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Our mission on this one is simple: try to build all the wonders. And if we can't get them all, get as many as we can. Sounds like fun. Of course, this will be much more difficult given the constraints on our military aggression. But I think that's very fair for a variant. This one's a true builder's game. I'm going to make every effort to play this without taking advantage of any military gains at all. In fact, I imagine I'll be relying in large part on the kindness of strangers.
I figure I'll need at least two and preferably three strong production cities. I'm sure there will be plenty of times when I'll want more than one wonder under construction at the same time. This will probably mean some rapid expanding early on because I won't be able to acquire good cities by aggression.
I'll probably need a good tech rate too. I certainly don't want to be relying on trading wonder techs with the AI. Seems like city specialization will be the name of the game.
The starting spot looks great with plenty of food and lots of hills for future wonder builds. I start with the standard worker build and Animal Husbandry research. (Nice that there's Horses at the capital too!) Buddhism falls early, so I know there's at least one Spiritual civ out there who might get a jump on Stonehenge. No time to waste. (Hinduism came in on turn 25, a bit early, but no one's first tech.)
Next techs are Pottery, then Mysticism, then Mining, then Bronzeworking. After getting a warrior built, I start a granary and interrupt it for:
Wonder number one is completed in 2440BC. Now maybe I jumped the gun on this one a bit since it came even before I got a Settler out, but I'm not taking any chances.
Here's a shot of my early city site plan:
My first warrior has done a decent job of revealing the local geography. I am quite surprised that I haven't met a single AI and it's almost 2000BC. (I even doublechecked the game description to verify that this was supposed to be a Pangaea. I actually moved the middle production city a bit in response to the copper.
I'm also a little worried because there really don't seem to be any other great sites for production or commerce in this tundra-rich outcropping. I don't feel any better when in 2000BC, Lord McCauley puts me dead last in the "Most Advanced" rankings.
1840BC is a big year. I meet my first AI (Mansa) and...
Wonder number two means I only have to escort my settlers to their destinations and I'm safe from barb incursions.
My third city occupies the other coastal production site I'd identified earlier:
A Woodsman II warrior has been busting fog east of this site and now I know of Justinian too.
On the next turn, we get:
...and we choose Metalcasting for forges and the Colossus. On the next turn, I pop my first great person...a Great Spy. I have no idea how to maximize my return on this, so I just settle him. (Since the spy's name is "Ephialtes of Trachis", I am slightly wary of leaving him close to home, but I decide the game doesn't try to follow history.)
Now, I've got multiple cities on wonders. In Paris and Orleans respectively:
And somewhere in there I birthed Moses (and put him on ice for a while) and settled my fourth city:
This city has two tundra hill silver mines and fish to feed them. It also blocks potential AI settler incursions from the northeast. And with forges, the silver will be worth 2 happiness in my other cities. This city will be profitable quickly.