Rolled the Celts on a heavy grass/jungle start. Because the production was lousy I decided to go for a peaceful CV as a change of pace.
The beginning was rough - I fell asleep and out of my chair two times while playing peaceful Tradition opener, but I managed to push through and entered the Reneissance via Acoustics on T117. Built Sistine and Uffizi back to back (each took 25 turns to complete - ouch!). That reminded me why I usually don't bother with wonders on Deity... my cap was so behind in infrastructure after that I was forced to run 3 production caravans just to get everything else done before Modern (Grand Temple, Ironworks etc.).
As I hit the Modern Era I added Broadway and rushed Eiffel Tower with
GE. I also opened Freedom as advertised in this guide. After I got my
fixed everything started to line up perfectly. Got all the Wonders I wanted (didn't even try for Leaning Tower - gone before I teched Printing Press) and all my proposals passed. I was actually starting to enjoy a peaceful game for once. But of course that peace wasn't to last...
Attila had been my immediate neighbour from the start, coveted my lands and was generally hostile throughout the game. I tried very hard to show restraint. When a Hunnic spy stole the secrets of Philosophy from Edinburgh on turn 137 I wasn't even mad. When he bombed my land twice with citadels I pretended I didn't notice. But when he tried to sneak a bunch of Settlers past my borders I finally broke and DoW'd him. After I took his units he tried to invade my lands but was so behind in tech it wasn't even funny (Knights vs Machine Guns). I burned one of his cities and made peace. Got a DoF from Attila one turn later.
In the mean time the rest of the world was convulsed by war. Egypt had adopted Autocracy and wiped out Carthage
. India and the Huns ganged up on Siam and took him out and tech leader Germany killed his fellow neighbour the Ottomans.
Once the Order civs were all dead I was backstab-denounced by my autocratic "friends". I wasn't worried in the slightest even when they were plotting against me because I had an awesome chain of City State allies that protected me from the outer world.
I was making over 1000
/turn after the Internet and World Games and I thought I had the game in the bag. All I needed was a few more turns of ideological pressure and 3 tourism bombs (could only afford 2
GMs and 1 spawned).
...then it happened. I get triple-DoW'd by the Huns, Germany and Egypt. I lose open borders, trade routes and my diplomats are kicked out. Suddenly, my awesome Tourism is only rising slowly. At first this looked like a phony war, but then Ramesess shows up with a ton of Rocket Artillery, rolls Ormus in 2 turns and is at my borders! I've never seen anything like this before, needless to say I was caught with my pants down and my cap was reduced to 0 hit points in a couple of turns.
Because Egypt and Germany were both more or less running away with culture, I had to split my Musisians and sneaked one in egyptian borders. Unfortunately there was no easy access to german borders so I had to take a swim in a water full of submarines and other nasty stuff.
Fortunately the Germans were stuck fighting Buenos Aires long enough for me to bomb them with my last 2 GMs and close the game out on turn 301. Had they broken through earlier and attacked me from the west I would have surely lost my cap...