Cheers Aggie, I hope things will be going a little differently in this game.
We're currently at turn 75 but I've gotta back date this report as things seem to be going surprisingly well, I think it has something to do with the cows on bonus grassland tiles, which give 4 food and 2 sheilds when irrigated, just from 1 tile, when used by a city each with Agril trait you can produce a hell of alot of workers and settlers real fast.