Whoo, won somehow.
Here's my start:
Wait no, that didn't connect properly, we couldn't continue that game. In that parallel universe, I was FIN/ORG of Rome.
This time, rolled Sury of Sumeria. Here's what my empire looked like at the end. I told you you'd get mad at me. Lots more forests earlier, which slowed me down, but got chopped into the 'mids. Plains hill plants are always good, with EXP. I mined the golds fairly late, I care more about food than commerce.
My strategy was to put Bob on the defensive. Did an old-fashioned choke, lost several warriors to bob's shock warriors, lost a woody II warrior in a stupid way, and fed even more warriors to his chariots.
I don't think anyone besides Bob got a good look at my land. I don't even think Bob saw my golds.
Otherwise, I sat in the corner, protected and safe, kept my power up, razed an aggressive city of Bob's, and managed to get away with it. I got more lucky
A decent bureaucapital. I should have reclaimed the golds from my satellite cities to get the commerce bonus, but I botched that one up
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I was also going to make a run for the HG.
Should have handed the golds to the capital, and worked rep scientist. Whoops. Sorry about the unimproved grassland as well.
An incredibly awkward copper placement. Only way I could get it before I got rolled by Bob's BFC horses. A few turns before my copper got hooked up, I screamed "Whoo copper connected! Choo choo here comes the pain train" to scare the crap out of Bob. I think it worked, he never pushed deeper into my territory. Diplomacy
Nevertheless, Eridu was going to get better as I spread irrigation and could get more tiles into play. As it was, it was a mediocre hammer city.
Finally, don't ask me why I was building a Confucian temple
Demos. Yeah, this is what happens when someone rolls a ton of easily defended land, and gets left alone for an entire game. Don't know who was #1 in power, but I was stronger than Bob. And no, I wasn't going to kill you off until I had a real technological advantage