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Welcome to Rome! This is an Immortal run with Julius Caesar, on-- well, I'll let the screenshots do the talking. I made a WorldBuilder save, meaning you can play one of the other civs on this map and change the difficulty, among other things. So after you load it, you first see:
Our leader and our opponents. I used random.org to choose 2, 2, and 3 respectively from the list of the least, average, and worst "warmonger respect" leaders. It's a good way of making sure the map isn't stacked too heavily toward peaceniks or Shakas. So while we're here, let's take a look at good ol' JC.
As a man of the people, Caesar digs Representation, a civic I'm stuck in once I unlock it with Constitution. That suggests running specialists, but I'll be doing a "hybrid economy" to get the most use out of the Forum (more on that next). He's Imperialistic, which is a pretty mediocre trait that nonetheless has its uses (I definitely softened on it in that Justinian game where it saved me 2 city spots). On the Great General point, I don't think the game ever tells you, but you get double points toward it for XP earned in your borders, so you get x2 GG XP normally and x3 in a defensive war (x4 if you have the Great Wall!). Organized is another fairly passive trait, it basically lets you run expensive civics more easily (such as going Vassalage to get free units and still paying half its "High" upkeep) and gets you discounts on buildings that improve your cities, as opposed to getting them going faster (like Expansive's Granaries).
Let's stop right here. One thing that a lot of new players to Civ games struggle with is keeping the long game in view while you're playing turn-to-turn. Civ 4 in particular has breakpoints where things you might be using get obsoleted, the biggest one being Scientific Method (which kills your monasteries, and the Parthenon and Great Library). When to get that tech and the game-changers it unlocks is one of the most important decisions you make going from the midgame to lategame. With Caesar and his discounts on Factories, I'll be getting it very late, definitely after Assembly Line and probably Combustion too, and probably using power plants to build wealth/research to catch up on the middle path (if need be).
Now, rule #1 in this game is "play the map," and if it turns out that plan isn't going to work, I'll change it. But note that I do have a plan, and you should too.
And the details on Rome. We've covered it in the thread, it's enough to know that Praetorians are awesome and the Forum is basically something you build when you would build a market, nothing more and nothing less. +25% GPP just isn't enough to bother with if that city doesn't have the commerce to justify it. Now, if you're talking about a food-rich and production-poor specialist site then go ahead and whip it if you have nothing better to do.
Unlike normal saves, you can change the difficulty and speed in a WB save, plus turn on or off options like Random Events. I normally play with those on, but I'll be doing this one pretty standard since we're focusing on gameplay and advice and want to minimize randomness. The save doesn't say so, but this is Inland Sea, with average sea level and 7 rather than 6 AIs (to balance out a land-heavy map like this). I figure it represents the Mediterranean pretty well, and it's a good break from islands and pangaeas. 
Ooh, double gold! I have to make an admission here: I used WB to modify the map! I'll mark it in the next frame (after I move the warrior to scout) but there was actually riverside gems here in addition to the gold mines off to the side. I swapped it for Iron, gems in your BFC basically invalidates the entire experience since it gives you such an early lead. The entire point of the BC period is to expand while balancing your economy, doubling it as soon as you get your worker out (since we start with Mining) is pretty crazy!
A quick check south reveals some floodplains, definitely a good 2nd city location. Nothing implies moving the settler (if I hit the obligatory plains hill, I lose coastal access) so we settle Rome right on turn 0 and start on a worker on that marble tile. You might think workboat first, since we have Fishing, but note that that's a clam, and our wheat is irrigated: it's the superior food tile, and we'll have time to tech Agriculture while the worker's being trained. (If we had a 3-hammer tile to get the boat out faster, I'd consider it; but we don't and the marble tile has that +1 commerce too.) So we start on that, with the "save research" trick just in case we run into a neighbor.
Area scouted by (and "by" also meaning "at the time of") the first border pop. We have some gems after all to the NE! Looks like we're on the western edge (8 players on Inland Sea probably means 3 on each side and one in the middle, so we'll have neighbors N and S and both a little east). This seems like a lot of commerce, but 2 of those dyes and the gems are jungled, so that's Iron Working to access them (plus Calendar for the former).
