Basically just constant war for me the whole game. I soon saw the crappy land around us and close proximity of AIs like Pacal, Hanny, and Church, so I new land was at a premium and quick war was necessary.
Sped up my first settler to grab the copper to the SW (Pacal grabbed other copper by settling on it..aargh) and then immediately start pumping Axes. Took out Pacal fairly easily, but had to play with him some due to him settling on copper. Build Mids along the way at some point.
I went for Church almost immediately after Pacal fell. Pacal had only 3 cities, and while they were okay, the empire is still rather small and food/production at a premium. Cats came into the picture around this point. I think I was actually first to Construction, but teching slowed considerably after that as the more cities I took the worse my economy became.
Church went down easy too. Meanwhile SB Dow'd Hanny and I think Khan Dow'd SB to little effect. I healed troops and brought up more cats. Whipping vigorously in most cities but Kyoto. SB took and razed one Carthage city. I Dow'd Hanny and basically cut through his troops and cities like butter. I had Feud at this point - I think I was actually first to that as well somehow (AIs were not really teching that fast this game at all...and I was sure teching slow). I could have vassaled Hanny and picked up a tech or too, but at this point it just did not seem optimal to do so.
Of course, as others experienced, AP came into play in a Buddhist love fest. Only Izzy and SB, I think, were Conf. I really wanted to go after SB, but Iz seemed a much easier target, and she was. And man, was she wonder whoring like crazy. I wiped her out completely and think I capture at least half of the world wonders built at the time. (I think I only built Mids and Mauso myself).
After Izzy fell things became a lot dicier because of the AP. I had no trouble with any of the wars, but it was slow going at this point and I had to maneuver around the AP. SB fell next. In fact, he capped after taking only one city. (I constantly bribed AIs into war with each other...the only AI that was never fought was Sal)
I then capped Charlie (AP owner), Peter and Hammy.
Interestingly, I came a couple of votes shy of winning a religious victory around 1000Ad even though I had Dom in mind from early on.
My big mistake as usual was not fighting two front wars and finishing this game much sooner, which was entirely possible. I always underestimate the AIs on this level. Of course, troop building slowed considerably when I had gold issues as I had to put several cities on wealth building. Anyway, 1360AD Dom with about 226k points. I Libbed Econ, but Lib had no bearing on the game and I just did it cause I could. Used GM on a second golden age. I was only about done with Rep Parts when the game finished.
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