I went for an early culture victory. There were a few interesting plays in my game:
Popping huts
At Warlord level, there is a 200% advantage in fighting barbarians. So, when barbs are popped, most of the time you get an elite unit for your trouble. Anticipating this, I created a number of warriors, attempting to get several elites. I got three elite warriors this way.
One of them cashed in, attacking a lone archer, creating a GL in (I think) 420 AD.
Building out
My third and fourth cities were at the choke point. Then I back-filled and build in "my" area. I went for a "land grab" initially, then an ICS later. I suspect that an immediate ICS might be a better early-culture strategy. The problem with immediate ICS is that AI civs can grab too much land, and it takes time and effort to wrest it away.
Cities adjacent to water would ultimately use mostly water tiles, so I built a second row of cities just inland from the water's edge. It looked like two concentric rings of cities.
The Forbidden Palace was placed adjacent to the iron (thanks, Babs, I needed that!). There was a mix of hills and grassland - ideal for getting high-production cities that can produce wonders. I built three wonder-producing cities there, stuffing in workers to get them up to size 12.
Once every available tile was occupied, excess food and population was not helpful. I wanted more production to speed up the build-out of culture-producing improvements. So, I reforested quite a bit of the land.
Waging war
Preparation was key. In the BC's I built an army of veteran warriors and archers in anticipation of taking the iron, and upgrading the warriors to swordsman. This meant I needed cash, so I kept research at 0 to 10%, and traded for techs (one scientist has the same impact as 10% on research - 40 turns).
I got 50 gold for introducing the Babs to the Persians (they had cities with borders only two tiles away from each other).
My swordsman made short work of the Babs (they had a single city at the north tip of the continent, which was too remote to bother with at that time. I took it later).
Then probably the most interesting war strategy - I built roads in the "in-between" areas through the Persian territory, right up to their iron. Two stacks of four spearman each (one stack by land, one by sea) moved just outside Persian territory, next to their two iron sources.
I retreated my workers, and declared war on the Persians. All their immortals killed themselves attacking my spearmen which were fortified on the iron mountain. Then...no more immortals. :slay:
The roads I built sped up my attack, and without their immortals, the outcome of the Persian war was never in doubt.
Golden Age
I triggered a golden age with the Lighthouse just after creating the FP. This meant that my empire had two central cores during the GA, and I used it to build temples and libraries, which were completed prior to 500 AD. I got an "echo effect" from the GA a thousand years later, when all those buildings doubled their culture output.
A new continent
As I was running out of room on the starting continent by 700 AD, I needed more space. The jungle area of the main continent was unsettled, and had two luxuries. So...a flood of settlers went off to a new land.
By this time, the other civs were also space-constrained, and there was a race for the remaining territory. I got most of it, and culture-flipped five of the cities from other civs.
Head I win, tails Zulus
I was polite with the remaining civs. Research was proceeding at a snail's pace - I was emphasizing cash to buy improvements (I was in monarchy for most of the game). Then in 1335 the Zulus attacked. I brought everyone else in against them. I made little effort in the war beyond defending myself.
A few turns later China changed sides and attacked me. I realized later that they had made a deal with me that was ruinously expensive for them, and this was their way out. I guess you have to be careful when you've blinded the other civs with your culture. Again, I brought the other civs in against my opponent, and did little.
When the wars were ended (exactly 20 turns later), I went to democracy, put research down to zero, and spent all my cash on cultural improvements.
The last few turns I was generating over 1,500 culture per turn.
.
