In my most recent game (America, Immortal, standard small continents, standard time) which I won on turn 379 (1959) with a science win, I did everything I could to increase population from the get-go. Built granaries in my 4 core cities, built aqueducts, hospitals, medical labs, and was allied with 3 or so maritime CS. I was really going for a cultural win -- had only 2 policies to go + the Utopia wonder (i.e., about 30 turns)-- but the problem was that the cities were growing so darned quickly that I was totally running out of happiness. Washington had a pop of over 40, and New York & Boston were in the high 20s or low 30s. I ended up with my 4 core cities + about 10 puppets that I got from conquering the Roman Empire. I think I had all the happiness wonders -- Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower -- and had built every single happiness building in all 4 cities. Finally I went ahead and annexed Rome & bought a courthouse + stadium, which put me up to about 10
, but I had seen 10 happiness go away in just a few turns because of the rapidly increasing population.
Policies: Completed Liberty, Rationalism, Freedom, and then Patronage; had 3 of 5 in Commerce -- the last policy selected was the one which gives +1
for each luxury.
Thanks for the experience!
Love this mod.