The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game # 1 - The Zulus

This game was rather interesting, because for the first time, I got DOWed early game multiple times, and there was nothing I could do about it. I saw the carpet of doom, America was bringing towards my borders at T40, but not even 20 GPT were enough for him to change his mind and attack someone else. I managed to fend him off with an archer and 2 spear men, but I lost my initial warrior. After that France figured they take a shot, but they were not such a big problem since by then I already had more troops. This delayed my NC but I still managed to complete it in the late T60 or early T70s. I only built an additional expo because there really wasn't much space for a 3rd and with the dows I probably wouldn't have been able to keep it.

After Civil Service, beelined Machinery and then the fun started. After upgrading all spearmen and 2 turns later all archers I started in a spiral movement to get all capitals: Siam, England, Babylon, Shoshone, France and finally Carthage.
Siam was very easy, I easily took the capital and second city (which I razed).
England was a tough nut to crack, they had Great Wall, and longbows so I lost a few impis (my cities kept building them so there wasn't a big problem. I actually needed machinery for this. With XBs I finally took York and then used a citadel to easily capture London.

By this time Shoshone dowed me because I had stilen land from them and they pillaged my caravan.

I moved forward for Babylon which was slow and steady because of the rough terrain, I only got the capital and settled for peace with 2 luxuries in the deal.

Then south for the Shoshone which were quite weak because of a war with France (that cost me 30gpt).
At this point my Impi's were becoming obsolete, I know they have a bonus against gunpowder units but it really doesn't seem to matter because musketmen destroyed a lot of them.

I pushed for Paris, and took advantage of the fact France were currently at war with America (which became my friends after a joint declaration of war against Siam). Managed to take it without losing any troops.

I decided to wait to upgrade my military. I was already building canons in my cities and I was timing oxford for dynamite. I just bulbed rifling to upgrade my Impis. I used a couple of faith bought great merchants to get the cash since it cost me a lot.

America was extremely easy since I had super riflemen against their minutemen, and artillery.

Carthage was a little tougher because they already had riflemen and eventually got Replaceable Parts (which I stole). The terrain was also rough, forcing me to get a CS.

Stole workers off Valletta, Dido, and Nebby. Stayed in war with CS until first real war.
Napoleon forward settled 2 cities next to my northern expo, so I have to be very careful to not DoW him for as long as possible.
Washington was marching an army, so bribed him to war against Napoleon. When I was ready, DoW Washington to, took his capital at T85.
Dido DoW immediately but didn't do any real damage before peace.
Used Liberty GE for Machu Picchu to help generate gold.

DoW Siam at T108 with XB, took his capital at T112, also took his expo but sold it to Nebby for all his gold, then immediately DoW him to recapture that expo as it was in the way. It was mainly done to generate gold and reduce unhappiness. Also DoW Liz at the same time, which turns out to be a mistake as she already had LB and was actually killing my XB without range.

Babylon falls T126 containing SoZ, razed his other remaining city so he was eliminated. Meanwhile, bribed Pocatello to DoW Dido to prevent her backstab. After a pretty long war, after razing English expo, captured London on T136.

Next target was Paris, which was very weak from previous war with Pocatello, so easily took it at T150. Immediately began war with Pocatello, but he already had musketmans and was able to kill a few of my XB when I wasn't careful. His cities were tightly spaced and combined with GW, so he was quite difficult and it required some GG bombs. His capital fell on T174, contains a lot of wonders including Notre Dame. While I was warring him, he took Babylon and I recaptured it and reduced to 1 pop. Also around the same time, Dido finally backstabs and also took Washington, and I had to split off the less experienced army and recapture it.

Dido already in Industrial era with riflemans/frigate/cannons, also built Red Fort so her cities were tough to take with only XB. Cannons or Artillery were out of the question. Taking Carthage required taking all her other cities on the way, as well as Valletta. And I also had to use several GG bombs, including one adjacent to Carthage to kill her garrisoned units. I used roads to help cycle logistic/ranged XB so that they can do more damage since only certain tiles can shoot Carthage. It finally fell on T208 after 7 turns of bombardment.

Settled 3 city, stole workers from america and france before bootcamping military CS. France stole my 4th city location in revenge. minor build order mishap (forgot to go mon before ganaries, bad trad habit) but managed to get pyramids. Planted a GS since i couldnt find a Machu Pichu city for a GE.

Machinary was reached at T98 with 2 range logistics archers. Babylon first to go around T100, followed by a trek up to London at T110. after that Impis came online so Siam fell T119 with no resistance.

France was busy fighting Shoshone so an undefended paris falls T128 and Moson Khani (with ND!) falls itself T140 after i waded through 2 more french cities and the GW.

At this point Dido wipes out America so the mop-up is easy. Washington falls T143, and a suicidal trek up the peninsular with impis yields Carthage on T153. according to my spy she was building Sistine right before her death...

Social Policies: Full Lib, 2 in comm

Religion: none. Got Englands with mosques and London had 2 planted prophets so I had insance FPT at the end.

WC: Never founded. Dido hated printing press...

Wonders: Pyramids. insane GC at the end due to pillage repair, wasnt sure how to use it speed up victory.