Epic 3: Part 1
The Incans are Aggressive and Financial & have a Warrior replacement for their unique unit. The Aggressive trait makes Conquest look initially appealing - I start with a Combat I promotion on melee/gunpowder units, and barracks are cheap. But I'm not good at getting to war early (my UU is very early indeed) and all the other settings seem to permit a more peaceful game - only 3 rivals on a large map, and no barbarians so not as great a need for massive armies early in the game as there usually is. So I think I'll aim for a Diplomatic victory - partly because I've never done that before and partly because Cultural victories seem to require a different play style to other victory types so I could end up down a cul-de-sac. However, I don't think I'll be able to compete on the fastest finish dates, particularly as I've never won above Noble before, so I may well not win this. The other scoring points are high population in 5AD and 1502AD, largest fully fed city at game end and fastest to reach the Modern Age. So growth should be empasised as should tech, even though the Space Race is off.
The initial decision is where to settle my first city. As the screenshot above shows, it's not quite a simple decision. If I settle in place then I'll waste those Cows to the north-east, there's not really another place to put a second city to use those. But if I move 1 NE then I waste a turn (moving into the forest) and I lose a forest as well. After dithering for a while, I decide that getting both food resources in range would outweigh the loss of a turn - so I settle Cuzco in 3970BC:
As I want to grow-grow-grow I build a Quechua while the city grows, then I'll make a Worker as it'll be size 2 by then. I definitely want a religion - more happiness = larger cities - so I decide to research my own rather than risk being on a landmass by myself:
Later on in the game I realised that I should've gone for more religions of my own, but at this point I figured I'd miss out on them and so I started to research some of the worker techs - starting with The Wheel, then moving on to Animal Husbandry (for the cows).
I send my second Quechua out to explore, no barbs & no rivals met yet means there's not much use for a garrison. Most of the huts I find & pop give me gold, so my finances do well. I do get some Quechua though they're a little identity-challenged ;)
Once my Worker is done I start building an Obelisk - mostly as a placeholder till Cuzco hits size 3, when I'll switch over to building a Settler and starting my empire expanding :)
In 2800BC there are suddenly French scouts everywhere and I've met the first of my rivals:
So shortly afterwards I send 2 of my Quechua home - one to garrison the city now Louis knows where I am, and one to escort the Settler that's being built.
As it's an Archipelago map type (even though the landmasses seem rather large) I research a couple of naval techs after I'm done with Animal Husbandry (Fishing, then Sailing). 
And it's at this point (2380BC) that I realise I could've easily got Hinduism for myself :/ But never mind - my tech choices do mean that I had both food resources in Cuzco hooked up sooner than otherwise, and it looks like Cuzco should be a nice fast growing city:
My wandering explorers have found what must be the edge of the French empire by 2230BC - there's an archer/archer/settler set looking for a city site:
And with the imminent arrival of my own Settler I need to put some thought into city positioning:
I'm going to try & shut the French into their own peninsula - this will need a bit of luck as I'm not a Creative civ so I need to build obelisks in the new cities before I can get the borders to pop. And Tiwanaku is founded in 2050BC:
While I'm building my next Settler I run out of continent to explore, everything else is behind French territory. There are a couple of bits I could reach by Galley, once I get round to building one:
Machu Picchu is founded in 1450BC - not quite where originally planned, I realised when I got there that 1S would be a better spot so redrew my lines:
Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope the French don't get a settler past before all the borders have popped. In the meantime I start to research Mining -> Bronze Working -> Iron Working. Finding metals would be rather useful, as would clearing out some of that jungle. I also turn my thoughts to where to put the next clutch of cities:
Tiwanaku's borders expand in 1120BC, but shortly afterwards I see trouble on the horizon:
And once I've discovered Bronze Working I can see the Copper they're heading for:
Meanwhile, I've settled Ollantaytambo down near the furs (happiness here we come :) ):
The discovery of copper (and the stealing of it by the French) change my thoughts on city placement:
I'm going to settle near that copper resource next, and once the borders have expanded I can get it hooked up and start building up some Axemen.
Machu Picchu's borders expanded several turns to late to stop the French:
I've got Cuzco mostly focused on building Settlers (with a few turns here and there at other things to allow it to grow), and I get my empire up to 6 cities by 325BC:
I entered the Classical Era in 
655BC with the discovery of Iron Working. Unfortunately the Iron it revealed wasn't at all convenient:
As the first scoring point came up I concentrated mostly on growth. The furs I hooked up in 220BC gave a very useful happiness booster:
Particularly for Cuzco. And once I'd discovered Priesthood I started to build Temples everywhere as well. My concentration on growth is rewarded by a message in 175BC 
that says I've got half a million souls in my empire. I'm rather hoping that there's bodies to go with them as that's what'll count in my population census ;)
5AD rolls around (the first turn after 1AD) and my population stands at 781000:
Second in the world - but one of my rivals is doing a lot better. Note that I'm last for soldiers (as I frequently am), now that I've got the copper hooked up (in 85BC) I'm going to start making a lot of Axemen to try & look less like an easy target for the French. I'm not doing so bad on score, compared to Louis:
And my cities are all still fully fed, even if there are a few happiness problems:
Onward to Part 2