Smaller version of 'that' game

[Theben]

Using the same options as the original poster used, but 'only' Huge map, and locked mod assets. Also dropped the # of continents/AIs to approximate the same area and number of AIs/continent.

So here's the 4000bc save, if you want a go at it. It's Prince level too, just because... which turned out to be a if not THE major factor in how this game progressed. If you don't want spoiler info don't read below.

[Theben]

No barbs is really something. Explore w/o fear. Send out your workers into the wild unescorted. Nice. I thought there'd be animals but no. I got a hut that gave me exp so I had a Woodsman II warrior running about. Ran into Ghandi early so I figured he must be close by, but turned out he was on the other side of the continent. I found a warrior near his capital after he had discovered Buddhism, and my Woods II warrior was closing in. Seeing as he had a worker within range of my Woodsman, and curious as to what was in his capital, I DoWed him. At least I could choke his cap with my Woodsman and get a worker out of it. Turned out his city was on flatland and had only 1 warrior in it. Not only that, but it had BOTH world religions. So I figured what the hey, see if I can take it with 2 warriors. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it turns out) he acquired BW somehow, and was able to slave off a 2nd warrior. There was also a settler in his cap and I didn't want it to make another city. So my warriors backed off and, sure enough one left. With my COM 1 advantage I was able to kill the wanderer and get Shock promo, which also healed me pretty well. That helped take the city. Needless to say this was HUGE and would not have been possible even 1 level up on Monarch.

I beelined Priesthood and got the Oracle, which gave me Code of Laws. Btw I should mention I got Monotheism earlier in my capital, and spread it to my "2nd" city which I placed to get stone. This manipulated the Confucianism religion to go to Delhi. I know where my Wall Street wonder will go when I get the chance. On top of that I found Gems outside Delhi also soon after capturing it. Can you say sweet? It helped a lot to pay off that maintenance.

So then I built my empire, nothing but warriors for garrisons for a long time. Probably didn't REX as much as I could but I tried some wonder whoring in my capital. Got 'mids, didn't bother for GW or henge, was surprised when someone else got the Parthenon before I found Aesthetics. Wound up not getting several wonders I wanted, but I didn't have marble. Later found gold outside my capital. Targeted religions... used a GS for Philo and a GP for Theo. Wound up with Taoism in Delhi too. 4 religions in 1 city, never had it so sweet. Figured with all these rels I can target DivRight and keep the AIs from having religion until I get Astronomy- and I did. Got Spiral, Sankore, AP, Ankor. Also 4 shrines now... 1 in cap and 3 in future-WS city.

When I finally met other AIs, they were actually much more advanced than me in military tech but lagged in other areas. Now I'm caught up except Banking and Engineering which I could tech in 5 & 7 turns, respectively, on marathon. Slightly worried about Survivor Man since he has a small army and navy and can research Astro. All the others don't even have Optics... most don't have Compass. Still I'm confident that any assault by SurMan will be repulsed when he has a window of opportunity, if there will be one. Right now I'm just laughing as all my religions spread across the world without any help from me... all the way to the bank.

Current city of Delhi & Kyoto below.

[Brael]

I tried it but it wouldn't load. I got the same message that I assume others were getting when trying to load my game where I had locked out the WB.

Oh well, I had been thinking of trying the game as practice with a spy based economy.

[Theben]

That's alright, I doubt it would challenge you. 1600 ad and I've surpassed all the AIs in tech by a wide margin and now have all 4 shrines in my future-WS city. Running 100% science with +130 gold/turn, it's a given I'll destroy any enemies I come across (which may not be many since most adopted my state rel). The only thing is I didn't REX as much as I probably should have... considering I could get +9 /city just from religions added and AP buildings, each one would likely boost my economy at start. I may play it more just to get over my fear of over-expansion.

I will say that no spies/tech trade is a bit more difficult. I think that at higher levels the AI tech leaders would have me at a disadvantage.

[Brael]

Be careful with the over expansion, that's something that really did me in on the map before. Between the map size reducing distance maintenance and the difficulty level, one thing I had to try to adjust to (and never truly did, even playing both games, the second one twice) was that what would normally be a bad play made a good play on that map. Once you set up the religions (and it doesn't even require WS) it became possible to make expanding profitable so there was no reason not to REX it. Even founding a city with no resources and all plains, with no fresh water, was cut off from trade routes and on the other side of the continent would be profitable. The only limitation was on how fast settlers could be built.

I made my own version of your map though, but with random events and one difficulty level higher. I've been wanting to try an espionage economy for awhile and Suleiman is great for it. So far I've picked up a couple spies, oracled confucianism, then traded around to pick up almost every other early tech, so I can go for nationalism before 1 AD. I'm still having trouble setting the economy up, but it's pretty early, barbarians are still around.

I'm trying to play it following a combination of ideas from a warlords style game and from a guide I found with some ideas on an espionage game. I don't agree with everything there but I think it gives a decent framework.

And yes, at higher levels with no tech trading you can't keep up with the AI, but at lower levels they'll not only make even/worse trades but they research slower so it's not hard to out research them.