G-Major 103

I rolled several promising starts, looking for stone and gems. I'm thinking marble starts would be better. I really missed having it and could never trade for it. However, I wanted the Mids, which actually ended up being practically useless due to diplo civics - had to run HR.

The start I played looked nice at first but really was lacking in food. I moved to settle on stone and miscalculated where the food actually was. Still it wasn't bad with 3 gems , wet wheat, sheep,etc.

AIs teched pitifully slow. Barbs were never an issue. Surround by Hammy, Rag, Mao and Genghis, with Alex fairly near too. Hammy was obviously the early target for most. Surprisingly, Zara tends to be ignored for the most part.

Alex was surprisingly the strong techer by far. I'm so used to him lagging in tech, but I think Philo really pays off on Boreal. Alex was my PA target once I saw his cities in the lead. There were some good and bad aspects of selecting Alex. However, unless you can somehow keep someone like Zara or Hammy alive, one of the Warmongers seems best simply as they will survive.

The downside to Alex was twofold:

1) As a warmonger it was difficult to get the PA as fast as possible. Despite years of shared wars and defensive pacts, he was so briefly in peace mode before declaring on someone else. It took 3 defensive pacts - or maybe 4 - before I finally got the PA. I bribed him out of war twice.

2) Vassalage!!! Ugh!! That was painful to run much of the game, pre-PA, without Bureau in an OCC. Despite shared religion and many other + points, the numbers kept fluctuating such that I had to adopt Vass. To top it off, once in a PA I could not later get him to switch to Free Speech. I think PAs are broken in that regard.

Then he built UN and we won leadership. However, Genghis and Otto kept defy the FS vote. Mehmed finally bit it. The I realized I could just bribe Genghis into FS and then the vote passed. This was a major error in my part among several mid to late game. We went years and years without FS after the PA - many many turns lost.

Another fairly major mistake, even though I was fully aware of needing only 2 AI cites to hit L, was actually looking at all three of his cities. Arrrgh!!! I dumped several artists in his 3rd city. I had about 10 artist waiting before the PA came in. To top it off, for kicks, I gift him 1 artist inside his 2nd city to see if he would bomb it. Next turn I see the GA on the other side of his empire. Not sure what he did with other than bombing a border city...it sure did not go to the 2nd L city. (lesson learned! don't gift GAs)

Corps - Saved a GE and GA for CJ and CC. I found one in his Wall city and 1 in my city. Although the AI eventually starts building Execs, they are very slow at it and wind up settling them in the wrong cities first. Very annoying. I think it's better to found them in you city and spread it to him. Definitely quicker. The corps really paid off though and we had plenty of the resources.

Note on Corps: Very annoying bug in which the PA partner tries to gift you back the resources you gifted him for the corp benefit. Literally every turn. Really makes the late game a drag.

Overall, the early game went very well diplo wise. AP for the win! I bulbed Theo which was wonderful not just for quick AP but as bribe bait. I literally had almost everyone at war the whole game, with Monty as a prime target. As mentioned, I beelined Alpha and gifted techs like crazy to get most warmongers to Pleased, in which case I could bribe most of them onto Monty, who was targeted due to his distance from me. I then used AP to keep the war with Monty going and later started another holy war with Mehmed. At one point, I had literally everyone at war with Monty and Mehmed simultaneously.

Shaka was a beast later, literally destroying civ after civ. He and Rag were pretty big late with 5 AIs dead. Both were fight Mehmed - due to me - near the end. With both their immense stacks in Turkey, I bribed Shaka off Mehmed and onto Rag. He was on the verge of eliminating Rag near the end. Pretty impressive. Shaka really is the best warmonger I think when he has the right stuff behind him..

I ran with just a couple of archers for practically the whole game, until I built modern units at the very end just to be safe. I never killed an AI unit the whole game, despite being "at war" for much of it.

Alpha beeline is key for the game. Roll some gems, get worker techs and then beeline Alpha. Start wars. Wonder whore.

I finished in 1960s, but I think I played things right late and got the PA sooner, early 1900s was feasible game. I'd be really amazed to see anything far below the 1800s in this challenge. Although I will say that not being able to run Rep was a major issue. I rather have Rag on the other side like Monty was this game, so I could make him a target.

Other things I would have done better:

1) I was too hesitant on waiting for the PA. If you have your PA target and you are fairly certain that it will take, might as well setup your partners cities earlier rather than later. I should should have settled the Great Artists in his 2 cities (not 3 ) as soon as possible as it benefits them longer term.

2) Likewise, and I really goofed here, I should have spread my other religions to his cities sooner so that he would build the religious buildings. I waited far too late. Basically forgot.

3) Found the culture corps in my city and spread them immediately to his 2 cities.

Overall, just happy to complete my first OCC culture game, especially in such a challenging setup. I'm sure others will get much better dates that me.