COTM 12 Second Spoiler: Entering the Industrial Age

COTM 12: Spoiler 2

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have the full world-map. You must have all contacts, and must be researching an industrial-age tech.


The middle-ages are when your unique unit is most valuable. What sort of position were you in when the Ansar Warrior became available - did you have the resquired resources? Did you use it to trigger your golden age, and if so, did you use it to its fullest potential?

Was this the phase that you worked to expand to the maximum potential, or did you follow a more peaceful path?

Open, going for 20K

ancient age

We entered the Middle Ages in 130BC. After the completion of the Great Library, cathedral and colosseum, we started on building the Sistine Chapel. Because the wonder-techs are coming in fast and they are quite large to build, it gets time to start the GA. It is also time for some MGL’s.

In 260AD we dow Russia and our GA starts. Using the GA lets us quickly finish the Sistine Chapel and build the university and Copernicus. By rearranging the worked tiles in Medina I can bring production up to 28 shields, which becomes 40 in Golden Age.

I have chosen Russia as enemy because they don’t have iron and haven’t their horses connected. I send two pikemen to the horse to prevent it from being connected. Later on the pikemen are killed by longbows. A few Russian cities are captured including Moscou with the Pyramids. The war is not about knocking out the Russians: just to harvest MGL’s and of course the Pyramids. The war ends in 690AD, having brought us 3 MGL’s.

In 890AD we reach the Industrial Ages. The 20K builds until that point:

2350 temple
1600 palace
1000 Oracle
875 library
710 Mausoleum of Mausollos
430 Hanging Gardens
130 --------------------------------- Middle Ages
110 Great Library
-30 cathedral
110 colosseum
260 --------------------------------- start Russian war, start Golden Age
360 Sistine Chapel
370 university
460 --------------------------------- end Golden Age
480 Copernicus’ Observatory
490 Heroic Epic (MGL)
660 Shakespeare’s Theater
690 ---------------------------------end Russian war (3 MGL’s aquired)
770 Newton’s University
890 --------------------------------- Industrial Ages

Predator
Ancient Age

I entered MA in 690BC. The gifting and trading round with the sci civs gave monotheism and feudalism.
Research was set to chivalry (what else ?) .
Small problem was that it would still take some time to steal some iron.
So I opted for a small horsie campaign against resourceless France first.
This lasted to 390BC leaving France with two towns, but we had now the pyramids in Paris.


Next target was Russia. Now we had the first Ansars. War and golden age started in 250BC.
In 210BC the Ottomans declared when I booted them out. So now we have a nice 2-front war .
The russians are destroyed in 10AD and also there isn't much left of the Ottomans. They last until 50AD.


I still didn't know the other continent and had decided to wait for astronomy now (had lost the Lighthouse to the Portugese), while working on the Koreans.
Korea didn't put up much of a fight. The main problem was getting through their jungle and mountain land.
In 270AD they are gone. France also got mopped up somewhere along the road.


And I had now met a Portugese galley near Korea.
In the same year Leonardo's completed and I upgraded a bunch of horsies I had saved for this occassion.
With Astronomy in 280AD shipments to Portugal started.

RoP rape in 360AD leads to the demise of Portugal in 390AD.


I had already researched to navigation, to get maps, then stopped research.
A small force had also reached England by this time via the western route.

The rest is just moving troops through difficult territory and then capturing english and byzantine cities.
Last byzantine town falls in 500AD for conquest victory in 510AD.

Two turns before the end Byzantines got gunpowder and I made a very short peace to trade for it, just to look where the saltpeter would have been.

Never mind, sorry.

Open

I entered the MA in 975BC prepairing for war.
First i attacked ottomans with horsemen (they had iron), then on their way back my armies destroyed France. Then i started war with Russia and just before destroying them i researched chivalry (got monotheism and feudalism by trading with sci civs) and got my GA. Then i stopped research and used gold to upgrade horses and to rush galleys. I destroyed Korea and transported my army to the other continent using suicidal galleys and destroyed everybody there. My result was conquest in 680AD with 10295 jason score.

That's not bad for the first time, i think, but it'll not get me high in the ranking, because the map is very easy - most AI's don't have resources.

