Zara Yacob - the tech powerhouse

[pawelo]

I don't know how you manage him, but this guy is simply an early tech monster.
In my current game, I beelined BW for chopping/whip (he starts with Mining, making it even faster), Priesthood for Oracle, Writing for Libs and CoL slingshot from Oracle, and having built/whipped Libraries and Courthouses all over the empire, I was able to expand like hell, having 10 cities of my own, running at 90% break even before 1AD.
Playing Prince/Huge/Marathon/Continents/16AI.
I am pretty sure this works on other settings. Once you get to this point, the only thing you need is beelining Gunpowder and crushing your neighbors with Kinghts/Trebs/Oromos.

 

[mice]

Marathon speed must be great with Zara. I'm gonna try that.

Ethiopia always seems to go right for me. Maybe the starting techs and traits - heaps of culture . I like Stonehenge too just to finish off any chance of another culture cramping my borders.

 

[pawelo]

I actually dropped the Stonehenge, to get the grip on GW and Oracle.

I figured that on huge Continents map, barbs will rampage any time, and starting with plenty of tundra/ice to the north it will be a major annoyance. This way, I managed to let them go after my Incan buddy, who shares the north part of the continent with me BTW, at the time I got GW, three archers were about to enter my borders

This early Oracle CoL slingshot is just perfect with an Org leader like Zara. The only problem is the defense - before Oromo, you better spread your beliefs to your neighbors, otherwise you're pants down to an early aggression ( see Shaka, Monty & co ).