I have of course now played pass 0AD. I wrote parts of this spoiler at the end of each session, and decided to leave it formatted as such, since it better shows my thought process during the game.
Session 1: Turn 0 to 11
Already before opening the save, as I mentioned in the pre-game thread, I was contemplating a CS-sling. To accomplish this, I wanted to get a lightning fast start, and a strong capital, even at the cost of some long term potential. I was therefore seriously considering settling on the corn! Yes, it wastes two food long term (3 post biology), but even without it, the capital has enough food to feed all its tiles, assuming I mine and cottage everything else. Moreover, settling on the corn removes Agriculture from my tech-path to oracle, since there is no other farm needed in the capital.
So I opened the save, and noticed a few things:
1-There are 888 land tiles on the map… This map script has ~4400 tiles, so there is a lot of water.
2-There are 2060 loafs of bread on the map (before worker actions, other than chopping). This is quite food rich.
3-“Rising seas” is selected… What the heck is that??? Run to google, and find out it appears (based on very few hits) to be connected with Global warming. Since I expect the game to be over before that is an issue, I decide to ignore this setting (hope that I am not missing something here).
I therefore decide to move the scout NE-NE, simply since that reveals the most tiles. After the first move, I see Marble in the BFC for settling on the corn. Now, while that is unlikely to help with the oracle (since Masonry is not in my tech path for a CS-sling), it nevertheless makes the capital even stronger than I was thinking, so I decide to indeed settle on corn.
From this point on, worker first is, I think, completely obvious (especially with no barbs). Mining first also seems to be a clear choice (agriculture is no longer relevant, and the Gem and Silver square are both pretty important.), followed by AH, both to pasture the sheep, and because it is the fastest route to writing, which I want for an early library.
My first real question will be what is my second build, so I proceed to play out the first 11 turns. During this time, I explore with the scout to the north, and find some pretty nice land. Also, the capital border pop reveals fish to the east. Plans for early cities include:
-1S of gold
-Island 1E of fish (Maoi?!) –assuming I can get a boat to that coast.
-On the north most FP
-2 cities to take advantage of the fish + elephant cluster
I have no yet had a look south of the Gems, but my hunch is there will be some room with maybe a seafood for one city down there… I also have not looked to the NE extension of land yet.
After these 11 turns, I decide to pause and make a detailed plan….
Current ideas include:
-I have seen nothing to discourage a CS-sling yet.
-GLH? Not sure yet. Could be really strong, but I might want corporations early?
-Pyramids? Not without stone, and I don’t see any yet.
-Early builds after worker done??? Maybe warrior to send to the south, and then exploring WB, warrior for military police in capital, then library, worker, settler, Oracle, settler pump to ~10 cities (It looks like there will be room.)
Session 2: Turn 12 to ~82
CS-sling on turn 66 (1360, I think). Perhaps a bit lucky, but I was monitoring the production demographics and did not see anything to indicate a huge power tile being worked, so went for it.
Build order after the worker was:
-warrior (explore the south)
-WBoat (exploring)
-Warrior, warrior (explore and military police)
-Library
-Worker
-Settler (for 1S of Gold)
-Oracle, followed by 2 more settlers, a galley and a worker (in some order)
Tech path went: Mine, AH, Writing, Wheel, BW, Math, Myst-Med-Priest, COL, CS (sling), Sail, Currency… Working on MC now.
I waited for Math to come in before chopping and double-revolted to Bureaucracy and Slavery once the Oracle came in.
So far, I have founded the capital, 1S of Gold, on the northern flood plain, and on the island to the west of sheep and fish (indenting Maoi there.)
Current plans are to continue pumping settlers to about 10 cities. Tentatively targeting:
-Elephant-Jungle, intended as an eventual GP-farm/national park.
-Second elephant city (with some production)
-On the east coast with access to fish. (Helper city for capital cottages, and access to the east coast sea for exploration)
-On the western island, one or two more cities.
Exploration is however still incomplete, so other more appealing sites could still appear.
Other thoughts at this time:
-GLH is still out there. Is it silly to start thinking about it now? Probably.
-Set up libraries in at least 6 cities for early oxford. Use two of these as temporary GP-farms to pump out GP#2 and 3.
-Can someone hurry up and please research alphabet. I want to trade for agriculture, IW, and maybe even aesthetics and/or masonry.
-With all 3 precious metals, forge is a high priority.
Session 3: Turn 83 to 115 (0AD).
Tech path continues through MC, and paper. I trade maps for a bit of gold, and finally decide to self tech Alphabet (at 500BC), since India does not appear interested in doing so. Trade for Aggri, IW, and Masonry, and then continue on the paper-education run.
I now have education, and have turned of research while I build universities. I have grown to 11 cities, but unfortunately, they are not mature enough to get quick universities, so oxford is still likely to only come in ~800 AD or so :-(
Anyway, at 0AD, I have 11 cities, and research 260 bpt @ 100%, or 136 @ break even. I do have a couple of hundred gold in the bank as well.
The plan from here is a pretty quick liberalism, (perhaps taking nationalism, or maybe astro?), and then hopefully heading to space. I think my 11 cities will provide enough science to drive the research, but I am a bit concerned about the production base, so I am undecided if I want to take out one of the AI (maybe with Cavalry, or grenadiers, for example) to enhance production capacity.
We will see…
) I can probably win by chain capitulation before 1500AD
) settling the horses to the West. (Idea was to go for cuirassiers via lib).
. Religions.. We have Conf/Tao/Christianity on our block with the other landsmass having the first 3. Even having different religions won't stop them trading around so the tech pace will be very fast. 
). Didn't bother going for the Colossus without bronze and the thought of going for early astro didn't seem much point for this wonder. Settled city 2 between the sheep and silver which I concentrated on getting the Glh. Def a great wonder for this map. 
