Since I didn't want to make a thread for a whiney in-game rant...
Playing prince level, using the laptop so I can't play big maps, thus a 4-civ map, 8 CS, using babylon. Opponents are Alex, Oda, Sule. I have crappy land near the cap, but I'm still able to get a size 10 city with 3 GS planted, skipped GL (which ended up going to Oda on turn 200...) and went for NC yadda yadda yadda. Attack greece first, take an outlying city then his cap no prob, make peace, purge his holy city, and send my semi-promoted units up towards Oda. Halfway there but before I dow him, Oda finishes the Great Wall. I didn't think much of it at the time, but that one thing caused all the rest of the problems. I normally build the GW as a denial wonder, and after this experience, I'll never skip doing it ever again.
My forces: 9 crossbows, 3 swords, 2 pikes, 2 great generals. No horse units, cause neither Alex's nor my territory had any horses. His forces: exposed capital with 3 tiles of culture depth, 2 outlying pikes, and a single comp bowman forted in the city.
I open by killing both pikes then positioning my units so 6 CB will enter bombard range at once. GG on both sides to support everyone. Next turn we move in, but none of my CBs can shoot yet due to GW. He kills a CB outright and damages another with what is probably a bought treb that appeared the previous turn. Move swords adjacent, 4 CBs fire, retreat wounded CB, move 2 spare CBs into position, one is able to shoot immediately, the other needs one more turn. He kills another CB outright, badly wounds another with the treb. I check with the swords, they'll do like 12 points of damage in return for being taken down about 60 hp. I hold off cause I have to have one alive to take the city. I elect to not retreat, and 5 CBs, including the wounded one, fire. The city is now at about half health. Next turn he kills the wounded cb and also kills another fresh one. Now I only have 5 left, the city is back to nearly 70% health and I can see there's no way this is going to work in my favor, so I broker a peace deal.
I don't even know what I could have done differently. He got no unit help from other cities. I actually thought I had super overkill. Rebuild and take some cover promos for the CBs? I kept hoping he'd shoot at the swords, because they can at least take a round of fire before being killed, but he totally ignored em. I've honestly never seen anything like that before.
-S