COTM 14 Final Spoiler - End of Game

This is the final spoiler for COTM14 - England.

It mainly relates to Industrial and Modern Age events, but feel free to post here anything that didn't fit in previous spoilers, any general consideration on game strategy and tactics, or whatever you feel like.

In order to read or post in this thread you need to have finished your game (almost goes without saying...).

As Elizabeth sat gazing at the battle map she smiled. Soon this war with Germany would be concluded and she could return to concentrating on research and infrastructure. Once Germany had been reduced to a single city, following the conquest of Cologne and Hanover by the newly trained English Cavalry, peace with the Otto was signed. A peace that would last until the German leader went insane and declared war on Spain in 1275 AD and was eliminated in 1315 AD by Spanish cavalry.

As the science and economic leader of the planet, England found the acquisition of luxuries and financing of research could be done by trading technology to the other tribes. However positive the draining of the foreign treasuries was for England, some of the other nations became annoyed at England for hoarding knowledge and in 910 AD Spain declared war on England. Unprepared for a land war, Elizabeth traded iron to France to provide mercenaries against Spain. The English Armada (16 Man-O-War strong) sailed from Woolmer Green in 940 AD and began decimating the Spanish coastline. While England ruled the seas, Spain was busy routing France. The only losses suffered by Isabella were the island cities of Vitoria & Salamanca to English Cavalry.

While the war with Spain was progressing slowly, the English scientists and traders were busy adding to the storehouse of knowledge. In 1140 AD, peace was signed with Spain, with England acquiring the once French cities of Besancon & Avignon (though Avignon would soon revolt back to France) and with the completion of the Theory of Evolution in London, England had increased the science lead to five technologies. The completion of Universal Suffrage in Woolmer Green, would now allow England to return to foreign conquests.

The return to Alpha Centauri was now a recurring dream for Elizabeth. She called her advisors to discuss how to expedite the launch and the consensus was that her empire needed more resources, luxuries and a larger population base to support the pending space program. Territory in France had recently become available as Spain had taken to razing a couple of French cities during their war, so settlers and their escorts were sent to try to grab land before the open land was claimed. Once those cities were in place, they would serve as a base of operations against the French as France had been severely weakened in the war Spain and was a logical target for conquest.

In 1250 AD, with the fleet and cavalry based invasion force in place, war was declared on France and for one hundred years the battles raged with several cities being captured several times to overcome peasant revolutions, until in 1360 AD, Avignon fell and France was gone. The following year mass production was discovered and England entered the Modern Age. During the war, scientific discoveries had continued and the completion of the Hoover Dam in London, Wall Street in Leipzig and Shakespeare’s Theater in London cemented the English dominance in the areas of production and finance.

In 1300 AD, a pleasant surprise thrilled England as a Man-O-War captured a pirate vessel and rescued the long, lost hero, Sir Bugsy. He was quickly reunited with his joyous crew and set sail on a new christened cruiser to provide support for the Man-O-War fleet.

The two-hundred and fifty years went by in relative peace (just a minor Sumerian / Viking skirmish to report) as England had now rearmed the army with Modern Armor, Mechanized Infantry and Bomber close air support. The completion of the United Nations in London precluded a voting conclusion, and with the Internet in London, the Intelligence Agency in Nottingham, SETI & Battlefield Medicine in Leipzig, England was now set for the final push to space.

“It is time for Spain to go away” declared Elizabeth at her staff meeting, “Make preparations immediately”. The Spanish rifles defending old France were no match for Modern Armor with bomber support and the six northern cities (with Bach’s Cathedral in Orleans) fell to the initial onslaught. Then it was on to the Spanish core and even the Spanish Infantry were no match for the English Armor and soon Isabella was forced to flee to the west. Adding the Oracle, Great Wall and War Academy from Madrid to her trophy case, Elizabeth ordered the final assault on Spain to begin. As Spain was being dismantled, progress was being made to reach the stars beginning with the completion of the Apollo Program in London in 1585 AD.