My mistakes were (not sure about some of them, the experienced players may correct me):

1. In the early phase of the game i could have organised my expansion more efficently.
2. I only built a small core around my capital. Maybe i should have claimed more land - that's a scoring issue. My base score would've been higher, but i would have lost some time for building useless corrupt cities. Anyway i should have claimed iron.
3. Having iron i could have chosen whom to attack first and that should have been Russia - they were the closest ones and i could use their cities for production.
4. Propably i should have stayed on despotism - anyway i only researched chivalry on monarchy and i had many horsemen anyway, so getting chivalry earlier was more important then having higher production.
5. I should have transported my armies at both ends of the other continent, near Byzantines and near Portuguise - i had enough ansars and galleys not to waste my time running from one side of the continent to the other.

Predator. To make a long story short, I achieved a domination victory in 1030AD. I had four armies at the end, three cav, one ansar.

I used ROP rape to land my forces in portugal and wipe them out. Its the fastest domination I ever had, but I can see where I could have played better and won earlier. I got my iron from the island to the east and shipped it to the main land. Horses were no problem.

I entered MA in 800BC, connected Iron in 490BC and learned Chivalry in 470BC.
In 210BC I decided I had enough military power to start the conquer of the world. Arabs attacked Otto and triggered GA.

By 10AD I had conquered 90% of Otto cities and used my first GL to build FP in the middle of Otto territory.

In 90AD Arabs attacked France. In 110AD I finally met English and, few turns later, all the other continent's civs.

In 150AD Ottomans were terminated. In 190AD I learned Military Tradition and my GA ended.

In 280AD France was terminated. In 360AD I learned Astronomy and stopped reasearch, in the same year I attacked Korea (terminated in 460AD) and Russia (terminated in 440AD).

In 480AD my troops landed in the other continent and attacked Portugal conquering the city with the Great Lighthouse.
In 530BC I decided to research Navigation to be able to connect two luxuries found in the other continent.

Arabs attacked English in 550AD and Byzantines in 590.

Portugal was terminated in 590AD, English in 600AD and Byzantines in 690AD for a Conquest victory in 700AD.

My first COTM, I played it as a GOTM. Guess I'll take some games to understand all the differences between the two versions.

I entered the Middle Ages in 750 BC looking for war. I did not gift anyone in with me because I had no desire to face pikemen (and I didn’t pay enough attention to the lack of iron). In 690 BC, Russia came demanding literature. I refused and they obligingly declared. I signed an alliance against Russia with the Ottomans – I didn’t need their help (and in fact they were useless), but I did not want Russia signing an alliance with them against me. The French and Koreans were no threat whatsoever so I left them out. Although I had a superior military, the war went slowly because I was trying to avoid taking cities that would autoraze, and Russia was still in despotism so they could pop rush. I also was avoiding Moscow because the Pyramids had been started there a while ago, and I was hoping they would be finished for me instead of wasting those shields. Unfortunately, Seoul completed the Pyramids before Moscow so I signed peace with Russia in 90 BC. I picked up 5 cities during the war and another 3 in the peace treaty.

I inexplicably had over 200 years of peace following that war. The Ottomans tried to extort horses, but unfortunately they were bluffing. In 170 AD, the French were kind enough to send a warrior into my territory and declare when I told him to leave. I had ansar warriors by now and kicked off my Golden Age with the beginning of the war. By 400 AD, the French were merely a footnote in history.

In declared on Russia again in 280 AD. Moscow had completed the Temple of Artemis for me. I eliminated Russia by 430 AD.

Refusing to be at peace again, I declared on the Ottomans in the same year. I took their last city in 550 AD. I thought they had a settler in a galley somewhere, but it turned out he was wandering in Korean territory. He formed a new city for me in 630, and I captured it in 650.

The Koreans’ number came up in 530 - I declared on them. They were eliminated in 650.

I reached military tradition around 510. I researched Theology around 550, but decided not to complete Education to keep the Temple of Artemis in effect. If I had been thinking earlier, I would not have researched Theology either so I could keep the Oracle (thanks to the Ottomans) in effect too, but I thought of that too late. In any case, with science off from 550 on, I cranked up the luxury slider, and I don’t think I had any unhappy citizens the rest of the game.

I had minimal early contact with the other continent. I had met Portugal in 570 BC but between having suicide galleys sink and the ones that did make it across getting killed by barbs, I did not meet the English until 550 AD and the Byzantines until 590 AD. I can’t say I really tried that hard – I knew they were backwards and didn’t see much advantage in wasting shields on ships early.

