Even the random civ gods complied -- both Jaheed and I were Yamato, Sarmis was Sumi, King was Greek, Neil was Choson (I think), TL was Yammie. Last time I got to play with Neil, I got taken for a ride by the random map gods, and was looking forward to showing him what I could do.
Some quick exploration, and my speedy villager escapes two lions, only to be trapped between two others. My other villager finds my hill berries, but the closest I can granary is 5 tiles... OK, its continental, look for some shore fish. The closest I found was two within 12 tiles of each other. OK, there's wood near one, so I'll do it, and try for boats. There were only 3 ocean fish within any reasonable distance.
By eating lions, walking with shore fish, and fishing from the Dead Sea, I managed to click on Bronze at 12:40 or so. At 13:30, king's axemen are chasing me hither and yon, but I am hopeful for pulling something out when I hit Bronze. At 14:15, his first cav appears on the scene. Jaheed is doing some damage but not enough to take away the hurt.
I finally Bronze with a 15:00/37, even counting the awful casualties, awfully poor for Yammie, but I am still hopeful. Well, until King builds academy and seige within spitting distance of my original TC. I pop up another TC in a spot I had scoped out earlier. Darnit, Neil's cav weren't there before! I decide to run to Jaheed's camp, and he welcomes me, but as the last of my villagers flee from all the King's men, I run headlong into Neils cav. I can hear fat ladies from miles around warming up, and soon, King's galleys took the last of my scout ships, and I was forced to admit defeat, having only a few buildings (no tcs or docks) and fishing boats left, i.e., no military, villagers and no way of getting any.
This was a big disappointment for me. I had really looked forward to playing some of the bigger fish, especially after looking like a total newbie the last time I played Neil.
Obviously, this would have been much better if I had walled off, but I didn't. Mistake #1. And if I hadn't accidentally led King's blind hoppers into my foragers. Mistake #2.
I know that I was outplayed. I probably couldn't have hacked the force that showed up if I got a decent start, with the walling skills I displayed.
Question: When you are confronted with a start where you have lone shorefish, and Keep your stick on the ice.