As the final Spanish city of Murcia fell in 1645 AD, the fourth piece of the spaceship puzzle was added. Normally, peace would be the order of the day at this point, but a Mutual Protection Pact forced England to come to the defense of the other superpower of the planet, Sumeria, who had been attacked by the ruddy Vikings. As England reduced the Vikings to a single city (which Sumeria would soon capture) the seventh and eighth pieces were added.

Finally in 1690 AD, the word reached Elizabeth that the ship was complete. She packed her bag, waved goodbye to a very pleasant world and left for Alpha Centauri.

[Editor’s note: Spaceship Victory in 1695 AD – 54 hours & 24 minutes – Firaxis score: 4927 – Jason score 6412]

{Historian’s note: With all the conquests and military victories, England never received a Great Leader. Also, as the ship launched, England had over 20 Man-O-Wars in play with at least 15 of them being ‘recruited’ pirate vessels. England also suffered more cultural city revolts in this timeline than any in recent memory.}

Open

After the Republic of Devonia entered the Industrial Ages in around 650AD, she still awaited her Golden Age. It was to arrive in a most unorthodox fashion.

Her first Man O'War was exploring uncharted seas, and was approached, and attacked, by a Privateer sailing under no flag. The Privateer had bitten off more than she could chew, though, and was sent to Davy Jones's locker. So began the Golden Age.

After Steam Power was researched, the lack of coal was noted. Two Babylonian islands in the Barbarian Sea had coal, though, and a third had saltpeter. After temporarily purchasing the required saltpeter from the Dutch, a task force set off to "liberate" the essential resources from the backwards Babylonians.

After securing the coal and saltpeter, a further era of peace ensued, lasting until the discovery of Refining. Oil, again, was a resource that was lacking, and the French had a couple of sources. One was on a large island mostly covered with Devonian cities, and was an easy gain. The second required forces to set sail once more, but again, the resource was successfully secured with few losses.

And so apart from one tiny little incident, that was it for fighting in the Industrial Ages.

Research went as fast as possible, fuelled by large per-turn agreements from the Spanish, Dutch, and Sumerians. These opponents researched on a single compulsory tech - Industrialization - before spinning off and researching the useless Nationalism, Communism, and Fascism.

Entry into the Modern Age was achieved by timing the Theory of Evolution build with the completion of the second-last tech of the Industrial Age, thus ensuring the availability of Fission on the first Modern Age turn.

Unfortunately, the UN pre-build wasn't timed too well and there were still a number of turns left.

The turn before UN completion, Devonia talked to all of her opponents - save the Dutch, who would be her competition in the upcoming election - and did nice sweet deals with them.

At this point, Devonia made what might have been a fatal mistake....

Babylon and Scandinavia had been at war with each other for some time. Nevertheless, Devonia decided to sign Mutual Protection Pacts with both. Right on cue, the MPP kicked in and Devonia was forced to declare war on the Vikings, with whom they'd had nothing but friendly relations.

Devonia might've switched her goal to building a spaceship - but this was the moment she'd been building towards for centuries now, and it was make or break time! The election was called....

Devonia breathed a sigh of relief when she emerged the winner, by a single vote: the Dutch, Scandinavians, and some other traitourous pig had voted against her; but four had voted for her, and she now ruled the world.

UN win in 1305AD [Note: building a bank in Berlin wasted at least 3 turns so it really should have been a pre-1300 win ]. Jason: 8262.

I don't think I hooked up my iron source until I hit the modern era, but I had no problems with aggression/war. I hooked up the saltpeter and coal fairly easily, and actually rented my saltpeter source out for 40 turns for a hefty sum.

I was barely behind in tech at the end of the MA, but ignored the optional techs and was able to get ToE at which point I was well ahead. I traded for Corp and Ind, but other than that it was all self research at 4 turns or near that, thanks to selling techs and excellent rates. I gifted techs to try to get the AI to research other branches, but they were slower than I was.

Sumeria finally finished off the vikings; I might have been able to stave that off by gifting nationalism a little earlier but I wasn't paying attention.

