)
The package that Democracy delivers is just too big. An awesome pot of economic civic synergy, the Emancipation happiness penalty, early cash rushing, and finally an early Statue of Liberty.
Now to our game at hand. After moving the warrior to a nearby hill, we see this:
Marble! Well, that means we very likely want to go for both the Oracle and Great Library, so we'll plan for those. And I think an Oracle-CS slingshot is pretty obvious here as well.
And there's a cow over there, just out of range of the starting capital location. Well, seems pretty obvious to me to walk the settler west one space to pick it up. (Moving north onto the hut would also get both resources, but would leave poor spacing for marble city over on the coast.)
With Agriculture in hand and corn right next to the city, Worker First had to be the rule of the day.
The hut popped maps. (How exactly did those guys know about those icebergs a thousand miles away but not about the other side of our lake right here? )
First research was hard to pick, since we don't have a super-immediate need for anything. I went with Animal Husbandry, since it's the quick path to Writing and we do have cattle to improve.
And here's a popup I've never seen before:
Good question. Do we revolt to our Universal Suffrage / Emancipation combo right away. I decided not to. The civics don't offer anything until we have some cash to spend or a cottage to work or a rival is at the happy cap. By waiting until later to have the one turn of anarchy, we can get more done during that one turn -- in the form of moving exploring units and applying worker labor. (Yes. I micromanage everything. 
)
And a few turns later, I snagged another hut full of ice fishermen:
Also I changed my mind on Animal Husbandry and picked up Hunting first instead. I wanted scouts to explore faster, and also Hunting is an optional prereq for AH so lowers its price.
Oh ho! What do we have here?
That's some spicy sushi! Now, I'm aware that early worker stealing is something of a cheese move by RBCiv standards. But it's not outlawed. And I've never before had the chance to use it. And we're already breaking the game in this one. And this is freakin' Tokugawa, who hates everybody and deserves a slapdown anyway.
A Japanese counterattacking archer killed my warrior, but the worker slipped away. And thanks to cover from a friendly Incan archer, my stolen worker made it home without any animal muggings.
And with a war on, I figured I'd better pick up Archery after Animal Husbandry. Next came The Wheel so the workers would continue to have useful things to do, and as the prereq for Pottery.
Beijing built two archers after two scouts, and leveled off at the size-5 happy cap as it started training a settler.
Also, one hut had popped cash for me, and the AI capitals were now growing, so it was time to make the civic swap to Universal Suffrage and Emancipation. And Tokugawa signed peace after an archer of mine popped a scout of his.
City Two came in 2160 BC, at this location:
It's cramped in with Beijing, but this is an excellent location for the following reasons:
Hinduism spread from Huayna, who founded it, into my capital. Whether to revolt was a tough call. Being buddies with Huayna sounded like a pretty good idea -- but Montezuma the Insane is also right on my doorstep and Buddhist. So not yet.
So Beijing built merrily along, training a total of three settlers while researching up to Writing and Priesthood and Code of Laws, then started on the Oracle with proper timing to sling Civil Service. I didn't try to found any religions; there was no need. My workers carpeted the place in cottages, of course, which quickly grew to hamlets and villages.
City Three came at another flood plains site to the west. City Four snagged the marble and got it quarried in time to start the Oracle. Barbarians bothered me a little bit, especially without Slavery to pop an instant defender if required, but a handful of archers took care of them.
And then disaster struck.
KUH-RAP. Three turns away from the Oracle slingshot (Beijing could be reconfigured for more hammers), somebody else grabs the wonder. Nuts. NUTS. OK, it's been a while and I forgot how to do an Oracle slingshot properly. You really do need a Library to run scientists for research and the Academy to get to CoL in time. I kept training settlers instead, planning that the Democracy-boosted cottages would make up the research, but that obviously didn't quite happen in time. And the other point that I missed is that Beijing is not on a river. If it was, I'd have about 200 more beakers in my coffers (something like four tiles times 50 turns), and would have made it.
That said, 900 BC on Monarch difficulty for the Oracle is still on the early side, especially considering that the AIs have my Emancipation-inflicted happiness penalty.
Well, OK, what now? In fact, I do NOT want to finish Code of Laws now. I want Buddhism to spread into my lands so I can get on Montezuma's good side. And founding Confucianism will block one potential chance for that.
Rather, time to finally pick up Bronze Working so I can find my metal if there's any. Turned out there was copper right there at Beijing, already mined. And Beijing will now do its library in preparation for the Great Library while we research Literature, since that wonder is also a natural choice as a Philo civ with Marble.
The Pyramids also fell to Japan and Stonehenge to the English at this time.
WHOA!
That is a HUGE HUGE pop! I'm having terrible problems with the happy cap here. Health is OK with corn, cattle, rice, and crabs -- but currently all my cities are still stuck at the default happy cap of 4. Having those gems pop up right there for an instant happy face everywhere, plus a second with Forges that are coming soon, is gigantic. And Nanjing only even worked that hill for about five turns to get that work boat out, then it was going to go back to cottages. Better to be lucky than good.