Next turn, Cathy shows up! I was kind of glad when the RNG came up with her (on Team Warmonger, in case you're curious 
), she has some unique traits diplomatically and those will probably make my prime target to attack, heh. Her scout was from the south, so sure enough she's our southern neighbor. She's Imperialistic like we are, so that means we need to emphasize securing land that direction if we don't want to fight her for it later. I'll start having my warrior scout that direction.
Ag comes in, and I start on Animal Husbandry next. We have cows and pigs in the vicinity, and since I know I don't have copper, it lets me look for horses nearby. Here's the thing, though: even if I didn't know that, I'd still make the same decision. Chariots are only a little worse than axemen for dealing with barbarian archers, and we need the food anyway. Since I'm Rome, my plan right now is to Oracle Alphabet, and trade something for Iron Working, it'll be faster than teching it myself. I almost never recommend that play, but I can't risk no AI neighbors not getting Alpha (I played a game recently where nobody got it until 800 AD, and yes, on Immortal).
We find Cathy's borders on turn 10, and a wolf runs out of the woods to bounce off my warrior. I have animations turned off after that Always War game (I'll turn them back on to get screenshots later), so I didn't see it coming!
I start heading north and run into Bismarck's scout. A lion left that forest tile, so it's a little risky continuing (even with the +50% bonus you still have a good chance of losing that fight) but I need the map info. The turn after, it pops up on the hill, so I fortify a turn and risk defending, counting on that "river crossing" penalty. The worker also pops up and I send him to the fields. I'd normally be tempted to avoid "wasting" a turn and mining that hill, but since I don't have the Wheel yet to make roads, I'd lose a turn coming back anyway, so might as well get the food first, it's more important.
Success! It'd be nice to get this guy to Woodsman 2, being able to sneak units through the trees to pick off workers is a great way to harass a neighbor, plus it makes scouting a bit faster too. I have Rome start on a workboat, too, since it'll take some time for it to grow and having 2 food sources will definitely help.
Another war-crazy leader pops up to the east. I didn't realize this until now, but Kublai and Cathy are both Creative, meaning culture pressure is a real risk when dealing with them. Chances are we'll be "dealing with them," all right! The espionage icon reminds me I should pick someone to focus on, and it'll be Cathy, I plan to pull something similar to the Justinian game and steal something like Construction from her before putting the EPs on someone else.
Since I have Woodsman, I go ahead and risk the fight with a bear to try to get the promotion quicker. It works out and I set him to heal, and after that I'll put him in fog-bust position (to also keep an eye on Cathy's expansion). There are absolutely no resources between the 2 of us, so I'll check the coast for seafood near those horses and cross my fingers. If there's nothing there either... man. I also start on Mysticism: I'll need it for monuments, the Oracle, and a discount on Masonry to get that marble online.
The workboat finishes on T26, and while I don't see any fish, I do see an island. Inland Sea tends to generate a handful of 1-tile islands, worthless for pretty much anything but do count for "intercontinental" trade routes. I'll have to grab that once I get Sailing and pocket the +1 commerce on domestic trade. Yay. I guess it'll be a good Moai spot.
There is seafood... but I'd have to settle on the horses to get it. 
I'll leave it for that tiny island. Man, the horse site is going to be worthless until Civil Service and marginal even then until Biology, but if I want them it looks like I'll have to settle anyway. I guess my plan is to settle 1 tile below the horses, farm one of those grass tiles, and work food-neutral cottages otherwise, best thing I can think of.
The cows finish on turn 30, same time as a warrior. I send him out to fog-bust the site near the gold and start on a settler. The +2 hammers on working a cow shaves a turn off the settler, thanks to Imperialistic giving +50% production. And the sooner I can start mining the gold in them thar hills, the sooner we can get farther in the tech tree.