Set a palace prebuild for UN scheduled to complete the turn after research. Sumeria was the top civ, so declared war and traded techs for everyone to come in. THEN I switched to UN and found it'd be another 10 turns until I finished it I finally finished the UN, went to vote and Babylon had taken over the land lead! Split vote, but then I had to wait another 20 turns. In 20 turns Sumeria had taken the lead again, took the vote and got the win.

I don't have the information handy, but somewhere around 1800 with Jason in the 6000s. Pretty quiet game, I don't think I lost more than 5-6 units.

I was able to keep myself in all 8 luxuries for most of the game (trading techs) and was able snag all the industrial era wonders.

UN vote opponents are always the Civ who built the UN, plus any other Civs who have over 25% of the world's population. In the event of nobody having 25%, the opponent is the one with the highest population vs. the builder. Population for this purpose is the total of all city sizes. Score has nothing to do with the determination.

Hmmm. I thought it was nation that built the UN, nation with most population (or 2nd most if un nation has most). Possibly nation with most area also factors in.

I know that I was basing my decision on the F8 screen showing opponent with most area, and it matched who the vote option was.

Chances are if they have the greatest area, then they have more population. However it is purely on sum of city sizes; proven in a number of games I've played where it hasn't been obvious from inspecting the map.

Lost to Sumeria, spaceship. couldnt get into the Modern Era neithr could french. sumerians had the UN and never held a vote, and had 130000 culture, but bablyon was too close in culture. Dutch destroyed very early, Vikings couldnt withstand the offensive pressure of the Sumerians and the french were always worse than spain. 6/8 civs survived. I couldnt beat the germans, and in the one war that i took land, all cities i took flipped back.

noaipatrol=0

Middle Ages - 510 BC to 720 AD

Late Ancient Age - 1000 BC to 510 BC

Early Ancient Age - 4000 BC to 1000 BC

Entered the Industrial Age in 720 AD. Spain was already gone (taken out by France in the 600's BC), and Babylon reduced to just 2 cities. The other 5 civs were ahead of me in the IA; all had Steam Power and most had Medicine. I gifted Babylon into the Industrial Age; Hammurabi got Medicine for a free Tech, and I could trade optional MA techs for it. No option but to start on Steam Power myself - 10 turns. I had made early Fur trades to the Northern civs, but these trades were cut either by War or by Barbarians, so my trading reputation was totally shot. For the rest of the game I couldn't pay gpt for anything! This made this type of game much harder; I didn't have the option to buy a necessary tech with gpt to get a pre-build switched over to a Wonder, I would have to have raw gold in my treasury.

I got my first source of Iron in 750 AD, when I was able to make this trade. I would need the Iron for building a Factory soon, and I might even be able to turn out an iron-required unit or two as well. (At this time my entire military was 1 Warrior, 2 Longbows and a Horseman.) Being a one city civ makes trades much more advantageous:



I had just completed Shakespeare's Theater, and several AI had been working on Newton's University for several turns, so I didn't think I could get that Wonder (finished by France in 760 AD, 4 turns later). So I focused on growing London. I had a Worker already. I built another, then a Granary (holding the city growth until the Granary was complete). Then another Worker, followed by 2 Knights and 2 more Workers. Finally a Pikeman and two more Workers giving me 7. I chopped the last Forests I had during this time, and did final tile improvements; once London became size 13, I joined the Workers popping London up to size 20. This was done in 940 AD.

Meanwhile, I learned Steam Power in 810 AD, buying the final turn for 12 Gold from Germany. Coal ... Coal ... where is the coal? I only counted 3 sources, all located in the Barb Islands. One was claimed by Germany, one by the Vikings and the 3rd was unclaimed, but that did me no good! All of a sudden, with no Rails, and no coal-plant, OCC became very difficult; my shield production would be low making it harder to build any new Wonders.

