Just finished up this game today after starting it what seems like months ago. Finished with a Conquest victory which is what I set out from the start. Biggest issue was just size of the map. I felt I could have finished quite a bit sooner than I did, probably very much in the BC timeframe instead of early ADs. But to make matters worse I made a huge goof. I thought I had eliminated Ottos and sent the W stack of Keshiks E toward Boudica to meet up for the sandwich attack on her to finish the game (everyone else dead at this point). It wasn't until ..lol...I killed Boudi that I'm like..whoa..whatcha doin' still breathin' Mehmed?
The bright side is the several turn delay on moving units back to the hidden Otto city in the fog in the far west, as it gave me time to finish chopping out Hanging Gardens for a big boost to score - relatively speaking. But ..ha..Mehmed had just been sitting there for ages with a 1 pop city with one archer.
I can't remember all the details now of the early game, but it appears I settled 1NE on the sugar while teching toward Keshiks in some roundabout way. Settled a couple of nearby cities - 1 just W of Krak and another just south. Once Keshiks up I started pumping them and eliminated Justy and Hambone fairly quickly.
At this point, I had to recover a bit while units healed. Needed to scout some to find Izzy's and Mehmed's locations so I could plan attacks. Meanwhile used Oracle on Currency, which is by far the best thing for early conquest, although I was just a couple of turns from being able to Oracle Civil Service, the money was just far more important. I was struggling a bit to complete Code of Laws simply due to lack of gold and it was around 600BC, so I did not want to get ninja'd by Izzy.
Hammy stack zipped up diagonally and Izzy went down in like 2 turns. I had sent a scout Keshik through Hatty's land before attacking Izzy, and he stumbled on the edge of Izzy's borders with one newish city with one archer. I gamble on the attack then and the keshik won. Razed that city and a new Spanish city on her south end, but started to keep cities after that since I could keep afloat now with no problems. Madrid had stonehenge and a shrine - I chopped HG there.
That stack swept through Egypt like butter.
Meanwhile, the W stack setup to take Mehmed. First he had a city on his SE side with copper so I took it first and razed it. After some bad rolls on Istanbul I had to make peace and regroup. Boudi had IW and her darn GWs at this point. Lost a ton of keshiks taking her hill cap but I had a ton of keshiks to lose at this point..ha.
The Mehmed goof probably lost me about 6 turns or so, but netted me completing Hanging Gardens.
What happened? 
