start on the coast, with a lake, 2corn, and sheep. cool. I scour around.
nothing. I mean nothing. Some wine up here, a gold mine over here. Cows to the east. nothing worth taking except the gold and the elephants in the jungle. which I didnt fogbust before barbs took it. to top it off Ive got zero rivers, my sea is 12 tiles big, and Monty is north, nappi is east, mansa south and Suleiman is west. hostile company. Well, I boot up my wonderwhore mode, let monty and sulie fight over who can convert me first to their religion (sulie won) and spread it to nappie. I cottage the everloving shit out of every grass tile I own and manage to grab swadie blahblah, the wonder that unlocks pacifism early. I cant keep up with their armies anyhow. Nappie and I stick like glue and Take out mansa, letting me finally expand to 8 cities. I just polished off paper, and will look for Sankore for the science.
Im not much ofa peacemonger or good at culture wins, but this (terra, I suspect) map gave me a real challenge. Shaka is rocking around successfully, Egypt is stealing wonders, and Oh god I need more money. The ai gets too much to also leave me broke so early.
CIV, emperor w/ai mod and random map.