SIP.
Capital: Not totally sure because Warriors. Worker, grow to size 4, Settler, Worker, Warriors (lost 4 to barbarians), grow to size 5, 2 pop whip settler (OF in Granary, later 2pop whipped into), The Oracle.
Tech path: Agriculture, The Wheel, Pottery (Worker farmed x2, cottaged x2, then chops), Bronze Working, Mysticism, Masonry, Polytheism, Priesthood, Sailing, (AH,) Writing.
City 2: Monument (chopped), Warrior(s), worker at size 1.
City 3 came very late: Settler was whipped on 1880BC and it was settled on 1720 BC. Cities 2&3 split the gold tiles, so as to work them asap and share the negative food.
Situation at 1720 BC:
Picked Monarchy from the Oracle (1600 BC) to grow cottages in London. Couldn't trade it, eek! That was a bust: Willem got Alphabet shortly after the Oracle was built and, by the time I got to Writing, he also had (traded for) Monarchy, was willing to trade Maths, etc.
So I followed with Aesthetics (which I could trade), Litterature, Music, making small detours to part research techs that were up for trade.
2 barb cities spawned north of our block of land, 1 east towards Rome and 1 west towards Incans.
Sailing + Galley revealed islands.
Got to 6 cities + Great Library (London) by 500 BC. At that point, I managed to build a couple barracks and some swordsmen. Unfortunately, the Incans managed to capture their barb city first.
After Music (got the Artist circa 425 BC), backfilled CoL + Civil Service.
Situation at 225 BC:
GPs: First was a Prophet, settled in London. 2nd got Academy, 3rd is stored to bulb into Education (researching Paper atm).
1 AD: captured 1 barb city, settled 2 more. Eyes are directed towards the islands (Huayna settled 1 city, there, and 3 barb cities spawned: swordsmen board galleys).
National Epic is just being completed in London.
Tech-wise I'm “in the pack”: neither ahead nor late. Lacking Metal Casting on most AIs but that is all.
Religious situation is a mess and I will not adopt any religion, this game, to keep diplo favourable.
Newcastle (border city in the NE) was settled via galley (first headed to SE island but blocked by barb city). Got at least 2 galleys at this point. Will get 3.
Workers are a little sparse: 6 or 7.
Couldn't explore much because Barbarians.
There haven't been any wars.
Overall plan at this point is to:
- keep expanding;
- keep up in techs;
- stay safe (don't annoy Caesar);
- build the HE (Hastings) and the Globe Theatre (2x Fish city);
- get some Redcoats, supplement with whatever;
- not walk the thin line (bring more than “enough” army to war, when war starts).
Save is attached if you wanna more details (last in demographics, etc.).