugar tiles with their extra food and commerce.
This shaved 1 turn off of Bronze Working, the next tech I started researching. For the early, cheap techs, you see, one extra coin can, indeed, sometimes make a difference.
I found another tribal village a little west of the first one; this one popped for a map. Meh. It did, however, reveal another tribal village further north:
I always have a tough time deciding whether to go after these, especially as there were unrevealed tiles north of Carthage that this Warrior was supposed to reveal, and this was a substantial detour from my usual plan of revealing tiles in a circular pattern around the capital--the goal being to reveal tiles where resources are/may appear, and to determine where good city sites are. And the AI often beats me to these distant, map-revealed huts.
Well, I decided to take a risk and sent the Warrior north to the hut. What the heck, eh? Besides, if I could deny the hut to the AI, so much the better.
Along the way, I received news that one of the early religions had been founded:
Turns out its founder is nearby, as you'll see, and is a somewhat surprising candidate for that role. Hinduism got founded on the last turn of the round; no idea where or who its founder is yet.
The Warrior reached the northern hut, after surviving a fight with a lion, and...
Hmm... well, it shaved about 6 turns, IIRC, off of BW for me, so I won't complain. I switched civics to Slavery and research to Animal Husbandry right away--going after horses for Hannibal's Unique Unit. Copper appeared 4S 3E of Carthage, right on the coast (the map is at the bottom of the post). Also, this is the last goody hut I've come across, so I think I made the right decision by going after it.
And then the neighbours started showing up. Oh, just wait until you see the rogue's gallery I have sharing my continent! Bachelor number one:
No, wait, it gets better!
That's
two leaders with the aggressive trait. And the icing on the cake:
Yes, Tokugawa, our nemesis from the Asoka game, who is the unlikely founder of Buddhism here! So much for our peaceful plans. I think the Charismatic trait is going to be getting a heckuva workout in this game.
I finished Animal Husbandry along the way and a source of horses was revealed 7 tiles due north of Carthage--well within reach, though there's a fair bit of desert nearby. I then acquired my next tech on the recommended path:
And shortly thereafter, the next one:
...and this is where I stopped, because this is as far as we had taken our discussions. In addition, a substantial amount of the map has been revealed, and the first Settler has been completed on this very same turn and is awaiting orders in Carthage.
So here's a look at the map as revealed thus far:
So let's discuss decision points. Here are the ones that occurred to me--if you think of any others, by all means mention them.
Cities: City #1, I think, should nab those horses; I built a third Warrior who is positioned near that tile, fog-busting for the Settler's trek. I'm thinking of putting the city on the desert tile 1W of the rice. It would have the rice and horses in the first ring, which is comforting if we're not going after Stonehenge. It has two desert tiles in the fat cross, but will also claim the oasis and the incense. Nevertheless, irrigating that rice tile once I have civil service looks like it will be a royal pain. I could found the city one tile further north, 1E of the horses, so the oasis will irrigate the rice via the city, but then I trade three workable plains tiles (1 with a forest) for three unworkable peaks. Then again, how workable are the plains tiles if they can't be irrigated? I will appreciate your opinions here.
City #2 I think needs to go southeast to claim the copper. Too bad there's no seafood visible down there. The forested tile 1S of the sugar makes the most sense to me, as it will claim the wheat. That means it will require a border pop to claim the copper and wheat, though, which is why I prefer going after horse city first, since it's likely to have the horses in its initial ring.
City #3 should go on the northeast coast and claim the gold and clams. That's not an easy placement either--I'm thinking either 1S of the gold (which unfortunately would have three nearly-useless ocean tiles) or 1NE of it.
City Specialization: Of these first four cities I've spec'ed out, only Carthage is a decent commerce/science city; the others are more production-oriented. Well, that probably means they can pump out the military units while the capital focuses on civilian pursuits, so that's okay for the early game. I'm thinking copper/wheat city, with its good balance of food and production tiles, will be the main military (Heroic Epic/West Point) city. Other commerce cities will be located elsewhere, such as one along the river in the western jungle. But that's a ways off. It makes cottaging the capital a priority, though.
