Variant Rules: You may never acquire Alphabet through any means.

Scoring: While all victory conditions are enabled, anything but a space ship launch is considered a loss.

No Alphabet rules out five techs: Alphabet, Drama, Literature, Music, and Military Tradition. Also forbidden, the Internet. Missing items include: Theaters, Globe Theater, National Epic, Heroic Epic, West Point, and Cavalry. (Tech trading and defense pacts are still possible with civs who have the enabling techs.)

This is a fairly minor variant, but racing for fastest space launch will limit warfare for most players. Simple concept, clean rules. OK, so here we go!

We start on a flood plains plot, one among eight. I move my settler north one plot and found Thebes. I traded a flood plains, ivory/plains, two grassland hills (and a Mister Ick? Not sure about this) for two desert hills, marble/plains, and a plains flat. Will be interesting to see how that works out in the long run compared to those who stayed put.

Starting on multiple flood plains means loads of cottages at the capital. Anything less would be uncivilized!

I choose Mysticism as research path. (Odd that Egypt doesn't begin with Mysticism, but as with playing Mali, you must make do!)

I send my warrior exploring to the southwest. He pops a hut and receives map info.

I learn Mysticism, start Meditation, but the "Spain Detector" goes off in 3640BC:

I swap research to Polytheism immediately. You can also see that I'm training a second Warrior. I fiddle with the city to time that for finishing same turn the city grows to Size 3, then I start on a Worker. My second warrior is sent southeast to pop a hut, then both of my warriors have fights with animals (and survive, but must recuperate).

We score Hinduism and start on Masonry.

Train worker, start another. First worker builds roads north to the Marble, awaiting Masonry tech. Then starts on Quarry same turn the tech pops.

I start research in to Monotheism.

My first worker connects the Marble, then builds roads on the Pigs. After discovering Monotheism and founding HinJewIsm, I start on Barracks. Research goes to Pottery, then Hunting and Archery, Animal Husbandry, Priesthood, Bronze Working and Writing.

My workers build Cottages on ALL SIX flood plains! Then (and only then) do I hook up the Pigs (didn't have Animal Husbandry until then, anyway).

After building Barracks, I train one vet Archer and get my capital to size 6, then finally begin to train my first settler. Four of my cottages are well matured by now. After my first settler finishes, I start on Oracle. That is completed in 950BC and I use it to grab Theology.

Unfortunately as you can see, the barbarians are encroaching. I hook up my Copper, and after the Oracle completes I have to spend some time training Archers and Axemen.

My first combat vs non-animals occurs that year, as I manage to protect my Ivory source.

The next three centuries are nothing but severe barbarian encroachment, mostly Archers.

I actually had to check to see if this game is on Raging Barbarians. (Looks like not.) This is the first RB event for Civ4 that has been sponsored by someone other than me. (Arathorn set this one up.) Look at this mess! A barbarian city appears almost on top of me.

I thought I had time to build a second settler, but the barbs just kept coming! (I whipped an axeman out of Memphis to respond to this crisis below, where my two existing Axemen were occupied in the north, too far away):

That was the first Barbarian Axeman from the south and he more or less caught me with my pants down. He was able to pillage my Ivory, which stank, but I nailed him after that. By this time, I had three axemen of my own, and I trained yet another before building a fourth city.

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