My random leader this time is Ramasses of the Egyptians. The unique ability is a bonus to wonder production, so my initial strategy is to focus on wonders.
My capital, Thebes, is nicely situated with marble, cotton and cattle resources, and a good mix of river grassland for farming and hills for mining. Before even expanding, Thebes builds the Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Expanding to a second city is mistimed as another civilization beats me to the Great Library. I get some financial compensation for my hard work though, and I use the money for an alliance with Stockholm. My Settler heads south to gold and plentiful horses near Stockholm and founds Memphis in 1080 BC.
When I clear out some barbarians for Florence, I gain enough influence to become friends with them. I decide now that I want to try and pursue a somewhat diplomatic game, or at least pursue a strategy of making allies of the city states. To do so is best served by pursuing the Patronage social policy tree.
Researching Theology pushes me into the Medieval Era and I complete the Oracle, giving me 2 social policies in quick succession as I start down the Patronage tree.
A Great Engineer rushes the Hagia Sophia (for even more great people) and, with Thebes and Memphis looking in good shape, I send out another Settler who founds Heliopolis to my north-east in 75 AD.
The other leaders on my continent are Hiawatha of the Iroquois to my south, Darius of Persia to my east, and Elizabeth of England to my south-east. The first great war pits Darius and Elizabeth against Hiawatha. With Darius conquering the Iroquois settlement of Osininka, that seems to satisfy him and he soon signs a peace treaty with Hiawatha. That does however leave a lot of Persian forces wandering around my lands, making me a bit uncomfortable as I don't have much of a military at this stage.
I make a plan to build up some forces for a war I'm sure will inevitably come. I have a lot of horse resources, so I start researching towards Chivalry for Knights. In the meantime I build Pikemen, War Chariots and, eventually, Horsemen.
Then Darius attacks Stockholm, my city state ally. I'm still 1 tech away from realizing my military build-up and so I'm not ready to take on Darius just yet. I stay out of it and hope Stockholm can hold out against Persia's Immortals.
When Elizabeth and Hiawatha sign a peace treaty, Hiawatha asks me to join in a war against Darius. I ask for 10 turns to prepare as I've just entered a Golden Age and still don't have Chivalry. When the Golden Age concludes, I upgrade my Horsemen to Knights and begin the war against Darius. Both Hiawatha and Elizabeth join this crusade to get rid of Darius. Darius's army is soon destroyed and his cities fall in quick succession to my powerful Knights.
With the war over, I concentrate on making more allies. I spend money for Helsinki, Brussels and Tyre to join me.
Meanwhile, my Knights are growing restless and with a war between Elizabeth and Hiawatha having broken out, I sense an opportunity for some more gains. When I see Elizabeth capturing the Iroquois city of Akwesasme, I know it's time to join the war. With my forces mobilized on my southern border at Memphis, I declare war on Hiawatha and strike out at his nearest cities.
This is immediately followed by Elizabeth declaring war on me! Her forces assault the former Persian city of Osininka with my army nowhere near.
I'm now in a war against both remaining civilizations on my continent, with just one intrepid ship set sail to try meet some friends across the ocean.
Continued in Part 2
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