Here is the tale of my rule.

Turn 26 - As it was turned over to Nukow, our capital is still training a worker and Onesmallchoppah, the scout, is still healing.
Turn 27 - Same
Turn 28 - Mining founded.  We are now reseaching The Wheel.  Onesmallchoppah is healed up and resumes scouting.

Turn 29 - Scouting
Turn 30 - Slave (Worker) done and starts farming.  Scouting continues.

The gods have smiled on Nukow, which means lots of gold for the rest of the life of our empire.  What a godly blessing indeed!

Turn 31 - Onesmallchoppah kills panther
Turn 32 - Onesmallchoppah healing
Turn 33 - Onesmallchoppah healing
Turn 34 - Onesmallchoppah healing
Turn 35 - The Wheel is founded.  Bronze Working is next.

Also Onesmallchoppah is completely healed and scouting continues.  Slave finished farm and moves onward to mine the hill.

Turn 36 - Scouting continues
Turn 37 - Onesmallchoppah kills panther, promoted to Woodsman II.
Turn 38 - Onesmallchoppah healing
Turn 39 - We have completed training our 1st archer.  Chimalli (which means "shield" in English) is born and moves NW to explore. Building barracks now.  Also, we meet this creepy looking man with a funny animal pelt on his head.  I think he is wearing an elephant testicle on his head, though Nukow does not know why.

Notice how Suleiman the elephant testicle wearer won't even look directly at Nukow.  He must be afraid of Nukow.  I cannot blame him as I might not look me directly in the eye either.  Then again, perhaps he is ashamed of his elephant testicle pelt and is ashamed enough to not look me in the eye.

Turn 40 - Onesmallchoppah finds a friendly small tribe (Goody hut) which gives our empire 88 gold to aid in the rise of our empire.

Notice that the sages were correct and the world ends to our South and Onesmallchoppah has to make sure he doesn't fall off the edge of the planet.  Onesmallchoppah is blocked by mountains and must come back the way he came.

Turn 42 - Scouting and building roads
Turn 43 - Onesmallchoppah heads back to the East and runs into a newly founded city of Sulemein the Elephantesticle.

Also, our capital has built a barracks.  Starting to build our 1st settler.  Chimalli continues NW.

Turn 44 - Scouted a bit more of the Byzantine border

Turn 45 - Scouting
Turn 46 - Bronze Working completed.  Going for Iron working.  Chimalli has explored NW enough to realize that our capital is on a lake and not an ocean.  Copper shows up almost directly South of our capital about 5 or 6 squares.

Turn 47 - Moving Chimalli directly South of our capital near the copper.  When the settler completes, we should probably claim the copper before Sulemein does.

Turn 48 - Scouting
Turn 49 - Scouting
Turn 50 - Cultural border expand again.  Here is our empire as Nukow left it:

There seems to be a lot of food around.  We could grow some incredibly large cities if we wanted to.

Attaching save game.  Who is next?

I think we should maybe drop this 1st settler near the copper to keep Sulemein from getting it.  Whenever the next one is made we could drop him next to the gold to our West and then on the following 3rd settler, next to the silver.  Our money and science will skyrocket with both.  This is obviously up to the next tribal chief.

Wonders?  You guys probably know now that I'm pretty fond of the Great Wall and spamming settlers with minimal defense, but we can do whatever you guys want to do.

Perhaps an early war to crush Sulemein when we get our Jaguar Warriors?  Perhaps we can give our Jaguar warriors the city raider promotion and then send them out into the jungle to fight panthers and when they get experienced, give them a 2nd city raiders promotion.  Sulemein would be crushed when we send them against him.

Any other ideas?

If you guys feel extra nerdy when it comes to naming warriors, check this link out:
http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/aztec-names.html

Who is up!?

These were my initial thoughts. I don't quite see why we need separate cities next to the gold and silver as NC suggests. I agree we should preclude Justinian from grabbing that copper but I'm not at all sure about exact placement.

As for other strategy, I agree we should employ the tactics of having our jaguars harassing the enemy and stealing their workers. Let's not ignore the great woodsman III promotion -

Any comments on a preferred tech path anyone?

adit - oh yeah, have we adopted slavery yet?

We can make some super-cities with all that food and spawn Great People left and right as Ziggy suggests, but part of me thinks we can have more cities if we split the food sources up.  I guess we can leave that up to the current dictator at the time.

I think I like the spot you suggest for a 2nd city better, Tones.  That city will crank out money/science and we could plan ahead and use that city for the Oxford University and Wall Street.  I'd suggest we hamlet all of the other squares around it and make that city 'El Dorado,' our city of riches.  My suggestion at least.

I'd suggest we plan to use up the capital's 2 National wonders with the Moai Statues and the Heroic Epic.

My thoughts at least.  Up to you guys.  Are you going to knock the next 25 out, Tones?

*edit* We have not adopted slavery yet.  I figured we can switch when we're ready to use it so we can generate less civic-maintenance (whatever that correct word is) in the meantime.

Preferred tech path.  I think we did well to go a little lopsided to get Iron Working.  We could use a lighthouse maybe and hamlets, so we could go for those techs and maybe just catch up a bit so we're not lopsided.  Otherwise, I'd think going for Monarchy a bit lopsided.

I Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, have arisen to lead you to glory.
Let there be sacrifice. Let there be blood. And feathers; lots of feathers, and snakes, or there'll be trouble.