I set off after Industrialism. When London became size 20 in 940 AD, I had 2 turns left to learn Industrialism. In 950 AD I get the notice that France is building Universal Suffrage. I look, and everybody has Industrialism, along with Sanitation, Electricity and Nationalism. Yikes! I buy Industrialism for 12 Gold from Germany, and decide to head after Corporation. I figure that the AI will focus on Replaceable Parts, giving me a possible monopoly and lots of Tech trade options. After a few turns, I get my Factory going, and start building UnivSuffrage.

In 1030 AD, my # of turns to learn Corporation drops to 1 turn. I check and everybody except Sumeria has Corporation! I buy it for 12 Gold from Germany again. By chance would Sumeria like Corporation in exchange for Electricity? Of course he wont! I start research on Electricity (7 turns) and in 3 turns am able to trade Corporation for Electricity with Sumeria. Whew! Every turn I checked expecting him to know it already, but he didn't and I was able to get Electricity more quickly.

This was important because I'd already gotten the notice that the Vikings were building Theory of Evolution. I start on Scientific Method (8 turns) and in 1140 AD, I learn it, go to the Big Picture, switch London to ToE and finish it, getting Atomic Theory (which I trade for Nationalism, Communism, Espionage, Fascism, Ironclads, Sanitation and Replaceable Parts, lots of Gold and about 200 gpt), and Electronics. Vikings have Refining as well, and after thinking about it, I make a trade of Electonics for Refining; I figure that Germany is likely to demand Electronics from me so I might as well use it to get Refining. Amazingly, Sumeria has an extra Rubber, which I pick up. And with Electronics I can finally get a Hydro plant, giving me at least that much extra Shields (up to just over 50). Things were going good!

Oops ... things arn't going good Germany's aggressiveness shows up as they move several units into my territory around 1200. And it's not OktoberFest time, either! I attempt to divert him by declaring on the Dutch, getting Germany, Sumeria and France to ally with me. Doesn't work, he attacks me the next turn. Fine. I use my remaing trade power to get France to ally with me against Germany, and to get Sumeria to sign a MPP with me (best I can do.) Here's the F4 screen from 1220 AD:



It gets worse. Vikings have DOW on Sumeria because of the Dutch. Vikings have MPP with France, which brings them in against Sumeria. They attack (a few turns later) causing me to DOW on France because of my MPP with Sumeria. I have to declare on the only civ actually allied with me against Germany! Not a good picture when you're a one city civ and have 4 of the 5 biggest civs in the game at war with you!

When I saw Germany coming, I upgraded my Pikeman to an Infantry, my Warrior and 2 LongBows to Guerillas, and my 2 Knights and 1 Horseman to Cavalry. This held his initial attack, promoting my Infantry to Elite. The next turn I got my first and only GL of the game, but the Infantry was taken out. The GL was useless; no armies for me and the only Small Wonder I had (Intelligience Agency) I was holding on to for pre-build use. I started building 1 turn Infantry: I'd cash rush a Worker (80 Gold), switch to Galleon and cash run it (160 more Gold and 50 shields stored) then switch to Infantry and my remaining production of 40+ shields would finish it off. Pretty soon I was ahead of the German attacks, and even built a few Artillery to provide bombardment of incoming units. After about 12 turns or so Germany had enough and wanted Peace. I had no active alliances against Germany, so I signed peace with Otto. I'd lost 1 Infantry, and he'd lost about 4 LongBows, 3 Cavalry, a Horse, 3-4 Guerillas and 4-5 Infantry. When the MPP with Sumeria expired, I signed peace with all the other civs; that was it for me and warfare with the AI , we were at peace for the rest of the game.

Germany and Sumeria were the big losers in this World War. Vikings evicted Sumeria from their joint continent, making them an ineffective island nation, and Germany had one source of Coal but lost it (first to pillaging, and then to capture) to the Vikings, so they never actually industrialized. Vikings were the big civ in the game, and eventually had control over all 3 coal sources.

