GOTM110 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 110 - First spoiler, Japan, the Ancient Age

Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research a Middle Ages Technology.

Posting restrictions

1. Feel free to discuss distant contacts and trades, but be discreet about locations or directions of any AI.
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later) including resource locations.
3. AS ALWAYS, do not post Spoiler information for ANY other 'X'OTM contest.

Did you decide to settle in place, or did you move first, and if so, where did you found the capital and why? How did expansion go? Any early problems? And did the Raging Barbs cause any difficulties?

 

[PaperBeetle]

Picking a factory
Where to settle? I want to stay next to the moo, I want to stay on the river. Being on the coast is a good idea, but I'm going military this time, so maximising the long term potential of my capital is not paramount. So I just settle in place, takes less thought that way. There's lots of shields here, I notice. I do the sums, and find the 6-turn axe/settler combo factory is pretty easy:
0. town + imoo + mbg > silk = +4,6
1. town + imoo + mbg + silk = +3,6 > axe
2. town + imoo + mbg + silk = +3,6
3. town + imoo + mbg + mbg > silk = +4,8
4. town + imoo + mbg + mbg + silk = +3,8
5. town + imoo + mbg + mbg + silk = +3,8 > settler.
Okay, getting out plenty of axes works well with having raging barbs on the loose. However, early exploration reveals rich food surpluses to be had a short way to the east. In fact, I could even manage a 4-turn factory at RCP2, thus:
0. town + imoo + mgame + mbg + mbg = +5,7
1. town + imoo + mgame + mbg + mbg > forest = +5,9
2. town + imoo + mgame + mbg + mbg + mbg > +5,9
3. town + imoo + mgame + mbg + mbg + mbg > forest = +5,12 > settler.
Takes a lot more work though... and those barbs... okay, I stick to plan #1. All the local shields allow me to pump out a total of 3 axes and a worker before starting the granary. 2 axes go exploring, and one stays home for defense.

Picking a ring pattern
Settling in place seems to have made rings pretty awkward, even though it seemed like a good idea just a moment ago. The main problem seems to be that I am a bit too close to that huge mountain range, which blocks out a big area of any kind of ring. Like some kind of AI, I eventually decide to settle for RCP5, which will allow my first ring to claim spots in the eastern food fields (where I can set up informal population pumps), the east coast, the horse to the south, and the lake + gems + west coast to the north. But before I start laying those cities down, there is one more spot I want to grab. I have met the Greeks to the north, and there an incense just a bit too far away from Athens for them to block out. My first settler goes to found a town next to the incense, RCP4 south of Athens, in the process dictating RCP9 as the distance of my second ring.

Picking a research path
Pots, Alphabet, Writing, Philosophy, Laws, Republic, Currency, Construction, trade for everything else, bosh job done. Wait a minute, let's try something different this time around. After Pots I decide to explore the lower branches of the tech tree, focusing on military techs: I get Riding in 2550bc, after trading in War Code from Alex, and trade Ironwork from Ham when I meet his axe exploring the deserted southlands. And of course, the military government would be Monarchy, so I go Burial (2350bc), Polytheism (1650bc) and get the Monarchy installed in 1075bc. Thereafter, I get back to the usual suspects, researching Maths. By this time, I have met the other eastern civs, and after upgrading several regular axes to swords I am strong to everyone else. There's going to be some action soon, and it isn't going to be good news for Alex.

QSC Stats
11 towns with 29 citizens and 145 tiles.
92 food in the bin, 97 shields in the box, 31g in the treasury.
1 granary, 3 barracks, 1 temple.
9 workers, 2 slaves, 5 swords (reg), 4 horses (3 vet, 1 elite), 8 axes (1 conscript, 4 reg, 1 vet, 2 elite).
All ancienct techs except Construction, Currency, Republic, Literature, Laws, Philosophy and Maths (111 beakers gathered).
5 contacts, no embassies.

Slowing down the pace
After Maths, I step down to minimum research for Construction, so I can stock up on cash to upgrade the rest of my axes, and later do horses to samurai en masse. The war on Alex is started in 775bc, with my sword pack marching to the tile northeast of Athens, to avoid attacking over the river. There are only a couple of hoplites in there, and it falls in 730bc. I then work my way clockwise around Greece, taking each town in turn, with the swords getting support from a stream of new horses coming out of my core. Pharsalos, on the southwest tip of Greece, is the last stop, autorazed in 330bc. Alex is eexiled to a single town he has recently managed to found at the western edge of the great southern mountain range. I give him peace for Currency, while I prepare the troops to start the Egyptian campaign.

