considering the charmed life our first hero led, i think it was almost ineviable that he was destined for greatness. He started life as a warrior but was upgraded to regular immortal status. His first taste of action was the battle of Baghdad, where he defeated a reg spear w/o a hit. He then embarked on a solo offensive against mecca, killing an archer but for a little while was vulnerable, on a road on plains with just 2HP. Undaunted, he killed an archer in the forests on the very next turn and the turn after gained promotion to veteran after killing a warrior, but still at 2HP. So thus far he'd killed a spear, 2 archers and a warrior. He then embarked on a pillaging affair of Mecca, and was taken by surprise when an archer heading south from Damascus attacked him in open ground. No trouble for our hero as he dispatched the archer w/o further damage and was recognized for his heroics by elite status. 2 turns later he finished the spear in Mecca, and the bravest fighter among the immortals, Darius, stepped forward.
Returning to the report:
Now that we have Mecca, i intend to round off by taking Kufah and then suing for peace, establishing Mecca as the new frontier of our territory, and a good location for a future FP, possibly.
IT: an Arab archer heads towards mecca; Mecca goes into disorder - whoops, guess I'm a little used to having the governor manage moods.
Turn 15, 630BC - though the culture flip danger is now great, I pile troops into Mecca to end the resistance.
Diplo check: those blasted Zulu now have MM - perhaps that is why their offer was so derisory; we can expect annoying AI settler galleys fairly shortly unless we secure our territory, so expansion now becomes top priority, then some infrastructure, and we need to improve our terrain ASAP using our industrious attribute.
IT: Arab archer moves to threten both Mecca and our slave, order restored in Mecca as the resistance ends, Arbela completes spear, starts settler
Turn 16, 610BC - Tyre founded on former Medina, set to Spear
Switch Mecca to barracks and whip it, mainly to kill foreign natiuonals, remaining 3 civilians changed to taxmen; our heroic elite immortal kills archer on hill w/o damage (would we expect anything else from him?!).
3 immortals gather outside Kufah
IT: Persepolis builds settler, starts Temple
mecca finishes barracks, starts spear
Bactra produces warrior, satrts harbour
Pasaragdae trains worker, begins pyramids
Susa completes settler, starts spear
Gordium finishes worker, starts temple
Turn 17, 590BC, Darius rushes Pyramids
Battle of Kufah: immortal kills spear, losing 2HP, 2nd immortal kills spear w/o damage, Kufah is added to the heap of ruins that are former Arab cities
Sardis founded in SW peninsula, starts temple
Time to quell the bloodthirsty rage of our warriors and settle to peace. In exchange for peace, we get Wheel, Mysticism, Maths, WM, Contact with ottomans, 21 gold, Damascus and Anjar - ie, everything the Arabs have, apart from their new capital Basra. The Arab threat is over, its time to consolidate
From our improved WM, we discover there is simply loads of unsettled land to the north, as our continent branches, to the east the ottomans, to the west the Zulu. Far from being on a small island, we are on a HUGE continent!!!
Whoops, bad news. there is a barb camp outside Anjar! Undefended, it will take about 10 turns to get military up there. So I resize; Damascus is on a nice choke point, and will serve as an excellent border. Given the situation and in a fit of charity, I gift Anjar back to the Arabs (let them suffer the barbs!!). Besides, it will be useful to have the Arabs as a buffer between ourselves and the powerful Zulu and Ottomans.
Amazingly, the Arabs have 2 more techs - Polytheism and Horse-riding; blast! We couldn't extort these because we lacked the prerequisities (Mysticism and the wheel), otherwise I certainly would have.
Found embassy with the Ottomans for 50 gold (don't bother with the Arabs, its a waste of money as they have no more meaningful part to play, and if that changes, we'll build embassy later).
istanbul has wines and iron in its radius, is building pyramids, due in 26 (haha! beatcha)
Despite the embassy the Ottomans are annoyed with us (word of the razing must have spread; the Zulu, however, are polite; razing cities is right up Shaka's street). Trade: I swap writing and WM to the Ottomas for Polytheism, TM and 5gold. i then give them MM for Horse riding and their WM (no use denying them it when the Zula and Arabs have it).
We are now only 1 tech behind Zulu (Literature), on parity with the other 2, and with Code of Laws due in 3.
IT: Pyramids built, Pasaragdae starts spear
Antioch builds temple, starts spear
Ottomans cascade to and build Great Wall - they must have discovered construction this turn, they certanily didn't have it last turn
Turn 18, 570BC - Samara founded on ex-Arab city spot, we have horses! Set to temple, we need to get as much culture ASAP as the next step in consolidation.
Mecca switched to temple, sell granary in Persepolis, but do NOT sell walls in Pasaragdae - they may not have come into use with the anticipated Arab counter, but you never know when they might come in handy later, and they have no maintenance cost.
Tyre switched to temple
Zulu and Ottomans now both have Lit and Construction, so they have already swapped before we had a chance to trade, but we will shortly use our monopoly on C of Laws to get even
Turn 19, 550 BC - units move
IT: C of Laws complete, research to Currency, 70% science, due in 12.
Turn 20, 530BC - Units move.
Trade C of Laws to ottomans for Construction, TM, and 20 gold (Ottomans have somehow managed to get philosophy as well; that must have been from a goddy hut); sell C of Laws to Zulu for Lit and TM
We are just 1 tech behind now, to the Ottomans, and once they lose their monopoly on Philosophy, that will be a cheap tech to buy.
Notes to next player:
we have loads of military units all over the place, i would suggest congregating them outside Damascus to form new border; do not pile them all into Damascus in case of culture flip (Damascus is right next to the new Arab capital). Leave 1 unit in Damscus, fortify the rest on the hills ouside; also, do not fortify them in the jungle: units fortified in jungle can die from disease!! (this recently happened to me in another game)
The settler/spear pair ne of tyre should get to the ex-Arab city on the gems; the settler/spear pair in the sw should form a city exactly 4 squares s of sardis to get furs online; the Arbela settler (due in 2) should build a city on the plains square sw of Bactra; Susa should build 1 more settler after its spear to build a city on the final Arab ruins in the far nw. Susa then needs a temple urgently.
Otherwise, now is the time for consolidation and infrastructure; temples, harbours, courthouses and aqueducts are very important now. with 4 luxuries we probably won't need colloseums. Once these improvements are complete, marketplaces and libraries will give us the economy and research to thrive later. Militarily, we should ensure every city has at least 1 defender, and defend the new border in the north more heavily (do keep some spare units in the south though, in case we are ever invaded amphibuously in the future) . Damscus should be Pasargadae mark 2 - Temple and walls ASAP.
Good luck Tiamat, and hope you enjoy; keep trading to get us into the middle ages; if you get the opportunity, you might wish to get some setllers into galleys, as there is still loads of land unclaimed around the Zulu and Ottomans, and also an island to the nw of Tyre.
Xerxes the vengeful retires, having had tremendous fun, and leaves the throne to his wise succesoors, who will lead Persia to new levels of glory.
and here's the save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/N1-530BC.sav
This is the 1st unit we've lost.
. I'm posting this from my mom's house, there's no telling when it'll be back. 