Quest for Coal - now that I was at peace (mid -1300's or so), I noticed that Vikings had claimed the 3rd coal source, and had built a harbor, but not connected the coal. I signed a ROP and set out in a transport to connect it for them Unfortunately, the World was a dangerous place and I ran into a privateer that sank me So I built a Battleship (had Mass Production by this time) ... and another Transport ... and some more Workers ... and headed off with an Infantry to try again. This time I landed; there were about 20 Barb horsemen being bombarded into oblivion by the Vikings. My Infantry provided cover, and the Workers connected the coal. I timed it to complete during my turn and made this trade in 1530 AD:



Coal at last! Now I could railroad London and get it to maximum production. Meanwhile, I researched up the Industrial tree, typically trailing the Vikings for sure and usually was 3rd to a Tech behind the French, Germans or Dutch. I finally reached the Modern Era in 1455 AD, learning Flight last to preserve my Colossus bonus as long as possible. Sumeria was a trailer civ, and Babylon was far behind. Everybody else was already Modern, with Germany gaining Ecology and the Vikings researching Rocketry outright already. I started on Computers.

I started IntAgency as a pre-build; in 1500 AD with one turn to go, I gifted Babylon and Sumeria into the ME; they got Rocketry and Ecology respectively. No help, as I had no Wonder to switch my pre-build to. Vikings finished UN in 1555 AD, before I could even get Fission. However, the wars started in the 1200's still echoed on, with Ragnor at war with 2-3 people most of the time; I didn't think he'd win the Vote, and neither did he as he never called for one. France beat me to Computers. I learned it in 1575 AD, but France completed SETI before me, cascading me to the Manhattan Project in 1630 AD. I learned Miniturization in 1710 AD, and completed the Internet in 1758 AD. Along the way I finally finished the Intelligience Agency. I learned Genetics in 1772, the same turn I achieved my OCC 20K victory! Here is a screen shot of London just after the victory:



Even though I had only 4 Furs available to me, I was able to trade for the remaining 7 Luxuries, and 7 of the 8 strategic resources. Aluminum had only 3 sources as well, all on the Barb Islands; of these the Vikings had claimed and connected one, and the Sumerians had claimed but not connected a 2nd; the 3rd was unclaimed and unavailable to me. Germany was closest to 100K victory, at 64,000 or so. Sumeria had been a leader before the wars, but I doubt they'd have reached 100K, let alone 128K. Vikings had 7 spaceship parts completed, but I don't think they had all the Techs learned yet (like Robotics), so they were still 20 turns or so away from launching.

Germany's aggressiveness, or lack, plays a big part in the game. For the longest time I had 2 Warriors defending London only, and after Cathedral was built in 270 AD, only 1 Warrior. After Cop. Obs. in 430 AD I built up a bit and added the 2 Longbows and a Horseman. Anytime during this period Germany could have walked in easily. Only thing I did early on was trade them Furs for Silks, straight up, in 850 BC. This single trade remained in effect until they attacked me in the early 1200's AD. Otto was Gracious (because the Furs benefited him much more than the silks benefited me) until somewhere between 260 AD and 430 AD. From then on he was Polite until he attacked me.

Amazing victory, Steve! Really good date as well!

Thanks, Megalou! I really enjoyed the game, especially the playing time (under 10 hours)! When I saw all those Furs in the initial screenshots, and coast access and on a river (edit - and a COW!!), first thought was "if you're going to do an Emperor OCC, this is the one!" That was before Germany showed up! I'm pretty sure Kuningas and one or two others will submit faster 20K dates, but I'm very, very happy with this one considering the restrictions.

Good Luck with your very good Domination submittal! I enjoyed and appreciated your self-analysis in your spoiler.

@Civ_Steve - what a thriller with a happy ending

Thanks, solenoozerec! I thought it was a good story to tell

A good story indeed!

Just want to underline again how much I enjoyed this game. Finally realised the immense power of the English!

I quickly decided to go diplo to check what kind of research I could pull out of this game. And even though I think I made some mistakes, I am very happy about finish date and jason score. Diplomatic Victory in 730AD for just above 10K jason.

