Here's what I was thinking before I started. I’m spiritual and organized, which means I want civics, lots of them, available to me as early as possible. Need to take advantage of that ability to switch in and out. Building units? Vassalage/theocracy. Building infrastructure? Organized religion. So on and so on. It makes mids and Schwedegon attractive, and also will likely have me looking at feudalism earlier than normal. As for the start, with all the trees, it seems like I have to go bronze working first and chop chop chop. Initial thinking is to go BW, then Ag, then see what I do based on the map.
I move one north and settle – elephants! Construction just became important, especially if there’s someone close. A nice goody hut to start:
Oh, but the goody huts only got better. My first two meeting – 10-11 turns in.
Wang appears to be to the north. I also see stone to the east, with gold. A lot of plains there, but the mids might be a viable strategy with that site. Wang is super close – only about 8-9 tiles away, so I’m thinking race to construction and elephants - he's protective, so may be tough to dislodge early. I then meet Shaka – also close. Thinking building wonders may not make much sense after all. Another nice goody hut.
My elephants will be hooked up faster. Shaka is also super close, so it’s pretty clear I need to put wonders in the back of my mind for right now and claim some land. I decide to build two workers to start – I don’t know if I’ve ever done that, but I’m going to chop like mad in the early game. I tech bronze working, and are you serious?!?!? Copper right in Delhi's BFC?!?!? Someone is trying to tell me something. My workers are about to chop out some AI capitals for me. Forget the stone for now. And the ultimate bonus – goody huts are awfully kind. I clicked too fast to take a screenshot, but my scout just popped the wheel from a goody hut. Three goody huts, one scout, and two important techs for me, wheel and hunting. Really not even fair at this point - I feel like this has basically moved me back down to prince for this game. Oh well, this is my reward for all those stupid slave revolts I suffered through in the Joao game.
So copper is hooked up at turn 25 - has to be my record on epic. After worker/worker, I go barracks and then 7 straight axes - chopping the whole time. This is where the fast workers come in handy. They move to the forest and chop the same turn! Awesome - I'm able to chop out an axe every 3-4 turns. Shaka appears to be boxed in and coastal, so he’s the obvious first target. AH reveals horses nearby too – would love to be able to claim the horse and the stone after taking Shaka, but timing will be tight, as we all appear to be pretty close together. I love it – I’ve had two forests regrow already too! This has really been one of the best starts I’ve ever seen – forests everywhere, a scout and two techs from huts, and Shaka boxed in. I meet Pacal as well - further away, and not a concern yet. As I’m scouting, I see there are really some fantastic city sites around here, so this rush needs to go fast - I chop chop chop with no regards to health in the future. And, it’s time:
Look, worker steal too – bonus! I rushed Shaka with only 7 axes because I had a barracks chopped out, and look at the turn counter - turn 67 - for me, that felt extremely fast for a rush. I like to have 10-12 axes chopped out by about turn 90 for a rush - since this was so much faster with the free techs and fast workers, I figured I'd be dealing with less defense and fewer cities. And sure enough..
Ulundi was easy – lost two axes. He was kind enough to settle a second city – I decide to wait a few turns right outside to see if it can hit size 2 before I take it. A slight risk, but it’s a decent city placement. Not exactly where I would have put it, but not terrible – it will save me some settler hammers. Sure enough, 4 turns later, it hits size 2, and still defended by only one archer. My second axe did this:
So I’m done with Shaka. My main decision now is whether to go after Wang right away, or try to block some additional land from him. I was building a settler in Delhi (in case I didn't get any other cities from Shaka), so I guess I need to settle one more city, but after that, I think I have to try to take Wang. The way the map looks right now, if I take Wang, I think I have a TON of space to rex in, so I decide to go after Wang too. While doing that, I teched writing, and again, dropped to 0% research for several turns while getting libraries in. Then went back to chopping axes like mad (those fast workers are really amazing). I took the research slider back up, and went after Wang.
