As I was building my Arties in preparation for a push North, the world was somewhat violent. Spain and Shoshone were engaged in a decent battle I may have instigated. They looked to have a pretty good naval fight up by the NE peninsula. Spain was also knocking Hiawatha around, taking all but their capital before giving peace. Seeing an easy opportunity, I marched 3 Arties and Infantrymen East to take an undefended Onondaga in 3 turns and capturing the two theming wonders.
The Shoshone had finally taken Monte out once they had planes. I had an archeologist up there digging who saw the sad ending. Poca and Izzy were playing ping-pong with Hiawatha's expo right at the crossroads between their territories with Izzy's navy competing with Poca's air force to see who could rack up the most kills. From a strategic location standpoint, with me and my mountains sort of in the way, it was a bloody battle for an important chokepoint. I got Poca to give me a few GPT to DoW Izzy and my conquest was on. Sadly, Poca gave her peace shortly thereafter and spent the next several turns grumbling about my behavior. The nerve of some AI's.......
My war with Izzy was going to be tough. I had superior units but he had a lot more of them and had a navy of Battleships to pick off anyone dumb enough to get in range. As I was short on Oil in my own lands (7 total), I used a GG to grab 7 more Oil the turn before the DoW and this helped me get enough planes and tanks. I liberated Riga quickly and traded it back and forth with her for about 10 turns. I'm guessing the diplo bonus for this liberation helped keep Poca from attacking me despite his dissatisfaction with me and am wondering if multiple liberations of the same CS stack? In any case, when you liberate a CS the conquering unit gets moved to the next closest tile, so I had to make sure the Infantryman got teleported to Riga's Coal spot where I had a worker ready for pillage/repair. The same unit took the city 6 times before he finally had to go back home for a bit. Basically, Izzy lost 4-5 units every turn and I lost zero during this exercise.
Elsewhere, I eventually sent a few Rocket Arties and tanks to liberate Wittenberg where the only Uranium within sight was. I was going to rush a few nukes and steamroll Spain and the land formerly known as Portugal. Sadly, when I took the city I soon realized the tile hadn't been improved. I also remembered the hard way that my Worker couldn't improve the tile for them. For some reason, I was unable to gift the Worker so my plan was not going to be implemented.
With about 15 turns to go, it became apparent that Pacal would be under my influence next (Spain had succumbed earlier) and it was going to be a close race between Brazil and Shoshone as to who to send my GMu (from Liberty finisher) to. I had better modifiers with Brazil but they had a big culture lead. In the end, I chose correctly and the concert tour was done in Shoshone lands (cost me 20 GPT for open borders). I completed Aesthetics on t269 and could have faith bought one more GMu if needed, but the game ended. Obviously, my earlier use of GMu's for theming bonuses wasn't optimal for fast victory, but I wanted my achievement points.
Once I realized I would have no nukes, it was clear that the invasion of Spain would not be over before the CV was finished, so I tried for several turns before Izzy finally gave me white peace. My goal then was to send my GP to Madrid then Lisbon to earn that bonus point but I ran out of time and never made it to Lisbon. I probably could have bought another GP and got that but had burned faith on an unneeded GS earlier.
After barking at me incessantly, Shoshone finally took 20 GPT to DoW Pacal and then the victory was secure. Poca had a big army and likely would have taken undefended and hard to defend Onondaga (he dropped two GG's to steal the luxes there), but my choke points would have stopped him cold from getting any further absent a sneak naval attack from across the world.
The strategy of taking Antwerp probably paid off. The city was producing 110+ hammers at the end and built most of my forces while Cusco was Wonder spamming. It was also in a great strategic location for this map, and had great defensive terrain, especially after I lined its turf with cheap/free roads.
I was able to complete Trad, Ratio, Liberty, and Aesthetics as well as getting 6 in Freedom (and Exploration opener for Louvre). This may be a personal record for Social Policies in a non-Poland game. I'm not sure if I'd have been better off completing Aesthetics before Rationalism or not. Probably not as CV needs science more than Aesthetics bonuses unless you have a ton of faith to buy GMus. I had good faith (63 FPT at max) but not great enough to take the GMu route. Besides, I wanted to get some achievements more than a fast win time.
After finally getting a good look at Rio de Janeiro, I now see how Pedro was able to hold out against Izzy for so long. That city was a quagmire of jungle and likely very hard to invade. I've got to remember that next time I play a Brazil game.
That's about all I've got that is of any interest. I'm looking forward to seeing if someone can get a sub-220 turn CV. I think it's possible for some of you even with a very irritating lack of strategic resources. I am satisfied that, once again, the true power of the mighty Incas has been demonstrated. They may be turf-dependent, but if they get decent dirt they can be overpowering. If I ever get into Multi-player games, Inca would be my first choice.