Portugal completed the Great Lighthouse in Lagos in 590, so I signed an RoP with them. I sent 7 suicide galleys loaded with cavalry and ansar warriors across the strait to Portugal – only 2 survived. Nonetheless, the 4 surviving ansars walked through Portugal to Lagos and then I declared in 740. I conquered Lagos (defended by a regular pike and a veteran pike) and owned the Great Lighthouse. I signed alliances with both England and the Byzantines just so Portugal could not devote all their efforts to recapturing Lagos – in fact, there was almost no counterattack. With the Great Lighthouse firmly under control, I could safely ship cavalry over and it was just a matter of time until domination was reached in 960 with a Jason score of just over 10K.

Predator, barbs fixed, going for 20k

Ancient Age

I entered the MA in 610 BC at which point I handed out techs like candy to catch the other scientific civs up. Otto gets Monotheism, Korea gets Feudalism, Russia gets Feudalism. I still haven't met the other continent at this point so only 3 civs to deal with. I use Republic to get Feudalism and Republic and Feudalism to get Monotheism and start Theology to give me Sistine as a fallback in case I miss the Great Library. At this point I'm thinking Great Library, Cathedral, University and then Copernicus to start GA. I completely forgot about using an Ansar to start my GA (and in fact am quite surprised when I start my GA with one a little later ).

Russia and Otto pick up Literature in 450BC and I'm worried about someone finishing TOA before I get the GL and someone cascading into the GL. Fortunately I end up finishing the GL in 310BC. At this point I turn science down to 20% to start building cash. I'm working on Education, but don't want that too fast anyway as I'd like to get a couple techs out of GL if I can, notably Chivalry, but Engineering would be very nice as well.

First War
I've been readying for a war on France who is pathetically behind (probably barb troubles). They have a nice fur city that I want and is pretty far from their core (if you can call it a core). I take the fur city in 250BC. Cathedral built in 230BC. Otto builds TOA in 210BC and Byzantines cascade to Great Wall, finishing it. Chivalry is known in 190BC by Russia and Otto, which means I'll have it from the GL next turn. I then upgrade 3 horses and destroy French city to my SW to start Golden Age (completely by accident as mentioned above). Now I want to speed up science and wonder building.

Golden Age
I switch Medina to Hanging Gardens (Monarchy was learned from GL right after I got it), and bump science up to 50% to speed up Education. I switch citizens in Medina to use more shields at a cost of 1fpt so Medina is losing food out of its bin, but it had a full (or nearly full) bin at size 12 so this lets me maximize my GA shields. When I get down to the last food I will irrigate one of the grass tiles to make it 0fpt. I'm building Ansars in my core cities to allow for more wars in coming years. I take Paris in 70BC and they aren't even resisting (I'm still settling new cities as much as I can and using temples to expand my area and build my culture).

During my GA I learn Education, Printing Press, Banking, Democracy, and Free Artistry (right after GA ends), and pick up Engineering in a trade. I bumped science up from 60% to 80% on the last turn of GA to make sure I got Free Artistry the next turn. I finished Hanging Gardens, University and started Sistine's. As the GA ended and I switched this to Shakespeare's. I finish my war on France, taking a city for peace, and leaving them with one tundra city. I also make contact with Portugal and trade for the other contacts.
GA ends

Science
From here I learn Astronomy, Music Theory, get Gunpowder from Portugal after doing one turn of reasearch on it, Chemistry, Physics, Theory of Gravity, Magnetism, and again, get Metallurgy from Portugal after one turn of research, entering Industrial Ages in 550AD.

20k Culture builds
310BC Great LIbrary
230BC Cathedral
30BC Hanging Gardens
70AD University
310AD Shakespeare's
510AD Bach's

More War
A gpt deal ended with Otto in 350AD at which point I declare on them. I take out 2 spear/settler stacks, a warrior/settler stack and 5 cities (one with gems) in the first turn. I take the last Ottoman city on southern end of my continent in 420AD, and make peace for 2 more in Koreas southern end, leaving them with just the capital on the iron island east of our continent. Want them around for the IA (and maybe Modern Age too).

