An easy adventure at Noble difficulty (more details are here at Realms Beyond). The hard part here is to control the economy. Normally, courthouses help out here by cutting maintenance but are forbidden this game. The other restriction is that money making buildings (markets, grocers, banks, etc) can only be built in Holy Cities. This, effectively, rules out Wall Street. With Wall Street, every tithe coin is worth 3 in the holy city. This game will restrict that 3 to 1 relationship to 2 to 1. And the real kicker is that this game requires that the desired victory condition is domination.
On the plus side, the other AIs don't start with Mysticism so grabbing multiple religions should be much easier. See below for how the game played.
I settle in place (Wheat, river, sheep, a couple of forests, grasslands and hills - nice), set research to Mediation, start to build Stonehenge (hunting religious tech will mean no worker techs so no need for a worker) and send my warrior out hut hunting. I also notice that some tiles are already exposed down South. It looks like we had some map editing without cleaning up the fog of war.
My first hut provides Agriculture ... rats! ... now I will need to build a worker. I land both Buddhism (3680BC, turn 8) and Hinduism (3280BC, turn 18). After a detour for Bronze Working, I also land Judaism (1800BC, turn 55), Confucianism (375BC, turn 100) and Christianity (350BC, turn 101). All of these religions were founded in Mecca - a quin, BudHinJudConChr holy city. Now, all I need is a bunch of Great Prophets for the holy shrines ... here is my first ...
Whoa, where did he come from? Didn't I mention that I also built Stonehenge (2240BC, turn 44), Oracle (375BC, turn 100) and The Pyramids (325BC, turn 102). I also picked up The Great Library (450AD, turn 133). The observant reader will notice that I founded Confucianism and completed the Oracle on the same turn - selected Civil Service. The really observant reader will notice that turns 100 to 102 were full of fun (CS Slingshot, Confucianism, Christianity, Oracle, revolt to Buearcacy and Pyramids). It is not as if I was able to generate 400 hammers and 600 beakers during those two turns. Its just that my second Great Prophet was burnt on Christianity and I had interrupted the Pyramid build to complete the Oracle. Future great people were basically merged except for the first Scientist (Academy) and a Great Engineer (rushed Chicken Itza). My original game plan of multiple shrines was changed slightly during the play.
All of the above was played as an OCC. I had scooped out my first city cites, one was taken when I revisited it and the other was still available. Here is my second city ...
I sent my three missionaries down and spread some religions, Confucianism and Christianity 'took' but Buddhism failed. Wait! Why did I have a buddhism missionary? I accidently built one. My capital had five religions and I was quickly building Monistaries and I accidently built a missionary instead of a monistary ... missionary / monistary - they was obviously only reading the first letter when I selected it from the list. BTW - throw in a Library and I was getting a 75% addition to my beakers. An academy makes that +125% - yum.
My third city site had been scouted (and roaded - I did have some spare worker cycles) but the next time I dropped in ...
Unlike prior games, I actually had some defense (and attack) potential. That barbarian city was exactly where I wanted it and it was soon acquired and the Free Great Artist (Music) was culture bombed to get that city up and running quickly. I finally roaded and quarried the marble on turn 135ish - just a few turns after completing The Great Library (perfect timing!). Well, at least it helped with the Heroic and National Epics (both in Mecca).
Well, that set up my empire, three nice productive cities with a very strong capital. Where to from here is the question?