Boudica's next, next turn. I think she's the only one who cares about religion of the leaders I rolled, and she's the only one with one. Well--
Hinduism was founded, but it must've been by someone on the other side of the map. Whoever it was hasn't spread it, either, since the % is lower than Boudhism.
My scouting warriors turn up more goodies, Ivory (too far from me and on the wrong side of Russia to help with Jupiter, though 
) and more dyes and bananas to the north. I've got some good stuff waiting, but I might need to bite the bullet and settle before Calendar to make sure nobody else does, even if they'll be subpar.
I just started on my 1st settler, and here's Cathy with her 2nd, moving to secure the Jumbos and stone. 
Nothing else for it, that's just less territory to fogbust and more to seize later!
Next up, we meet Alex, and my new warrior fends off a lion. A lot of the "low peace weight" AIs in this game have a reputation for being psychos, but in my book, Alex and Monty are the worst of the bunch. I've kept peace with Shaka and Genghis for an entire game, but not those two! And once again we meet him in the south. I assume most of the guys in the north must've scouted clockwise, I wonder if that's a scripting thing? On T35, the grass mine finishes, and in a nice bit of micro, I can switch the cows to it, and the commerce shaves a turn off Poly while still leaving 2 turns on the settler.
Antium completes on T39, and while I do lose a worker turn, he's in place to start on that gold mine, while the city grows on Rome's wheat (it has the cows and clams to grow and doesn't need a 3rd food tile). I feel the pang of settling off-river, but the hills will be fine for production and most of the levee tiles it could use Rome would also, and I'd rather the capitol have them.
Polytheism finishes the same turn, and I take research to 0 and then switch to Masonry. It makes sense to build the Quarry while researching Priesthood and then the Oracle can immediately get double production. I also put a marker down to the north... not sure who's up there, but that plains hill seems like a great spot, grabbing the dyes and still having 1st-ring food.
A wounded barb warrior steps in next to my scout, and I obligingly chow down. And speaking of, that move reveals some cows! Interesting. I was planning on writing off the entire south and just taking it from Cathy when I eventually declare, but now there's finally some food. Here's the catch, though... the city center tile I'd probably use, the desert the warrior is standing on, is 9 tiles from Rome (roughly, with some diagonals). That's a huge overreach and the city will cost a lot of maintenance, and take time to build a road to it (which would be a trick since I don't even have The Wheel yet). I'll keep an eye here, but I'm leaning toward settling viable spots close first, which means swinging north.
Let's pause again for some "advanced" discussion. First, you can see I'm building another settler already, instead of another worker. That's a simple reason: due to lack of a border pop in Antium and worker techs, there's nothing for another worker to do besides farm (which I also don't need right now). So I'm sending him back to quarry the marble, training a settler, and then I'll train another worker to send to the northern town. He can farm that dye, because by the time the settler's done and gotten to the hill, Rome will have popped its next ring. That'll connect to the 8 tiles around the new city, unlocking more tiles in Rome's culture and granting a river-based trade route (rivers allow trade, but only if it flows between 2 points within your culture).
The settler and monument both finish on T48. My first thought in Rome was to build a workboat and see if I can find the 2 missing AIs, but 1) I don't have Writing, so any coastal culture would block me until I had Open Borders anyway, and 2) the Oracle will have to be built in Rome, I can't chop yet and it's the only place with enough base production to guarantee a good build date (city #3 would be ideal so I wouldn't have to get a monument there, but this is Immortal; it might take too long). Since production in units starts decaying in 10 turns but 50 for buildings, it's better to "store" hammers in a building if you have to do something more pressing. Antium takes 3 turns to grow, so I queue a warrior (also 3 turns) and will get a worker next, after Priesthood will come Bronze Working, and then Wheel -> Pottery.
Perfect timing, the borders expand and meet Cumae's 1st ring, and instant trade route. Here's my logic on Bronze Working, by the way. This Alphabet idea is going to let me backfill some techs, most importantly Iron Working. I need that for defense from enemy archers, since I don't have copper and the horses are out of reach. This means I need the Oracle ASAP, which means chopping/whipping. On Immortal AIs self-tech Iron Working pretty reliably, and most of them having it means they're more willing to trade it.