Pincer movement
I plan a two-pronged attack, with the slower swords ferrying by galley over to the north Egyptian peninsula, while the horses head by road to attack Egypt's southern border. I dow Cleo in 290bc, although my swords aren't quite ready yet, for the horse contingent has reached Egypt's outlying colonies on the south coast. I autoraze a new town in 270bc, and in 210bc capture Byblos. South of the mountains, it is an important staging post on the road to the eastern civs. The swords finally reach Egyptian soil in 170bc, and take Pi Rameses on the next turn. The war seems to be going smoothly, and at this point, my Construction min run finishes, bringing me into the medieval in 130bc.

 

[Raliuven]

Where to Settle?
I decided to settle in place after looking over the starting position. The overall situation seemed good – high shields, river to irrigate cow for +fpt, river for growth and a nearby silk. Considered moving one tile to the east to get across the river, but since I would need to send workers to grab the silk anyway, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

What to build?
Ragging barbs scares me. I hate barbs, and as my log will show, for good reason. They have caused me no end of grief. I tried to build up military right away, even though I wanted to go worker then granary (race to pottery) than worker. Instead, I did worker to warrior then worker then granary. Ultimately I had to swap that granary to a warrior because of barbs – luckily I only lost 2 shields in the conversion. I ended up producing three warriors before looking at a granary. Should have considered a swap to a settler but I didn’t. Second city not founded until 2270BC. After that I had a steady stream of settlers.

RCP Ring
After a little scouting I decided to set my second city up as a FP core. I made the first cities RCP 4 from the second city location, which was also RCP 4 from my capital. I will move my palace later when a good second core can be founded in former Greek territory. I’m in this for the long hall – Diplo VC, so I need earning power. Two strong cores will hopefully get me to the finish line fast.

Research Path
Undisciplined, as usual. I was hoping to pull a few techs from good huts, but every hut I popped was barbs. I meandered my way to Republic but didn’t get there until 470BC. After failing to grab pottery from a GH, I went that way and then moved towards republic. My detour through BW was a big mistake (or bad luck). I should have bee-lined to monarchy and made the switch until republic was available – the one nice thing about being religious (for my VC). The AI is actually researching rather well and I have managed to trade much more than my usual games. This remains a weakness for me. I don’t leave the AA until around 200BC.

QSC Stats (will give full update later)
Cities: 8, Population: 22, Income 41 (-12 to corruption), treasury 36gp. 4 barracks, 2 granaries, 7 workers, 11 warriors, 1 chariot. 1 greek worker. Science 70%, Luxury 0%. Current 0gpt.
Techs – all but Construction, Currency, Math, Republic, Lit (3 turns), Poly, Monarchy.
5 contacts, 0 embassies

After QSC

1075BC I am the largest Civ, but not the highest score yet. Persia is ahead of me.
975BC ranked the most powerful Civ. Goody for me.

Persian War
Persia declares war in 430BC over 22gp & TM. Bad move because I have techs to trade and there are allies to buy. I brought Egypt, Rome and the babs against them by 270BC. I don’t fight a single Persian immortal and Egypt and Roman have pushed the Persian monster back.

Internal developement
I concentrate on marketplaces and libraries, which was probably a mistake in hindsight. I should have produced a few horses for defense (see barbarians at the gate).

Because I do not plan for much war, I have made sure I will get the iron but I haven’t raced towards it. The Greek are horribly undeveloped – I am guessing their UU wasn’t very good at protecting their tile improvements from barbs. I also bought a worker off them early on for pottery and 3gp and I think it killed them.

I captured the HG; Egypt pulled away the GL one round before me, but as it turns out, the HG are probably better at this research pace. HG also works well with Repub, so all is good.

Barbarians at the Gate
Barbs were a huge problem for me from the start. First, all 4 good huts I popped were good for 3 barbs a piece. I got nadda from GH. The only good thing is that most of them wandered away to go pillage the greek. But not all of them. I had tiles pillaged and a city sacked. Worse, I lost 2 workers to barbs which was a HUGE problem in my growth east.

