I tried again. It was not the settler in a PH with corn+marble+3gems start I was hoping for, so I didn't get a sub 1000AD result, but was enough to take the first position if
Kaitzilla hasn't improved his date.
I now think that at this level war is the only way. I used to want to be neighbour of Asoka and Musa, but now I prefer Lincoln by my side to be killed. I played with minimum opponents, but I recommend a well populated map to be sure you have a close neighbour to warrior rush.
Ok, this is the story of the game. I choose Gandhi against Elizabeth, Musa, Asoka and Lincoln in an inland sea map.
My start was corn+marble+gold+1FP+many trees+few hills. I hated the fact that there was no close PH to climb to. That slowed me a lot. Additionally, my early exploration was bad because building a Warrior took too long.
Started with Worker and Mediation, then Agriculture, which synchronized nicely. Worker improved corn, then Gold, then farmed FP.
Then researched PH and Writing and Alpha. I really didn't need no other worker techs at that point, so I just beelined Alpha to trade for everything left behind.
1 religion from Asoka infected me. After Alpha, the next goal was CS sling: CoL-Maths. When I got CoL and I was ready to chop 3 trees and get the CS sling next turn, I was traded Masonry. I decided to save some hammers, connected Marble and then finished Oracle with a single chop. This was nice, but I had to gather all Workers in the capital to do it, so all my other cities were delayed.
So CS sling 1280BC, 4cities, 6Workers, 3Chariot, 0GPP. GPFarm is very far, but is very good (there was a passage through the inland sea, so I scattered my cities all around the map, getting a dangerous 50% land in the end).
Why 3 chariots, you ask? Well, my 25-tiles-away neighbour Lincoln had been so nice as to give me 4 Workers in 4 different wars, so I had planned to pay him a visit.
My 4 cities were the capital already described (with zero cottages, by the way) and
- Auxiliary city with 4FP and 2 gold, would help me research without cottages.
- Auxiliary city with 2 food resources and horses, to conquer Lincoln.
- GPFarm all across the map, corn, sheep and 5FP, 18 food excess.
With Bureaucracy and Slavery, I researched Aest-Theo.
I killed Lincoln just before 1000BC. This is the main problem of my game, it was too late.
1000BC stats: 5 cities, 1settler, 8Workers, 40 sustaiable bpt, 3religions, 7rel*city, 0 temples. start Theo, start Parth. 2 of my Legendary cities are pop1, and just got my first cottages in the capital (I would have 5 at the end of the game).
Academy late, 800BC. Lite-Drama-Music(500BC). Bad luck, get a GPro, keep it. Good luck, another religion from Asoka spreads. I had planned for 2 more GS, for Philo and Educ but got only 1 in the end. That was not bad, 6 religions is a lot of cathedrals to build and my capital and Lincoln's weren't specially rich neither in hammers nor in food, although both were decent. So I didn't need to finish research so soon.
With the kind of capital
Kaitzilla showed us, though, I would like to bulb as much as possible.
So worried about hammers I didn't bulb DivRig with the GPro.
By 350BC I have stone, MoM and NE. Still slavery and OR. I have 8 cities and 3 forges. Get AP, get Pyramids, HG, Sistine's.
This time Lincoln's capital should have been getting a lot of WW, but it was still getting granary and growing.
1AD 8 cities, 9Workers, 100bpt sust, 8 temples, 2cath. Keep OR and slavery, concentrate on missionaries and temples.
My cities 5-8 were food rich. I refused to settle a 9th one with fish+clams because it would have been "inferior". That's what I mean when I say that I picked really good places all around the map.
My research was nothing special. It was twice as good at the end of the game, when it didn't mattered. But with so many cathedrals to build, I didn't revolt to Castes and Pacifism so my Pyramids were useless. In a hammer rich game, stone looks more importnat than marble, cause ti allows you to get early Pyramids and research fast.
Liberalism 300AD, Revolt to FS but still OR.
500AD 6 reli in at least 6 cities. Hermit, TajMaj, Pacif and CS. 11Cath. Mercantilism without PP.
17Cath760AD, I estimate I'll win in 24turns, getting the same date as the #1 if I can use 15GA, but I see I'll get 13 only. Stress my GPFarms.
Base culture in Lincolns capital is 40c! What is the use of my multipliers then? I fail to get 2 WW. That's the price for getting the city so late. I get another GPro at low odds. Ugh.
TajMaj, plus the initial GPro, plus second GPro and free GM from Economics make 36 turns of Golden Age.
980AD, I have 18cathedrals, 2800cpt in the 3 cities, 900GPPpt in my civ.
Revolt to US after Economy, get no solution to get an extra GA from any of my 2 "too late" candidates (would have saved 3 turns). Starve my capital instead. After the last GA, revolt to FM and FR.
The last 2 GA bombed save just 1 turn between them both.
When the long Golden Age finished, I had to starve Lincoln's capital not to lose another turn.
21 GP in all, 2 free. 2GS: Academy, bulb Philo. 2GPro and 1GM: 2GoldenAges. 16GA: bombed 1-8-7.
I am happy I took the number 1 position if my game gets accepted but I am sad because I am convinced 1000AD is an attainable date and I couldn't prove it.
While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.
I'm almost a millennium off. 
