Disclaimer: I normally play Standard, Pangea, 7 civ Maps, Marathon

When u ready for it dummy

Second city costs about 3 gold right off the bat, but only produces 1 gold in home tile money & 1 gold if there is a trade route. So by founding a second city from the get go will slow ur research. Best is to let ur capital grow. In the meantime, u research the essencial worker techs w/gold from palace. All AI will found their second cities & will slow down to about ur research pace, which will let u play catch up for a while. Dont get cought up in that though. After u improve about 3 tiles around ur palace (at least 1 has to be a gold producing tile such as cottage/river bank/gold mine), get a settler. Move ur worker/s towards ur intended 2nd city site.

Should you cottage grassland or plains?

If you are producing plenty of food, you should cottage the plains. At the begining, the capital only produces 1hmr. So an additional hammer from working the plains, will mean a 100% increas in your hammer production.

An early settler or a late one?

If the capital lacks any good sourse of food, an early settler becomes a priority. This settler will ideally settle a foodrich source. To build a settler as soon as possible in a low food environment, means hammers. There are 3 ways to produce hammers: 1 Mining; 2 Chopping; 3 cow/plains pasture.

On the tech front priority is getting good defense (Archery) & hmr production (when food is scarse, hmrs will have to build the settler).

Tech order:

1st - Hunting. Aztec, Celtic, Ethiopian, German, Greek, Holy Roman, Khmer, Mongolian, Persian, Russian, Viking, Zulu start with this tech. So their 1st tech can be Archery

 2nd - Archery

3rd - Mining/Animal Husbandry AH is a food/strategic technology. In case cows/plains (please note that cows/grassland is not a poor food site)

you are going to have to use hammers to get your settlerSo you try to increas hammers in your bid to build a second settler as soon as possible. But since you are going for a settler so early, you should take nessesary precoutions. In a poor food start capital, your 1st tech should be archery. This will afford you the luxury of being a lot more flexible in your hammer allocation (hammers are the scarsest resource @ the beginning). An archer costs 50hmr & a warrior costs 30hmr, but an archer can reliably withstand the onslaught of barb archers that will start before long (around 3500bc). A warrior will most likely will not survive the incounter.

Head north me son (or south if born underneath)!

Tundra is teaming w/wolves. U get there & park next to a hill (not on top a hill). In about 15 turns, u'll have a warrier w/2woodsman promotions. If a bear happens to walk by, jump on the hill away from the bear. The hill should ideally be forrested, but the tile u park on should not.

Yes!

Promote hillman for 1st promotion (use tundra trick but try to stay in da bushes), next promotion do woodman. If u are ever so lucky as to get to 10xp do the 2nd woodman. Now that should give u a scount w/good overall survivability chances.

I do typically wait awhile, but I don't know if I wait that long...

U get a worrier. If u dont, get 1 asap.

Woodsman 2 worriors are like worker farms. Steal, Steal, Steal untill u cant steal no more (u stoel so amny that it is blreaking the bank). Untill about turn 150 u can safely wage war against 2 neiboring AI. Get all their workers, pillage all farms, roads, etc. They will be meat for the AI u dont war on (watch out for ur victim's neibors, they get big). U ought to build 1 worker (started either on turn 1 for civs that get free worrior, or after ur 1st warrior) just in case.

Convert! U gotta suck it up untill, u can kick it up.

Assist the leader in whatever they do. They come around asking for assistance in war, say yes. They come around asking for ur extra iron, say yes (u should never hook up mroe than 1 iron source but thats another subject). In short suck it up to them, & they will throw u a bone every once in a while (loyal dog that u are ). An occasional bone means Alphabet, Currency, or some such teck, when ur own research time is 100+ turns.

Alx, u lame duck.

He is much about luck. Ideal locations for hum are costal, where he gets to have a fish. But not too much watter, bcz water is even lamer than old Alex himselfe. If u get gems/silver/gold right out of reach of ur capital, do take couple turns to move to that location, bcz u gonna need those. Do Mining as ur 1st tech, otherwize Arhtery. Dont even bother w/worker. Just get couple archers & go worker hunting. If Fish are not present, start w/settler (turn 1). Follow up w/archers. If clams are present & u settled so that home tile is yielding 2 sheilds & a 2 sheild tile is available for the citizen go w/boat (thats at least 4 shields) on max shield minimum growth. If game is present, do worker then settler then archer. All other instances just go w/settler from turn 1. If u are a lucky Alex (got gold?) do a worrior (max shield, min growth) when neibors are present, otherwize do worker. Dont rush off to Bronzing either, potery is more important for him than bronzing (u have to make sure u have a steady supply of gingling coins since u are so handicapped @ start). Sometimes bornzing is good before potery, but most of the time those 39+ turns (make it 70+ turns) w/out it will be a death blow. Since u cant produce much gold dont overexpand either. 2 cities is all u should have, when AI si geting 4-5. Ur Cap is at 5, ur Sec is at 3+, then think 3rd, 4th, etc. Do not rush Granary/Baracks/or any other building. U'll need the pop for rushing axes/swords later (or the Oracle, in case ur scout was so accomodative as to pop those Rel techs for u, and thats the only wonder u should ever try for w/him)