Emperor, early information era collapse

This is my first full game on Emperor level and for the first attempt I managed to play it really nicely, surviving early double DOW from Dido and Boudicca and still staying a demographic leader in everything but army size and approval with England.

I was playing Terra map and ended up conquering area which in the real world corresponds to Russia. So to the south I have Celts separated from me by mountains and southwest there is India with a large army well defended cities and Persian gulf making swift attacks impossible.

Starting at about year 1850 my diplomatic relations turned really ugly, as everyone was guarded or worse. I neglected my army foolishy, continuing to build culture and research. So what happened, since about 1900 I have had DOW from at least 3 civs simultaneously with no one accepting peace negotiations. I managed to counter an attack of an army about 3 times my size if not 4 with obsolete units until a reinforcement of bazookas and paratroopers came in (from my side). I have also used about 10 nukes in an attempt to weaken my opposition, nearly taking India's capital (reducing it in size from 36 to about 4). Unfortunately, as I was doing that I got attacked from the opposite side of the map and in 15 turns Celts took Hanoi (which I previously conquered as a retaliation for taking a city I lost early in a game).

After all these shenanigans I ended up in a neverending World War with 6 cities remaining, irreversible critical unhappiness, 0 gold, -140 gpt, 0 trade routes. Other civs already started building spaceship, and top score contenders are about 150 to 200 points ahead of me. On the positive side (if there is any) I have the largest army perma-building tanks, nukes, helicopters. Currently year 2020.

Any feasible way of saving the game at this point or just launch an attack on all my enemies and fight till the last soldier?

P.S. forgot to mention that 3 of my cities got nuked in the process, I have 3 workers remaining and the entire Asian part of the map is a nuclear wasteland at this point.
But this is the most fun I had playing civ 5 since starting..

wow! Great game! I wouldn't worry about the parts being built unless they're just like 1 off or something. You need a lot of techs north to get the engine and the AI are just bad at doing it quickly. My guess is the game will end via time before any AI finishes a space victory.

Therefore, if you want to win I see 3 options:

1. you need to get a higher score than anyone so that you claim time victory, this is the easiest as you're only like 100-200 points under the leaders. That's essentially just 1-2 wonders if there are any left to build, also getting ahead on tech and conquering a city from each leader AI would probably put you in #1 spot. kinda a bummer, I hate time victories, but your only hope if you don't think you can launch the spaceship in 30 turns.

2. If you are fairly deep into the information then you can launch the spaceship. It goes quicker than you think. Just queue up spaceship factories first and keep teching. Run scientist specialists so you'll get some end-game scientists to bulb and obviously, build hubble for the free 2 and spaceship factory. Shame you have no RA's as they'd help as well with all the AI close behind. If you are at war with everyone this could be difficult switching to parts so you'd probably want peace on a front or two. Note that if you are freedom you can buy parts and if you are order you can hurry them with engineers with the proper tenets. For making peace: usually dragging other AI in on your side helps if there are any left. Bribe them or give them your luxes to come in on your side and then the AI have 2 fronts to fight on and eventually get tired of it. Nuking their capitals probably put them in vendetta-mode, but if you can manage to take a few cities they still might reconsider as well.

3. Conquer all AI capitals in 30 turns. It's easier than you think. In the info era you can stealth bomb way away and if you've nuked several capitals already all that you might need is a modern armor rush or (if you can reach them) an X-COM drop. Those things can go across the map practically and have 100 strength. I'd recommend some nuclear subs with nuclear missles. Slip in and drop 1 on a capital and it'll be dust. they are twice as powerful as a bomb usually cutting pop by 3/4 or so and will also destroy all troops in a 2-tile radius not even leaving damaged ones. Then a single XCOM each. You might be able to time capturing each capital if the world isn't too large and end it in the space of a few turns. It's cheap, but hey, they asked for cheap and dirty when they all DOWed you and nuked your cities.

