My scattered pre-game thoughts:
Opening Moves
We're obviously short of food initially.
One bit of good news: If our worker irrigates immediately on the start tile, and we move the settler one step, our first growth will occur at the same date as if we settle immediately and move the worker instead. So moving our settler one step at the start costs two shields and two gold but does not cost any food.
I plan to begin by moving the scout south. Depending on what he sees he'll go south again or east following the river (or perhaps even west if a reason for such a move appears.) If the scout doesn't see any bonus tile(s) I'll move the settler SW, to stay on the river but reveal one more tile. And if there's still no sign of a reason to move the settler further after this date, then I'll have the worker start irrigating. Next turn the scout will explore a bit more before I finally commit the settler.
Effect of the Modified Rules
I'll just list the modified elements which seem most important to me here.
1) The biggest change is that we'll get much further into the game before being able to trade contacts or maps.
This means that exploration is more important than ever. The more Civs your exploring units meet, the more trade opportunities you'll have, and the less it will cost to get techs which are already known to multiple AIs.
Exploration is also important for maps. You need world knowledge and until well into the Middle Ages you have to get it yourself. And when map trading becomes possible, the initial value of your maps depends on what you've explored.
2) Be careful about Republic. With a very small military+worker force, Republic can actually be cheaper than it previously was, because there's a bit of free unit support. But if your military+worker force grows very large, Republic can become painfully expensive.
If you are going for Republic early then I recommend:
a) Keep your unit count low. We have the advantage of being industrious, so the map may allow us to forge ahead with less workers than usual. Of course any workers you can get from the AIs don't require support, and because we're industrious they're quite useful, so try to get them in trades.
b) Build a lot of towns and grow them to cities where possible, to increase free unit support.
Much later in the game, if you've been expanding aggressively, Republic shouldn't be a problem. Once you have a lot of towns and cities you'll be able to support a good number of units at no cost, better than before
3) "Seafaring Civs may exist in your game"! I think that such a Civ is likely to have modified units with better water movement. The possible (probable?) existence of such Civs implies a couple of things:
a) We're probably not on a Pangaea map.
b) We probably won't get exclusive over-seas contacts. (Not that exclusivity matters as much with the delayed trading of contacts.) A seafaring Civ with extra water movement might be able to cross safely where other Civs can't.
4) I think that the AIs cannot be counted on to prioritize research of Writing and Map Making as heavily as usual.
5) The Great Wall may actually be useful now depending on the situation
6) Depending how things unfold, Marines and many sea-going units may be more useful than we're used to.
Research
I plan to start with research at zero, on Ceremonial Burial so that I block that cheapest of techs from discovery in a hut.
When I learn Alphabet (from a hut or a trade) I'll probably start actively researching Writing at that time. (I'll stay at zero research a bit longer if it seems likely that a lot of huts are still available.) I want to hurry down the Writing path toward Republic. At Monarch level I don't expect the AIs to be a lot of help in research. I'll pick up side-techs from them in trade of course.
Wonders
At Monarch level it should be possible to build some Ancient wonders. (Though I am wary of the warning we've had that this won't be a cake-walk - perhaps some AIs will start quite strong and snag the Ancient wonders.) I'm not sure which ones I'll go for, if any. If I do go for any, Pyramids will be high on my list.
My initial thinking is that the combination of Lighthouse and Pyramids, if possible to build both, could be best for triggering a Golden Age. But since I do want to leave Despotism before the GA this will depend on research speed to Republic vs. when someone discovers Map Making and starts the race for Lighthouse. The alternative to this approach will I think be Copernicus' instead of Lighthouse.
Warfare
Too early for me to decide. If a great opportunity for a minor early war appears, at Monarch and with a food poor start, this might be a good map to take it. Or it might be better to expand and hold off on war until either Knights or Cavalry. If waiting till Cavalry, doing fast and highly targeted research will be important.
One thing to be especially wary of: It seems likely that Iroquois will be a neighbor. If they are, once they get horses connected be wary of them!
Miscellaneous
I haven't decided on my goal in this game yet. I'll wait till a while after starting, so I won't be going for 20K culture
If I think I have time for it I'll probably go histographic on this one since I haven't done that in quite a while, and because it will ensure that I see all of the map and whatever special treats it contains.
I think one very important rule while playing this one will be "stay flexible!" This is Cracker's GOTY and he's been thinking about it for a long time. I expect it will have some interesting elements. In some cases we may have to adapt our plans to avoid being pummeled, and in other cases we may be presented with significant opportunities if we adapt to take advantage of them.
See you in the spoilers!