In 450AD I notice Russia has a Saltpeter source and decide I need to take them out ASAP. Pilage the SP in 460AD starting a war that lasts until 540AD, leaving them with one tundra city to the far NW, and generating my first leader.

Just before the end of Russian war I declared on Korea. I had built an army of Ansars with the leader and after winning a battle with it switch Medina to Heroic Epic.

End of Middle Ages
As I'm entering the Industrial age in 550AD, Medina is building the Heroic Epic and I'm still working on Korea. I also discover a barb camp that just popped up in old Russia with 32 odd horses in it. Wasn't expecting that. At this point Medina has 2878 culture, and is making 57cpt.

I'm planning on finishing up the conquest of my continent and then filling in and increasing science output to speed through IA as fast as possible. There's not much in the way of wonders in IA so I really want to get to Modern Age as fast as I can. I used worker joins to get Medina up to size 20 after building Shakespeare so the first priority in the IA will be to get Steam Power, find and connect coal and rail Medina. I've been bringing as many workers towards Medina as I can in the last few turns in anticipation of getting Steam from the sci civs and hopefully already having coal.

Finished game last night – going for spaceship but went over domination limit 8 turns before launch (confessions of carelessness next spoiler)

Entered Middle Ages 330BC in Republic with 8 cities researching towards Chivalry
As this is my first Civ3 game doing a science based victory target I didn’t understand the trick of gifting up scientific civs and trading / buying their free techs.
Fustat founded on iron island 230BC
Built GL in Mecca 170BC, learn Monarchy
10BC Research Monotheism
210AD Research Feudalism
260AD join alliance against Russians (my first ferrous-less target) with Ottomans
320AD Research Chivalry -> upgrade horsies after rushing harbours
340AD Sole spearman in iron city redlined by Russian archer!
350AD Commence GA
420AD contact Portugal – I remain tech leader (didn’t record when contacted Eng & Byz – it was soon after ‘though)
450AD Capture Pyramids in Moscow
460AD Research Engineering
500AD Research Invention
560AD Build Sun Tzu’s
580AD Russians destroyed (Ottomans captured only 1 Russian city)
670AD DOW Ottomans – capture TofA in Edrine, disconnect their iron supply
Oops – I lost my iron because their influence covers coast off my iron island.
710AD Capture Oracle in Istanbul
720AD Research Chemistry, Theology (GL)
780AD Research Metallurgy
800AD Built Knights Templar
830AD Peace Ottomans –they have one city on small northern island
840AD Research Mil Trad
860AD DOW France – capture Hanging Gardens
920AD Research Astronomy. Peace with France – all cities captured, left with 2 galleys (don’t build city until 1560)
930AD DOW Korea
960AD Research Physics
98AD Build Sistine Chapel (had been building Leo’s but Constantinople beat me to it in 810AD)
990AD 1st & 2nd GMLs -> cav army and Heroic Epic
1000AD Research Magnetism
1030AD 3rd GML -> 2nd cav army
1040AD Research Banking – trade Music Theory
1080AD Industrial Age. Peace with Korea – also one city on northern island

Conquering my continent went fairly smoothly with first Ansars then cavs.
Science should have been much faster if used science civs.
Knights Templar was useless - pathetic crusaders struggling after Ansars and cavs never able to get to the action. Sistine Chapel was poor consellation for missing Leo's built in Constantinople in 810AD. I never built any cathedrals.
All those shields would have been far better value spent on Ansars and cavs.
Planned invasion other continent ASAP. Goal of taking over Portuguese cities and key luxes in England. Unfortunately not all plans come to fruition.

Open, barbs fixed, 20K

Well, the middle ages did not go better than the ancient ages. I expect I can still win this game, but it is going to be ugly and low scoring.

Culture:
Colosseum in 250 BC.
Cathedral in 380 AD. I have a nice Leo's prebuild for the Sistine Chapel, but screw up my research. I delay finishing Leo's until I learn theology, but lose out 6 turns from theology and end up with this lovely cathedral for my nearly 600 shield investment. Upon reflection, I wonder if chivalry might have been enough cheaper that I could get to it in time to switch to Knights Templar instead.
Knights Templar in 540 AD
University in 600 AD
Bach's Cathedral in 880 AD
I enter the Industrial Age in 1110. I'm rebuilding the palace in Damascus to make a prebuild available in Medina. As my empire is so small, building it by hand isn't taking all that long. Hopefully I'll get enough cities to make this investment worthwhile. I'll need a good prebuild to get the wonders I need, as I don't have a tech lead. I'm not really behind, though, so I think I can hang on until TOE.

