Religious Foundation

As I mentioned, one of my failings in my recent games was not just getting the early religion, but also taking advantage of it, getting the shrine built early (before 1000AD would be an improvement!), and spreading it to my neighbors.  From reading other reports, getting at least one of the early religious wonders was a key to guaranteeing that early prophet, so that was my next priority.  After the first settler and another warrior, Thebes was ready to start on the Oracle as soon as Priesthood was researched.  With the Marble hooked up, it didn't take long, and I was able to complete it in 1720:

As you can see, I used to to grab Code of Laws, I hadn't researched Mining yet, much less Bronze Working, so no Metal Casting for me.  The benefit was getting Confucianism (I hadn't planned on that), founded in Memphis.  I used the free missionary to spread it back to Thebes, and decided that Memphis (which was already going to be my Commerce King) would be a great place for a shrine, so I swapped to Confucianism.  I wanted to try spreading it around, but there were so many barbarians around, that I needed to wait for better escorts.  Speaking of Barbarians:

Luckily, it was mostly warriors so far, but you can see the Archer in the south.  Also, note that my forces consisted entirely of warriors also at this point.  In pushing my early religious research I'd bypassed Archery.  However, you can see that Heliopolis is now founded (the former Pink site), and borders had just expanded to include the horses, so soon my chariots would be rolling out to take care of this problem!

You can see from the minimap, my horseshoe continent turned out to be more of an 'S', as I met Kublai and Roosevelt on the northern turn.  I had also only just researched Pottery (925BC), I still have to work on those early cottages.   

Fighting Off The Barbs

I knew that Orange was a great spot for a city, too bad the barbs got there first:

My chariots got a workout, but I had found it early, they didn't have cultural defenses yet, and I was able to take it.  Those Chariots would need the experience, though, as the next several centuries were a constant struggle with the barbs.  I was still trying to pursue my initial strategy, and got caught off-guard by the strength of the barbarian onslaught:

My Chariots had been doing fine mopping up warriors and the occasional archer, but when Barb Axes started showing up, I was in trouble.  I lost that Ivory camp, although you can see a new Axe of my own up in Heliopolis.  I was also shifting garrisons around (Chariots are good for that) to surge units toward the threat.  You can also see I have just completed the Parthenon in Thebes, after that I was able to devote production to more Axes and beat them back.  

Religious Expansion

The very next turn, Moses appeared in Thebes, and headed for Memphis, so could build the Kong Miao in 225BC.  Wow, a shrine in BC times, what a concept!  I was beginning to doubt my choice, as Hinduism had spread on its own to my newer cities, but I was really pushing missionaries (I like Organized Religion so any city with time can build one), and my priority was my neighbors.  My first payoff came in 200BC, as my missionary reached Chengdu, and Qin adopted Confucianism.  Here's the situation in 1AD:

Another pesky barb city (Gaul), but I would eventually grab it.  I had the outlines of my dotmap complete in the north, with some room for fillers.  Time to turn south (you can see I just completed another settler, worker, and missionary this turn, that's a good snapshot of my priorities!) .