Man, did I find that out the hard way last game. Despite leading in score, tech, land, population and cash, since about 1200AD, I lost a Space Race Victory to Saladin, of all people, by three turns! Three turns!
I had a huge continent, fifteen cities, factories in each, Three Gorges Dam, labs. Then I lost out on the Space Elevator. I should have hurried that Great Engineer somehow. I missed by five turns or so, but I still thought I could win. My strategy is always to build all my SS parts simultaneously, using every city. Big production cities get the hard things, my other cities get the easy ones, so that everyone finishes at about the same time. That way, my theory goes, the AI doesn't know what's coming. He gets no "Bradlius has completed the SS Engine" warnings.
Everything was done except the Stasis Chamber. Just three turns left. I was just hitting the red button again and again. I had workers just standing around. I was more worried about a sneak attack than Saladin's puny space program. I realized afterward that I could have built watermills on my riverside farms, workshops on the plains towns... I guess I was reluctant to lose my big populations and tons of cash coming in from my towns and villages, but at that point, you don't need money, you need hammers, hammers, hammers! Man, I feel like a dummy.
Just let it be a lesson to others. It sure will be to me.

I nearly lost by about the same margin my last game, on space race. I got lucky, though, and discovered Fusion before Frederick. That gave me a free great engineer, allowing me to rush the Space Elevator, which he had started about five turns before I did. Once I had the space elevator, though, it was easy.

I played a game (Emperor) where I lost the Liberalism race by 1 turn to Asoka, then lost the space race by 1 turn... to Asoka.

That's why I don't understand why people hate seeing religious fanatics and militaristic leaders on the map. As long as you share their religion and build units, suck up to their demands, chances are you're one of their few friends, which you can then in turn bribe into war against more advanced AI's. Especially Tokugawa: I love having him as my ally: he's always behind in techs, and chances are I'm his only friend. I always go out of my way to bribe someone to attack Asoka, Ghandi or Mansa Musa, because in the late game, even though those peacemongers won't have a lot of units, it's usually tanks against rifles.

To prevent these things from happening, stir up a war against these peacemongers early. Otherwise they'll end up vassalising all your war-allies, than you're in deep crap.

2 comments :
- prioritize the win of course. What good are towns when you need hammers?
What good is science, when you're going to win in a few turns?
You saw this for a space race, but the same is true for cultural, or domination.
If you're at 62% land and need 64%, push the culture slider and attack the weakest "enemy" cities. Even if you can't defend them, having them just for one turn can be enough!
- in a space race, nothing beats a handful of spies. knowing for sure when your opponent will finish the parts is giving you a strong incentive to either sabotage his production capacity or to boost yours.

That's why I don't understand why people hate seeing religious fanatics and militaristic leaders on the map. As long as you share their religion and build units, suck up to their demands, chances are you're one of their few friends, which you can then in turn bribe into war against more advanced AI's. Especially Tokugawa: I love having him as my ally: he's always behind in techs, and chances are I'm his only friend. I always go out of my way to bribe someone to attack Asoka, Ghandi or Mansa Musa, because in the late game, even though those peacemongers won't have a lot of units, it's usually tanks against rifles.

To prevent these things from happening, stir up a war against these peacemongers early. Otherwise they'll end up vassalising all your war-allies, than you're in deep crap.

Or you can attack asoka, ghandi, or mansa, they will typically surrender in all of three seconds. These guys carry ***** to the extreme. Ive honestly only ever won by domination (always play standard size map), so ive never had the problem of losing to space race.

- in a space race, nothing beats a handful of spies. knowing for sure when your opponent will finish the parts is giving you a strong incentive to either sabotage his production capacity or to boost yours.

I, uh, didn't even build the building to build spies with. It wasn't on my Space Race path!

once I start getting close to 70% of land and am closing in on a domination victory, I completely shut down research and commerce, and max culture to expand land every where that I can get. Your right, never leave any tactic left in the bag. :ar15: :ar15:

Spies are your essential back up plan in the space race. If accompanied by a bucketload of cash, they can just sabotage the crucial production in your enemy cities. Even without cash, at least you can see what is going on and eitehr tweak your cities to go faster, or pillage his mines and aluminium to slow him down a bit.

Lost an OCC in which I was leading hard. Was building my last space part when Huayna dropped his stacks on me. Over 40 units!!! against my defending army of over 20 superior units. 4 turns left at that point to win the game. 2 turns later my city was captured. I cursed a bit at that point.

That Spanish bi ch once beat me to space by one turn. I have no idea how long I just stared at the screen, aghast.

One spy is enough to tell you exactly when that last component is due.

One spy is enough to tell you exactly when that last component is due.

yep, but if there is more than one competitor left, you need more than one spy ;)