I saw the cow in the fog and therefore decided to settle 1SE. Build order was two jags, then another worker, more jags, and finally settler. The second town was founded between the Wheat and the floodplain. It built an immediate granary and then settlers and workers. The third town was founded in such a way, that the game tile became usable for the second town, and from then on the second town was able to build 5-turn settlers using the game, wheat, floodplain, mined BG and a mined hill. Unfortunately a river (or Aqueduct) was missing for a 4-turner.
One of my scouting jags declared war on Babylon quite early (~2500BC) and captured a worker and destroyed an empty town. (I've never seen an empty AI town before?!

Perhaps a barb horse killed the escort after the town was settled?!) Normally I don't attack with a lone jaguar warrior, but that opportunity was quite favorable: it caused quite a bit of damage to an opponent and allowed the setup of a couple of MAPT deals, fishing for war happiness. And this attack was so early, that by the time the MA approached, the Babylonians had "forgotten" my little invasion and were polite again.
An attack by Egypt caused an unexpected despotic GA in ~1200BC, as an Egyptian archer attacked one of my scouting jaguars on a mountain and lost...

Fortunately I had gone straight for Monarchy, which was reached around ~950BC. So I still had 9 turns of Monarchic GA, but my core was far from complete yet by that time.
The good points of the early GA were that I reached Monarchy faster that way, and that I finally had 4-turn settlers, resulting in 10 towns at 1000BC.
Around the same time my MAPT deals triggered a war with the Arabs, so I decided they would be my first real target. As horses were still far away, I sent a handful of archers and many jags, which finished Arabia by 600BC. (I waited 2-3 turns for the last capital to expand.) There are still ~15 jags in Arabian territory waiting to be upgraded to MI and then attack Egypt from the south, while horsemen from the core are going to attack from the east. This "slow force" will then continue with Babylon and India, while a new Knight force from the core will march the long way to America and Japan. At the moment I have Babylon signed up against Egypt, that should make the war vs both easier. Also another MAPT deal triggered war happiness from Japan, and I have signed up America against Japan in order to grind these two down as well.
I was thinking a long time, whether horsemen would be sufficient for fast conquest (as it would have been in GOTM97), but in the end I decided against it. Monarch is a bit tougher than Regent, and because of the long distances I expect to see Pikes when I reach the distant AIs.
Concerning research the AI was quite good in this game considering that it is only Monarch: I researched Mysticism, Polytheism, Monarchy, Philosophy and Code of Laws to enter the MA around 650BC, the rest was traded. (I could have been even two turns faster, if I hadn't "wasted" two turns on Currency, which I was able to trade from America then.) I gifted up Babylon, who got Monotheism, so I started on Feudalism in 13. But that will be a story for the next spoiler.
Lanzelot