In my last game as Boudicca (or whatever it's spelled) of Rome (yeah, rigged start
) I spawned in a huge continent with 3 other civs, while there were 3 more continents that were smaller (Fractal map script) with 1/2 civs on each one.
I took out my closest neighbour with a Praetorian rush. Didn't push it towards the next neighbour because he was too far away (big landmass). In retrospective maybe I should have gone after him and razed all his cities!
Anyway I REXed and created a nice, well developed empire, but noticed by the late middle ages I was falling too far behind Roosevelt in tech and score. I decided I should do something at that moment (actually way earlier!) to have a chance of winning the game.
My plan was to steamroll the remaining 2 civs in my huge continent, to get a big advantage on land over Roosevelt and therefore make a comeback possible.
Well, I did manage to take over my continent and ended up with a quality and sizeable army of knights, grenadiers, riflemen and cannons.
By this time Roosevelt had infantry and corporations and soon thereafter tanks and fighters. I was far from Communism to try a SP comeback strategy, so I decided to stop research to upgrade my military while I built top class infra in my many cities to have a chance to compete with Roosevelt (I had quite a lot more land than him).
And here's when the story comes closer to its climax: Roosevelt had been wiping out the other remaining civs, so the game ended up with him, me and Washington from an original 9 civs.
At this point the AIs sign a defensive pack with each other. OMG I thought, that's it, I'm toasted. But after a few turns Roosevelt offers a DP to me! I felt I had a chance then and took it. Now if I or Washington declared on Roosevelt, I or he would be 1 against the other 2 for the war. So I thought Roosevelt is going for a peaceful win by space (because of his tech lead) or culture (he was using Jewellers extensively pressuring my cities a lot). Fine, I'll keep building up momentum peacefully and eventually outpace him.
Then a wild popup appears: UN Diplomatic Victory vote. Roosevelt vs me (I had the highest pop count). Washington was friendly towards both of us, but more friendly towards Roosevelt. OK, this is it. I voted for myself and hit end turn expecting to see my defeat.
Diplomatic victory FAILS. Roosevelt leads (760 votes of 764 required).
HOLY ..... !!! I have never seen that! What a game! I'm alive and with chances!
And then, 5 turns later... Roosevelt DOWs and invades me with 3 stacks from different angles composed of artillery, tanks and marines, supported by battleships, destroyers and bombers.
The AI actually went for a peaceful win, failed, acknowledged it and decided to win by military instead! Such a badass like me!
I even reloaded the turn before the DOW and made a DP with the 3rd AI, to see if that would deter Roosevelt... I didn't. He went for the win at all costs.
I was mad, exhausted, impressed and finally glad with this game and mod!