Round 2: 2680BC - 1200BC
Early in this round we found the missing AI. Or rather he found us. It's happy Buddhist Huayna. We also found something else, namely copper. Our settler was completed on the same turn, but I decided not to go for the site. It would be really far from the capital, needing protected roads, killing us with the maintenance, etc.
So Southern Horse it is. I escorted the Settler and the Worker (who just finished pasturing the cows) to 1NW of the horses. On the next turn York was founded and the worker started bringing in the horses right away.
In the meantime London was building a Workboat for York's use, and York started on a Worker of its own. Once the horses were linked the two workers would connect York and London by road.
Soon something that would affect later plans happened:
Genghis Khan converted to Hinduism. I expected Shaka to follow suit soon and for things to become really messed up, but as you'll see aggressiveness has its uses. I then timed things so that the Workboat would finish on the same turn with London reaching size 3, then started on another Settler. I decided now to go for 2N1E from the capital's cows, using them to quickly build a Library and get the Ivory within our borders. This city would also neatly block the world's two "hemispheres", but that won't probably help us as much as I thought at first.
And thus a couple of turns later Nottingham was founded and started on a Library right away.
York built some Chariots as I didn't want our game to end before it began. London was preparing for its glorious future by adding a Granary and a Library. Since I won't be building too many units until cats/War Elephants I'll probably use the two Scientists provided by the Library for most of the time.
And then something happened that left me really puzzled. Shaka moved an Archer and a Settler toward the copper site. I was sure he'd found a city there, but that wouldn't have been very puzzling, would it?

He either changed plans or got eaten by some barbs, but the thing is he never founded that city.
On the other hand, he converted to Hinduism too. Now we have 3 AIs with it: Hannibal (the founder), Genghis Khan and Shaka. And no one closing in from the West... I just hoped those elephants would do the job, as we were facing multiple possible backstabbers...
I ended the round in 1200BC. Nottingham finished the Library and is going to claim the ivory in 5 turns. We have a worker there building a mine who will connect the ivory next. It's not going to be a great tile to work though until we have Iron Working and clear that jungle. The gems are going to wait for that too.
London finished both the Granary and the Library. I'll probably dump the overflow into a Settler, then build a turn of a Chariot to get it to size three, then continue with the Settler for a city claiming gold. Speaking of which, any idea where it should go? There are a couple of barbarian cities around there, so we might have to put it into a less than optimal location. I'm really wondering if we can skip it altogether and just wait to claim other cities through war.
York is going to get a shiny new Granary too, probably a Library also. I'm not very fond of building Chariots like crazy, so I'd rather get to Construction early and then start on the real thing.
And our target seems to be Hannibal after all. After Shaka's inexplicable feint at copper city Hannibal decided to take it for himself. Fortunately Shaka can be bribed to go to war with him, once I get Alphabet of course. Hence the earlier comment about aggressiveness being useful. He doesn't really know his friends, does he? I'm hoping to get the Khan in the same position, that's why I think I'll open the borders for both of them. It's not like they're going to build any cities that far from their capitals anyway.
By the way, if you're wondering why I didn't explore more, it's because those lousy warriors aren't much use when exploring. I'll wait for a few Chariots, maybe that will earn them a couple of promotions and I can get one to be a medic. With the two western barbarian cities I'll surely see lots of action soon enough.
Research-wise we got Hunting in the bag and we're going for Math -> Masonry -> Construction. I'll probably pre-chop a few forests to prepare them for Elephant spawning. With Math in we'll get the full value for those forests. I'm also thinking of keeping a couple of them in the capital to get the Great Library later on. We might fail though (getting Math & Construction first may prove too much), but at least we'll unlock Heroic Epic and National Epic. Notice that I skipped Mysticism completely, but we'll need it and Polytheism for Literature. No Monuments though, so we don't have to worry about Calendar obsoleting them.
So, decisions to make for the next round:
- where to put gold city?
- what to research? I'm thinking Alphabet after Construction.
- should we go for Great Library?
- who to attack? I see Hannibal as the prime target, but if anyone disagrees I'll reconsider.