Contacts and Wars:
I meet England and Portugal in 260 AD and the Byzantines in 520 AD. They are all backwards people. In 660 the Portuguese demand theology; I refuse and they declare on me. Since they can't get to me, I'm not worried, but I ally the English and Byzantines to keep their continent occupied.

The French are pretty weak - nearly as weak as I am - so I make plans to invade them. I declare in 920 and take 2 cities quickly. I get a great leader and make an army of crusaders. I have much better luck with crusaders than I usually do; they survive attacks by longbowmen fairly regularly. Two turns into the industrial ages I make peace for free artistry, a city in the far north, and 3 workers.

I'm not much farther along, but so far the industrial ages have been the worst yet.

Solenoozerec 2nd and final spoiler. Class: Open. Barbs fixed.

General comments. I do not remember such weak AI in any previous games, I kind of regretted playing open, I had to build most cities myself. I think open class was more suited for conquest than for domination.
This game was a relaxation after COTM11 struggle.
I do understand now why Ainwood's favorite unit is Ansar Warrior. Same here now.

Research After we entered MA, my primary goal was chivalry.
750 France - Pyramids
700 Feudalism. Portugal - Colossus
470 Monotheism
410 Ottomans - Oracle
390 Korea - Great Wall (I wished it would be on a different continent)
310 Chivalry and stop research

Problems I think that my major problem in this game was late FP:
230 FP

Warfare and history
130 War on Ottomans. FP is ready, we have a few Ansar warriors and it is definitely time to trigger GA. Besides Ottomans and Russians made some kind of scientific breakthrough and jumped into MA getting Feudalism and Monotheism.
France is an ally (why not, they pay gpt)

110 Russian built ToA (perfect! )

10BC France - The Hanging Gardens Peace with Ottomans (I do not know where their capital is
anyway.

30AD war on France.

50AD 1st GL

130 AD Last French city was captured, but France escaped with two settlers, we captured one, but another went on a galley.
Also started war against Russia, time to take care of our culture

150 England - Great Library (good, it is better to have it far away).

190 ToA captured.

210 ROP with Koreans, I want to destroy Great Wall in Seul first, I need ROP for that. War on
Ottomans.

230 Ottomans finished their existence.

260 GA ended . ToA gave expansion of our territory.

270 Peace with Russia, they gave three cities, it will be easier this way.

280 Evaporation of France

300 war on Russia and Korea (these people never met each other and probably never will). Destroyed
Seul.

370 Portugal - Great Lighthouse. At the same turn suicidal galley found Portugal. Now if we will
manage to bring a few guys to Lisbon we can capture lighthouse and make it easy. ROP with Portugal (it will help).
Started producing galleys.

380 second GL. Unfortunately it was created in such a place that it will take 8 turns to bring this
army to the place where I want it.

390 Russia and Korea are destroyed. Now the main goal is Lighthouse.

450 Attack on Lisbon. 3rd GL. The Great Lighthouse is ours.

490 4th GL. Contact with England.

520 War on England

530 England - Statue of Zeus. Contact with Byzantium.

540 End of Portugal

570 5th GL

580 domination

Progress:


Answers to Ainwood’s questions: : all - yes

Edit: After reading other spoilers, I think that another major mistake was not gifting AI to MA. There was no danger of them having pikes because they did not have iron. But having chivalry faster would help me a lot.
BTW I haven't seen pikes in this game.

Open.

Domination win in 990AD (my first pre-1000AD win, but still not hit the 10K Jason mark - this was ~9600).

After taking an eternity (over 30 turns) to dispose of the Ottomans with Horses (as usual, the junk tundra towns provided by far the fiercest resistance), I discovered I still had 8 turns left on a Lux deal with France.

Instead of steaming right in, I mean, not like I'm going for any kind of diplomatic wins or really intend on doing any more gpt deals, signing RoPs, alliances, etc, I wait out those 8 turns. Sure I got Chivalry, upgraded a few Horses, and revolted from Monarchy to Republic, but France (in common with the others) had no Iron connected up (and their Horses had been splatted by a volcano!) so fell over easily.

