Anyways, I got Philosophy first, and grabbed Code of Laws for free as usual. Minimum research on Republic ensued. And I did get the Pyramids.
I hit End Turn... and my warrior didn't even win a single fight.
That's because the Dutch warriors continued on past. William could've added a very nice size-9 city to his empire, but miraculously he was focused on something else instead. Establishing an embassy a short time later revealed that he was at war with Germany.
Anyways, I got Philosophy first, and grabbed Code of Laws for free as usual. Minimum research on Republic ensued. And I did get the Pyramids.
In Golden Age, I built the temple, then built the Statue of Zeus in record time of 9 turns from scratch.
With the Zeus Cavalry now coming to keep me safe from aggression, I built a library, then started a third wonder. I had my choice of the Mausoleum or Oracle, but wouldn't be able to get both, and picked the Oracle (culture is everything, after all.) While I was still on the Oracle, though, somebody researched Literature. With that, the Great Library could no longer wait, so I had to swap to Artemis and use that to placehold until I could afford Literature. That happened as prescribed.
In 310 BC, Republic still wasn't around, but I had 3 turns to go on my one-scientist research, so I revolted (possible because the GL had brought in Monarchy.) Drew a lousy 5 turns of anarchy for ONE CITY, blech. I ended up running into bankruptcy during the anarchy to the tune of about 20 gold; nothing I could do about it. The Statue of Zeus kept piling up the ancient cavs; I actually disbanded a couple to save on unit costs. I also bought a worker from someone that you can see in several of these pictures.
By this time, Sun Tzu's had been started, and nobody had even finished the Oracle yet! I decided to take a shot at one more ancient wonder; hopefully the cascade would go from the Oracle and Artemis to Sun Tzu's and leave either the Mausoleum or Hanging Gardens for me.
I got some more good news with AIs going to war with each other instead of me.
<foreshadowing>I did not yet know it, but that declaration would be the start of some very long wars for the Dutch...</foreshadowing>
And the Hanging Gardens completed in 10 AD. The four most powerful ancient wonders are all in my city; the Pyramids and Zeus have already doubled their culture production. This is surely a solid base for a 20k culture victory.
Now it is time to turn my attention to matters military.