Seoul is on a hill, so I figured it would be a real pain. It was a pain, but I actually lucked out that he was just going to settle a third city. He sent two archers with the settler, and left an axe and an archer in the city. Three archers would have been impossible to dent on the hill in Seoul. He whipped a swordsman before I got there (he must have iron, because I didn’t see copper, and don’t have iron working yet). I took 13 axes to Seoul against an archer, an axe and a sword. I quickly remembered why not to rush protective civs before siege. I was slightly terrified when his archer was still at 2.6 after 4 axes had attacked, but my 5th axe caught a break as it beat down the archer pretty bad on 9% odds. Then it was easy – lost 4 more axes total, but the axe and sword weren't fortified and didn’t have first strikes, so I wore them down. The end result:
Three capitals. Now just need to finish off Wang and then it’s economy time. All the gold I have is partially from taking cities, but also from running 0% research for 10 or so turns while building my libraries - it allows me to now run deficit research for quite a while. Back to finishing off Wang - Wonsan
it takes some time because he has three archers in there, so I wait until I have 7 axemen ready to attack (all with 2 promotions because I got my first GG, and settled him in Delhi). It's flatlands, so even protective archers aren't that tough on flatlands against CR2 axes. Again, I debating razing, but as you can see it’s one tile from where I marked to be a good city site, so I kept it – again, monarch, I can get away with this, but I’m going to probably have to learn to raze this when I’m ready to move up to emperor. I’m 8 turns from code of laws anyway. And finally, Pyongyang:
Again, I decide to keep it – not exactly where I would have placed, but code of laws is close, and I'm organized, so I think I can handle all this - plus it'll actually be pretty good once I tech calendar and IW. So it’s 775 BC, I’ve produced exactly 1 settler, and have 7 cities, and this whole western peninsula to myself – I also stole a total of 4 workers, along with the several I’ve produced, so I think I have 8 or 9 workers right now, but probably will build a couple more, because it's time to right the economy with code of laws, chopped courthouses (yes, I still have more trees to chop), and cottages. I'm still going to be chopping and chopping I think - there's enough health resources to be ok without forests. This is where I stopped round 1. Empire:
Sorry that's a bad screenshot - you can't see Seoul up in the north. I was obviously VERY VERY lucky with goody huts, but all those forests and close neighbors, combined with copper in the capital’s BFC, this start screamed chop axemen for about 100 straight turns, which is what I basically did - I felt like I rushed faster than ever though, which was nice - the worker/worker start actually proved very beneficial with all the forests. I managed to fit in a couple libraries, so I’ll start running scientists to keep research ok, but at this point, as long as I tech economy techs, cottage, and fill out my land, it’s going to be difficult to lose. 25 or so axemen got me the equivalent of 5 settlers – I’d say that’s a fair trade of hammers. I only lost 3 total on Shaka, but lost about 13 or so on Wang with his stupid protective trait. Only one more city to think about settling somewhat soon - a super seafood site to the south for more health and food - I can't let anyone else get that site. Then I'll try to backfill 2-3 other sites I identified once my economy is on track. I may also try to get one more city towards Hammy or Pacal, since they'll likely be future targets. I also soon will have stone and marble, and I think I’m going after a wonder next. Considering mids, but may be too late. Also strongly considering Hanging Gardens again with the stone for the free pop in each city.
What’s gone well so far in this game are the goody huts (it almost feels unfair to get the breaks I did in the goody huts – I hope I get those breaks in my first emperor game), and the speed of my rush – the trees and fast workers allowed me to rush faster than I think I ever have, and keep the rush going. I haven’t played India in awhile, but I forgot how much I love fast workers. I have some nice production sites now, so I can potentially go construction for my nice elephants. Looks like this will be a warmonger game for sure - I have plenty of cities and production, and will have great stack composition with horses, ivory and copper. As a bonus, Asoka is well equipped to warmonger with his traits.
. Red and black so far...
need I mention fast workers ROCK!
for hindu buildings when the AP got built so I'm finishing off cheap temples now - which I shoulda done before anyway probably but because there's so much 
But with spiritual I can switch to Wang and Pacal's fav civs just as the vote comes up and get a bonus in time for it to matter (except 5 turns to switch back tho...)