3500BC – GH = 3 barbs.
3450BC – lose a warrior to barb. Need to switch granary to warrior in 1 turn or entire Civ undefended. Thank god only 1 barb advanced towards me.
2670BC (IBT) – barb pillages silk because I couldn’t risk sending sole warrior out of city to stop him. Not reconnected until 2150BC.
2470BC – GH2 = 3 barbs.
1950BC – GH3 = 3 barbs.
1870BC – barb camp with 2 readymade barbs magically appears next to worker in no man’s land roading towards iron. You would think the worker might notice Fred and Barnie moving in next door and let me know. Manage to cover that with nearby warrior.
1575BC – GH4 by Athens popped for . . . wait for it . . . 3 barbs.
1475BC – lose 1 warrior to barbs.
390BC – huge stack of barb horses outside Izumo. 2 warriors available for defense.
370BC – Izumo is sacked by stack of barbarians. I hate barbs. They take all my gold (about 120gp), kill two workers and two warriors.
350BC – Barb pillages irrigate tile to add insult to injury.
250BC – constant skirmishing against the barbs in the east.

Log

Spoiler :

GOTM 110 OSC Log

Japan – Militaristic, Religious (TW & CB)
Opponents: Greek, Roman, Egyptians, Persians, Babylonians.
Pottery is only tech missing; we are the only one with TW. Romans have WC.

4000 BC - Move worker to Cow. Settle in place. Set to build warrior. Second build will be a worker. I believe that producing two workers immediately will provide for the best growth and hook up the silk for a quick happiness boost. Depending on barbarian count, granary next.
Set to learn pottery at max speed – 11 turns.