France was the first key to this game - they had both the Great Library and the Temple of Artemis. The GL enabled me to shut off research for a good period of time, the ToA provided immediate culture to gain territory.

Russia followed, then Korea. I could easily have opened up Korea about halfway through dealing with Russia but didn't. Korea had the Great Lighthouse, which I used to transport my troops across the Byzantines. Gunpowder was prevalent by then, so I'd researched Mil Trad, and needed it; I had 3 Cav Armies at the end, and the turn I destroyed the Byzantines (980AD), was also the last of the game.

At some point I destroyed the Great Library to prevent myself from learning Education.

I could easily have shaved 15-20 turns off my win date by just going for France right away, and going after Korea earlier.

Overall though I'm happy to have won before 1000AD, and started working out some more logistics (like rushing Galleys in Korean towns before I finished them off, or knowing when I had enough troops in Russia to finish the job and sending all new ones towards Korea) in advance.

Xevious said:

As I'm entering the Industrial age in 550AD ... At this point Medina has 2878 culture, and is making 57cpt.

Click to expand...

Ugh, I don't give a penny for my chanches at the 20K award. Though I too am making 57cpt in 550AD my Medina has 150 culture less. And with your 340 years earlier IA you can rail Medina much sooner. Along with the much earlier doubling of your Shake's, it will surely draw the curtain for me.

A lesson I learn from your game is not to be afraid of gifting the science civs in the next age. I kept them in the dark and am now paying for it by having to research all science myself. A fact that will haunt me in the IA.

Hope you'll be saved the horrible fate of MiniMe who had in the previous game suddenly been overtaken by a red knight.

@Klarius

I have a rather odd question:
The first time I saw your post the maps from the different ages where one and they changed from one year to the next. Now you have seperate maps.
Have you changed it or was there something funny with the computer or yours truly?

Redbad said:

Have you changed it or was there something funny with the computer or yours truly?

Click to expand...

Everything is fine with you . I just changed it.


For some reason the animated GIF doesn't want to work on my browser when coming from the server (works fine locally).

Predator

Summary
The Middle Ages started in 570 BC. Luck was on my side as the three scientific civs got all first layer techs between them as I gifted them into the Middle Ages. I traded away Republic, which I was going to gift anyway to disable AI pop-rushing. Chivalry was then researched in 7 turns and 12 horsemen were upgraded on the interturn in 450 BC since I had money left from the slow Construction research.

I took a few turns to position troops which in retrospect seems like a waste of time, but in 390 BC war broke out with the Ottomans and in 250 they were down to 2 towns as I got their size-1 towns in a peace deal. I had captured the Oracle in Istanbul and quit research.

At the same date, 390 BC, I declared on Korea and pretty much took control of their northern area before signing peace in 210 BC for two pretty strategic towns south of Seoul. Capturing Seoul was out of the question in this war. During the following centuries I gifted my available luxuries to Korea to speed up their production of ToA. (As I investigated Seoul after this first war it had an entertainer and would save one turn with better happiness.) For one of the luxuries they offered Right of Passage.

In 210 BC I started a short war with France. They were too slow hooking up gems and I wanted it. They were left with their two strongest towns, naively building wonders. They were very weak from the beginning or from when I bought two workers from them.

In 110 BC it was time to declare on Russia. I had not built any new ansar warriors but disconnected iron, built horsemen, and split the income between some temples and upgrades in 110 BC. The temples probably contributed to the fact that I didn't suffer a single flip throughout the game.

In 70 BC Moscow finished the Pyramids at the same time that it got within reach of my ansars, and was captured. In 10 AD I gave Russia peace for their last towns, but I had already spotted two russian settlers in the far north. I had settlers moving to that inhospitable area too, but I wanted to wait for a Russian palace expansion to avoid some auto-razing.

In 30 AD Temple of Artemis was finished and captured. The Koreans struggled well but were eliminated in 150 AD. They never had a good position since Seoul was building a wonder and the only other towns capable of building settlers had been captured by us in the first Korean War.

In 170 AD the Great Lighthouse was completed one turn before France who cascaded to Hanging Gardens and were eliminated. I had prepared two crossover points: N of Korea and SE of Korea. I met Portugal and the fair Theodora independently in 210 AD. In 190 AD I had founded my first town on the other continent.

