Preturn: I see we have 3 civs near enough for us to see now though we have met only 2.
Lower science for an upgrade or two.
July 1489: Win an attack on the IBT. We have upgraded one Bushi and built one. Kill two Xbow on attack with Bushi. Lose an Ash vs Ash fight and then getting 2 worker from a settler. Kill one more Xbow losing an Ash in the process.
IBT: Last XBow (of the first wave) attacks our Ash and we win. It is now a Grandmaster (elite).
Jul 1490 AD: Kill 3 XBow and lose 1 Ash doing no damage and it promotes - Matsue is at risk as I can only move in a Bushi to defend.
Rather than risk our capitol on attack 2 vs defense 1, I use our leader to kill the final one. Our leader promotes to Vet.
IBT: Matsue barely holds. Ube is seriously threatened by Barbarians
Jan 1491 AD: Upgrade a 3 hp Ash to a Bushi for Barbarian Defense. 2 hp vs 3 hp didn't seem good enough odds. We will probably be pillaged.
Turn research back on. We have a 3 HP and a Grandmaster Ash left.
IBT: We get pillaged and the other Barbarian steps on the Iron.
Jul 1491 AD: Kill the Barb on the Iron and Reg Bushi is now Vet.. Kill the other with our leader to try to get it to Grandmaster ( attack 2 4 hp vs def 1 2 hp).
Pop a Hut for Barbs.
IBT: A XBow and Ash are coming, but we build 2 more Bushi. We now have 7 and are feeling safe. Building settlers to grow fast.
Jul 1492 AD: Our leader goes for another Barb and is now a Grandmaster. Attack with our GM Ash (leader try) but lose doing no damage. A Bushi kills it and is now a GM (grandmaster).
Some good land to the SW. Game crashed.
Start work on Wheel.
Jan 1494 AD: Now light blue is showing up with units. We appear to be Surrounded as there are civs to the SW of us. Kill 3 XBow and leave an Ash still alive.
IBT: XBow attacks us on hill and we promote to GM.
Jul 1494 AD: Get another GM Bushi killing Ash.
Jan 1495 AD: Turn divisible by 10 so I end here. We have enemies to the South and I started setting up for that.
We need more settlers as well.
Notes:
It was touch and go for a while with the possibility of a lost town, but we did ok in the end.
We have 3 settlers for blue, purple dot and NW of Tokuyama. I would like to see 3 more pretty quickly to fill out our
space. More towns sooner means higher production and more unit support. We are going to need it being surrounded. Attacking is the other way to get cities, but the cities will be too far away to defend easily. The map not is wrong in that it says we need 4 more.
Not sure if promoting our leader was a good idea, but it worked. He is a GM.
Link to the picture above because I am not always seeing images.
Commander Bugs reporting for duty.
this was meant to be exciting, it's AW after all. 
