Here's the story of my game:
After moving the worker south and the scout north I decided to move the settler SE before founding London. (Archipelago - want harbor, want a shot at Great Lighthouse. Especially since we're playing England.)
On the second turn I decided to try an unusual (at least for me) start. The land looked like it might be very small and sailing an extremely high priority. I researched Writing, keeping the research rate at the bare minimum to make progress, letting it take 40 turns. This got me an expensive and high priority tech at very little actual cost. I built up a cash reserve so that later research on cheaper techs could be done at high speed. Also spent a bit of cash on happiness. I really like how this worked out. It won't work with many Civs - need to be able to research an expensive tech at the start, and it helps to not have to research Pottery. I started London on a warrior but before long I changed that. There was already a scout out there and it looked like food would be in short supply for a long time. I decided to build (and rush with 1 citizen) Granary before anything else. The wines would offset the unhappiness.
After returning south and going west, I sent the scout south. (Plains looked better than desert.) After seeing the southern limits the scout came back north and finally discovered the French. I left the scout blocking the isthmus while I brought up a warrior to take his place. The scout then continued to explore the French lands. (Note: I think this shows that picking a "lucky" start direction for scouting isn't even necessaryl to bottle up the French. I was able to block them after having started the other way and not knowing they were there until a fair bit in. The French weren't interested in my start techs by the time I met them but that turns out to be no big deal from the pittance I see that they paid others for Pottery.)
I skipped the goody hut until a fair bit later, eventually opened it with a warrior when time permitted. Got Ceremonial Burial.
I decided to try to settle the entire start and SW areas before the French could arrive by sea. Spent a long time in builder mode getting all that going. Lost a number of warriors cleaning out barbarian camps - the barbarians seemed unusually strong. I micro-managed London and its neighboring towns heavily throughout this game. They had shared access to the most productive tiles. I flipped the citizens around constantly to maximize food and shields. (I.e. to minimize wastage due to over-runs.)
After Writing I decided to bet on the Horseman research path. The terrain suggested better odds of horses than iron. (Of course it turned out we had both.)
1450BC: I have researched Writing, Warrior Code, and The Wheel. I trade The Wheel to France for Bronze Working.
1225BC: I have learned Horseback Riding and start on Map Making, hoping against hope to build the Great Lighthouse. The Lighthouse is obviously a priority on this map, and even more so for England since it will trigger a Golden Age. (Better too early than too late!) I didn't think at the start that Lighthouse was likely to be buildable on Emperor level. But the F11 screen is very helpful - our status in the world suggests that most Civs had a weak start. We're far from the 6th place position I expect at this date on Emperor!
875BC: I start construction of the Lighthouse in London, shifting it to maximize production. France has already started but even with their 80% bonus, the city they're building it in hasn't a hope of building it as soon as London.
350BC: I've had Galleys exploring our borders for a while and meet the Zulus. They're quite backward so I trade Writing for two "old" techs I skipped plus some gold. I also trade them Literature for their maps and all the cash they can afford even though it isn't much. Finally, I trade my maps plus contact with the Zulu to the French, for Philosophy and some gold. My favorite kind of deal - I get tech and money, my strong rival France gets useless maps of settled areas, and contact with a Civ who now has nothing to sell to them, and has no resources to buy anything from them.
230BC: Built the Great Lighthouse and entered a Golden Age! I've started rushing Horsemen in the south and building them in the north. My many galleys positioned at the limits of our known world begin moving out.
210BC: Met India and Persia. They are a bit behind us in tech but have lots of money. I buy their maps with a combination of tech and gold. Next I made a decision which I re-made throughout the rest of the game: I did not sell them maps or contact. They appeared to be (and I later confirmed they were) too far from anyone else to get contact until Astronomy. This was a very lucky map. Not only did we and the French get off to the best start, everyone else was isolated and could be kept that way.
When I met the Aztecs some turns later I dealt with them the same way. Over the following few hundred years, I traded techs with India and Persia to get the ones they had. I then started trading all three of them techs they did not have, for the maximum cash they could afford. Eventually I drained their cash reserves completely and sometimes got a bit of gold/turn. The end result was to slow down tech advancement drastically, which is the main thing I wanted. I hoped to keep them from reaching Astronomy and meeting each other before I had enough military strength to hit them.
110BC: I attack the French.
