First time poster, first time COTM, but long-time lurker...
Like virtually everyone, I moved my settler NE to the river and proceeded to get the wheat irrigated by the time the culture expanded. Again, like most, I built Warrior, Warrior, Granary, Settler. Due to a miscalculation, my 1st settler didn't come until 2710BC, and for whatever reason after that I only managed a 5 turn Settler pump. Still, I managed to grab both the spices and the silks, and very early hook up both the horses and the iron. After initially being far behind in techs, I managed to get the lead by strategic trading...but out of fear of losing the extra tech from Philosophy, I completed it before CoL, taking Literature instead as my free tech.
By 1050BC, I had built 9 cities, and declared war against the Inca, hoping to take down the early leader. On the same turn, however, the Iriquois sneak attacked, forcing me to a two-front war. Still, only a few turns later I managed to capture Tenochtitlan, only to have it flip one turn later, taking with it several of my 8 swordsmen. In the ensuing war, I managed to get an early MGL, allowing my to mow down the Inca (and finally recapture Tenochtitlan), leaving the Inca with a measily 3 or 4 cities down in the tundra. During this period, I also researched Monarchy, which soon became the Maya government of choice.
By 500BC, my galleys/curraghs had mapped the entire coastline, and when we were ushered into the Middle Ages around 150BC, I currently had 15 cities, a swordsman army, and a decent sized standing force of several horsemen and spearmen.
In addition to the luck of an early MGL, I also did not lose a single ship to the barbs, amazingly enough! In fact, my 1st two curraghs both became elite in their first encounters with the barb galleys!
To balance this, however, my poor Javelin Throwers have yet to produce a single slave, although my war with Inca and the Iriquois certainly produced a few. Of course, it would help if I could actually find some barbarians...they all seem to be hiding...
Below is a screenie of the center of my position and a close-up of my minimap (with the appropriate 'further explorations' removed to protect the naive).
My current plans involve wiping out the pesky Iriquois, who seem to always have a personal vendetta against me in Civ3...they always attack me, at the most inconvenient times. Of course, America is currently blocking the way, so I'll probably enlist them in a alliance as well as a ROP agreement. Naturally, once the Iriquois are gone, America will be my next victim...followed finally by Spain. Once the continent is mine...well, that's for another time...
Gwyned
, which is kind of my point about why you would need to slow down the tech race. I am certainly into Middle ages well before 0 AD on a lot of my games, as many are with this game. Once into MA, you're looking at a whole lot of units with a defense of 3 or more 
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