Highlights at 1AD:
6 cities, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Oracle, Oxford, Parthenon (in 1 turn), researching Astronomy.
I settled 1E to get the Corn, too. I used the extra food to get out a few cities fairly quickly. I stopped at 6 fantastic cities:
2nd at gem/gold/stone/wheat
3rd south at cow/wheat/ivory/spices (for some reason i thought my neighbour to the south might try to grab it, seeing Peter had very few attractive city sites, i doubt he would though, after this city got Library, I hired 2 scientists to get an Academy in my capital)
4rd at NW (on PH) getting silver/ivory/sugar and 6 FP
5th close to capital grabbing 6 FP and the dye
6th further west grabbing 7 FP and rice/incense
I decided to devide up the FP rich land to the west into 3 cities, each with "only" 2 unhealth from FP. I though about it for quite some time, and I'm quite happy with my decision. I had planned some more cities, but decided against it when it became clear it would slow my tech pace down. I might still build more at a later stage though.
Tech path: Agri - AH - TW - Pottery - Writing - Alphabet
I thought about skipping TW+Pottery. At the time of the decision I hadn't discovered what became my second city (early exploration went SW-S-SE) and I though i needed Cottages earlier. Given the very nice 2nd city, it would have been faster to skip TW+Pot, but as usual one must weight that effect against giving workers more to do early.
Upon reaching Alphabet, I had met all AIs (except Alex if I remember correctly), and they were all already quite far behind techwise. I had no problem trading Writing and Agriculture (!) and similar tech around for BW and the rest of the early techs. The AIs seems to tech a bit slow in my game, also later on.
After Alphabet I went straight for Currency. I always find it difficult to determine whether one should include Math or try to trade for it. As expected, Wan Kong got Math early enough. Later two others got it, but none would trade it, and in the end I had to research it before getting CS. Nevertheless, early Currence means gold income, and I have kept science at 100% since currence (unless I remember it wrong, but I'm quite sure).
After Currency I usually go for CoL, but the AIs were all far behind and I decided to try the following. From the start I focused my espionage points on Lincoln and Peter, and quite early I could see what they researched. After Currency was done, only two AIs had Poly, but I knew it wouldn't be long before I could trade for it, and noone has Priesthood yet. Hence noone could go for CoL before me, and having all of gold/silver/gems, I researched Metal Casting first instead. Then I traded for Poly, and researched Priesthood - CoL. At this point I should have taken Math - CS, but I could see that one more (the third) AI was researching Math in 4 turns, and I decided to try to trade for it. Hence I invested 4 turns into Machinery, but 4 turns later switched to Math since none would trade. After Math I researched CS - Paper quickly (I was still the only one with Priesthood - the first AI got Priesthood when I has halfway down Paper) and used Oracle for Education.
After Edu I finished Machinery, Printing Press (I spammed cottages early) and then straight for Astronomy. At 1AD I just started on Astro. In the meantime I've traded for the techs I could, like Monarchy, Callender, Construction, Aestetics, HR.
Actually Aestetics was researched very late by the AIs (but at this point I was friendly with a couple of Civs and could trade for it straight away). Suddenly having the opportunity to build Parthenon, I decided to grab it in my second city. At this point I had Marble (Alex has been nice enough to trade it to me for Horses).
Mids (early) and HG were built in capital, Oracle in 2nd city. Next turn capital will build Oxford and 2nd city will build Parth. Mausoleum on its way in 4th city.
I'm thinking diplo victory. The idea was to get the GE in my capital (from the wonders). I didnt expect to be able to build Oxford this fast (it usually comes too late since I usually dont have 6 cities ready for Unis, but this time I had), and it now pollutes my gene pool somewhat, but I hope it wont be a problem.
I often play without a religion since a religion often makes diplo much harder. (My military consists of 6 warriors, one for each city, and 2 carriots I used for exploration and which were built at a time I couldnt give away copper.) But this game I was switched to Buddism since it was the religion of the top AIs, making Victoria and Zarah friendly with me (and later Lincoln). I have spread it to Saladin too, but he still wont change. I need him on my side, I think. Peter is friendly (+3 from tech gifts amongst other things making up for the -3 from traded with worst enemy and -3 from religion), and I will manage to convert him (or use Free Religion, but converting would be safer). (He is weak and I couldn't avoid trading with his worst enemies several times, but I knew he is easy with techs and civics.)
The Sampo is still around. It was my intention to swap it for a cottage, but I never got around to it.
I think that covers my game up to 1AD. (Or was it 10AD? At this speed game skips 1AD.)
, 1F5H1C impressive good starting position!
I now had 5 spare food and 11 hammers at size 3.... my capital became a production powerhouse in time.
I scouted around in a big circle and met lots of civs fast. I was kinda worried that they'd be grabbing all the land but that didn't happen.
After Alpha I learned Math, Currency, CoL and MC, before temporarily shutting off research around 500BC.
at parity (-3 gpt)
