Well I did it. Not on my first try, and not as fast as I had wanted, but I got a second Minor Gauntlet under my belt. Not bad for someone who joined the HOF three weeks ago.
In my earlier games I came to the conclusion that I did not expand fast enough. I typically had about 6-7 cities after taking out one of the aggressive AI players with an early Keshik rush. Even though I kept a good tech lead through trade, the other aggressive AIs would eventually obsorb several other AI cities through war and bring promoted SODs to my doorstep.
This time I went the other extreme. I rolled three civs early with a massive Keshik assualt destroying two (Tokugawa and Ghandi whom I added as an extra player) and stopped two cities shy of taking out Monty by about turn 120. Cathey was building a lot of wonders and Isabela had two holy shrines in her capitol. When I reached Vassalage, Hatty asked to be my vassal which dragged me into a war with Monty and Alexander. It took almost no time at all to finish off Monty, and after redeploying my troops I took two cities from Alex before he capitulated. With Hatty and Alex as my vassals, I declared war on Isabela and took Madrid (for the economic benefit of two holy shrines) and one additional city while Hatty took her other city (she only had three). At this point, I shared the map with three civs and two of them were my vassals. It was only a time race to get Mass Media and build the UN for FTW.
My mistake this time was over expanding. On turn 120 I was about 1% away from the population limit for a domination victory and I ruled about the majority of the main continent on a Terra map. The map type is what prevented an accidental domination since the other continent was unsettled. My economy tanked after the first major push and I had to run the research slider at 10% for a good portion of the game. There were only a couple of cities where I could farm some specialists and I continued to build a lot of troop since I was war mongering, so research was slow going. Hatty, my vassal, actually out teched me, but never went for Mass Media. Once I took Madrid I was able to run the slider at 90% and farm more cities. After this techs were roling in 3-5 turns on average, and I used GP to bulb for faster progress. I was able to get a GE to rush the UN which saved time. My finish date was 1884, but had the potential to be much faster had I curbed my early expansion a bit and been able to sustain a better economy.
In my earlier games I came to the conclusion that I did not expand fast enough. I typically had about 6-7 cities after taking out one of the aggressive AI players with an early Keshik rush. Even though I kept a good tech lead through trade, the other aggressive AIs would eventually obsorb several other AI cities through war and bring promoted SODs to my doorstep.
This time I went the other extreme. I rolled three civs early with a massive Keshik assualt destroying two (Tokugawa and Ghandi whom I added as an extra player) and stopped two cities shy of taking out Monty by about turn 120. Cathey was building a lot of wonders and Isabela had two holy shrines in her capitol. When I reached Vassalage, Hatty asked to be my vassal which dragged me into a war with Monty and Alexander. It took almost no time at all to finish off Monty, and after redeploying my troops I took two cities from Alex before he capitulated. With Hatty and Alex as my vassals, I declared war on Isabela and took Madrid (for the economic benefit of two holy shrines) and one additional city while Hatty took her other city (she only had three). At this point, I shared the map with three civs and two of them were my vassals. It was only a time race to get Mass Media and build the UN for FTW.
My mistake this time was over expanding. On turn 120 I was about 1% away from the population limit for a domination victory and I ruled about the majority of the main continent on a Terra map. The map type is what prevented an accidental domination since the other continent was unsettled. My economy tanked after the first major push and I had to run the research slider at 10% for a good portion of the game. There were only a couple of cities where I could farm some specialists and I continued to build a lot of troop since I was war mongering, so research was slow going. Hatty, my vassal, actually out teched me, but never went for Mass Media. Once I took Madrid I was able to run the slider at 90% and farm more cities. After this techs were roling in 3-5 turns on average, and I used GP to bulb for faster progress. I was able to get a GE to rush the UN which saved time. My finish date was 1884, but had the potential to be much faster had I curbed my early expansion a bit and been able to sustain a better economy.