3950BC – irrigate cow.
3750BC – cow watered, first warrior appears, set to worker. Warrior heads east; worker roads.
3700BC – MM new citizen off silk to BG, worker still in 2 but growth in 5 instead of 2. Mistakenly hit space bar and skip warrior/scouts turn. Darn it.
3650BC – warrior heads towards mountains
3600BC – Worker moves to G to road to BG. Second worker moves to silks to connect. Set temple as Granary pre-build. Warrior N to mountain, see GH. Weary because of ragging barbarian setting.
3550BC – Gems! What did I do to deserve that? Republic is looking good for Diplo VC. Both workers roading.
3550BC – learn pottery, set BW. If pick up WC, perhaps work on HBR for trade? Keep research at max. Switch prebuild to granary.
3500BC – Grab GH. Rewarded with barbarians. Sigh.
3450BC - Gut check. Warrior dies attacking barbarian. Switch Granary to warrior. This sucks.
3400BC – Warrior builds without wasting shields. Set to build second warrior. First warrior covers worker roading silk. Hit enter and pray.
3350BC – Barbarian fortifies. I am praying for the worker to finish or second warrior build. Other worker sent to mine BG not on river to avoid attracting barbs.
3300BC – Barb runs away. Deep breath.
3250BC – grabbed silk. Send worker to safety of BG by west side river. Set city to Granary. Advance warrior towards barbs again.
3200BC – second worker mines BG.
3150BC – send second warrior to the east to avoid barbs.
3100BC – find more silk for trading! MM away from BG by river to BG being mined – due next turn to pick up shield.
3050BC –decide on RCP4 for long hall Diplo VC.
3000BC – Barb heads to town. Receive wealthiest nation in the world award with 25 gold + 2gpt. This is the life!
2900BC – barb runs away again. Hate that guy. Wish he and barney would leave.
2850BC – Get BW. Darn. Stop playing around and go for alpha at full speed. Granary in 3. Worker to BG by river, cover with warrior to stop barbs.
2800BC – Four citizens, everyone still happy.
2750BC – send worker to east bank to work BG and move away from wandering barb.
2710BC – Barb advances on city – move 2nd warrior in, Granary build with full bin, set to build 3rd warrior, then barracks, then settler.
2670BC – kill barb but not before he pillage my silk. Darn. Too many mistakes. Warrior promotes.
2590BC – Set to barracks. Due in 2.
2550BC – scouting warrior finds horses.
2510BC – Barracks build, set to settler. Find another GH. Do I dare?
2470BC – I dare. Get barbs again. Figures. Move worker back to road silks.
2430BC – kill one barb, find the promise land with two wheat! Need more workers after settler.
2390BC – send first settler toward wheat. Will settle at RCP but will also be RCP4 for third city – third city is future site of FP – all cities will be RCP4 from city 3.
2350BC – find incenses.
2310BC – third worker build, set to warrior, then settler.
2270BC – Osaka founded, set to build barracks, then produce warriors. Find third wheat!
2230BC – dispose of barb near Osaka, promote to vet.
2150BC – Silk reconnected. Find more bonus food! Hey, are we on an island?
2030BC – find another GH. Sigh.
1990BC – ah, finally see green boarders! Persians get top billing for largest nation. I get lowest ranking.
1950BC – Pop GH. Barbs. Again. At least they are close to my new Persian neighbors! Found 3rd City near gems.
1910BC – Vet warrior goes elite vs. barbs.
1870BC – barb camp appears right next to worker! Quickly move warriors to cover.
1830BC – kill barb camp and net gold, one barb escaped – heading away from my lands.
1790BC – first award, water the grass.
1700BC – build 4th city Edo on top of 3 wheat, horse and game.
1675BC – find fur. See Greek. Give he Greek pottery and 3gpt for greek worker. He has masonry and wc but I almost have writing. Greek don’t know anyone else yet.
1650BC – Greek tell me to get lost. I do. Athens is at pop 1.
1625BC – find another GH by Greek capital. Hmmm. Wonder what I will get?
1600BC – learn writing, head for MM.
1575BC – yep, more barbs.
1550BC – irrigating toward 3 wheat. Found 5th city by game and wheat. Need temple in long run, set to granary for now.
1475BC – kill to barbs, lose 1 warrior
1450BC – kill to barbs, no losses.
1425BC – first horse barb spotted.
1400BC – found 6th city
1350BC – Gem connected,
1300BC – Connect horses, start GL prebuild.
1250BC – Contact the Babs, they are close to the greek but haven’t met yet. Trade contact with the greek & 2gpt for mysticism, masonry and warrior code. He knows the romans, Egyptians and Persians but won’t trade for anything.
1225BC – build 7th city northeast of capital, towards greek floodplain.
1200BC – Roman contacts me, want to trade maps – no way. Roman and babs know mm, sell to greek for IW & 25gp. I see Iron easily within my grasp with a little work.
1150BC – for some reason no one has told the Egyptians about the greek. Sell contact +15gp for HBR. Everyone else knows HBR except the greek, sell it to them for tm + 22gp – all they have. Lit in 8r. I’m on equal tech footing now.
1075BC – I am the largest Civ. I still rank behind Persia for score, but I have the most cities. Looks like we are on donut world.
1050BC – Persia and bab picked up COL.
1000BC – 8th city founded. Lit in 3 turns. Greek have COL and Phil. Trade 120 gold to Persia for COL. Trade COL to Rome for Phil, 8 gp and TM. Offer Egypt COL and Phil (everyone else knows them) for all by one gold coin in her treasury (28gp) and her WM so I know can see the world. This is not donut world. Greek will be the pressing issue, I see. They will be m first victim. I am on par for tech and I have Lit in 3turns. Found ivory too.
975BC – I now rank as the most powerful nation in the world. Take that!
925BC – got Lit first. Change prebuild to GL – still 39t. I’ll hold Lit for a while. Start on Republic – do in 29 turns.
850BC – build 9th city on incense, iron almost in hand. Dial back research, set repub to 26turns. Persia has math but won’t trade. GL in 36 t. Trm to GL in 29t, neg growth for short term.
825BC – Persia has Poly now. Trade Egypt lit for math, 41gp, and WM. All she has. Rome doesn’t even have math yet, so trade math for 25gp and wm. Pick up Poly for Lit & 90gp. I'm on tech par with the leader and ahead of most. Rep in 25t.
800BC – thanks to 25gp from barb camp, up research to rep in 21t.
775BC – Incense connected. Only Rome doesn’t have poly now – sell it for 18gp & wm.
730BC – everyone is happy, put science up to 80%, rep in 16t. Third luxuryconnected.
710BC – babs got the oracle.
630BC – All quiet. Rep in 9t. GL in 19t. Persia establishes embassy. Building FP brick by brick at selected location – due in 34t. Courthouse in Edo.
470BC – learn republic and revolt. We are a republic now. Greece has come up Currency. Trade Greece repub for currency + WM. Trade Persia Republic for 50gp. Trade Persia Currency for 170gp. Trade Babs Currency for 39gp+WM. No one else has anything.
430BC – Persia gets into their mind to declare on me over 22gp & TM. It will be fun waiting for them to appear on my doorstep in about . . . 200 years. I sign up Rome after establishing an embassy. Persia is the monster in their area. Might sacrifice Rome, Babs and Egyptians to Persian monster. Hope not. Egypt won’t join, but trade construction for Republic. Egypt is set to grab the GL, I will make monarchy in 8 and switch to HG. Babs sig up for war for Repub.
390BC – huge stack of horses by Izumo. Swtich to walls, hurry production.
370BC – Izumo is sacked by stack of barbarians. I hate barbs. They take all my gold, kill two workers and two warriors.
350BC – Barb pillages tile.
270BC – learn monarchy, Egypt grabs the GL, switch to HG in 1 turn. Sell Egypt Monarchy for war on Persia. Funny thing is that babs also picked up monarchy and Egypt would have got it anyway for free next turn.
250BC - more barbs. Producing a round of horsemen.

