Ok then, I've uploaded my latest game. What progressed in the last turn was a lot. Trust me, if it doesn't rain, it pours. I contacted the Aztecs, and signed an RoP for some of my incense. No worries. Their turn comes around, and the guy attacked me. Ok then... so now I have this Aztec army about to come knocking on my back doorstep. Meanwhile, the Incan's are also starting to travel across my land to face the incoming Aztecs.
Poor old me in the middle yet again.
OK. I sat down on my way home from work, and thought about everything I did wrong in the game. This is a mental list I've done up in my head, of my progress through the years.
1. Failed to mature my cities. In the mad rush to expand, I never gave my cities much of a chance to build up any commerce buildings (marketplace, library) or establish much of a defence. I only had two hoplites guarding each city. Really, my core cities, which are actually in the middle, should have been producing more hoplites to form a solid defence in my outer cities, and just simply on the field.
2. Not enough workers. Common n00b mistake I guess
As such, even though there is plenty of roads, and each city is connected, there is not much more land improvements.
3. Failing to mount a sizable offensive force. I had the iron and the horses, so why didn't I build a good army of horsemen and swordsmen so they'd be available when needed? This would have helped in the early stages of my war with the Inca.
4. Thinning out my defence. This was perhaps my biggest mistake. Rather than losing a city, I chose to try and defend with everything I had. Of course, that meant other cities were left vulnerable.
One thing I did right however was researching monarchy. If it wasn't for that, then I'd still be behind technologically. With the right trading however, I was able to jump up to being technologically "modern" Also, I was originally in republic, however WW was starting to hurt the empire, so monarchy was imposed to bring about order. Now however, I'll have to possible fall back from the tech game for a bit, and just focus on raising some hard cash to rush improvements.
The big dilemma however is, maybe I should start from scratch again. I know what mistakes I made (there could be others, but lets not go into city specific flaws) The big errors I listed are the ones I think that got me into this mess. I'm thinking of starting over, simply because if the Inca turn on me, it'll be tough fighting back, and I'll hardly be much of a world power. For now, I'll play it out (so expect an update soon). If anyone wants, I'll provide the map from 4000 BC, though I'll have to pull down another attachement to get it up (or people can just PM me with an email addy, and I'll send it on that way) Not sure yet.
EDIT::: And I just lost another city, this time to the Aztecs. Talk about demoralising.
I need a break
Next Edit: I swear karma is coming back and biting me hard. Just as the two forces (Incan and Aztec) are about to fight things out, they sign for peace! Peace!!! No way! Arrrgh!
Only a few minor skirmishes between them, and then peace. The computer hates me.
Next update:::
How stupid can the AI get? I signed for a RoP with the incan civ so they can go across and take down the Aztecs. But the Aztecs and Inca are at peace now? Oh yeah, one of the cities the Incan's took had a source of iron, and I saw a worker building a road. So I asked the Incan's what they wanted to go back to war with the Aztecs? They ask for iron... No worries, I got nothing to lose now. Back to war they go - one turn later.
When both forces thinned out significantly, I signed peace with the Aztecs. This was necessary to the next step of my plans. With an RoP with the Incan's, I was able to slip into their territory with a good squad of nights and find a few select resources. Think priming for guerilla warfare.
While inside enemy lands, there was no ground defence, just city defence. Workers were swarming everywhere, so the war worked in my hands. Anyway, my army wasn't big enough for much of an offensive, but the pillaging pretty much hurt them a little. Now there's no strategic resources, luxuries are basically gone, and so they have to rebuild a few roads. Trouble is, I couldn't maintain any sort of offensive.
Right now though, I'm just sick of this paticular game. It lost that 'fun' appeal I'm going to try again, seeing as I've learnt so much about where I went wrong. It'll be the same, just going right back to 4000BC. I'm going to keep the save of where I'm at if I feel inspired to go back to the game, but I'll keep you all posted on the new game, seeing as things will be much the same - stuck between two aggressive, expansionist empires. Interesting times
My bad.. I should have built up a strong army, but at least I got iron (x3) 
but basically at myself for such a poor strategic decision. I will get revenge
