A few quick comments before the game starts
A few thoughts
I think the main play in this game will be to kill Thrawn ASAP. He has shown in his previous games to be an extremely early aggressor, so its kill or be killed. I think CMF and TAD will be aware of this too, as they both were victims of his early aggression in past games. So, we will need to prepare for war and be ready to jump in if he goes after another target or be ready for him to attack us if we ae his first victim and then pray the other teams are planning something similar.
With that said, I think we will have a fair bit of time in the opening rounds to set up for war. Overall, I think I am going to focus on production and military build up, while we have you focus on getting harbors up and running, with a goal of getting a golden age and juicing science with Free Inquiry (science for gold adjacency).
I don't know how familiar you are with team play. One thing to remember is if either of us finishes a tech, the other will get the boost, if we don't already have it. I bring this up because it is good to plan out who researches what, depending if either of us can boost it and if we neither of us can boost a couple of techs, have each of us research one, so we can share boosts and help each other with research.
As for starts, I think I am going to start with a Gaesatae, which will finish Code of Laws when it is done in 10 turns. Once CoL is complete, I will go to Foreign Trade for the ship card. Once the Gaesatae is done, I will go for a builder, then settler (chopped), then 5 or 6 galleys. That should get me through PP with the culture rebate. Another builder would be good for more mines and culture. Will have to think about it. My research will be Mining, Sailing, Bronzeworking then I am not sure if I want Iron Working for my IZ or Writing for a Campus. Probably the Campus for a faster Iron Working.
For you, I am not sure what is best for your first build. I don't think you will need another warrior since we should be on a smaller island. Might be good to have hanging around to add defense if Thrawn shows up early (I don't expect anything until around T30) or if you are unlike and have a barb camp that spawns units (although, they are programed not to capture your capital). A builder might work but you really don't have anything to improve. You will want a settler as soon as you can. A slinger might work or a monument. I am not sure, what are your thoughts. I think you will want Sailing right away, so a builder might be useful to explore the seas around us for city states. There looks to be freshwater and a few seafood resources in the south, a your second city might go down there, so a builder might also be handy to improve them for CN.
I will have more thoughts as the game progresses and we know more of our islands, these are just some random thoughts. Anyways, on to the turn...
Turn 1-Gaul
Open the save and immediately see that Kaiser must have placed a settler and warrior instead of assigning the starts because my Gaesatae is a warrior replacement. No big deal, I am planning on building one anyways to finish Code of Laws but it will mean I will have to wait if I find a barb camp on my island (the Gaesatae gets +10 against the spearman since it is stronger than him). I just wanted to point it out.
I settle in place and move my warrior north and find a decent 2nd city location. I pinned out a rough district plan. I should be pretty fortified around my capital, since my IZ have a city attack. This is good, as it will allow me to help defend your coast if we get attacked...
I also have 2 nice +3 campuses to help with science. Maybe Writing before BW and an early campus, have to think about it.
As for Great People...
Nothing super interesting except for maybe the first GA, form a fleet. Might think about doing what TAD did in PBEM20 and save him and hope for the ironclad GA. I should get the 1st GE and an extra district slot might be nice. The GS is nice, since it could potentially finish 3 techs if you could get the boosts. He might be worth an early campus.
Now, we just need Incurian to join the game at PYDT and we can get this thing going.
Edit: Also need a naming scheme. Also, I haven't ended my turn yet in case I change my mind of research or 1st build before Inc joins the game.