Here's the core of my little empire as of 1000BC:
Finding horses in my BFC is sweet! The second horse just North of Gondar means my fourth city is going to be plopped down between the Corn and the Bananas over there. By that point, Gondar's Stele should be done, and its border popped out, blocking the region. I've refused Open Borders so far, to maintain my hinterland for expansion.
Here's the Northern part of my empire:
I was going to build my third city to catch the Cow, Incense, and Rice north of Aksum when I finished researching IW and discovered the Iron source. Catching Iron, Gold, and Sugar with that city should pay off nicely in the long-run. As you can see from this shot, the city location between the Corn and Bananas north of Gondar gets both the Horse and a Cow. I suppose I shouldn't be settling one off the coast like that (and like the Iron/Gold city) but I think that spot is the best option. I'll have to deal with that Barb city one of these days, too.
Here's the area to my SE:
Lots of Elephants! Crap location for a city, though, so I think I'm going to allow Boudica to expand that direction while I work on building up my core for the inevitable wars.
Here's the East:
Boudica is covering most of my border, now. She's going to be a pain, but I decided that her capital was far enough away that an Axe rush wasn't ideal. Since I can close off so much good land, I'll leave her alone for the moment. I'm using Gondar for my initial unit pump, once I get a barracks done there.
Here's the tech tree:
I just started working on Alphabet, so I can backfill some of my missing techs. I probably should have gone for the Oracle, but it's probably too late for that. With no Stone or Marble, if I'm going for any Wonders I'm going to have to chop/whip them out.
So, any recommendations?