I moved the warrior 1NW to start with and noticed more floodlpains near my starting location. Therefore, I opted to move the capial 1SW and settled there. I built a worker first and researched Agriculture for the corn (starting techs = mysticism and the wheel).
After Agriculture, my tech path was Mining - Pottery (for early cottages) - Bronze Working - Animal Husbandry - Fishing - Sailing (for trade routes via river). After that, I forgot the exact tech path I chose.
Once my worker was complete, he farmed the rice. Food resources come first.
This is what my early game exploration was like:
I didn't explore in a "circle" around the capital because I wanted to explore the floodplains instead. I doubted there were other superb city sites outside of the floodplains. I was right - the south was mostly tundra and desert. Also, I skipped exloring the east coast because I was going to let my second warrior do that (after producing the worker I built several warriors).
After seeing the vast amount of land to settle and no sign of Sitting Bull or Washington's borders, I decided to grow the capital to size 5 and spam workers and settlers from it.
Here is Mecca as size 5, producing my second worker. After the second worker, a settler was produced.
This is an important part of the game -- city planning. Even before I settled my second city, I have planned out numerous city sites and hope to hit them all before 1AD. The signs indicate my desired city locations.
In 1960 BC (turn 51), my first city is about to be settled.
I settled here in order to get the horses for barbarian defense and raising my power graph. A monument was the first build there (whipped, by the way). The city site here is also on a river that is connected to the capital so there will be trade routes even without roads.
Also,
I already have a warrior and a worker ready at the city. I planned out my cities in advance so I had one of my exploring warriors head for my second city while I was producing the settler to be sure that no barbarians would be there and my worker went along with my settler once it was produced (they both have 2 movement points). It is crucial to start improving cities as soon as possible, which is why workers are so valuable.
City #3:
This is another commerce city which will be working cottages on the floodplains. Also, take a look at the tile that is 1S and then 1SE of Damacasus. I cottaged that tile previously, and it was in Mecca's BFC (big fat cross). However, upon the founding of Damacasus, I
transferred control of that tile over to Damacasus since Mecca had more than enough cottages at this point and Damacasus needed to work one.
Once horses were hooked up, I built several chariots. I didn't bother with a barracks since I wasn't planning on rushing my neighbors. I just wanted some defense.
City #4:
This city will be a hybrid commerce/production city. Build order was a monument (to get the clams) and then a workboat. I altered that city site from my original plan since I wanted to maximize the amount of floodplains it could get.
This was also a great city because it brought a badly needed health resource to my cities which were starting to be unhealthy due to the floodplains. Notice that, once again, I have a worker ready to improve the tiles near the city.
In the meantime, a barbarian city was captured:
I actually lost THREE chariots attacking at 90+ odds! Well, I finally got the city and kept it. Since it's on a river, it automatically had trade routes with my other cities once the city came out of revolt.
One thing I should have done in this game is designate a city to generate Great Scientists. I chose Medina, but I had to stop working the cottages. I should have planned better and either a) farmed the city or b) choose another city for this purpose.
Now, expansion isn't cheap, so I researched the economical techs Currency and then Code of Laws. I happened to be the first to Code of Laws.
I stole a great city spot right under Washington's nose (he had a settler accompanying that warrior).
The funny thing is, Washington settled Atlanta FIRST. Why he didn't settle the city where mine is first, I have no idea. The two fish are a great asset to help in health and also maybe generate some Great People, and the stone may help with some wonders like the Hanging Gardens (which could be very useful in a health-needed map) or Oxford University (a national wonder).
I stopped playing at 1AD (turn 115). The situation is as follows:
I didn't take screenshots of founding every city (just the early ones and that double fish site). I have 8 cities at the moment and my economy is VERY healthy. In fact, I should have had 9 by now...
But that city site will be founded next turn. I made a mistake and wasted my time producing a barracks in the capital before producing this settler. If I had focused more, this city would have already been founded and producing a monument.
All this expansion was supported by these cottages:
My GNP is off the charts compared to the other AI's, as well as MFG (production).
So there you have it. This is how you get 8 cities (well, it should have been 9!) by 1 AD. My capital produced all but one of these settlers (Damacasus helped by producing a settler while its whip unhappiness was wearing off). As for wonders, I basically ignored them. Why waste my time building them when I can take 30% of the world's land?
All of my cities except the capital had monuments as their first build and all whipped them to completion.