 

[templar_x]

with little time at hands, i wanted a fast conquest. bc would have been nice. still going predator.

so i settled in place, no granary, only 4 built towns, plans for quick and dirty. getting the towns up to max production was easy, even with few workers and one or two caught by barbs.

then i found out that the geography did not support that task at all. well, this is the road we decided to go down.

i kept Greece for last. i had that notion i could plan so that while the last needed units went the long way south/east to take out the civs there, my new built units would take care of Greece. but everyone seemed harder than expected on Monarch.

the order was: Egypt-Persia (they only built 1 immortal i saw who immediately died)-Rome-Babylon-Greece.

conquest in 310ad. not even close to what i believed possible. very low firaxis score for the little pop and land i settled.

templar_x

 

[Memento]

i wanted a fast conquest. bc would have been nice. still going predator.

that was my first thought, but Greece are to strong and Babylon+Persian have Settler on Galley so i go Domination.

Predator
Moved Settler SE and build a 4 RCP.
Research Pottery, Writing, Philo, CoL and Rep. Stop research.
In Rep 1050bc.

Build ca. 15 Chariots and rush most of them.
2 Warriors razed Memphis very early.

Spoiler :

Turn 46 : 1950BC
Egyptian city Memphis razed

Turn 58 : 1575BC (for peace)
Japan captured the Egyptian city Elephantine

Turn 79 : 1050BC
Japan captured the Egyptian city Alexandria
Japan captured the Egyptian city Heliopolis

2nd war
Turn 84 : 925BC
Japan captured the Egyptian city Thebes

QSC Stats:
10 towns, 34 pop, 108 tiles.
2 granarys, 6 barracks, 1 temple.
3 workers, 1 slave, 4 Warriors, 2 Spears, 6 Chariots, 13 Horses, 4 Galleys.


From 775bc to 370bc i was in war with almost all at the same time, exepted Egypt.
Persia have only 1 Immortal and i take war 2times. Rome are easy until they had Legios. Captured only 1 town from Babylon in this time.
Greece are very strong with their Hoplits. Can take 3 little towns but lost many Horseman at Athen, so i make peace.

Spoiler :

Turn 90 : 775BC
Japan captured the Persian city Arbela

Turn 93 : 710BC
Japan captured the Babylonian city Akkad

Turn 94 : 690BC
Japan captured the Persian city Pasargadae

Turn 96 : 650BC
Japan captured the Greek city Delphi

Turn 98 : 610BC
Japan captured the Greek city Corinth

Turn 100 : 570BC
Japan captured the Persian city Persepolis
Japan captured the Roman city Cumae

Turn 101 : 550BC
Japan captured the Persian city Antioch
Japan captured the Persian city Tarsus

Turn 104 : 490BC
Japan captured the Greek city Thermopylae

Turn 105 : 470BC
Japan captured the Roman city Veii

Turn 106 : 450BC
Japan captured the Roman city Pisae

Turn 110 : 370BC
Japan captured the Roman city Antium
Japan captured the Roman city Neapolis

At 450bc 4 Barbstacks comming to visit my towns. I rush many Temples to save my gold. 2 towns are empty and in one stack are 25 in the other 20 Horseman. Thats crazy.
In later fights i become 3 MGLs.rush GreatL, Pyras and Colossus.

Spoiler :

Turn 116 : 250BC
Japan captured the Babylonian city Uruk
Japan captured the Babylonian city Nineveh
Japan captured the Persian city Gordium

Turn 118 : 210BC
Japan captured the Babylonian city Ur
Japan captured the Egyptian city Pi-Ramesses

Turn 119 : 190BC
Japan gained great leader Tojo

Turn 120 : 170BC
Japan gained great leader Hirohito
Japan captured the Babylonian city Babylon
Japan captured the Babylonian city Ellipi
Japan captured the Babylonian city Ashur

Turn 121 : 150BC
Japan captured the Egyptian city Giza

Turn 122 : 130BC
Japan captured the Persian city Susa

Turn ??? : ???
Japan captured the Babylonian city Eridu
Japan gained great leader Fujiwara

Turn ??? : ???
Japan captured the Greek city Knossos

MapStat told me 4 turns to early that i have Dom.

