The Plan
Settle in place, research straight for Literature, with a prebuild for the Glibrary, research Republic and switch over, shut off science until the Glibrary expires, then research full speed for cavalry, spend all my cash on upgrades, and kill everybody. Easy eh?
The Execution
Gak, the fish is salty. I prefer my fish fresh. Well, I settle in place anyway, and start sending out axes to explore. I quickly find the bonus moo, and my next two city sites are planned; the same peninsula locations that most people chose. I meet Abu in 3500bc, and obviously cannot do any trades. By the time my first tech, Alphabet, comes through, he has five. His tech pace is astonishing; he starts building the Glibrary in 1650bc! This is outrageously early - where has he got Literature from? A hut? Anyway, it's good for me. I can just build some swords instead. I start researching towards Ironworking instead of Literature.
Huge Tracts of Lands
My exploration beyond Arabia is a dispiriting business. I have one axe barb-dodging in the north. He survives long enough to give the impression that the land up there is empty and doesn't cross the dateline. My other explorer loops anticlockwise around Arabia and treks west, looking for the other civs... and looking... and looking. Abu sells my contact to Shaka in 1700bc and Monty in 1575bc, but still I can't find these people. With hindsight, I will see that my axe has threaded a very fine line just south of the Celts, Zulus and Japanese, and north of the Aztecs. He almost hits the west coast of the continent before meeting some Japanese soldiers at a local nightspot (a barb camp) in 1175bc. I buy contact with Brennus in 1075bc. The guy only has two cities...
Huge Tracts of Hills
Meanwhile I am slowly expanding my empire, settling west along the coast towards the ivory. My expansion is not fast enough to take the ivory monopoly - Abu gets a town in south of Mecca, which is frustrating. I wanted this location to speed my first strike against Arabia. My next couple of towns will be in the hills north of Carthage, grabbing the iron, and bringing water to the plains coast. In this start, every possible two-food tile is a valuable resource. Also, I am not concentrating solely on settler production; my towns are all getting temples to enable them to reach crucial offshore food sources, and I am actually leading in culture!
QSC Stats
5 towns with 15 citizens and 79 tiles (including 5 sea and 4 ocean).
33 food in the bin, 47 shields in the box, 39g in the treasury.
1 granary, 3 temples, 2 barracks.
1 settler, 3 workers, 9 warriors (1 vet), 4 archers (all vet).
All first and second tier techs, Philosophy, Riding, 38 beakers into Laws.
Score 208; 5th place, ahead of the Celts.
Catching Up
By the 1000bc, I had managed to catch up in tech to some degree; the weakness of the Celts and Japanese gave me opportunities for twofers, and I had momentary tech parity, during the interturn of 800bc, before Abu discovered Polytheism to take the lead again. Of course, this is all academic, as Mecca completes the Glibrary in 550bc. It then starts the Pyramids, but I don't think I can wait to see whether it will get them or not. I need to get the war started.
Distractions
Just as I am amassing troops on the Arabian border, the AI hit the medieval (350bc), and the barb uprisings begin. A camp is founded in a gap in my empire; 24 horses on the coast south of my iron source. More stream in from the unsettled north. Of course, I should have just let them ride around in Leptis Minor, whooping and yelling, until they got tired and went home, but my pride got the better of me, and I brought the army back to defend my people. With no anti-barb bonus, I actually lost several of my units, and got pillaged a couple of times. Conversely, promotions were very thin on the ground. On the same turn, Toku demands some cash and my map. As he is thousands of miles away and no stronger than me, I tell him to push off, and he declares war.
World at War
I'd like to buy Shaka in on my side, but can't raise enough gpt. By 290bc, though, he is sufficiently annoyed at Japanese troops walking across his land to dow on Toku without sponsorship. Toku responds by buying Abu in against me. Well, that's the war I was planning all along... better late than never.
Continuing barbarian attacks from the north have worn away at my army, but eventually I manage to muster a sufficient force to move against the Arabs. I capture their ivory town in 110bc, and begin the siege of Mecca. It falls in 90ad and the next turn, the Glibrary brings me Polytheism and Construction, and I enter the medieval era.
. Gee, that means my (overly strict) precautions were completely useless, I could have jumped the palace right away too 
. Oh well. 
). By 670 BC I captured Mecca, Medina and Baghdad, with few losses; Mecca had only 2 Spears in it! A size 9 city, I expected 4. Anyway, with Currency, after trading with Japan, I started a War with Japan, and allied the Aztecs and Celts against them. So I've kept the world pretty riled up.
