Epic 8: Exploration
My civ turns out to be Egypt - Spiritual and Creative. War Chariot as a replacement for Chariot. So Horses would be good 
and rather conveniently there's also a food resource requiring AH in range of the start position. That pretty much decides the first thing I'll research, and a Worker as the first build, too. Before deciding to settle on the spot I moved both Warriors - I dithered a bit, but I couldn't see a way to move to get the Gold in range without making the capital even more food poor than it already would be.
I sent both Warriors out exploring, figuring that I'd got enough of a grace period before Barbarians that would cross my cultural borders to build a Worker then a Warrior. First hut I found gave me:
Not the most useful tech to get right now, given I had no water tiles in working distance of Thebes. The rest of the huts were even less interesting - some gold, some hostile barbs. I did find one nice looking city site right near home:
And when I discover AH I find that Thebes has horses in range!
I promptly set research to Mining (I want to know where the copper is before I plant my first city), and when Thebes finishes the Worker I send it to hook up the horses first. By the time Mining is discovered I've met 3 of the AIs - Mali from the north, Saladin from the east, and Mao from the west. While I'm researching Bronze Working I build a few War Chariots to send off scouting, after a garrison Warrior.
2560BC dawned and generated a small flurry of activity. Bronze Working was discovered, so I started to research Pottery (note I'm not chasing a religion - I decided I'd wait and see what spread to me & try and use that to help ally myself to some of the AIs). I revolted to Slavery immediately, and started on a Warrior for a Settler escort. Copper was nearby so my initial thoughts on city placement were:
I wasn't entirely comfortable with the placement of that eastern city - I tried out a few ideas (you may notice the lines on the ground in later screenshots doesn't match those shown above). But in the end that was all irrelevant …
I decided I'd settle the southern Copper city first, then build another worker, then settle the northern one that I'd initially spotted. For a change I've clearly got the hang of how many units to build:
I'm never normally that high up the power chart. I wasn't really having much trouble with barbarians, either - though there were clearly plenty around, look what one of my exploring War Chariots found:
I decided discretion is the better part of valour & ran offexplored somewhere else 
As I'm sending my Settler down to the future Memphis I decide to have a quick peek at the culture overlay on the globe, just to see how close people are:
Which pretty promptly makes my cancel the Worker build in Thebes and set to work on the next Settler & escort, Mansa is pretty close to my prefered site in the north already. I'm doing pretty well so far, for Monarch (I'm sure I saw Sirian say somewhere in the forums that this was 'easy' as far as Monarch goes, and certainly it's feeling that way to me):
As you can see I'm doing pretty well in three of the categories
Memphis is founded in 1960BC:
Note that I'm first in score!?! I worried about those lions for a bit, but they just ran away.
Heliopolis is founded in 1480BC:
Just beating the Malinese there. My third settler was heading for the east, but Lizzy beat me 
I figure I'll settle out west:
A bit of a stretch, but it'll pick up some resources. Given how squeezed I am in the east I'm rather surprised when I find out I'm the largest:
There really can't be much land out there. Once I discover Iron Working I rethink my city plans:
There's a site in the SW that'll pick up a second source of iron, and some ivory as well. So that's where I send the next Settler, and Elephantine is founded in 865BC:
See those barbs there? Don't you think it'd be silly to just rely on a single Warrior to garrison the city?
Yeah. It was. It took me to 610BC before I managed to refound Alexandria on the ruins (with a much better garrison):
Alphabet was discovered in 565BC:
I decided at this point not to trade with the three civs to my east (Mansa, Lizzy and Sally), as I figured I might go to war against them to take over the whole of the eastern part of the land. So I traded with Mao:
Looking back at my notes I've not made any special mention of the fact that I gave away a nice military tech, so I guess I didn't even think of it like that at the time. I try to get some more trades, but no-one wants to know. And I try and build the Pyramids, but just get some cash for my efforts (not necessarily a bad thing, mind).
Judaism spreads into my lands, but I don't really want to convert as that's the religion of the eastern bloc. However, looking at the diplomacy screen I change my plans:
It looks like it'll be a lot easier to get Lizzy and co friendly with me than anyone else. So I do convert to Judaism:
In retrospect I think I should've stuck to my guns - it would've been easier to fight some limited wars against those guys, and I had them pretty well contained. As it was I ended up with some quite hefty cultural pressure in my core cities, which obviously wouldn't've been there if I'd got rid of those civs. I didn't get that many trades in the short term, either.
In 340BC I finally get rid of those pesky Hittites:
And then begin turning my attention towards the AIs - war with Mao is first on the list …
Onward to Part 2: War