Well, whadya know, I went for culture too. And I played like dung. But still better than you guys
J/k, jesusin, I also got settler but didn't disband it - guess this was the advantage which allowed me to finish 1570 AD. Three (sic!) more culture points, and would've finished 1 turn earlier.
Awful spot for culture. Capital is half-decent, all the other spots are subprime to say the least, unless you kill of Hatty and put a city 1N from Thebes. Luckily, there was another spot between Mansa and Hatty with 2 wheat, 2 grass cows and 2 plains cows which became my GP farm.
My 3 LCs were Persepolis (NW from the start on the plains hill), Rome (awful choice, should've made it GP farm probably) and a city N from Persepolis in the woods with 2 hill sheep, 1 flood plain, gold, silver and some hills. This became my high-hammer wonder-building LC - cultural output was close to that of the capital in the end, with no towns and no food for specialists.
Killed off Rome and Louis later into the game. Had 2 horrible cities - Paris and north from Rome, where I tried but didn't manage to pull off FP cow from mansa's capital until almost the final whistle. Switched to Pacifism, Merc and Castes only in 1270AD - extremely low quality of play. Still, managed 2 GPs and 11 GAs + GM from Economy. Spent GM on money I didn't need in the end
Should've launched a GAge with him and 2nd GP.
Pyramids anf HG in the capital, Oracle and loads of GA wonders in the hammer city. CS-slingshot turn 60.
6 cathedrals in each city (lost like 7 judaist missionaries before bringing it to Rome from Paris, the founding city - what are the odds?). Bombed 1-2-8.
Should've expanded much, much faster, and probably went for Machinery right after the CS to get the spots I like for my cities.

Awful spot for culture. Capital is half-decent, all the other spots are subprime to say the least, unless you kill of Hatty and put a city 1N from Thebes. Luckily, there was another spot between Mansa and Hatty with 2 wheat, 2 grass cows and 2 plains cows which became my GP farm.
My 3 LCs were Persepolis (NW from the start on the plains hill), Rome (awful choice, should've made it GP farm probably) and a city N from Persepolis in the woods with 2 hill sheep, 1 flood plain, gold, silver and some hills. This became my high-hammer wonder-building LC - cultural output was close to that of the capital in the end, with no towns and no food for specialists.
Killed off Rome and Louis later into the game. Had 2 horrible cities - Paris and north from Rome, where I tried but didn't manage to pull off FP cow from mansa's capital until almost the final whistle. Switched to Pacifism, Merc and Castes only in 1270AD - extremely low quality of play. Still, managed 2 GPs and 11 GAs + GM from Economy. Spent GM on money I didn't need in the end

Pyramids anf HG in the capital, Oracle and loads of GA wonders in the hammer city. CS-slingshot turn 60.
6 cathedrals in each city (lost like 7 judaist missionaries before bringing it to Rome from Paris, the founding city - what are the odds?). Bombed 1-2-8.
Should've expanded much, much faster, and probably went for Machinery right after the CS to get the spots I like for my cities.