Thanks, grahamian! That link also says that the AI starts with 2 Settlers, and I believe each AI city gets 3 free units when it is founded at Deity level. That's a lot of firepower!
The AI tends to be very aggressive getting after barb camps; chances are you'll run across just massive stacks of AI units going after these camps. In fact it might not be bad to find one and leave a unit there just to make contacts. Early on, if you see massive stacks of AI units heading your way, it's likely they are heading towards a barb camp on the other side of you. Don't panic, cause there's not much you can do about it anyway.
Not having any starting Techs at Predator makes me pause a bit; however, the start is good for fast growth and commerce rich, so I guess that can be worked out. For the GOTM competition, that's a huge penalty for someone to take vs the very good players using the Open save.
Playing Predator I'd probably research Wheel to start. Makes it pretty easy to decide not to build a Granary and just churn out Settlers, and might be something tradeable. With a somewhat crowded start, probably only get space for 5 to 7 cities anyway. I'll try to grab whatever super spots might be nearby, and garrison them until I can get a Settler out to them, hopefully.
Still working on GOTM42, so this is all a bit in the future.