Thank you for the detailed comment, if only this place had many more people like you.
I read your comment and made a mental note to respond after I play. I have only played two games so far -- one only to the classical era. I will say, the Harapans did well both times, and both times the Harappans is the notorious magenta AI that is supposedly fixed in a recent patch. In my current game, they got the "stubborn" trait, causing them to keep Harrapans the whole game which doesn't seem wise.
Btw, the strat I got is from https://www.gameskinny.com/1kjzi/how-to-exploit-humankinds-resource-system. It seems pretty sound for being from a clickbait site. Overproduction can basically produce every resource you need in the game, including enough units to run over all your neighbors. I just picked a builder culture for every era and built all the unique districts I could, and I haven't lost the lead on City difficulty. Not that impressive, in general, however not bad for barely my second game.
(post is archived)