Industrial Age (90AD - 730AD)
Instantly granting all techs to everyone. The dutch, scandinavia and sumeria are trailing me in research, the others far behind. Germany gets Steam Power and Babylon and Sumeria get Medicine. I trade Medicine from Babylon for piles of gpt and then Steam Power from Germany for Economics, Medicine and Chivalry. I get my gpt back from Babylon by trading them Steam Power.

Medicine: 90AD (free)
Steam Power: 90AD (free)
Industrialization: 210AD (6 turns)
Electricity: 300AD (7 turns)
Theory of Evolution: 350AD (5 turns)
Replaceable Parts: 410AD (6 turns)
Atomic Theory: 410AD (free) ---> built ToE
Electronics: 410AD (free)
Corporation: 450AD (4 turns)
Steel: 500AD (5 turns)
Refining: 560AD (6 turns)
Combustion: 610AD (5 turns)
Mass Production: 650AD (5 turns)
Motorized Transp: 690AD (4 turns)
Flight: 730AD (4 turns) ---> Enter Modern Era
Fission: 730AD (trade)

Wars
After an interminable wait I finally attack Germany with horses around 130AD. When I connect iron a couple of turns later I start spending some cash on upgrades. I have probably waited too long, but with low shield potential I have been too busy building expensive science improvements. I basically dont know if conquering Germany earlier and thereby diverting more production into horses would have made me reach IA earlier. Please dont hesitate to voice your opinions on that! I give peace to Germany just before 400AD, leaving them with a couple of island cities.

After playing cat and mouse with Netherlands during MA they finally land a couple of AC just next to London! Poor little undefended London. And I have ROP with the bastards, and they are about to rape me!. So I send the only possible Knight to defend my capital and surround the ACs with previously idle workers (waiting for coal!!!) so they dont knock out my other undefended cities. London made it! Otherwise I would have abandoned...

Resources
I realized to late that all resources were located on barb infested islands. I did not connect iron until around 130AD. Coal was connected around 500AD I think. Getting coal so late penalized potential specialist farms (no rails).

The Wonder
After building factories I start two prebuilds for UN. One two finish the same turn as I enter Modern Era and one to finish some turns later if my dear scientific neighbours should not get Fission. The turn before building UN I create MPP with most of the others. It costs me several 100 gpt, but who cares. On entering Modern Era I am able to trade for Fission. I finish the UN and get the vote. Diplomatic Victory in 730AD.

civ_steve, amazing game! can go to the story and tale forum.
btw, by making it not OCC, how much earlier do you think can the winning date be?

I suppose I might be able to help answer that ionimplant, as I finished a normal 20K game myself. It’s quite scary that Steve beat my 20K finish date from COTM13 with just a single city, great game mate!

Anyway here’s a list of cultural improvements built in the grand old city of York:

Temple 2190BC
The Colossus 1550BC
The Oracle 1200BC
The Great Library 800BC
Library 775BC
Colosseum 730BC
The Hanging Gardens 450BC
Sistine Chapel 70AD
University 90AD
Cathedral 150AD
Shakespeare’s Theatre 380AD
JS Bach’s Cathedral 590AD
Newton’s University 730AD
Forbidden Palace 840AD
Palace 920AD
Universal Suffrage 950AD
Theory Of Evolution 1020AD
Hoover Dam 1110AD
Wall Street 1180AD
Intelligence Agency 1275AD
Heroic Epic 1290AD
Military Academy 1315AD
Battlefield Medicine 1345AD
The Pentagon 1370AD
SETI Program 1425AD
Research Lab 1430AD
The Internet 1490AD
The United Nations 1550AD
Apollo Program 1590AD
Cure For Cancer 1625AD

Win date: 1655AD



I seem to be getting the hang of this 20K lark although I’ve still plenty of room for improvement, getting lots of great leaders early seems to be the key, as my small wonder building was way too slow. I’ve also learned that just because I built the Great Library it doesn’t mean I can expect the AI to research any of the useful 20K techs in time for my prebuilds. Next time I’ll go flat out on research all the way through. Oh and lastly, maybe I didn’t get York up to size 12 and all tiles improved as fast as I could have done, but I was scared of Germany so I decided to build a few cities first. Perhaps if we get a safer start next time I’ll take a few more risks.