In 250 AD Ottomans were eliminated and in 270 Russia. The ansars involved were set to heal and then rallied to southern and eastern Korea to be transported.

In 290 AD I declared on Portugal. In 330 AD I met England. In 340 I declared on Byzantium. These were some exciting wars with limited resources. In 350 Lisbon was captured but in 360 I had to make peace with Portugal. They gave us ROP. In 380 I had positioned some troops and declared again, capturing 3 towns. I also razed a Byzantine town to convince them that they should give me two towns for peace.

Domination was triggered in 390 AD, 7 tiles over the limit.

Milking was no option
We never learned a second tier tech, although we were only about 3 turns from Invention at the end. As I tried to extort Invention from the Ottomans I got the funniest reply yet:
"Is this some sort of game to you?! I like games very much! Would you like to play one of my favorites? I call it: Abu-Bakr-head soccer ball!"

Expansion tactics
Mecca didn't cease to be a settler factory until well after chivalry when it got a marketplace and an aquaduct. Many other towns built settlers too although not as early in the game as Mark Cutt. I settled all the islands that I knew of. There is always the fear of having island towns attacked, so I hurried temples quickly so that at least they would not be razed. Perhaps I could have planned the temple rushes better so that more towns would reach influence 3. But I think that's mainly just guesswork. The largest island to the north of us laboriously built their own settlers to keep galleys from taking a long detour.

Last turn
In 380 I was 28 tiles from domination with only one town scheduled to expand. Two other towns (newly conquered) had 6 culture points. I could afford to hurry cathedral in one of them after selling all my barracks. On the interturn I could hurry the other cathedral thanks to new money. Selling improvements was a new option to me; I generally disregard it as it gives so little money.

ToA
The date of completion for ToA is important. I would rate 30 AD as a good but obviously not optimal date - in Xevious game it was built in 210 BC.

Open, Barbs fixed.

Well, I never entered the IA or had the full world map, but it looks like others are in the same boat, so here goes.

In my ancient age thread I blamed somewhat slow research on having gone Monarchy. I want to correct that- now I blame it on just growing too slow at the start. I believe Monarchy was the right choice. Entered the MA in 590 BC. The plan was all-out research to Chivalry, no fighting until Ansars make the scene. Once I had Chivalry I didn't spend a single beaker on research. At one point I got paranoid that Russia was going to attack, and lost 3 turns of research to upgrade 3 swords. I shouldn't be so jumpy next time, those 3 turns just got tacked onto my win date.

Wonders-
It's never been this good. The Ottomans built the Oracle and the Great Library (which only was used once, for invention) in their capitol. France built the Hanging Gardens. Russia built the Pyramids and the Temple of Artemis. England did me a favor and built the Great Wall. So, a free temple with double effect and a granary in every city, plus an extra happy face in every city. Not bad!

War-
I learned Chivalry in 30BC. Attacked the Ottomans in 10AD to start my Golden Age. In retrospect, I could have done some pre-Chivalry fighting to improve my date and score as the AI was so very weak, but I played it safe instead.
I traded Chivalry to Russia for 36 gpt and 129g rather than trade it and 16gpt for Republic. A tough choice- I wanted the Pyramids, but I needed gold to build my forces. In retrospect, I believe I made the right choice.

