The Start of the Great Expanse

So, I began my journey through time with the unique perspective of the Shoshone people. Beginning in the years 4,000 B.C., my civilization has just established its first city due to the Settler unit I had started with. You'll notice that the amount of land I now possess is exceedingly higher than other civilizations, and that's  due to the unique trait of the Shoshone, dubbed "The Great Expanse". With this trait, my capital city of Moson Kahni and the other cities I may found will possess a vast amount of territory that is unrivaled in the game.  This fits very well with the tradition of the Shoshone people, as their civilization was geared towards the amount of land to best suit their hunter way of life.

In addition to the starting Settler unit, I also start with my unique unit, the Pathfinder. This particular unit replaces the traditional Scout unit that every civilization starts off with. Unlike the standard Scout, the Pathfinder has a higher amount of strength, rivaling that of a Warrior. Also, if my Pathfinder were to come across the remnants of fallen civilizations, or "Ancient Ruins" I can select the bonus I could get for them. These bonuses include; discovering a new technology, recruiting the lost civilization into your civilization, trading with the Lost Civilization, gaining some culture from their ways of life, looking at their maps, observing their faith, etc. Thus, the Pathfinder is an exceptionally superior unit early game, because it can move as fast as a Scout and hit as hard as a Warrior.

The Shoshone's vast amount of starting land, and the various tiles that are under my grasp in 4,000 B.C. 

So, when my capital was founded, I noted that the amount of territory that I controlled was vast. I had the ability to improve a variety of tiles that possessed lush grasslands. In addition, I had two tiles that possessed cattle as a resource for a higher yield of food production. There were at least four tiles that possessed forests, three of the four held a luxury resource that would improve the happiness of my civilization, truffles and dyes. While the truffles weren't a part of the Shoshone people's way of life, the dyes did in some manner of way. This would lead to a variety of different colored beads, jerkins, moccasins, face paint, etc.

You see, these resources would help later in the game to provide a counter-balance to the amount of citizens I have in my civilization. When I founded my city, I had one citizen in my population and so my "Overall Happiness" was at a +5. However, as the game progresses, I need to increase the amount of people I have in my civilization. The reason behind this concept of having more people, is because like the actual civilizations, I need people to work the many tiles I have. Every luxury resource I possess increases the happiness +4, and for every citizen I have, my "Overall Happiness" reduces.

Now, you'll notice on the screenshot of my beginning displays a lot of variables in the top left portion of the screen. These ever changing variables include; Technology that is being researched, the amount of science and gold I gain per turn, my existing trade routes (as of now, I have none), my Overall Happiness counter, my Golden Age tracker (I'll explain that in a moment), my culture, tourism, and faith I gain per turn. All of these play a role in shaping my civilization through their unique ways, In order to have a functioning civilization, one must have funds, culture, science, faith, trade, etc.