Più Freddo
From space, earth is blue
Well, my date of 1050BC wasn't that bad, was it...?
If this was golf, I could have given you an answer. In civ, you must decide that for yourself, for only you know how difficult it was for you.
But the Predator handicap was immense this time: we didn't know Alphabet. That's a whopping 120 beakers. It took me 17 turns to collect them. And all this time the AI was building and researching away, albeit at its Warlord pace. If you could reach the AI at once, it would have been Warlord. A bit later, Regent. Add seventeen turns, and its Monarch.
That the Galleys cost 40 shields instead of 30 hurt less. The first Galley was pre-built anyway. Also the two Pikemen per AI tribe were of less importance than the timing -- when you started beating the AI.
And, granted, here the randomness of the first crossing made the competition a bit unbalanced.