50AD: I capture the Great Library from France. This is a very lucky break. I can now slow research to a crawl. Allow the other Civs to discover techs at their slow (unconnected) pace, then get them for free. For a long time from this point, I generally had research at zero. I sometimes hurried research of a tech I wanted a lot (Monarchy and Chivalry.) The rest of the time, zero, use cash for rushing things under Monarchy and let the Library do its work.
110AD. I give the French peace in exchange for 3 island cities they've built plus all their gold. I didn't get a Great Leader during the war with the French. I want a Forbidden Palace somewhere. The Zulu island looks like a good place - a good chance of getting a leader and a nice place to build FP, lots of shield producing tiles. I start building Swordsmen. A combined army of Horsemen and Swordsmen should work well against Impi.
290AD. The war with the Zulu begins. This war lasted a while. Horseman losses were high. But the combination of Swordsman/Horseman was deadly against Impi and eventually prevailed. (Swordsmen for frontal attacks and for defense. Horsemen to pick off weakened Impi.)
440AD. The Zulu are no more. This war produced a Great Leader and I build Forbidden Palace in the middle of the ex-Zulu territory. The first of some no-casualty wars has started. (These happened with Persia and India when they got annoyed and declared war. My Galleys just stayed out of their reach and nothing happened except one Galley I lost due to a foolish move.) I've already started sending settlers to the remote islands. There are 6 which the other Civs can't reach. I'll settle each of them to prevent any nuisance cleanup later, i.e. to prevent other Civs from settling them when they can sail.
490AD. Finished the flip to Monarchy. Production shoots up.
540AD. I declare war on France. I lost a lot of Galleys in this war - I really wanted to sink their roving Galleys before wiping them out, in case any had settlers. But their Galleys seemed to be made of steel. Before cleaning out the French I check to see what any other Civ would pay for communications with them. The top bid by a large margin is 36 gold, not worth it. I have clearly squeezed their ability to pay fairly hard by this time.
600AD. The French are no more. I enter a period of building infrastructure, rebuilding the fleet and army, and saving up for upgrading Horsemen to Knights.
970AD. My first wave of Knights and Settlers sets sail for the Aztec homeland. I will mostly raze and replace their cities, hurrying a Barracks in our first new city of course. The invasion of the Aztecs is a bit protracted but there is never any doubt of the outcome, they are hopelessly over-matched.
1250AD. The last Aztec island city falls. I decide to shoot for a Culture win. It will require an average of 298 culture/turn from this point - challenging but seems possible. I'll settle one minimum size city in each of the Persian and Indian lands, will raze everything else except one captive enemy city. I'll start by putting a serious dent into Persia, razing Sun Tzu's and the Pyramids, and establishing the beachhead town. Then pick off their cities. The fleet sets sail for Persia. As always so far I leave few defenders behind. It will be a long time yet before India or Persia can sail the seas, I will try to raze both of them before then. If I'm lucky I'll be able to upgrade to Cavalry part way through the Persian war. It won't be necessary but would make the war very quick. Time to stop waiting for the Library, from here on I want all the tech as quickly as I can learn it. I start research toward Cavalry.
1315AD. Persepolis falls easily. I settle the beachhead town. Research is going splendidly, have learned Invention, Gunpowder, and will have Chemistry soon. I'll repeatedly pick off Persian cities now as quickly as my stacks can heal and attack.
1345AD. Domination "victory"! Argghhhh. The best laid plans...
Some closing notes: The Great Lighthouse is even more valuable on this map than I guessed at the start. It is an absolute must have. Starting by learning Writing slowly and cheaply worked well, gave a nice boost. Micro-managing the "best" tiles shared by London and its neighboring cities really paid off. Keeping all rivals in the dark paid off enormously. I felt like my dice rolls were overall as unlucky as I've had. I lost a number of warriors to barbarians. I repeatedly lost between 2:1 and 3:1 attacking rival Galleys (my 3rd or 4th attacker would finally sink the damn thing
). I got one Great Leader from 45 wins with elites. I lost an unusual number of Horsemen in my initial attack on the French. But other luck was with me - the Great Leader I got was at a good time and place, and completing the Lighthouse was great fortune. The map itself was very lucky for the way I played. That 3 Civs were entirely isolated was quite fortunate. That the French got the strongest start and built the Great Library for me was also great! This was one of the most fun maps I've played. And before this I thought I hated Archipelago maps