I swear the game can hear me sometimes. The very next turn, it mocks me about the techs we don't have. 
The first wonder gets built, and we run into our first barb archer. As tempting as it is to put him on that jungled hill and roll the dice, I don't have a backup warrior in range if the archer wins, and winning against bad odds like that will score it at least 1 promotion, and make him that much harder to kill later. Plus, I might be able to lure him away from my cities. So I head NW to those trees instead.
I lose the archer, and the dancing around in the fog reveals 2 more city sites. I'm pretty confident I can snag the coastal gems (Cathy hasn't made it to her coast yet, and I haven't even seen whoever's nearest here, presumably Kublai due to his archer running around, though), so I probably want to push a little more inland first. This site secures horsies and still has food, and a dye Cumae couldn't get. I'll try to explore if the barbs allow and see if there's a better spot, though.
Antium's worker finishes on T57 and with its border pop imminent, I queue up a settler and put the worker on the 2nd gold mine. I'll work both of those for the commerce while he works on the pigs next, and then let the city grow. No real need to grow first when there aren't that many tiles, and the tiles are so valuable you don't want to whip them. Also, Rome built the Oracle so quickly I didn't have time to get Writing done first! I hope that doesn't cost me. I'll have it do a worker for now too, it should finish about the same time, and with the Oracle 1 turn away whenever I swap back I'll get it, if nobody snipes it from me.
This archer has 2 promotions, which is an example of what I mentioned earlier: he picked off a tough warrior (doubly so with the crazy AI bonuses against them, I've seen scouts survive barb archers on Immortal!) or archer and now has Combat 2. Fortunately, he's wounded and my warrior has +100% defense in the woods, so I park him and cross my fingers.
...well, didn't see that coming. 
According to the log he actually had a 30% chance of winning, much higher than I would've guessed. Being wounded does suck in Civ 4, but base strength still counts for a lot. Still, I send a warrior out from Rome and train another, and the archer dutifully suicides into the woods. He actually picked Cover, the anti-archer promotion instead of combat 3, that could've been bad! Still, losing a 6 XP warrior means no Heroic Epic before war, not a big deal since I've been planning for one anyway, but eh.
A few turns later, and it's 1560 BC. With Writing and the Oracle both 1 turn away, I put it back in the top of Rome's queue. 1600 BC is about the latest you want to risk it on Immortal, though if religious nuts like Isabella and Pacal are in, it can be straight-up impossible for a human to get (I've seen Izzy bag it in like 2500 BC). Of course, at least in that scenario you know early not to bother; the worst is when an AI gets it around 1900 BC, after you've invested in the techs and started building, but too late to collect! The result:
There are better techs to Oracle in this position, but we need Iron Working, and it probably wouldn't hurt to grab a few other high(ish) dollar techs like Sailing too. Plus, AIs will start getting Monarchy sooner rather than later, and it's always up for grabs; it has no monopoly value. Getting Alpha first will let us monitor the tech situation, and we can avoid handing it out until we need to (or somebody else does).
OK, let's take a look. This is still early, so the AIs aren't too far ahead of us. We can see that Boudica is the only one with any religious techs at all, and nobody but Cathy has Poly, meaning we're only racing her and the mystery Hinduism founder for the Temple of Artemis if we want it (which I've never done, maybe this is a good time ). Alex is doing horribly, the only one without Pottery (check "Can Research" to see the AIs' progress) and without Sailing to go with his Fishing starting tech.
So that's rule 1 of tech trading: know thy enemy. Guesstimate what the AIs are going for and try to cut them off or redirect them if you don't want them going that way (classic example is bulbing Philosophy: taking Taoism out of it makes AIs not want it unless they want the civic, meaning it can slow down their Liberalism race later), or sell them the tech for cash if you can't and they have some. Next, rule 2: know thy enemy's enemies.