I won’t get a medal this month as Kuningas had a much better start than me, but I’m happy enough to have beaten my personal best 20k date by 200 years. Great map Karasu Roll on next month!

Wet

Thanks, ionimplant!

'Can' is a big word. I've identified nearly 22 turns of improvement that my game approach can be improved of, if I didn't play OCC - rushing University before building Sistines (2 turns), getting Newton's University (15 turns) and Universal Suffrage (5 turns). And I'd likely not get 5 AA Wonders, so I'm taking off the 800 culture the Great Wall gave me, so about 14 turns faster, in my game.

Kuningas reported building Shakespeare's Theater in 50 BC - vs my building it in 720 AD. That's over 60 turns faster, meaning up to 1000 more culture points for this Wonder. Also, this gains him a little more shield capacity earlier on, meaning more shields to build culture. I suspect he will do better than 14 turns ... or 22 for that matter!

(edit - crossposted; Thanks and good game, WetSawdustDemon! That looks like 30 turns, more or less )

(edit - or even 50+, if you're Kuningas!)

Predator - Barbs fixed.

Short summary for the spoiler 4.

Culture buildings in London

01 cpt 4000BC The Palace
05 cpt 1575BC The Colossus
09 cpt 1325BC The Oracle
11 cpt 1300BC Temple
14 cpt 1250BC Library
20 cpt 900BC The Great Library
24 cpt 630BC The Hanging Gardens
27 cpt 610BC Cathedral
29 cpt 590BC Colosseum
36 cpt 450BC University
53 cpt 50BC Shakespeare's Theater
65 cpt 310AD Sistine Chapel
80 cpt 450AD Newton's University
87 cpt 550AD Magellan's Voyage
91 cpt 580AD Heroic Epic
94 cpt 660AD Smith's Trading Company
95 cpt 670AD Military Academy (GL)
99 cpt 770AD Universal Suffrage
102 cpt 850AD Theory of Evolution
114 cpt 970AD The Internet
116 cpt 970AD Research Lab
120 cpt 1090AD The United Nations
122 cpt 1130AD Wall Street
124 cpt 1200AD Hoover Dam
127 cpt 1265AD SETI Program
128 cpt 1280AD Intelligence Agency
130 cpt 1285AD Apollo Program (GL)
139 cpt 1320AD Longevity
142 cpt 1355AD Cure for Cancer
144 cpt 1385AD Manhattan Project
145 cpt 1405AD Battlefield Medicine
146 cpt 1440AD The Pentagon

Win date: 1530AD 20014 culture

Factory was built in 480AD. Coal Plant in 500AD.



I connect coal as late as in 490AD. In 560AD coal town gets destroyed. In 650AD I reconnect coal. Only 4 turns later that happens again, coal town destroyed. On third time I learn my lesson, coal is permanent part of empire in 740AD. Here is picture for blunder with coal.



By slow pace I expand to domination limit. AI was not threat on any time. Except the coal incidents




So I did beat my COTM9 date by 200 years, in this map I would have improved win date by going to war earlier. Signing Alliances and slowing AI tech pace. I would have able to build Copernicus' and JS Bach Cathedral that way. Hard to say how much improvement for finish date there can be. I believe that 15th century win date on regent-monarch level is feasible.

@MiniMe- Great Game!! Just one question... Did you get Fission on a Gpt trade? Im my game even if they were gratious towards me i couldnt get techs for GPT... Maybe more than one Scientific Civ got Fission and you were able to do some other kind of trade? I went for SpaceShip so that was not so crutial but anyway its always good to know for future attempts.

@Kuningas - Your spoiler says it all. Fantastic!!! Thats an award for sure... What was your Jason? Im asking just because even with a master game like that you probably wont get a medal... Ill be glad if im wrong