Unhappiness doesn't really matter unless it is so extreme it drastically affects production. Just keep killing the rebels. Your gold is a bad problem though. If you haven't already you need to cut some costs. Getting up a late-game trade ship to a faraway capital (you'll need harbor) could net you 30 gpt a pop at this point too. If you have crappy cities sell some expensive buildings. If you have some waste troops that are pretty outdated disband them (probably biggest cost). If you have any friends at all start selling your leftover luxes for lump gold to stave off bankruptcy. Usually you can look at what's eating you and figure out show to balance things. All that gold is going somewhere. Good luck! If you had finished honor you could stay positive just by killing enemy troops but probably too late for that.

asura_ said:

...Celts took Hanoi (which I previously conquered as a retaliation for taking a city I lost early in a game)...

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This is your problem here, you captured a CS. That is why you have suffered countless years or war. The AI can get away with it sometimes but the human player cannot, unless you haven't met anyone yet.
I suggest trying again, perhaps on the same map. When Dido and Boudicca DOWs you(and they will because that's what they are like) just defend yourself and denounce(if you want to) afterwards when peace is offered. They will have a warmonger score and not you making the rest of the AI civs hate them more than you. Once the the other AI civs can't tolerate Dido and/or Boudicca any more you will be asked to join in a war, that's when you can take their cities.

Thanks for good advice so far. I'm going to apply it to my next games and I will also try to fix this one, although I believe it's time to send my troops in for the kill! I realize that spaceship is out of the question, since I have no parts built and I will not be able to research remaining tech in time.

I think this is a good learning experience, I will post end-result in a nice little narrative once I'm done.

P.S. I was first to get nuclear bombs and planes and I used them as a last resort. I believe this made AI want to retaliate with the same technique.

asura_ said:

But this is the most fun I had playing civ 5 since starting..

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And in the end, isn't that the point?

The game is now officially over and here are some key moments.

I managed to fix unhappiness I have no idea how, but all I did was attack city states and let my cities repopulate after nuclear war. I declared war on each one of the closest CS which had no allies,. By selling unneeded units and building caravans/cargo ships in a couple turns I resurrected my economy which was going down at -230 gold per turn by year 2029. I completely abandoned all hope of winning and kept warmongering until by year 2049 I had control over almost entire Europe+Asia region of the Terra map + part of North Africa. On the next turn Portugal won the Time Victory with almost 300 points more than I had. At this point I declared war on every single civ/CS in the game to see how long it takes for me to lose every city. Surprisingly it lasted for 30 turns until 2080.

By the end of this game I used about 25 nukes, lost countless units and drove diplomatic relationship into such a deep hole that only my huge army acted as a deterrent against DoW from everyone. I should say that starting in 1950 I kind of stopped caring and just tried to inflict the most damage upon my foes. Turns out I at least prevented all of them from winning the game because Portugal occupied entire north american continent and was the only civ that could compete against India's scientific power based on their demographics.

Overall, I'm pleased, though I understand that this was a complete disaster in terms of pro-gameplay and winning strategy lol

asura_ said:

The game is now officially over and here are some key moments.

I managed to fix unhappiness I have no idea how, but all I did was attack city states and let my cities repopulate after nuclear war. I declared war on each one of the closest CS which had no allies,. By selling unneeded units and building caravans/cargo ships in a couple turns I resurrected my economy which was going down at -230 gold per turn by year 2029. I completely abandoned all hope of winning and kept warmongering until by year 2049 I had control over almost entire Europe+Asia region of the Terra map + part of North Africa. On the next turn Portugal won the Time Victory with almost 300 points more than I had. At this point I declared war on every single civ/CS in the game to see how long it takes for me to lose every city. Surprisingly it lasted for 30 turns until 2080.

By the end of this game I used about 25 nukes, lost countless units and drove diplomatic relationship into such a deep hole that only my huge army acted as a deterrent against DoW from everyone. I should say that starting in 1950 I kind of stopped caring and just tried to inflict the most damage upon my foes. Turns out I at least prevented all of them from winning the game because Portugal occupied entire north american continent and was the only civ that could compete against India's scientific power based on their demographics.

Overall, I'm pleased, though I understand that this was a complete disaster in terms of pro-gameplay and winning strategy lol

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The fun is all what matters after all

Hey getting to use modern units is always fun. And 25 nukes! You brought nuclear winter!!! I don't think this world has much longer to live.

For some reason I can't replicate this military success in my Emperor games anymore haha. I'm yet to get a victory on this level, but I will not give up lol