A most unnatractive situation...

[HopAlongBunny]

Sounds like you have a great game going!

cntl-s is your friend; there is nothing worse than playing for hours and having a ctd.

are you playing 1.0 or 1.1; the patch fixed a lot of the annoying "features" of the original MTW. the "event" message for compass comes long before you can actually begin building caravels; beyond caravels you will also need gunpowder to build the next dock upgrades.

have fun with the Byz some of the most seriously overpowered units in the game (Early) make them a steamroller...just gotta get the killing machine moving first

I agree with Tomcat ; check the guides, no point trying to reinvent the wheel