Part 1
Settled in place. I tried animal husbandry first cause of the 2 sheep and the Mongols UU, but horses were too far away for my tastes. Scouted out Pascal with 2 warriors looking to steal a worker, and had good luck keeping my scout alive. He popped masonry and 200 gold from goodie huts.
Next, I teched mining and bronze working for the Silver mine and the possible Bronze. Lo and behold, instead of striking out again and being forced to get archers, Bronze appears nearby! And Pascal decides his 2nd (or 3rd?) city belongs on a hill with archers near my capitol. Ive had bad experiences with axes against hilltop cities on occasion, so I attempted to club the archer to death to get a free worker and failed.
The settler ran back home to Daddy, so I vented my rage on the gravely injured archer and sent of pair of burly warriors to camp in a forest across the river from Pascals capitol to keep him boxed up. I dropped my 2nd city on the bronze on the right, and my 3rd city between the cow and the wheat on the left.
Pascal's capitol gave out in 1325BC, and yielded a rich city ideal for cottaging and running specialists. It had stonehenge and was the center of Buddism, both very nice. I would have had to wait 25 turns before a great prophet showed up to shrine the city, but Khan waits for no priests!
By this time, my fearless scout reported back that I was stuck on something called a "Continent", and when I finished pounding Pascal into oblivion I'd be stuck with Catherine and Ragnar (psycopath) as my only trading partners. If I took them out, I would be stuck teching all by myself until optics. The decision was made to let Catherine live (for a while) and to keep both eyes on Ragnar. I'd beeline to literature for Heroic Epic and the Great Library in the meantime.
After some debate, I decided to settle the GG in Turfan because it could easily reach 22 hammers base production. Combined with the Heroic Epic, it would shine in early AD. After reaching Pascals remaining jungle city up north, I herded his workers into the city and butchered it.
Part 2
Now, the REAL Ghengis Khan would have pushed north into Russia, but I noticed that with 3 additional cities, I could wall off over half the continent from the AI and backfill at my leisure. Going with my trading partner strategy, I placed a tripwire/fortress city in the jungle for Ragnar to attack and converted to Buddism.
As the BCs ran down, my large empire was running 0% science, and I was scrambling to build cottages, whip lighthouses, and work scientists. I sent my spies onto Catherine, hoping for a glimpse of her researching Alphabet so I could trade, and she went straight from Math to Calendar
I bulbed Math using a Great Scientist, and was debating attacking Ragnar for gold and his Pyramids, when a miracle happened in 170BC.
The Americans? Where the Hell did they come from?
I double checked the map, and what I thought was an island was in fact probably something more! That brave fishing boat sailed into waters with 3 or 4 pirate ships just to contact me
I quickly grabbed the Alphabet and Priesthood from the Yanks, got Iron Working and Archery from Ragnar, and started a major buildup to crush him. The Great Library came online in 20BC, and Ragnar the trading partner was no longer necessary.
It is now 100AD on the eve of war. I've moved crack troops to his border, and have a stream coming up the nearly complete road. The plan is to strike fast, burn down his city, and retreat to the jungle fortress to await his counterpunch. When his main stack is dead, I will push towards his capitol, and only stop if I can get horseback riding to stop for 10 turns.
Here is my Empire as it currently stands.
