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Terra map, standard sized
Hatshepsut
My first city, I moved my settler across the river to have better access to hammer tiles later, founding Aurora on the first turn. After calculating times-to-finish, I determined that I'll found my second city earlier by not waiting to get to pop 2. So, following Vel's advice, I went straight to producing a Settler. The tiles being worked were all flood plains, so settler #1 would be built in 25 turns.
My warrior had extreme luck with the 4 huts I managed to pop before the AI scouts overran the continent: Map on the first, gold on the second, Hunting and Animal Husbandry (!) on the last two. This was extremely lucky for me as I was forgoing those useful techs to grab all three early religions.
My second city, Solaria, I founded on a bottleneck to my south, limiting (for a while) Mao's expansion. My second settler was almost finished when Louis settled a beautiful fresh water tile on the coast, downriver only 5 tiles from my capital.
That city also grabbed the only copper resource in my quarter of the continent. 
Solaria built a Barracks first, and became my city specialized for defensive unit construction.
The early city and religion gambit paid off, however. I founded Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism (that last shortly after settling Solaria).
My other neighbors were Tokaguwa to the north east, who was on the other side of... Genghis Khan, my neighbor immeidately to the north. Doh! My north-west neighbor is Cyrus, and as I mentioned Louis is immediately to my west, clearly on "my" land. My southern border, on the other side of Solaria's isthmus, is Mao.
Elsewhere somewhere out there are Catherine and Alexander, west of Cyrus and Louis I expect.
For my third city, Atlantis, I sent my settler south-east, sheltered away from the other civs, taking out a stack of barbarians roaming nearby. They would be the last barbarians I would see as nearly the entire continent would be settled shortly thereafter.
Tokaguwa settles the remainder of the peninsula with a single city south-east of Atlantis.
This was perhaps not so bad, since in my first Noble level game, relentless Barbarian attacks hindered my infrastructure building and gave Bismark a good opportunity to take my second (copper) city. I abandoned that game, but it looks like the situation isn't much better in this one.
I built Atlantis to have access to Ivory and a second seaport town. As luck would have it, I would find out that Iron would appear on the nearby hill. But not early enough to do me any good.
At this point, Loius declares war on me. He sent a single Archer into my territory towards Solaria. It takes so long to get to me that I manage to build a War Chariot in time to take it out (Solaria has pretty good production, and will have Dyes and Gems coming in if I manage to get a worker down there).
I can build Archers and War Chariots (and Warriors, not that those are any good). I build two War Chariots, an extra Archer, and send out a Warrior as well. This task force meets up on the hill just east of Orleans. By the time I get this group organized, an Axeman emerges from the city and starts waltzing towards my capital, defended by a single archer. I start building Walls there.
Clearly, this war needs to end fast. My first counter-aggression is to destroy the mine on the Copper resource. That axeman is the only one Louis is going to get, and fortunately he doesn't use it to weaken my attack force.
Orleans is defended by two archers, both with +strength. Once my chariot gets back from his copper adventure, I begin my attempt to capture Orleans.
My first chariot attack is victorious, taking down one archer. I send in a warrior to soften up the remaining archer, and he somehow manages to take out a HP before being destroyed. Unfortunately, my follow-up attack with my other Chariot is unsuccessful, leaving the defending archer with 1 HP. With fingers crossed, I send in my own archer, and Orleans is mine!
I rename the city Antilla and send a worker over to get the copper resource up and running. I ask Louis for peace, and he accepts.
In the mean time, I flip between Buddhism and No State Religion, trying desperately to keep a production bonus while also keeping the other civs from getting too iritated with me. Genghis had already attacked the Persians and asked me for help... which I had to refuse. Eventually, all my neighbors except Louis convert to Buddhism -- even Genghis -- so I go back and stay with Buddhism, hoping to score enough good points with the Mongols to keep him off my back.
I have a few turns of peace, trying to get my bounty of resources connected.
Genghis cancels Open Borders with me... and I get worried.
Two turns later, the point at which I saved and quit for the night, he declares war and sends three Keshyks across the border. I tried to appease him with cows and other health stuff I could spare... but he just let those deals cancel with the war declaration.
I have three chariots, five archers, two warriors, one axeman, and one spearman, spread out among four cities, and two workers busy getting things connected. My capital has Walls, an Archer, and an Axeman, and it looks like it's Ghengis's first target. It also has the Buddhism shrine, which is the only reason I'm able to run science at 100% (I was -13 with science at 100% before then :O).
I'm not on good enough terms with Japan to even get open borders, let alone get him on my side against Khan. Khan and I share religions, as do all my immediate neighbors. However, we're all still at Cautious due to the tight borders.
I have no idea what I'm going to be able to do to hold on to Aurora when I pick the game back up tonight.
Help please? I had such a great start on this game that I don't want to give up just because Genghis is being a complete jerk. I don't know if I'll be able to survive if he manages to take my capital.
