to get 4 swordsmen. 
Not a priority.
Of course this was coming, but I hardly expected it this soon. I'm even actually AHEAD of Monty on the power graph, though we all know he's a nutjob.
Might I be able to complete that capture-the-iron quest? I wish the game gave some indication of the rewards. Well, I looked it up on Civfanatics - it's "4 units with that resource as a prerequisite". I can think of way easier ways to get 4 swordsmen. Not a priority.
This also means I need to shelve Code of Laws for the moment, and go with Construction for both elephants and catapults. And the need to build units means that I can't complete marketplaces before the 10 AD scoring deadline. So I switch tacks and flip Calendar to India for all of Meditation, Priesthood, Monotheism, and cash. Now I can research Monarchy, to get the wines online and fix the happy cap via police instead of marketplaces.
It didn't take long to clean up Monty's trickle of units (that chariot bonus vs axemen is splendid), and advance on his first city in this battle:
The catapult promoted to Barrage and suicided (and dealt zero damage to the axeman it actually attacked.) Still, that plus some favorable RNG rolls (a CR1 sword winning at 25% against an axe) got me the city with only one loss besides the catapult.
I took a turn to revolt to Hereditary Rule, and then took stock of the situation. Monty would surprisingly already talk peace, and even cede me 100 gold. With war weariness already in my cities, and the happy cap the biggest obstacle to my 10 AD scoring date, I took it.
Also, somehow Buddhism had spread to both Monty and me. Monty converted, and this would be a great chance for me also to join Team Buddhist and make amends with my aggressor. Done and done.
Also, at this time I happened to check the game info page again. That 10 AD population score I've been aiming for? It doesn't exist - that was back in Epic 3. In this game, it's land area and GNP. Well, since I'm entirely tilted towards the land area part of that, let's keep going on expansion. The Epic speed calendar means that 110 BC is the deadline to found a city in order to get the Creative border pop by 10 AD, so I got more settlers going on that.
When I saw India had Aesthetics, I matched that research, and went on for Literature -- but the Great Library disappeared only a couple turns later. I thought it must have been a Great Engineer, but none were in the event log. Maybe the AI got lucky with forest chops for a wonder?
Anyway, I went for Metal Casting next, since the Aztecs had it and I quite wanted the Colossus. I also went for the aqueduct and Hanging Gardens in my capital, but lost that to Montezuma. (Yes, Montezuma, whose AI XML file says he never builds wonders.)
This event popped up:
ARGH! For want of 17 gold in the treasury, I could have a +3 relations boost with my dangerous neighbor! The best I can do is the "hearty" option for +1 relations. And to add another insult to that, next turn Monty popped up offering to buy Meditation from me for 80 gold.
So here's an overview at the scoring checkpoint of 10 AD.
15 cities with a total land area of 255000 square km. Now, that demographics shot shows 343 for GNP, and that's what I'm actually running at the moment. However, if I set all the cities to build research, and go through and assign them for maximum commerce and specialist production, and change research to Theology to get an extra bonus on a devalued tech, I can actually inflate the GNP as high as 585. Which number to use, we'll work out on discussion day.
Team Buddhist declared war on Asoka again, which was fine with me.
I finally sent a spare chariot exploring across Indian lands, and contacted Louis XIV of France! I had no idea there were any more civs on our continent, but hello! He's slightly behind me in technology, ahead by Feudalism and Theology but behind by Aesthetics, Metal Casting, and Machinery.
Now it's finally becoming apparent that we seem to be on a pangaea, rather than separate continents. And since Louis won't sign Open Borders, I'm going to have trouble getting through to contact the last two civilizations. That means it's time to order up Optics and send out a caravel or two.
And I lost the Colossus by five turns! I really wanted that wonder for all my lake tiles, and I thought I got Metal Casting plenty far ahead of everybody else. This, along with the other lost wonders (Great Library and Hanging Gardens) left me extremely disappointed in my game plan. I had a bunch of average cities doing average things, with no real goal or direction.
Also, I'd become quite annoyed by the Epic speed factor (as I've written.) This game actually got boring pretty quickly after the first scoring checkpoint. With no real aim or interest to keep it going, I abandoned it.
I tried out Epic 16 and played it through to the conclusion and full report. Then I also played my Adventure 30 game.
Well, I finished those when there was still a week to go before closing on this game. While I was on vacation Memorial Day weekend, I also thought through a new plan for my Ethiopia.