Year of the Serpent 1960BC
I am Atonyl, humble scribe of the Aztecs, here to give a true account of these early years in which the peoples of Onebigchoppah struggled in adversity to please their god Quetzalcoatl. Alas I must confess we are most hopelessly primitive.

I fear my career may be rather shortlived so I shall have to blame this on someone else when I grovel before the Serpent god.

1920 A sacrificial altar somewhere in Tenochtitlan -
"Oh Deity," I cry, "Be it known your tribe have brought forth a settler, so we may expand your realm. He shall travel south to the fields of shiny metal. The bad news is we have been adjudged the most primitive of peoples but it was all Nukau's fault so if anyone should be eaten it's him!"

1880 A report has arrived from Onesmallchoppah that he has espied a barbarian archer in the jungle! Horrors! He has fled for his life.

1840 The parrots in the trees are talking about a marvelous Henge of Stone that has been built somewhere far away. This matters little compared to our great achievement in founding a second city - Coppaccetyl. Our brave archer Chimalli rushes to protect it and our scout keeps a wary eye on the barbarian in the jungle. The gods will be pleased. They'd better be or I'm dogmeat.

1800 "Oh Deity, this year we have named a new archer in your honour. We have called him Coatl, the serpent. Does this please you?"
After a short pause I realise I have not been eaten so I suppose I must have pleased our enigmatic god. Another barbarian archer has been spotted to the north. It's a bloody jungle out there.

1760 Justinian, our "neighbour" to the south, has just adopted Slavery. That would seem like a good idea for the future. Slaves will cook up nicely methinks.

1720 The barbarian menace has disappeared from sight. Doesn't mean they are not still out there hiding though. I'll bet the bastids are nicking all the feathers though.

1680 Another report from Onesmallchoppah has arrived. He encountered a tribal village. They must have been hot on cartography because they gave our scout a ceremonial map which includes a corner of something called the German Empire. I have no idea what this may mean, but hope they have feathers to trade because the big guy is getting snappy.

1640 Coppaccetyl coppermine completed. Congratulations crew.

1600 Worker produced in the Capital. Next will be another archer. No chance of any feather-gatherers being trained is there? Thought not.

1560 Forest grows near Tenochtitlan. Yup, that's all that happens.

1520 Rain. Rains every day, in fact. Bloody rainforest. Makes you sick sometimes. At least I found a sick parrot and, um, borrowed its feathers. That kept Quetzalcoatl happy for a bit. Dunno what a Norweigan Blue was doing in the jungle though.

1480 Ta Da! Ironworking at last

Now we can build jaguars and chop jungle. The Deity has ordered that we look into pottery next so that we can make little clay statues of him. Oh well, gotta keep him happy in case... well, you know, in case he gets the munchies.
We shall train a jaguar warrior and build another barracks. Rats, the nearest iron is in Justinian's back yard.

I have made a map of everything we know of the world.

1440 Rain today.

1400 Guess what? It was nice and hot and sunny and then it rained a lot.

1360 Sent a message to Onesmallchoppah asking if he's found any feathers or anywhere that isn't wet. No reply so far.

1320 Our labourers have finished a barracks in Coppaccetyl and now we shall start to train our army of fearsome jaguars. Onesmallchoppah has encountered a barbarian near the German borders, but has evaded him and gone on to meet their leader.
He's annoyed with our rival Justinian, which is good.

1280 Our first jaguar has been trained in Tenochtitlan. In honour of our great Deity, these warriors shall be named after snakes, and our first shall be called Asp. Our god must be pleased, for we have finished the ricefields of Coppaccetyl and met a new leader - Isabella. Unfortunately, she is a friend of the rat-faced Justinian, which is bad.

1240 This is a year of more exploration, and the quest for the perfect feather continues apace, especially since Quetzalcoatl's stomach is rumbling ominously.

Only 1200BC and we've discovered pots. Wow.

Next our shaman will look into the secrets of Writing so that I can record all this on paper instead of carving it on tree trunks which is boring and difficult and a complete bugger if termites eat your work.

Here is another  view of our empire with all those lovely resources.

The valiant Asp has spotted a barbarian warrior and is stalking him, heh, heh.

1160 While chasing the barbarian, Asp has discovered marble. Well, it might come in useful one day, who knows?

1120 Hot and humid. More rain predicted. Feathers in short supply. Plenty of snakes around though.

1080 The borders of Coppaccetyl have expanded at last, allowing us access to more resources. To the west, Asp has killed a barbarian, and far to the east, Onesmallchoppah is probing Isabella's region

1040 We have trained Boa, another jaguar, in Coppaccetyl, and just in time too, because there are barbarians on our borders!

Our greatest warrior Asp has been promoted to Woodsman III!

1000 A new settler has been born so that our empire may expand further. What fertile maidens we have. Well, when I say maidens....

While Asp recovers from his wounds and prepares to strike the dastardly lurking barbarian archer, Boa is attacked and fights off an enemy attack. He retires to heal, but the threat has not yet passed, because there is more of 'em!

ATONYL YOUR TIME IS UP!

Oh dear. I have been summoned to the sacraficial chamber for an "informal chat" with our deity *gulps* 

"Errr, Deity, I have some lovely feathers for you........ "

(explanation, excuses and save to follow)