OK, diplo situation looks basic. Warmongers and hippies tend to dislike each other, sometimes to the point of becoming worst enemies on first contact, and you want to be wary about "You have traded with our worst enemies!" Ignorance of the flaw is no excuse, of course; that enemy will hate you anyway when you finally make contact, but at least nobody we know is going to flip their lid when we start trading techs.
Finally, rule 3: know thy game. AIs follow basically the same rules for trading as you do (with the exception that they can broker the same turn they trade for a tech, you can't do it 'til the following turn), such as protecting [perceived] monopolies, not trading with worst enemies, needing fair trades (though remember AIs are at Noble, you're at the higher difficulty, so they trade at parity while you get penalized), and so on. You can see above that Bismarck won't trade Iron Working, even though the other AIs will. He doesn't like me any less, we're all at +1; so what gives? Simple:
He thinks he's protecting a tech advantage and doesn't want to share. All AIs have different thresholds for this (Mansa infamously doesn't have one at all, I think Sitting Bull is the worst about sharing), and here's the thing: they apply to other AIs too, not just you. So if you're trading a monopoly tech, trading to someone like Tokugawa (or apparently, Bismarck ) will keep it from spreading as fast as someone like Willem.
OK, let's get to business. Only 2 AIs are trading our precious, and because Kublai doesn't have Mysticism he can't accept Poly, meaning we can't actually muster enough value to get it off him! Normally you'd consider gifting him the tech (or selling it, if we had Currency) to get around that, but fortunately Boudica will deal, so we start with her:
...that's actually about it, huh? Well, we'll keep an eye on things. I trade Kublai Mysticism and Fishing for The Wheel (he'll get those techs quickly anyway, and I need it to start connecting cities and trading Pottery next) and call it a day. Since I do plan on trading for Pottery, I start research on Math: none of the AIs having Writing yet means they might be getting it late (and it trades late anyway, since it has a wonder), and it'll boost my chops and provide a discount on Currency. Currency is the tech that powers the Roman war machine: it gives us more trade income in our new cities, and lets us build money to get out of strike when our legions get too expensive.
This falls under "Know thy enemy," but here's another tip. AIs prioritize techs that access their favored civics and unique stuff, but they aren't smart enough to beeline them (I read that the AIs can only plan 3 techs ahead, otherwise it plays off weighted RNG). By trading Cathy Priesthood, she'll probably get Monarchy sooner. That means I can trade her for it, and if we're both in her favored civic, she'll like us a lot more. If we can pull that off, I might go after Kublai first instead. Now, these are both risky enemies to leave your back exposed to: they both plot war at Pleased and (probably, though I haven't checked) are a risk at "dogpiling" me if I declare on one and the other isn't busy. This means once I get some techs, I should try to get one of them to fight someone else, or join my war.
The Great Wall gets built, and our now-healed warrior quickly sees by whom: our neighbor Kublai! This means some barbarians are going to be funneled our way, good thing I'm finishing a barracks in Rome and the new worker is hooking up that iron!
It's still early (1440 BC), and this is about the point where you decide whether you want to "rush" someone, or go for a longer build and attack more decisively, with catapults (and possibly Feudalism if you want to vassal your foe instead of wiping them out). Fundamentally-- and like with pretty much every decision-- the question is what you get out of your investment. A rush gets you land, nothing more; because the AI hasn't had the time to do much with their cities. Sometimes land is what you need, but I don't think it is in this game. So I'm going to keep pushing north until Kublai wants to do something about it.
That also means the next step is shoring up our economy. I'll train a praetorian or 2 once the iron's connected, but for my workers, my plan is to chop a tree in each city into a granary and start putting cottages on those river tiles for more commerce. If we had stone, it would also be an option to do farms and libraries and run scientists instead, but without Rep they're not as good for research (more for Great Scientists, to bulb techs and get an Academy).
