Predator class, rather unfocused beginning because I didn’t choose a victory condition until the Middle Ages 
. It ended up being a 100K game.
Of course worker S sees the other cow, and I opted to settle in place. The capital built a warrior and 2 settlers before the granary. It then produced 4-turn settlers for much of the rest of the game to help ICS conquered areas.
The first 2 settlers settled the nearby high food areas, so it wasn’t until my third settler that I could get a town on the coast to build curraghs after I realized the isolated situation.
Research was Pottery followed by the Republic slingshot all at maximum. Republic was completed in 1600 BC and the revolt lasted 4 turns. Based on my contacts at that point, the tech pace seemed horribly slow, so I decided my next priority was Mathematics leading to Construction – I almost never research Construction myself, but I felt early aqueducts would be very helpful.
Once I was in Republic, I saved money to buy embassies as I met tribes. My first phony war started in 1400 BC against Egypt. I allied both Rome and Persia against them tied with peace treaties to get eventual war happiness.
Since this was a 70% water archipelago map, I started a prebuild for the Great Lighthouse in 1625 BC. Although I realized it wouldn’t be necessary for conquest on this map well before it completed, I decided to let it complete so I could ship extra luxuries home (and +1 movement couldn’t hurt). The Lighthouse completed in 590 BC.
QSC:
12 cities
46 citizens
1 settler
20 workers
1 warrior
11 curraghs
I also had 1 previous settler that I carelessly let get trapped and killed by barbarians. Courthouses are prebuilds for aqueducts, Pyramids is for Great Lighthouse.
By 630 BC, I had all contacts and embassies everywhere, but Greece, Carthage, and the Celts all lacked contact with anyone still. I thought it was hilarious that the Celts and the Carthaginians didn’t meet until 310 BC despite being on the same landmass and having capitals about 10 tiles apart. As soon as they finally did meet, I ordered them to fight for my entertainment.
I finally landed in Egypt in about 430 BC. Just before the war, my military of 19 warriors and 7 boats was average compared to Egypt – it wasn’t much of a contest once the warriors were upgraded. I didn’t build a harbor on the iron island. Instead I built warriors on my mainland and shipped them over to iron island to be upgraded before landing in Egypt.
Egypt wasn’t eliminated until 30 AD mainly because I waited for them to complete the Temple of Artemis for me. I ripped through Persia, Greece, and Rome, but I left each of them with one city because they were all still providing war happiness.
In 490 BC, after my Sipahi-started Golden Age ended, I revolted to Feudalism for an 8-turn anarchy and just whipped and whipped and whipped. Pretty much every town got a library, temple (if not on the continent with the Temple of Artemis), cathedral, then colosseum. I peaked at about 63% of the land in 1090 when I grew sick of whipping and pretty much just hit enter for the last 30 or so turns to reach 100K in 1335 AD.
Regarding the enhanced unique units - Egypt’s unique unit was never a problem – I cut their horses a couple turns after landing and saw very few war chariots. Persian immortals were somewhat annoying, since they almost never lost on an attack, but I had the worst time with Carthage’s numidian mercs. Even though I had sipahi by the time I attacked Carthage, I hated the fact that my sipahi were underdogs when fighting an ancient age unit fortified in a hill city. I never fought China (just used them for fake war happiness), and by the time I fought the Celts, they had long since been building MDI instead of Gallic Swordsmen.
. It ended up being a 100K game.Of course worker S sees the other cow, and I opted to settle in place. The capital built a warrior and 2 settlers before the granary. It then produced 4-turn settlers for much of the rest of the game to help ICS conquered areas.
The first 2 settlers settled the nearby high food areas, so it wasn’t until my third settler that I could get a town on the coast to build curraghs after I realized the isolated situation.
Research was Pottery followed by the Republic slingshot all at maximum. Republic was completed in 1600 BC and the revolt lasted 4 turns. Based on my contacts at that point, the tech pace seemed horribly slow, so I decided my next priority was Mathematics leading to Construction – I almost never research Construction myself, but I felt early aqueducts would be very helpful.
Once I was in Republic, I saved money to buy embassies as I met tribes. My first phony war started in 1400 BC against Egypt. I allied both Rome and Persia against them tied with peace treaties to get eventual war happiness.
Since this was a 70% water archipelago map, I started a prebuild for the Great Lighthouse in 1625 BC. Although I realized it wouldn’t be necessary for conquest on this map well before it completed, I decided to let it complete so I could ship extra luxuries home (and +1 movement couldn’t hurt). The Lighthouse completed in 590 BC.
QSC:
12 cities
46 citizens
1 settler
20 workers
1 warrior
11 curraghs
I also had 1 previous settler that I carelessly let get trapped and killed by barbarians. Courthouses are prebuilds for aqueducts, Pyramids is for Great Lighthouse.
By 630 BC, I had all contacts and embassies everywhere, but Greece, Carthage, and the Celts all lacked contact with anyone still. I thought it was hilarious that the Celts and the Carthaginians didn’t meet until 310 BC despite being on the same landmass and having capitals about 10 tiles apart. As soon as they finally did meet, I ordered them to fight for my entertainment.
I finally landed in Egypt in about 430 BC. Just before the war, my military of 19 warriors and 7 boats was average compared to Egypt – it wasn’t much of a contest once the warriors were upgraded. I didn’t build a harbor on the iron island. Instead I built warriors on my mainland and shipped them over to iron island to be upgraded before landing in Egypt.
Egypt wasn’t eliminated until 30 AD mainly because I waited for them to complete the Temple of Artemis for me. I ripped through Persia, Greece, and Rome, but I left each of them with one city because they were all still providing war happiness.
In 490 BC, after my Sipahi-started Golden Age ended, I revolted to Feudalism for an 8-turn anarchy and just whipped and whipped and whipped. Pretty much every town got a library, temple (if not on the continent with the Temple of Artemis), cathedral, then colosseum. I peaked at about 63% of the land in 1090 when I grew sick of whipping and pretty much just hit enter for the last 30 or so turns to reach 100K in 1335 AD.
Regarding the enhanced unique units - Egypt’s unique unit was never a problem – I cut their horses a couple turns after landing and saw very few war chariots. Persian immortals were somewhat annoying, since they almost never lost on an attack, but I had the worst time with Carthage’s numidian mercs. Even though I had sipahi by the time I attacked Carthage, I hated the fact that my sipahi were underdogs when fighting an ancient age unit fortified in a hill city. I never fought China (just used them for fake war happiness), and by the time I fought the Celts, they had long since been building MDI instead of Gallic Swordsmen.
. 
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Unusual strategy. An irrigated grass supporting an engineer makes only 2spt, but a mined grass can make 4spt in the industrial, with factory and power plant. And in the modern age, with mfg and nuclear plants, that goes up to 6spt.
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Yes, I did beat up her returning troops and my armies did cut off the capital. However, her cities I found, were very well defended and were not able to be taken without sustaining heavy losses. Additionally, I realized production in the homeland was sluggish and not able to keep up with the war effort. We battled to a stalemate, though my armies did pillage nearly every tile she worked.
but I really enjoyed myself with this game none the less.