Research: I chose Horseback Riding (27 turns!) next for the unique unit, but I could switch without losing any of the research overflow. (Isn't wonderful how the timing at the end of this round turned out? It's almost as if I planned it!) Iron Working seems like another appealing priority if I want to claim any of the jungled area to my west. That marble tile which could also have rice or silk in its fat cross is appealing--it would really help build the Great Library in the capital, which may be the first wonder I go after in this game. Not a lot of forests for chopping are there?
In addition, we've delayed Mysticism, but we'll need it soon for Copper/Wheat city's border pop. Unless we want to gamble on Buddhism spreading there via the coast. We could go after Writing and put a Library there, but that seems like a waste of hammers; that doesn't look like a commerce/science city to me.
Diplomacy: Another item I should mention is that Buddhism has already spread to Carthage, and Tokugawa has already adopted it as his state religion! I haven't adopted it yet, but should I? Toku can be hard to win over, but a shared religion is what usually gives you a foot in the door.
Also, this obviously means that he must be connected to that river somehow. I'm fairly certain that he and Shaka are south of me, while you can see that Kublai is off to the northwest (see that wheat icon with the brown border?). I don't have nearly as much jungle directly south of me as I thought I would, so the AI will likely be expanding there before too long. A certain amount of REX is going to be important here so I can claim the city sites I want, and their resources.
Yes, I need to explore more of the southwest and south. I have two Warriors headed in that direction, including my first, how has now beaten off enough animals to obtain Woodsman II (with 4 XPs--the first of Charismatic's cheap promotions!).
Builds: I've put another Worker in the queue in Carthage, and thanks to farms on two riverside sugar tiles and the farmed corn, he'll be ready in only 6 turns. I've been criticized in previous ALC games for not having enough Workers, and I now have Pottery and should start plunking down cottages soon to reap the benefits of the Financial trait. With horses imminent, I'm loathe to build any more Warriors. However, the city will grow to size 4 in about that many turns, so maybe I should build a barracks while the city grows, then a Worker? Then again, as I mentioned above, it's looking like the capital will really specialize in commerce and research and leave the other initial cities to military, so I'm not sure that building a barracks in Carthage would be worthwhile.
Also, I haven't done any whipping yet, despite switching civics to Slavery, so I gotta start killing my citizens soon. (Sounds terrible, doesn't it? I tell ya, the life of a tyrant is not easy. It's lonely at the top, gang.)
So... lots to think and talk about! The saved game file is below.
I would much rather cottage over the sugar than farming it as hanibal i financial. Making a mine(riverside) before you start touching the sugar for some early production. Same as farmed sugar for workers and setlers and shorter buildtime even. So imo farm the corn(you'll lose a worker turn 
) then mine the riverside hills then either farm one sugar or just build another mine. The farm should prolly be replaced by a cottage or planatation later on though. Heck you can chop for the setler after building the mine if you want. Buildorder warior(hoepfully you'll have some foresed hills or forested plains title somewhere to make it possible to juggle titles so you end with the warrious out 1 turn after growing to size 2 without wasting any food towards growing.) then going worker - settler or even worker - worker setler if you want to chop to speed off stuff, though you might want to save forests for wonders later. This look like a VERY good burecracy site with multiple hills and a river and enough food. I agree with moving the warrior one north. Reaserch order ag - bw - ah - wheel sounds good to me. Then prolly pottery to cottage up your capital. I would prolly build another worker fourth if you can get him to do something. If not you'll better of building barracks while growing and build the worker when you grow a bit more as you need more workers to cottage stuff + help your next city. It might be better to get mysticism for monuments before wheel(or pottery) depending on the fatcross of your second city as you might need a monument to pop its borders. Your going for early war or expansion? if your not going for early war it might be better to just get another warrior than to get the barracks allready. Hannibal is charismatic so He is somewhat favoured in waring. To bad barracks dont give 4 experience anymore though.