Antium's settler finishes so I start on another worker, since I need them and so I can keep working both gold mines. Once the pig is pastured it'll be worth it to switch and grow (especially since the gold will be connected by then for +1 happiness) but right now it'll be 7 turns to grow, that's 49 commerce I'd be missing out on! The settler heads for the more northern spot, fingers crossed it's the right call, those gems have to look tempting to the Khans too....
With my settler almost to site 3, I finally revolt to Slavery (just in time, Rome is almost at its happy cap, might whip a settler there and get started on the gems coast too). Looks like Cathy was going for Monotheism's religion first, and she got it, the first religion any of the 3 of us in the west have. I was mulling over getting Code of Laws for Confucianism, but if she'll send Judaism my way, why not go with that?
A micro note here. The mine finishes, but I don't have to road it, it's on the river and connects to the capitol anyway. However, the gems city won't be. So I move 1 east to chop that forest like I mentioned earlier, and it'll get a cottage and a road, and start the road network NE to get that site connected later. Ultimately, I decide to finish the Barracks (it's 1 turn from finishing, Rome is 2 from growing), put 1 turn into a Library, whip that (so it doesn't matter that Rome gets to size 6 and 1 unhappy for 1 turn), and put my slider down to build more gold, then get the research bonus when I put it back up when the library finishes.
I get a note that Bismarck revolts into Organized Religion, meaning he has Monotheism too. He's actually willing to trade it, so I do. I don't have a religion yet, but once I get one, OR is one of the better civics if you're a builder (and even if you're not it lets you train missionaries, which are great 
fodder).
Up in the north, my fog-buster spots that Kublai just build a city up there, and the barbarians are turned away by the fearsome aura of the Great Wall his direction. Good thing I mined that hill in Cumae and it's about to grow, I may be whipping my first praetorian soon....
Sure enough, even with the +95% bonus it's not enough to beat the archer, let alone his backup. I'm going to have to get the legion down to 1-pop whip range in Cumae, which isn't ideal but sometimes necessary. It has 6 production a turn right now, and praetorians cost 45 hammers; that means at least 15 to get it below 30, or 3 turns. Should be enough time even if the barbs keep heading south. In Rome, the Library whips for 25 overflow, and as tempting as that is to put it into another praetorian, that plus the chop should finish a Granary even pre-Math, so that's what I do.
Perfect. 
Uh oh. The sweet scent of poorly-defended village lured the barbs to Neapolis instead of Cumae. Now, I figured that might happen (that'd be the worst-case scenario, since it hasn't grown in size yet so it can't whip; always plan for the worst ) and pulled the warrior back as soon as I could, but I have a problem: it's not on the trade route, so I can't upgrade him. So I have the worker stop farming the dye and get a road connecting the city to the river, which will work. That means next turn I have to select the worker first, finish his road, and then I should be able to upgrade the guy to an axe and save the town.
Interesting. The barbs split up, I guess figuring why not try to get both cities? Cumae can whip the praetorian this turn, but I have a plan: I know barbarians love to raze cities, even more than pillaging. So I'm going to wait until the archer gets on that mine next turn, then whip the praetorian. He'll count as being in the garrison to defend it, but the archer might decide to attack before that. If not, hey, he would've pillaged the mine anyway (even a praetorian is going to have long odds knocking an archer off a hill across a river). I also decide to upgrade the warrior to an axeman anyway: yes, the odds are heavily on my side (warriors get +25% city defense, barbs get a penalty to attack cities) but they were the last two times I got killed by archers too. 
Ahh, our first beg from Cathy, get used to it. She's in the lead and the last thing she needs is more tech, but she's going to get Iron Working soon anyway. Might as well get the +1 relations, I'm counting on getting her religion anyway. She actually gives a +1 "fair trade" for it too, meaning... well, she probably hadn't even started on it yet. Oh well!
Kublai turns around and begs too. Same deal: this is early enough it's not going to hurt much, "You gave us help" points last for a long time and (perhaps most importantly) he recently got Horseback Riding, and while praets > keshiks I don't want to throw down just yet.