Aurora*: 1 Archer, 1 Axeman, Walls
Solaria: 5 tiles S of capital, 2 Archers, Horses connected
Atlantis: 5 tiles SE of capital, 1 Archer, 1 Spearman, iron connected
Antilla: 5 tiles SW of capital, 1 War Chariot, 1 Archer, copper connected
Hatshepsut
My first city, I moved my settler across the river to have better access to hammer tiles later, founding Aurora on the first turn. After calculating times-to-finish, I determined that I'll found my second city earlier by not waiting to get to pop 2. So, following Vel's advice, I went straight to producing a Settler. The tiles being worked were all flood plains, so settler #1 would be built in 25 turns.
My warrior had extreme luck with the 4 huts I managed to pop before the AI scouts overran the continent: Map on the first, gold on the second, Hunting and Animal Husbandry (!) on the last two. This was extremely lucky for me as I was forgoing those useful techs to grab all three early religions.
My second city, Solaria, I founded on a bottleneck to my south, limiting (for a while) Mao's expansion. My second settler was almost finished when Louis settled a beautiful fresh water tile on the coast, downriver only 5 tiles from my capital.
That city also grabbed the only copper resource in my quarter of the continent. Solaria built a Barracks first, and became my city specialized for defensive unit construction.
The early city and religion gambit paid off, however. I founded Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism (that last shortly after settling Solaria).
My other neighbors were Tokaguwa to the north east, who was on the other side of... Genghis Khan, my neighbor immeidately to the north. Doh! My north-west neighbor is Cyrus, and as I mentioned Louis is immediately to my west, clearly on "my" land. My southern border, on the other side of Solaria's isthmus, is Mao.
Elsewhere somewhere out there are Catherine and Alexander, west of Cyrus and Louis I expect.
For my third city, Atlantis, I sent my settler south-east, sheltered away from the other civs, taking out a stack of barbarians roaming nearby. They would be the last barbarians I would see as nearly the entire continent would be settled shortly thereafter.
Tokaguwa settles the remainder of the peninsula with a single city south-east of Atlantis. This was perhaps not so bad, since in my first Noble level game, relentless Barbarian attacks hindered my infrastructure building and gave Bismark a good opportunity to take my second (copper) city. I abandoned that game, but it looks like the situation isn't much better in this one.
I built Atlantis to have access to Ivory and a second seaport town. As luck would have it, I would find out that Iron would appear on the nearby hill. But not early enough to do me any good.
At this point, Loius declares war on me. He sent a single Archer into my territory towards Solaria. It takes so long to get to me that I manage to build a War Chariot in time to take it out (Solaria has pretty good production, and will have Dyes and Gems coming in if I manage to get a worker down there).
I can build Archers and War Chariots (and Warriors, not that those are any good). I build two War Chariots, an extra Archer, and send out a Warrior as well. This task force meets up on the hill just east of Orleans. By the time I get this group organized, an Axeman emerges from the city and starts waltzing towards my capital, defended by a single archer. I start building Walls there.
Clearly, this war needs to end fast. My first counter-aggression is to destroy the mine on the Copper resource. That axeman is the only one Louis is going to get, and fortunately he doesn't use it to weaken my attack force.
Orleans is defended by two archers, both with +strength. Once my chariot gets back from his copper adventure, I begin my attempt to capture Orleans.
My first chariot attack is victorious, taking down one archer. I send in a warrior to soften up the remaining archer, and he somehow manages to take out a HP before being destroyed. Unfortunately, my follow-up attack with my other Chariot is unsuccessful, leaving the defending archer with 1 HP. With fingers crossed, I send in my own archer, and Orleans is mine!
I rename the city Antilla and send a worker over to get the copper resource up and running. I ask Louis for peace, and he accepts.
In the mean time, I flip between Buddhism and No State Religion, trying desperately to keep a production bonus while also keeping the other civs from getting too iritated with me. Genghis had already attacked the Persians and asked me for help... which I had to refuse. Eventually, all my neighbors except Louis convert to Buddhism -- even Genghis -- so I go back and stay with Buddhism, hoping to score enough good points with the Mongols to keep him off my back.
I have a few turns of peace, trying to get my bounty of resources connected.
Genghis cancels Open Borders with me... and I get worried.
Two turns later, the point at which I saved and quit for the night, he declares war and sends three Keshyks across the border. I tried to appease him with cows and other health stuff I could spare... but he just let those deals cancel with the war declaration.
I have three chariots, five archers, two warriors, one axeman, and one spearman, spread out among four cities, and two workers busy getting things connected. My capital has Walls, an Archer, and an Axeman, and it looks like it's Ghengis's first target. It also has the Buddhism shrine, which is the only reason I'm able to run science at 100% (I was -13 with science at 100% before then :O).
I'm not on good enough terms with Japan to even get open borders, let alone get him on my side against Khan. Khan and I share religions, as do all my immediate neighbors. However, we're all still at Cautious due to the tight borders.
I have no idea what I'm going to be able to do to hold on to Aurora when I pick the game back up tonight.
Help please? I had such a great start on this game that I don't want to give up just because Genghis is being a complete jerk. I don't know if I'll be able to survive if he manages to take my capital.
Aurora*: 1 Archer, 1 Axeman, Walls
Solaria: 5 tiles S of capital, 2 Archers, Horses connected
Atlantis: 5 tiles SE of capital, 1 Archer, 1 Spearman, iron connected
Antilla: 5 tiles SW of capital, 1 War Chariot, 1 Archer, copper connected
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