Settled 2 towns on Greece ground and take 1 town to final.

@templar
No submission?

 

[templar_x]

@ Memento - I really should not play and post in the wee hours

I´ll upload the save tonight. Thanks for the reminder.

Btw, in case it was not clear, I never reached the MA in my game, and self-researched only WC and HR. Got mostly everything else and even Rep late in the game though, and even revolted for being religious to spend all that money on sth.

templar_x

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator

I founded the capital in place and tried to set up a combo factory as fast as possible while keeping up research. On a normal-size map, a 30 + 30 shields factory was possible, but on small size, the tenth shield is wasted. I remembered it this time and settled for a single Warrior per Settler. In Republic a four-turner.

Core set-up RCP3 plus DCP5 and RCP9 around a Forbidden Palace city to the east. The idea is to jump the Palace to Greece A.S.A.P. and go to the domination limit and then for space. But Greece and Persia shadowed my research to Writing and Mathematics, setting me back somewhat. Nothing to trade for.

Perhaps I'll just kill them all. I'd rather have played a full-size map.

 

[Più Freddo]

Quick Start Challenge Result:

12 Towns
28 Citizens
_2 Granaries
_2 Barracks
_2 Temples
_1 Settler
10 Workers
_2 Slaves
_4 Warriors
_4 Horsemen
_5 Contacts
_5 Embassies
Missing Polytheism, Literature, Mathematics, Currency, Construction
Horses and three luxuries connected, one war happiness

 

[Megalou]

Predator

Went for horsemen rather than swords, to increase the chance of a Great Leader. But none had showed up in 590 BC when I hit the Medieval period.

The horsemen bashed their heads against Athens. I probably lost about 10-12 of them in four (4!) assaults. The problem was that one of the hoplites became elite on the first assault and then resisted everything. I had him down to one hit point in the third assault but my elite horseman still couldn't kill him. I think PaperBeetle was wise to road all the way to Athens at an early stage. I became too impatient to wait for enough horsemen to hike through the mountain chain. When I also had my road finished, Athens fell.

I am now at war with two of the three scientific civs. I have no libraries, Mono and Feud are expensive and so I will make peace with both those civs, gift them up to the MA, regroup and redeclare on Greece, hoping that no one will meet them.

It feels like a tough game. I have roaded very poorly to the south. And I have lost too many horsemen in that Athens frenzy. Perhaps I should lay low against the holpites instead, to avoid more losses and war weariness before the samurai enter the stage.

templar_x, No BC win. Even so, the result is probably very good.
Memento, What's hiding under under those question marks? The straight chronolgy in the entries before them hints at BC dates, but the fact that you wrote 3 question marks for each hints at a year beyond 90 AD.

 

[templar_x]

@ Megalou - thanks, but the game in fact was really bad. concentration is quite limited if you have one ear on any noise of your baby in the other room always.

I had 2 or 3 early riots of the capital! plus i lost a rax in the 2nd town due to deficits. playing so bad does not get you a date any better.

templar_x

 

[Memento]

The straight chronolgy in the entries before them hints at BC dates, but the fact that you wrote 3 question marks for each hints at a year beyond 90 AD.

well considered Megalou, but both are wrong

 

[Scratcher]

I didn't keep notes as detailed as some above but I settled in place, and went for a 3 and 6 RCP with the numerous gaps. Open class game with a Domination victory in mind from the outset.

I meet Greece in 3250bc and Egypt in 1950bc when i was able to trade for contacts with all other civs.

Research was Pots and then a beeline to Republic. I traded for techs when possible but didn't get many. Entered the MA around 650bc.

No AA wars, Greece cornered and expansion towards the SW was severely pestered by Barb horsemen, although several elite horsemen have been generated for the upcoming wars. The plan will be to take on Greece, hope for MGL for forbidden palace then armies.
Research will be turned off / down after Chivalry as upgrading horsemen to Samurai's should clear the rest away.

QSC - Not submitted
Score 200, Gold 35, cities11, land 116tiles, pop26, units 22.

Scratcher