(Also, I checked and I totally underestimated the praetorian, he has a 95% chance to win even crossing the Rubicon, so I reloaded a turn and saved my mine. )
A few more turns pass, and I set my workers to start chopping infrastructure (this would be even better with a Religion to be Organized into, but c'est la vie. We're getting a monument (overflowing into the granary), which'll help qualify for the Statue of Jupiter soon, and it'll help hurry along another settler in Rome. Cathy also puts up Sailing for trade (Bismarck still won't part with it), but Writing isn't worth enough to get it, so I just ignore it for now. I have more important city sites to secure from Kublai than to get the better trade routes from that island.
900 BC, and I get informed that Boudica switched into Hereditary Rule, meaning she got Monarchy. She's going to trade it, and fortunately we traded Writing before, so she can accept Math or Alphabet. Math isn't enough, and Bismarck has Alpha already, so we trade Alpha plus Monotheism for it. Once the settler is out, I'll revolt into Hereditary Rule and Organized Religion. Sure, I still don't have one yet, but I will soon once I get the roads into Cathy's territory done, and one advantage to Caesar being Organized is that high-cost civics aren't really that bad, and it saves me a turn of anarchy later.
...or she could just send me a missionary. Thanks Cathy! I'll call that square for the beg earlier. I end up sending the settler north, figuring that Kublai will probably grab expansion #4 before the gems site and it'll take longer to get there, and put the overflow into another settler in Rome (I was going to get a workboat, but that can wait; I need to secure more land now that I'm about to get Currency), which will then get the gems. Fingers crossed Kublai isn't heading to either one yet!
Ahh, that might be why Kublai has been slowing on the settlers, there's a barbarian city near his borders. I'll keep my praetorian walking that direction: a legion should easily crush an archer as long as that city didn't spawn on a hill, so I might be able to snipe it depending on what forces are already going after it. My big fear is that Kublai has keshiks doing the job, they tear through archers too.
Aww, Cathy comes through on the religious front. Hopefully going into mission mode will slow down her crazy expansion rate! I'll swap civics and religion after the settler gets done. I also do a little tile micro, rearranging Rome to start on its new cottage while not losing a turn on the settler build.
Alex likewise comes with his hand out. He's so far behind I don't think I'll be able to use this in a trade with him, so I accept.
Ah ha, he was going for it! I had no way of knowing, unlike in the Justinian game where I was watching the pass toward Saladin like a hawk, but we can still chalk this one up to Imperialistic saving the day (or at least a city site) again. Of course, this also means imminent border tension with Kublai, so that locks us in: our first war will be against Mongolia, and we're going to need to try to bribe Cathy in to keep her from being turned on us.
Our praetorian goes to check out Circassian (Carcassone?), and we run into Victoria, one of the two "good" leaders. She hates us for our dealing with the warmongers, which is one of the big strikes against Civ4's diplomacy system for a lot of people, getting dinged with -4s that take a long, long time to go away that you can't possibly know about. What's especially annoying is that apparently her worst enemy was Alexander, who only has a fair trade from me at all because of a beg, not a trade, and she hates me more than him now anyway! I made a quicksave and try giving her Masonry (because we just met, it's a +4 "fair trade" to do so), but she still won't trade Sailing, so I don't bother. Guess we'll see how long it takes that trade penalty to go away!
My settler arrives, and... I'm conflicted. It's a dotmap crisis! You see, if I settle here, I miss out on the plains hill spot (and thus the clam never gets to be worked, unless I raze and relocate the barb city a tile closer... which I can't do since that tile is a mountain). If I settle on the iron to grab everything else, my Moai island won't have that iron to help build the statues, and in any case a grass mine is a very strong tile: food-neutral while still having production. And if I do settle on plains hill 1 NE, I lose the ability to work a gems mine, and again, that's an amazing tile. While I think about this, I sign Open Borders with everyone (since there aren't any Worst Enemies in play) and trade Cathy the rest of Monarchy for Sailing, so I can get instant coastal trade with anyone my workboat scout happens to find (plus Organized lighthouses where needed). Then I think some more.
...in fact I'm going to stop there. Help! 