So this is my first time playing Deity. And I'm bad at Immortal, but I wanted to take a crack at these DCL's. Now is as good a time as any. My goal is to try and get a win, so I plan to turtle with a science victory.
I'm thrilled to see coastline. I usually do terrible in land, especially in jungle starts (I'd throttled myself playing Brazil, while easily winning CV's with other civs)
Head west with my warrior. Kilimanjaro! 500 gold, but I am paranoid about the city state engulfing it. And a ruin on a mountain. Huh. I guess the only way to get it is to extend borders around it, or something? Buy a settler, and grab the wonder. Love altitude training.
I hear that stealing workers is the way to go, which I've never been good at. Lhasa is right next door, and I nab a worker. Hey, that was easy. I hang around and nab another one. Soon, my scout is circling Lhasa like a pervert circling a middle school. The workers are the kids, and Barcelona is the windowless van they disappear into. This is easier than I thought.
My other scouts are grabbing stuff, and I meet a bunch of religious city states, and pop a hut with 60 faith. Nice. I don't usually aim for a religion, but a pantheon falls into my lap. One with nature? Religious idols? Stone circles? I honestly don't know what to choose. I go with religious idols, there is a lot of silver lying around. Ultimately, stone circles might have been the better bet.
I found Scientology, with tithe. Because I really don't see the other founding things as being effective, unless I want to put a lot of effort into spreading my religion. And I don't, because I suck at religion.
Turn 53, I notice that the capital of the Celts is way in the south. Yet Dublin was founded just to the East of my capital. Wtf. I found another city to the north, to grab all the cotton that is around. Hopefully I won't piss off Elizabeth, but she seems to be settling west.
I've found Barringer, and I decide this is as good a place as any for my fourth city. An Austrian settler shows up. Screw that, I take the settler, and hope the decision doesn't bite me in the ass. It doesn't, and I get peace soon afterward. Get the NC on turn 82. A new record for me. By about 40 turns. Things sure move faster on Deity. Get the oracle in Barcelona two turns later. Kilimanjaro is making it like I have two capitals. Halicannarsus(?) goes on turn 85, which seems way late. Interesting.
Hey, Deity is easy! I say screw it, might as well go for a cultural victory. I hate being bossed around culturally, and having all those angry faces around. I think I have a pathological need to be liked. More to the point, I'm getting cocky. I settle near Barringer, and buy a bunch of tiles.
Miss Chichen Itza by 3 at turn 99. I love wonders. And that is not a good thing. First minor setback. Take that in stride. Colossos goes on turn 116, which seems late. AI's seem to be slacking.
I've been getting Wu to attack everyone to the south, and everything is in an uproar. That is good. West is another issue, I can't get anyone to DoW anyone else. So they grow unchecked.
I get Sistine Chapel at turn 132, and Pisa at 153. I oxford into Industrialization. No coal. I hate that.
Everyones been real friendly, but that breaks with Elizabeth attacking me. I have a bunch of gatling guns at this point, and her army is mowed down. She's also fighting Russia, who is quickly snowballing out of control. Twice the number of points as the second highest (me). Elizabeth makes peace quickly.
I lose the world fair on turn 180 to Russia, and it isn't that close. This is the first indication that things are starting to go wrong. Catherine is grinding ahead, and getting bigger and bigger. Friendly, but she is piling up some serious culture.
I've gone Tradition, Aesthetics, and Rationalism. I bulb into radio, and choose Freedom. I build Eiffel, Globe Theater, and get the Statue of Liberty. I can't lose now, can I? I don't build the musicians guild, I plan on bombing Russia at the end. I end up bulbing my way to internet. I build CN Tower and Sydney Opera House. I go back and get airports, and my tourism is rolling. The problem: I have to melt through something like 80000 culture of Russia. Ultimately, I can't.
I follow up my plan, and essentially max out at around 500 Tourism. With the other modifiers, I am looking at about 850 a turn, and it isn't enough. Even after five musician bombs (5000+ each), I am over a hundred turns away. In desperation, I attempt to switch to a Science victory, but Catherine steals Hubble, even though I checked every turn until the last, which had me beating her to it. However, the turn before I would get Hubble, her number went mysteriously down, and she built it. I grabbed spaceship procurement, planning on buying parts, but my science simply didn't reach all the parts in time. Long story short, she launched on turn 332.
I would have won a science victory likely dozens of turns earlier, if I had stayed with the intial plan. And I shouldn't be letting a game drag out like this anyway. My first deity game, and it was a lot of fun. Had plenty of science, gold, and production (with tons of culture), which I don't always have. So some things were going right.
Still, I want to win next time.
at first I thought 80k? No way... 
