We do all seem to be playing fairly close variants of the same game. More so than in the average GOTM, anyway.
Although I do notice that dr_s has been more of a globetrotter than the average - getting his circumnav by 10BC and settling each of the surrounding islands unopposed!
Hmmm, I don't often write up my games because I don't think they are ever as interesting as others', but maybe I will this time. It seems I must have done things different than most. Don't have a blow-by-blow account, but I founded in place (when I realized I could get 3 bread + 1 coin from working the unimproved rice if I didn't move, getting my firs worker 5 turns earlier AND speeding my research), I built a worker first. Perhaps nothing much different than other at this point, but by the time the worker was done the scout had revealed the whole Island and already parked himself on the jungled hill in the south to almost completely fogbust the island, I decided I did not need a warrior and, figuring the map was lots of little islands (didn't realize at the time that there were bigger ones, it's just that Alex apparently drew short straw here), I dove right into cranking out two fishing boats as my second & 3rd builds, and sent one in each direction. I quickly got most of the way around, it took me a while to find a coastal bridge to make the jump of the last 5 squares or so (sigh) but I eventually got it -- for some reason my autolog does not record when, but I'm pretty sure it was way, way before 10BC.
Because of all this exploration (which only accelerated once I got the +1 MP for circumnavigation) I believe I had already discovered EVERYONE else before most of them had discovered ANYONE else (even now in my game, well past 1000 AD, there are AI civs that have still not made contact). It also made me find & realize the importance of the gem+gold site site and grabbed it early, before anyone else (although Hap did colonize the west coast of it shortly after I built on the super city site on the east side, now we share it). I moved very quickly to neighboring islands, in fact I only founded one other city on the home island. Although I also thought the iron/pig island to the east of Athens important, I dallied there and lost it to Sal (I even founded a city way over on his island first, where all the sugar is). I still have no iron source, well after 500ad (gonna remedy that shortly I think though, there is still an unclaimed iron resource or not not too far off -- don't want to reveal where because less dedicated explorers may not have found it). My research effort was pretty different too I suspect, for example I got alphabet in 775 BC, but did not get Mysticism until 175 BC!). With aid of alphabet, by the early AD years I recall I'd pulled into what appears to be a permanent tech lead (though it's a bit after after 500ad time frame of this writeup, I had 5 universities built before anyone else even had paper). As someone else pointed out, getting Great Lighthouse really supercharged my commerce (and thus my research). I also got Colossus, I think those may be the only two wonders I have though? I didn't take much advantage of +100% GP trait, through 500AD I had just 3, 2 scientist and then a merchant as the third (built 2 academies and made a caravan to Hatty just BARELY before she broke open border agreement with me after I finally declared a religion)
Another thing apparently different in my game is that I did NOT get any discovered silver, gold, or anything else in the hills around Athens -- and I have been working mines on every one of them almost continuously since early in the game. That would have been nice
I'm just waiting for some superhero to appear on this thread in a day or two to tell us all how they're just approaching domination in 500AD.
LOL, rest assured, not me! The score graph shows I was way in last place all by myself for the first couple thousand years, I believe by 500AD I was nipping at Hap's heels for the lead, but definitely not yet running away with it. Much of that lead was due to tech I think, my military was bottom ranked (nothing more than one warrior or archer in each city). I've tried to get on Isabella & Cyrus's good side and use that to keep Hatty and Sal off my back even though I've refused all their demands -- I even bribed Isabella to break open borders with Sal to keep them on poor terms -- that seems to be working. Isabella founded Buddhism and Cyrus declared that too, I decided I would try to use those two as my attack dogs (trying to get more sophisticated diplomatically) so once I got Buddhism in one of my cities I built a monestary and started cranking missionaries out, then converted ASAP. Each of the other civs founded their own religion and are split religiously. Hatty and Sal hate me and Isabel pretty much equally, something like -6. They demand stuff all the time but haven't attacked. I'm hoping Isabella will jump in if they do, though I'm not sure what to think -- I've been giving her stuff for free, got her up to +8, yet so far she has refused to offer a single tech for trading (which is too bad, it would have been mutually beneficial in many cases). No shots have been fired in anger by anyone in my game, for far it's been a 100% pure builder exercise. If I do get attacked my strategy is to whip some quick extra defense wherever it comes & then fight a defensive holding pattern while I hopefully get Isabella and Cyrus to gang up on my attacker. I wonder if the AI is smart enough to see this might happen, it's surprising I haven't been attacked yet given how weak I was (then again, made sure I did not declare Buddhism until I had built some things tougher than an archer).
Well there's a (not so brief after all) synopsis, at least to give a hint that there are others whose games have gone different ways than the majority.
ADDED: here's the history of first contacts from my autolog, to give some idea of how widely I explored early:
Turn 53/660 (2410 BC) Contact made: Arabian Empire
Turn 60/660 (2200 BC) Contact made: Egyptian Empire
Turn 78/660 (1660 BC) Contact made: Spanish Empire
Turn 80/660 (1600 BC) Contact made: Persian Empire
Turn 93/660 (1210 BC) Contact made: Roman Empire
I believe I must've circumnavigated right around 1200 or 1100 BC, because I see I got Writing in 1480 BC & I remember one of my motivations to get it was so I could sail through Hatty's coastal waters in order to close my loop of the globe. My fishing boat was just sitting there waiting for it to finish & an open border agreement to be made. I recall that that's what allowed me to find Jules, and that I finished circumnavigation almost immediately after finding him. I knew I got circumnavigation very early but I didn't realize it was before turn 100 until just now, definitely a record for me.
I popped lots of huts but have no idea how many, and never even got a free tech (though I did get 3-4 warriors and some maps, and my scout got a few experience boosts until he was at 10 and they were wasted -- yeah!
) I sent a couple galleys out not long after the fishing boats, but managed to get my one & only scout killed by a wandering barb, and the warriors on the other galley found a couple hostile villages. I think there are still a bunch of huts unpopped out there in my game even at 500 AD, I just never got back to get more than one or two of them.
. That is my 4th city, my 3rd is the island w/ bronze. 
It was a very nice map with lots of different opportunities imhso.
