Our warriors leave Beijing and explore the surrounding lands, which are fertile. We can get six good solid cities around our capitol without much overlap, and all but one are on rivers.
I am very happy with our starting position.
We research bronzeworking and crank science to 100%. 20 turns.
Building mines on as many wine tiles as possible.
Settler builds our second city, Chonquing.
Spearmen now can be built, we begin work on the wheel.
Not too much else happens in 20 turns, so I play 10 turns extra.
All of the sudden, all hell breaks loose.
4 goody huts popped, 3 contain barbarians.
1 warrior lost in the east as a foriegn warrior is spotted, contact never established. 2 warriors go elite.
The last hut gives us a Mongol settler! [dance]
A different, foriegn warrior appears from the west : PERSIA! @#$%&*!!!
Xerxes already has ironworking... :suicide:
He is
not interested in trading that information either.
Barbarians begin to appear in large numbers everywhere.
One of our elite warriors saves the new settler just in time from being slaughtered.
2 more barbs chase us all the way back to the edge of our border, where a new spearman saves them and Tianjin is founded with 3 (three!) cattle in its future radius.
I think Tianjin will be a powerhouse with some irrigation on those cattle. Worker ordered.
Meanwhile, a barb kills another regular warrior
fortified on a mountain ! I was trying to explore east again, and find the mystery warrior.
Apparently the Gods do not want this to happen.
End my turn in fair shape. We have alphabet and are working on writing.
New settler in position with spear escort, just push "B" and our 4th city will exist and bring us horses.
Xerxes wants alphabet, the wheel and 50 gold for ironworking.
I said no, but the next player can veto this and trade if they want to.
After looking at the map, I noticed we can build 2 "canal cities" that would link up through a lake. This would also bring us gems and another horse.
I proposed the locations on my screenshot.
There is also ivory near these spots.
We should expand that way.
Word to the wise:
Do not move settlers without spearmen!
The barbs are tougher than on regent (which I forgot, and was quickly reminded).
This will be a tough game, but I hope a good one.
What's nyou? For cows, shld be niu. Maybe nyou is fr one of the dialectic forms. <shrugs> 