50- Meet Portuguese galley. They were good for some gold and the Republic. DOW on Portugal in 150, hoping to get a free city on the other continent in a peace deal, but that never happened. Just more gold.
90- Take Istanbul.
110- Unhook the iron, building Golden Age horsemen. Yes, I started out building Ansars by hand until I had upgraded the horses I already had. I wanted to get fighting right away, thought this would get the ball rolling.
130- Moscow builds ToA. Paris builds Hanging Gardens. Nice timing!
150- Istanbul culture flips. This has been my bane in previous games, gobbling up stacks of my units. This time, I lose none at all. Who says I'm not learning?
250- Otto reduced to a wandering settler. Declare war on France. By the way, the Ottomans were destroyed with the loss of only a single Ansar. Elite, of course.
260- Mercilessly slaughter Otto settler.
270- Capture Paris, Hanging Gardens.
290- Forbidden Palace near Russian lands. Better late than never. Really helped my post-GA economy.
1 turn left on my deal with Russia. I'm not a nice guy this game, attack Russia.
310- France reduced to wandering settlers. Eventually banished to a galley which I never managed to sink- too busy!
320- Capture ToA and Pyramids from Russia.
330- Golden Age ends. Revolt to Republic.
340- Uthman appears, my first great leader. I sure could have used him sooner. Forms army, marches off to Korea.
350- Emerge as a Republic. My unit support starts at 4, never gets above 10. I really should have waited until the ToA expanded all my cities before revolting- there's no culture gained during Anarchy. A small point, but it cost me some Jason score.
390- ToA borders expand.
400- Peace w/Russia for 3 cities. I'm a lying, backstabbing jerk. But so is Russia...
420- Peace w/Korea for 3 cities. Again, I'm a lying, backstabbing jerk.
430- Trying very hard to get to the other continent via Portugal. My galleys are sinking like crazy. My biggest mistake of this game, repeated from previous games, is not building my navy sooner. I spent a few turns just sitting around because of transportation problems.
470- Koreans destroyed. Russia's last galley destroyed. I control the whole continent, having lost only 13 (!) Ansars. I never fought a pikeman, and wierdly, never captured a barracks.
540- Finally ready to attack Portugal with 8 Ansars.
550- Meet England.
580- Capture Lisbon and the Great Lighthouse, Colossus. 2nd leader appears. Forms army.
590- Lord McCauley oddly declares the Portuguese 'most advanced'. They only got to enjoy it for the remaining 5 turns of their existence.
600- 1st and only instance of war weariness. Make peace w/Portugal for 2 cities. My Ansars are all injured and scattered anyway- rest and regroup. Should've bought a barracks.
610- Meet Byzantium.
630- Attack Portugal. My land percentage goes from 62 to an agonizing 65. Arrrr! Attack the Byzanties, fight my first Pikemen.
650- Domination victory.
What a fun game. This is my second fastest date ever, and 10645 Jason points is my second best performance. Finishing in 28 hours is also an achievment for me, lots of time left for jogging and hanging out in bars. Let's party!!!!

Wow, am I behind on posting. I haven't even written spoiler #1 and along comes #2.

So just a quick synopsis to be followed be a more literate narrative later.

Exiled Russia
Killed off France
Exiled Korea
Exiled Ottomans

Just researched refining
Have all pre-IA wonders except Lighthouse, Mausoleum & Colossus. Just finished Universal Suffrage. Also have Heroic Epic, Forbidden Palace, Military Academy & Pentagon

Have 4 4-Crusader Armies sitting in Istanbul waiting for something to do
Current year 1350 AD

Since I really have no desire to build a significant navy to invade the other island (no domination or conquest) and didn't push culture (no 20K or 100K) and have way too much corruption to want to go for space and not enough patience for histograph, diplomatic can probably be reached before 1550 AD (maybe even pre-1500 AD with proper pre-builds), that's my goal.

Open, domination at 540 AD.

I played this one as quickly as possible. After entering the MA around 900 BC, I researched to Chivalry and cut off research; no shock there. I did not gift the scientifics to the Middle Ages and left them with their pathetic little spears. I think in hindsight I was overestimating the Monarch AI ability to build and deploy defenders. Chivalry was researched before the ADs, and coincided with an archer-horse attack on the Ottomans to get an iron.

The Ottos were quickly dispatched, and a dual war was then fought with the French (troops supplied by my capital and eastern cities) and the Russians (troops courtesy of the FP in double game cow town and the other western holdings). The wars took a bit of a while due to the terrain, and a ton of barbs north of Russia forced me to keep a few troops up there. Korea was next and a buildup of troops there took a while since I had no roads going up there over those mountains.

We didnt find the other continent until 290 AD when we found the English off the coast of former Russia. An ROP with them and a few troops later we had them on the run, and began moving in troops from former Korea across. A war with the Byzantines, some settlers, and some cultural buildings gave enough land for domination. The war on the other continent was marred by some bad RNG and poor logistics on my part.

It would have been prudent to have gifted the scientifics (which I considered briefly but decided against it) and taken out Korea sooner to get to the other continent more quickly. The only pike I saw was in Byzantium at the end. The western end of the other continent was unsettled, and getting several settlers over there would have been smart. Edit: Oh and founding my capital somewhere other than the desert would have been helpful. Final map: