*Spoiler*Game 6-2 Persia - Now Closed

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1.27f
Predator

Initial Strategy
With the goal of a 100K culture win, my plans for this game were to expand as rapidly as possible, probably overrun a neighbor or two, and build up an empire of 40-50 cities, then get them started cranking out culture. I knew corruption would be a problem, but thought my core cities would be able to pay for rushing culture on the frontiers. I was also going to try and pack my cities in tight (at least for me), 3 tiles apart as much as possible. As the Persians, the cheap libraries and Universities would be great, and I love the Immortal, but I knew I would probably endure a despotism GA unless I planned very carefully (which I didn’t!).

QSC Timeframe
I settled in the starting spot, and after a couple of warriors, and cutting a forest, I built a granary in 2850BC. I had also irrigated the wines for food bonus. I then built a couple more warriors, and my first settler was done in 2350BC, from then on it was a 6 turn settler factory, with some MM. I had researched Pottery at max, then went for Iron Working. I met Rome in 3100BC, who was already 3 techs ahead! I knew this would be tough. I met the Iroquois in 2350, who already had Iron, which I bought for 30+3gpt. I would be buying tech on credit for the next 3000+ years, I didn’t start researching on my own again until the Industrial Age (other than a short attempt at Monotheism, which failed, at the beginning of the MA). Meanwhile I kept building out, and could see a vast open plain to my east. I met Egypt in 2030, and they were also advanced. 1725 was my big turn of trades, as I first bought Alphabet from Egypt (30+3gpt), only to find out that Egypt and the Americans had Mathematics, but Rome and Iroquois did not. So I bought Math for 75+5gpt, traded it to Rome for Writing and Iroquois for Mysticism and Warrior Code. I then started Literature at 40 turns. I was beaten to it by 12 turns, but finished it myself anyway, because by then I could only afford so much tech. By 1500BC I was behind again, by Map and the Wheel, as well as last in score, cities and gold. Whose idea was this new difficulty level anyway?

Over the next 500 years, I founded four cities, connecting the fur and dye, and also hooked up the iron. In 1000BC I was glad there was NOT a QSC for this game, as I was down by 6 techs (Wheel, Philosophy, Code, Lit, Map, and Construction). I had 9 cities, which was now middle of the pack, so I felt a little better. Culture was now a whopping 140 (no cultural improvements yet, just the palace), only 99,860 to go!

Persia, 1000 BC


War with Rome
However, I was almost ready to begin using Immortals for Research! I was preparing to invade the Romans, who were squeezing my western border. However, I had foolishly refused a tribute demand from Lincoln, and faced a steady stream of warriors and some swords. I ended up using a couple Immortals to beat them back, and in 950AD kicked off my golden age. Not what I really wanted, but at that point I was so far behind in tech I knew I wouldn’t get a new government until I invaded Rome anyway. Most of my production and money went into the war effort. I held off the Americans until they got tired, getting peace in 875BC, but not much else. I then turned my forces on Rome. I was hurrying to attack before they hooked up their Iron, and succeeded, taking Rome in 650BC. I could have gotten peace for a few techs, but decided to press on until I could get them all. The Golden Age ended in 550BC, but a battle in 530BC produced Darius, who I used to rush the Forbidden Palace in Rome. (Probably too close, but there were a good core of cities already in place that I had captured, or was about to.)

I finally negotiated peace in 430BC, getting Horseback Writing, Polytheism, Mapmaking, Code of Laws, Philosophy, Currency, and Construction, catapulting me into the Middle Ages. My free tech was Engineering, which I was able to trade around the continent, picking up Republic and Monarchy as well as 16gpt. The next turn was used to finish production in a few key cities, and “whip” out 3 libraries, and I started my revolution in 390BC. During my 7-turn anarchy (I always get 7 turns!!), the French completed the Great Lighthouse, and contacted someone, so in 270BC I woke up with contact with the new continent. I was able to trade Monarchy to Carthage for the map and contact with the Celts, who were backwards. 230BC I entered into Republic, and made a brief attempt at Monotheism, but was beaten by 1 turn in 50BC. I was stil able to trade Engineering to Carthage for Feudalism, so I had the three base techs.

Preparing to Finish Off Rome - 10AD


By 10AD I was ready to finish off the Romans, I had rebuilt my army to 20 Immortals and 12 pike, and I had kept them from connecting to Iron. This war was much shorter, and they were destroyed in 170AD. By now I had 27 cities, and my culture was almost 1500. My next expansion target was to be Egypt, mostly so I could grab the rich luxury clusters. Since I was buying all my tech, my best hope was to monopolize luxuries that I could trade to generate income. The AI had already discovered Invention, but patience paid off as I waited for Chivalry to become available. In 330AD I bought it from India for 24gpt, then traded it to Carthage for Theology and to France for Invention, with 8gpt thrown in, to get caught back up again. I wa now ready to invade Egypt, as I upgraded 10 horse and threw more immortals at him. The war started well, alhtough I lost Thebes (and 4 healing knights) to a culture flip, and then Memphis flipped to America!! (I thought I was supposed to be the Culture leader in this game!!!) By 480 Egypt was down to one city, and I made peace for Education and Printing Press, and 350 gold. (That one city had just completed Leo’s, though, so I already planned on coming back in 20 turns.) I quickly rushed several libraries and switched my core cities over to universities.
550 was the wonder cascade, as the French built Sun Tzu, the Americans built Copernicus, and the Iroquois built Sistine. The next turn my ROP with America expired, and I attacked, to reclaim Memphis and also set them back in size, as they were the second largest. In 590 I got Cyrus, and so it was time to trade for tech so I could use him. I bought Music Theory for 24gpt, rushed Bachs, then traded Music and some gpt for Chemistry, then Chemistry and Music for Astronomy. 610AD I took Philadelphia and made peace with America, getting 29gpt.

Trading my way into the Industrial Age
630AD Navigation opened a new world of trading. I was able to get the tech from Carthage for Saltpeter, Wine, Dye, Gems, and only 3gpt. Bundling tech and luxuries, I got Spice and Incense from India. Several civs had Silk, but never any to spare, and after searching, I realized there was no Ivory on the map, so 6 luxuries was the best I could do. 680AD was time to return to Egypt, both to finish them off and grab Leo’s. I got a bonus by getting another leader, Aechmenes, who I sent back to Persepolis to save for later. 730AD I was able to buy Metallurgy, then leverage it for Banking. In 750AD I passed the 10,000 culture mark, as Democracy and Physics began to make the rounds. I was debating whether to go for Democracy, not wanting to lose 7 turns of culture to anarchy, but I decided to switch, hoping it would help with the corruption with so many cities, but I was still in several gpt deals, and couldn’t afford anarchy right away, or I would have gone negative too fast. I was finally able to buy it in 830, and started my revolt. 910AD I came out of anarchy into Democracy, and began by making a series of trades, as the AI had been busily researching. I started by trading luxuries and 40gpt for Magnetism, which I needed, and was able to trade it for the optional techs (Mil Tradition, Econonomics, Free Artistry). In 950 AD Theory of Gravity was completed (I think by India), and I bought it for another 31gpt. I had finally made it into the Industrial Age, and my free tech was . . . Nationalism (not my first choice, but certainly worth a lot). By the time I was done, I had gotten 520 gold, 324 gpt, and was researching Steam Power at 90%, due in 7 turns. I also used Aechemenes to rush Newtons in Persepolis.

The Democracy of Persia, 950AD


The “Slingshot effect” really paid off, I had gone from a bottom-feeder to a position to take a tech lead, but the rest will have to wait for my next post. (I know there is only one spoiler thread, but I want to hold off on the rest until I finish the game.) This so far has been one of the tougher games I have played in quite a while, I am not used to being so far behind in tech for so long, and often not even having enough income to buy it. Having so many cities has really hurt with corruption, but I wanted to settle as many as I could, so I could then build up the culture. As of 1000AD, my culture was at 16,552, growing by 388 per turn. All cities had Libraries, Temples, and about 2/3ds had Universities.

Open class; PTW1.27

This is my first attempt at a cultural victory, so here was my plan and current status. Expand quickly, get to Education quickly, build all culture as quickly as possible (rush via pop or gold); conquer others only after doing the above.

Decided to go for semi-close cities, 4 apart. Think 3 would have been a better move on this map. Initially moved settler NW after worker discovered fresh water. Up to 1000BC got to 7 cities, 23 pop, 5 workers & 8 warriors. Missing 5 AA techs. Goal is to get to education.

The evil Egyptians declared war on me, but I was able to capture the War Academy, which was great. I had gone after and gotten the higher culture religious wonders, so they had beat me. Romans joined me. Celts had GL and I was generally able to trade techs up to Education. Only got Pyramids for AA wonder and built 3 MA wonders (SC, JSBC, CO).

Later the Americans decided to have a go at me, getting the Iroquois, Romans and a few from the other continent to join in. Egypt went to war with the Romans, so I joined them in an alliance vs the Romans and Americans and Iroquois. Captured a few cities, but was just happy to hold my own. The Egyptians were a savior. Got scared when cavalry started coming my way from America & Iroquois and I didn’t have them yet. During this era I fell way behind it tech, but worked my way back as I made peace w/ everyone. Got Steam Power as I entered IA. Others had Nationalism, which they wouldn’t trade, so I was happy to trade for military tradition, lots-o-gold and some luxuries. I wanted to capture most of the continent before building the forbidden palace, which I think cost me time, I built it in the middle of this long war on my panhandle.

Now it’s 1500AD, only 29 cities, about 400 culture/turn and 38K-culture total. I’m still at Republic, which I will change now or soon. Didn’t want to do it while in a major war, but that ended 12 turns ago. Still at 0% tech (w/ scientist) and 100% gold. Trying to finish off remaining cathedrals & coliseums. Developed cities building military for war. Considering I can steal tech “safely” every six turns, maybe I won’t switch back - TBD.

Still concerned about tech, which I didn’t think I’d have to be. Concerned I’ll be in a space race, diplomacy win scenario before I can get 100K. Obviously have to get United Nations and never hold a vote. Thought I’d own my continent by now, but was culture building focused. Time to capture my continent and raze most of other (to avoid domination).

Last game I won over 40 elite battles and got ZERO leaders. This time I’ve fought 20 and got 2, but one was defensive creation and died on the battlefield.

PTW1.21f

Heh, that was an easy game for Demi-God level. Unfortunately, I got so carried away with fighting that I finished in 1740AD (31 tiles to domination limit). But it was fun. Anyway, my first ever 100k win. Playtime was about 14h.

Did a bad mistake in the beginning by not irrigating Wines. Otherwise my core cities were pumping warriors to be upgraded to Immortals for a very long time. Used military to achieve scientific needs in the beginning after paying for Iron Working. Started slowly to research myself and buy libraries in the middle of MA.

Here's the map in 500AD:

PREDATOR Panther 1.29

This was an interesting game, since I neither attempted nor achieved a 100kc victory ever before. Thus I had no prior idea on the "best approach": build culture early, or conquest first and culture next? Playing Persia was not a big hint: cheap libraries possible, but immortals are the ultimate early fighting machines.

I chose an medium (comparison with other games will show whether also mediocre ) way:

• peaceful expansion until out of despotism to get maximum benefit from the Golden Age
• combined fighting (w immortals) and culture build-up (w libraries)

The start was standard: 4 warriors, granary, settlers w interspersed warriors. The exploring warriors met Rome (3350bc). Egypt (3000bc), Iroquois (29509, and America (2670bc). But we found no goody huts to pop. Research was minimum on iron working gambling that we could trade for pottery in time which proved correct. We however missed iw and all other min researches in the AA.

For the first time, I did a lot of war declarations and military alliances in the AA vs. distant civs without actual fighting since we did not profit from rapid tech progress and were able to get some techs in peace deals.

For the first time in my gotm plays, the first suicide galley sailing east not only survived multiple barb galley attacks, but also the ocean and contacted the Keltoi in 610bc. America gives us philosophy, construction for peace and literature (which we bought from Egypt). The resulting deals in 570bc gave us all contacts, complete maps, all AA techs including republic and monarchy. (Monotheism from scientific trait.) We pop-rushed some libraries and enter 4 turn anarchy to republic.

In 350bc, we finally declared war on Rome and started our Golden Age. Fighting continued vs Egypt, America and Iroquois until we owned our continent. I tried to get as much Great Leaders as possible, because I did not want to waste the production on building wonders manually. Better to build culture improvements and settlers to found new towns building culture improvements etc. ...

Regarding Great Wonders, 1025 bc we learned that the Keltoi had done The Pyramids and next turn the French completed The Oracle, while our continent did not do any wonders. ??? We got Great Leaders for (1) Sun Tzu's (Keltoi cascade to Great Library), (2) Hanging Gardens (French cascade to Great Wall), (3) Forbidden Palace in Thebes, (4) Sistine Chapel, (5) Leo's, (6) Smith's. This was a very nice Leader harvest, but peeking ahead: our "luck" ends here. Even though we continued careful fighting till the end, no more Leaders emerged.

Regarding the ultimate objective of 100kc, the usual build order in our cities was library, university, temple, cathedral, colosseum, market, bank, stock exchange. This gave us

• a cultural push,
• research capability to outpace the AIs,
• enough money from tech sales to hurry improvements, and
• luxuries for techs.

But a pop 3 city w all improvements looks sort of strange.



The culture graphs show that we were strong compared to the civs on our continent, but when we made contact in570bc, we discovered that Keltoi, India and France were ahead. Our early library builds soon changed the picture in our favor. We enter Industrial Ages in 870ad with about 15.000 culture points growing by about 350 cpt.

PTW1.21f

This game proved to be an unmitigated disaster for me, which resulted in stumbling towards the Industrial era ending in a resignation.

The start was seemlingly innocent, settled in place, irrigated the wines and produced settlers at a fairly good pace. Early on the Romans settled very close to my capital, looks like they must have popped a hut or settled where a key resource was going to appear.

Met all the others and soon became fairly close for the lead with Rome.

As we are going for 100k decided on going straight for literacy to get early cheap libraries and get the culture moving. My first clue that something was up for me in this game was in 1200BC when 6 turns from literacy I got a message that somebody had completed the Great Library. I thought I had a good tech pace until this point, but put it down to a leader.

All along in the early game I built a mix of warriors, workers and libraries. I started to move into the vacume to the east and met a number of barbarians. Usually in a predator game you expect the barbs to be cleaned out but the space to the east seemed to confound that. Coupled with a number of losses to the barbs I didn't make much movement in that area.

Eventually around 500BC I had a lot of troops hunting down the barbs, when I got the barb uprising message, and this is what I saw. My troops have already moved back, and the barb hut is at the corner of the barb troop pop up.



OK, no problem only 16 barbs, I spread my troops, fortified on hills and sent in reinforcements from the main lands. At this time I only actually had one spearman, lots of warriors but hadn't even started to hook up the iron yet. After a couple of barb killing turns, I was dismayed to find even more coming, I know for sure that each barb camp would produce 16 horses and it looks like there were many camps in the area to the SE.

Three turns after the barbs first appeared, timed just when my troops were mostly to the east I saw this appear to my west.



That is a pretty big hint that trouble was brewing, my only chance I thought was to draw Rome into a GPT deal as my defences were completely open. I really was prepared to pay anything at this point. And this is the deal I got, look how much gold Rome has already!



OK so they take it, 12 GPT for a tech so I'm safe right. Wrong!!!!!



So I lost that northern city on the first turn, just too many archers. No real problem. Now in the south I had a nice palace build going trying to build anything, I think the great lighthouse was still available. There were about 13 turns to go until the palace was built. Anyone that does palace pre-builds a lot knows that the time to actually build the palace is dependant on the number of cities so when I lost that city the palace build would come sooner. Not taking any notice of this, I built the palace by mistake. Way down in my most southern city. Game over man, well not yet.

When I saw this, I decided that it really was over time.



I had already sent the workers to the iron, I pop rushed like mad, and put everything in their way. Two more cities were taken and the Persian UU came into the battle. Halting the Legions at the border as the UU's ran out at last Rome agreed to peace, for another city.

Right now I just wanted revenge, forget any sense, I had to take back those cities.
I played out a little more getting into another war with Rome, only getting peace from them for 20GPT, but then declaring war again 3 turns later this time taking all the cities that were lost back. The bonus tech for MA gave a tech jump back into competition for tech but so much time had been lost and there was so little space.

In the end there were a bunch of wars and a little more space was taken but with rep broken eventually playing the war broker backfired and Iroquios Cavarly broke though our defences. A few more turns were played before resignation.

Smackster

Open

Lousy start position. I move to NW in order to be on the lake. I go for Iron Working since I am the only civ with Bronze Working. So I will be in position to sell this at monopoly, plus I will be able to build immortals. I will build my cities at a close RCP 3. I start with 3 warriors and then a settler.
I meet Romans in 2900 BC, they only have one city ! and they do not want to deal with me.
I meet Americans in 2510 BC, they do not want to trade the Wheel but agrees for the Ceremonial Burial / Warrior Code / Pottery vs Iron Working. I also got all his treasury … And Rome does not want to trade at all Alphabet … still… My warrior that went to the east spots goody huts, I will receive Mysticism as free tech.
I meet Egypt in 2270 BC, nothing to trade



WWI vs Rome (2310 BC – 2070 BC)
It is too tempting. I have the eqworker from Rome just near my warrior. I declare war and capture it. I then wait for my other regular warriors that are going to join in the fight in few turns. In 2150, I attack Rome. Victory from my Warrior (vs Warrior). Second warrior defeated but redlining an Archer and third warrior kill the archer. I enter in Rome killing a settler so I have 2 more slaves. I could force peace for 14 GP & Alphabet ! but I wait because I am going to finalize Alphabet in 2 turns. I hope that I could get writing (?). Then, I go for peace for 14 GP.

In 1990 BC, I am #2, I just met Iroquois and traded Iron Working for The Wheel and their 10 GP. They only have one town (just like Rome now). I destroy few camps but do not see much barbs activity.

WWII vs Rome
I am going to finish Rome. I am destroying capital after capital but nevertheless, I auto-raze 2 towns, only conquering one town. GA starts (early but unavoidable). I had connected the Iron early but did not foresee that the Culture will bring it to boundaries thus forcing the production of immortals too early (1430 BC). Big mistake .

WWIII vs Egypt (450 BC – 130 BC)
Iroquois : I trade Code of Laws vs WM & 95 GP & Mathematics
Egypt : I trade Code of Laws vs 35 GP & WM
America : I trade WM & code of Law & Philosophy & Mathemaics vs TM & Polytheism
There are many luxes, too many and not so many good places for a palace jump. I will target Thebes as a good spot. So I declare War on Egypt with 9 Immortals & 3 Spear (strong military says my military advisor), grabbing a slave as first move.
Egypt is dead. With Thebes and remaining Egyptians Town plus some American towns, I have a nice RCP 5! I am building a RCP 5 around the FP to be constructed in Arbela.

90 BC : I am at last in Republic.

Iroquois: The Republic vs Construction & WM & 20 GP
Barbs upraisal. I suspect one of the civ on the other continent went to MA. Barbs enter into 2 towns, reducing my population and destroying to be constructed library and getting limited cash as I rush built to avoid major loss… No big impact.

WWIV vs Americans & Iroquois (50 AD – 640 AD)
50 AD: I attack Iroquois that I have just settled (around Gems) where I wanted but America sneak attacked me. Just conquering Thebes. This is not good.
I re-captured Thebes in 110 AD. I finally constructed Great Library in 170 AD. I then set re-search to the minimum (10 %) to pile cash in order to rush Libraries / Temple to all towns.

I finish the FP in 90 AD.
I enter MA in 130 AD. Monotheism as free tech.
170 AD Peace with Iroquois & Alliance vs Americans.
230 AD : French Galley … Monotheism vs Monarchy & WM & 82 GP & 7 GPT & Indians Contact
Indians : Monotheism vs remaining contacts & WM & 101 GP
270 AD : France galley is going to me America so I trade Contact vs WM & 12 GPT & 36 GP
India : American Contact vs 22 GP & 4 GPT. I still have my 9 immortals as my main army and 9 Spears.
I continue to build culture in order to have the Iroquois towns flipping to me (St Regis in 450 AD)
320 AD : My first GL builds the Palace in Thebes. It will make 2 RCP at 5. I will build a settler on the flipped town from Iroquois that is at distance 4 in order to disband and move once square to found again the town.


640 AD : Americans are dead. I keep Iroquois busy to fight India for Furs & Gems & WM & 160 GP, because they are furious towards me. I have already 3 of their towns flipping towards me linked to strong culture war !

WWV vs India (510 AD – ~1500 AD )
India lead in culture so I declare a War against them and gather all countries against them. I will not see a single Indian Unit .
France with Engineering allies against India
NeoCarthage with WM & 289 GP allies against India
Keltoi with TheRepublic allies vs India
790 AD : I discover myself Education at a low 10 %. I am going to build Universities…

WWVI vs Iroquois (860 AD – ~1000 AD)
Sneak attack of Iroquois evil Iroquois. Sidon is captured but I can fight back. My army improved to 5 knights & 11 immortals & 20 musketmen. Soon, Iroquois are reduced to 4 towns without any salpeter & iron so they can make an easy target, if needed. Around the same year, India is reduced to one town on small island.

More deals to plunder the treasury of AI.
960 AD : England WM & 28 GP & 5 GPT vs Wines
Carthage : 48 GP & 6 GPT vs Wines
Keltoi : Spices & 16 GP vs Wines & Dyes & Salpeter

I manage to grab some wonders and continue to deal with the major AI powers (England & Carthage). I keep the other AI with limited cash selling some techs. I do not understand why I am not already having a Cultural win since it appears I have more than double culture than any other civs. I guess, I need to go to 100 K . Long way …)

1020 AD : England : Furs vs 73 GP & 3 GPT
1170 AD : England Silks & Music Theory & WM & 9 GP vs Gems & Physics
Keltoi : WM & Spices & 2 GP vs Metallurgy

1250 AD : IA with Nationalism. I have only 7 workers but 22 slaves so I need to get more workforce for railroad. This is surprising to have so little workers for me. There are 2 reasons:
- I am constantly building infrastructure to maximize Culture & Cash
- I have industrials workers that work faster… so I need less work force.

PTW 1.27 Open class game

Well, this has been an interesting game so far. I've never won a culture game before, and I'm not sure I'll win this one that way, but I think I will win it in some way. I'm the first one into the industrial age in my game, but I can see from other posts that we're behind in tech by comparison. This has been a somewhat deliberate strategy on my part so that I can concentrate on building up culture much earlier than I ordinarily would. I even built two of the early age wonders (and several more since, burning up my only two GL's in the process) which is something I don't normally do.

At this point, in 1400 ad, I've got 20 cities, my culture is 17,357 and I'm pulling down about 280 culture per turn. I *should* hit 100k culture before turns run out, given that I still have a lot of building to do. But I'll probably have a late finish date by comparison which will cause my score to suffer. & I will, in time, have to pay attention to domination limits too in this game, another thing that isn't something that I normally worry about.

Good game so far. I finally am starting to figure out how to really play the early game, which is always been one of my weak spots.

~fin

1.27f
Predator

Link to Earlier Post

At the end of the last post, I had just entered the Industrial Age and sold Nationalism around the world for lots of GPT. I was researching Steam at max (6 turns). I was trying to complete as much culture as possible, but it was obvious America would be my main competitor, especially after St. Louis flipped back to them in 970AD. I was planning to go to war with them soon, to knock them back to size, but a couple events happened first. In 1010AD I discovered Steam Power, and was excited to see coal and iron in the radius of Jinjan, next to Rome, my FP city. A productive Iron Works was begun immediately. I was also able to get another couple hundred gpt by selling it around. I researched toward Replaceable Parts, hoping to use Artillery and Infantry to crush the Americans. However, in 1050, they signed an MPP with Carthage, who was at the time the biggest money-producer I had, so I didn’t want to go to war and kill the golden goose. According to the foreign advisor, they were admirers of our culture, meaning they were less than 50%, but looking at F8 it was close.

Wonder Blunder
In 1100AD my culture passed 20,000, and I got Electricity. I held off on selling it a few turns, until my luxury deal with India would need renewed. After Rep Parts, I researched Medicine, hoping the AI would get Industrialization for me. They did, in 1200AD, and I traded Medicine for it. This was the only non-optional tech I got from the AI in the Industrial Age, although they did pick up all the optionals. Jinjan had finished the Iron Works in 1180, and started on Universal Sufferage, while Perespolis was working on ToE and Rome using the Palace as a pre-build. Meanwhile, I researched the upper branch, timing it so I finished Steel in 1305, same turn as ToE. I used it to get Atomic and Electronics, then (in one of my biggest DOH moments in a while) tried to switch Rome’s palace over to complete Hoover’s Dam, but it wasn’t available?? Rome is on a lake, not a river, and cannot build Hoover’s. In fact, I didn’t have any productive cities on a river, so Hoover’s wasn’t even an option. For some reason, I thought lakes counted . anyway, I had to scramble, and switched it to Universal Sufferage, wasting a couple hundred shields, and then switched Jinjan to a coal plant, wasting another hundred fifty shields.

Anyway, I continued building and rushing culture, usually paying to rush 1-2 improvements a turn. With the amount of gpt I was bringing in, and the MPPs flying around, I decided war against America wouldn’t be very cost-effective, so I started disbanding my artillery and some older units to hurry completion of culture buildings. The next hundred years were quite, but by 1430 I had passed 50,000 culture. In 1450 I entered the Modern Age, getting Rocketry for free. I had been using a pre-build in Jinjan for the Internet, and had to slow it down, as computers would be at least 7 turns.

Iroquois Treachery
After 5,000 years of peaceful coexistance, the Iroquois decided to backstab me in 1455, and did they do a doozy! An Iroquois cav used our ROP to waltz into my undefended capital, Persepolis! They also sent several other stacks of cav, infantry, and even a group of Mounted Warriors. I had grown overconfident, and disbanded many of my non-veteran units, so I must have looked weak to them. I did have a few tanks, and some elite cavalry I had been saving, as well as a few veteran infantry, but not enough to face all their forces. I quickly drafted infantry in as many of my non-productive cities as I could, and rushed a few more veteran tanks from my barracks cities. I also bought America into the war for Electronics, since the Iroquois had to travel through America to get me. I retook Perepolis, (but all the culture would have to be rebuilt) , then basically waited on the defensive, using tanks to weaken some stacks then use rail to get back into my cities. The alliance paid off, as the next turn most of the Iroquois forces turned around to fight the Americans. I then took Oil Springs (which had been settled in the middle of my territory thousands of years ago), and used my ROP with America to invade the Iroquois lands. Although America also had invaded, their cav were no match for Iroquois infantry, but would occasionally kill off a defender for me. I would then move in with a stack of Artillery and tanks to take the city. They fell, about one city per turn, until 1505 when I took Allegheny. Throughout this war I generated no leaders, but did complete SETI. (With the loss of income and need for cash, I had to slow research, so my prebuild was switched to SETI). In 1500AD, my culture passed 60,000 growing at 785 per turn.

Now I faced another problem. There were large quantities of american troops on my soil, not only the newly conquered Iroquois lands, but also to the southeast. With the destruction of the Iroquois, our alliance, and ROP, had expired, so I asked them to leave. They declared war instead. I had expected this, but somehow wasn’t quite prepared for it. My forces in the Iroquois lands quickly destroyed 20+ units in the open, even generating a leader, Darius (again). However, I was faced with this problem:



My main forces were cut off from my lands, and I had minimal defenses back there! Also, he had St. Louis as a thorn in my side, as well as more troops to the south of there. Also, he still had MPPs with Carthage and France. So I used tech to buy the Celts, English and India into the war. With Darius stranded, and no wonders readily available, I built an Army of tanks, then the following turn used Cyrus to also build an army. I invaded south, while another round of drafts and rushes were used to quickly defend my cities. I was also trying to upgrade as much of my infantry as possible to Mech, so I had to lower research to generate some quick cash. By now, though, I had a pretty large stack of artillery and tanks, and was able to move though America, taking a city per turn, as well as getting St. Louis and Detroit, on the far SE tip of our continent. In 1530 I got another leader, Aechemenes again, who I moved to Susa to save for the Internet. I had started another prebuild also, as I was concerned that one of the AI (probably India) could get fission and try to build the UN, so I wanted options to get it done first. The war was not without cost, as I couldn’t initally defend everywhere at once, and he took Philadelphia, which he razed (and they were half American citizens!), and Grand River, which I retook. At one point, his stream of cavalry actually destroyed my mech infantry and captured about 20 artillery, but thankfully he didn’t destroy them and I recaptured them the next turn. I also lost a lot of workers during this time. I had one culture flip, New York, but I was only leaving minimal garrisons in his cities. Usually I would wait for resistance to end, then rush a library to start generating local culture.

Miniturization was finished in 1560, and the Internet rushed, and America was finally destroyed in 1570AD. My culture was now at 71,937 growing by 1054/turn. I started to settle new towns in open spots, and disbanded all my artillery and non-elite units to rush libraries, universities, and temples in all my new cities. Most core cities, since they already had all the cultural buildings, were cranking out artillery “caravans” to be shipped by rail to new cities and disbanded to boost production. The next hundred years were quiet, as my culture continued to pick up pace. Finally, in 1690AD, I achieved victory, with 100,637 culture (growing by 1292/turn), and a Firaxis score of 5505. Playing time was 37 hours.

Cultural Graph


With the Internet, free research labs in 70+ towns, I could tell my pace would get me a victory before 1700. My original projection was to try and beat 1750, and I was afraid that the war would delay me, but I think that the net gain of 20 or so cities, with all the easy culture improvements, made up for my delay in the Internet and losing Persepolis, who was able to get it’s culture back quickly. I also ended up much closer to the domination limit than I thought, I hadn't even checked it until after the game, and realized I was within 150 tiles. I probably should have attacked the Americans earlier, when I had wanted, having all those cities sooner would have been more culture for longer.

Final World Map, 1690AD



Definitely more challenging than I thought it would be, but then again part of that was my own fault, between overconfidence and carelessness, I got myself into a few situations that I could have avoided.

Justus, I just reached the Industrial Age, read your last post, and enjoyed the drama. I'll post my midpoint report later, but wanted to compliment you and tao for strong, well-conceived starts. I followed the same strategy, but didn't have as good a result.

1.27

I did something a bit different in this game - I used all of my Great Leaders (got just three of them) to rush Forbidden Palace. It worked out nicely

Warning: There's just one spoiler thread for this game, so I've written about my entire game in one continuous note. If you don't yet want to read about anything past the beginning of the Industrial Age, please skip this post for now.

Initial build

I settled at the start position.

But I didn't end up creating a conventional settler factory with a granary. I figured that building a granary first in this relatively unproductive location would result in breaking even (vs. a settler first approach) in total food created after about 65 turns. On a small map long term expansion was unlikely. And I could put the earlier shields from a faster build to good use. So I ran Persepolis as a 10 turn settler pump without a granary, instead of six turn with granary.

As the map unfolded I decided on an RCP build of eight cities at distance 4. I also planned a few cities at distance 8 but didn't expect those to be very productive for a long time, until those cities had Courthouses. (Since this is a small map, the optimum number of cities is low. I figured that using a fairly large inner RCP ring would therefore be very helpful.)

Status at 1000BC:
11 towns
1 settler
4 barracks
1 native worker
3 foreign workers
12 warriors
1 galley (built 3 so far)

Meeting other Civs

I met Rome, America, Iroquois, and then Egypt. No special deals with any of them.

One of my suicide galleys met Carthage in 1100BC. Through them I met the other Civs. I withheld contacts and profited from brokering maps and tech until France built the Great Lighthouse in 350BC.

Research

Ancient Times: I started by researching Iron Working at maximum speed. Got it in 2630BC and traded it for most first level techs. Next I researched Mathematics at the 40 turn rate, got it in 1300BC, and traded it for many techs, including Philosophy and Code Of Laws. I researched Republic next. While researching it I bought Polytheism on one continent, traded it for Literature on the other, and built a number of libraries. I learned Republic 690BC, traded it for the other required Ancient techs and entered the Middle Ages. I revolted to Republic at that date (six turns) and stayed a Republic from then on.

Middle Ages: My free tech was Engineering. I was ahead of the AIs at this point and intended to stay a bit ahead, profiting from a tech lead. I researched Monotheism slowly, waiting for the AIs to learn Feudalism. Surprisingly one of them learned Monotheism first, reducing its value. I traded for it then researched Theology, Education, and Banking. I deliberately slowed my research in this phase since money for rushing was very useful at the time, and the AIs were slow to research the bottom path. In 320AD they learned Gunpowder, I traded, and I started researching toward Military Tradition. I learned it in 500AD, then researched slowly (with ongoing trades) toward finishing the Middle Ages. In 660AD I learned Magnetism and entered the Industrial Age.

Industrial Age: My free tech was Nationalism. I researched Steam Power, Medicine, and Electricity. I used these techs to maintain my trade revenue from the other Civs. When I learned Electricity I was two techs ahead of my rivals so I decided to learn Scientific Method at the 40 turn rate. I traded my lead away during that time but easily got Scientific Method first, switched a prebuild to Theory Of Evolution and jumped ahead again. I didn't need to learn anything else, used my lead at that point to maintain my trade income until reaching victory.

I found that maintaining a tech lead in this game was very important. It allowed trades for cash and for luxuries. The luxuries were important because I never invaded the other continent - just four luxuries at home really wasn't enough.

War

In 690BC I fomented a few wars on the other continent, just to keep my rivals there busy

In 550BC Rome tried to extort contact with Carthage. I refused and Rome declared war. This was just a few turns before I'd planned to invade her so I didn't mind much. It was a bit of a nuisance because I was just in the process of connecting iron so I only had warriors at the time. My world looked like this in 550BC:



In 490BC I upgraded my first batch of 13 Warriors to Immortals and went after Rome. Began a Golden Age in 450BC, already being in Republic at the time. By 330BC I had 25 Immortals in the field and got my first leader. I used him to rush my first Forbidden Palace in Rome. I finished off Rome next turn in 150BC - she'd been easy since she didn't have iron connected.

In 170BC I started attacking Egypt. Egypt was a bit tougher, having Swordsmen. Also a few War Chariots but I don't think any of them ever won a fight, so Egypt didn't get a Golden Age either. I finished off Egypt in 70AD and then paused for quite a while, building infrastructure and preparing some Horsemen for the discovery of Military Tradition.

In 450AD the Celts landed a couple of Horsmen near Persepolis. I told them to leave. They agreed, then attacked me next turn anyway. They didn't capture anything and I dispatched them easily though it did cost me two units. I allied two Celt neighbors against her and never saw her units again in that war

In 500AD I learned Military Tradition, upgraded 18 Horsemen, then declared war on America in 530AD. This war produced a second leader. I abandoned the original Forbidden Palace and the leader rushed a new one in the heart of the ex-American territory. In 610AD I finished off America.

Right after that, England pulled a silly stunt just like the Celts' earlier one. They landed a couple of units, agreed to leave, then moved in on Persepolis and attacked. Useless of course, it just caused another silly war. I allied Celts and Carthage against England and wasn't troubled by her presence again.

In 640AD my forces (19 Cavalry and 14 Immortals) carried on to attack Iroquois, finishing them off in 690AD. I got another leader during this war and saved him for later.

In 710AD India pulled the same silly stunt as the Celts and England before them, with exactly the same result. Something about Persepolis sure seemed to bring out the aggressive tendencies of the other Civs in this game.

In 870AD Carthage destroyed England.

That was it for warfare. Once I owned the entire home continent it seemed enough for my purposes. It was about 140 tiles short of the domination limit and provided space for all the cities I wanted to build.

Huts and Barbarians

I popped just one goody hut, got angry barbarians.

I didn't see any barbarian uprisings. At the time we entered the Middle Ages I had the southeastern peninsula almost entirely visible to some patrolling warriors so there were no camps there.

Wonders

I didn't try to build any wonders. I would've rushed one or two if I'd had more leaders but my leader luck wasn't great this game. I did capture two wonders: JS Bach's and Copernicus', both built by America.

Culture!

All of the above activities were aimed at a single goal: fast culture.

Although I did build libraries in the original Palace region as soon as I could, I built them mainly for their effect on research. For culture, the first thing I wanted was a lot of cities. As I aquired new lands through warfare, I had many towns building settlers. I often used spare cash to rush them. These settlers filled in the available land as tightly as possible (except around the Forbidden Palaces, described later.) When I filled in the last city at 1080AD the home continent had 145 Persian cities:



Since we were a scientific Civ in this game, the city improvements which generate culture can be viewed as follows:
Library: 13.3 shields/culture, 1/3 gold per culture maintenance
University: 25 shields/culture, 1/2 gold per culture maintenance
Temple: 30 shields/culture, 1/2 gold per culture maintenance
Cathedral: 53.3 shields/culture, 2/3 gold per culture maintenance
Colosseum: 60 shields/culture, 1 gold per culture maintenance

The cost/benefit of the improvements as regards culture is the sequence listed above, so that's the order I built them in all cities.

In the unproductive cities (the majority of the 145), I first built settlers during the expansion phase, then built and rushed cultural improvements as quickly as my cash flow permitted. I first rushed libraries in all the unproductive cities. Then universities in all of them. Then temples in all of them, just barely completing the last of those temples before victory.

A key issue in this approach is cash flow. I wanted as much cash as possible to rush improvements, and to finance their maintenance. I used every trick I could think of to improve income. I disbanded barracks in captured cities, maintained a tech lead and squeezed all I could from trading, disbanded my native workers once the land was fully improved, disbanded excess military after my conquest phase, and set surplus citizens to be tax collectors. I researched at the minimum rate I could which would keep me ahead of the AIs, and researched Scientific Method free (at 40 turn rate.) Near the end of the game I also did a bit of production shifting, i.e. building military units in the productive region and disbanding them in corrupt cities to speed production there. At the end of the game my financial situation looked like this:



The above image is a bit misleading in that this was the highest revenue I ever got from my rivals. For most of the end game, from 690AD onward, my net income varied between 0gpt and 600gpt. (Depending on research rate and on current deals with rivals.)

Productive cities in my Palace region built library, university, temple, cathedral, and colosseum, when they could fit them in between other work. (Military production, aqueducts, marketplaces, harbors.)

The remaining component is something new for me which I thought would be useful in a 100K culture game: multiple Forbidden Palaces. (The same could be done with multiple Palaces but I was happy with the original Palace location, didn't want to build an off-center Forbidden Palace there after building the productive RCP 4 ring, so I moved the Forbidden Palace instead.)

While conquering Rome my first leader built a Forbidden Palace in the center of her region. The cities close to the FP immediately went to work on the library, university, temple, cathedral, colosseum sequence. They didn't build anything else since I intended to move the FP later.

While conquering America my second leader built a Forbidden Palace in the center of her region. By this time about 9 cities around Rome had built the first three cultural improvements without needing cash to rush them. I started the same process in the ex-American territory, cities near the new FP building cultural improvements.

I saved my third leader for a while after finishing off the Iroquois. I set up a ring 4 RCP around the captured city Salamanca, improved all the lands, allowed the population in the new cities to grow a bit, then moved the FP there in 980AD. By this time about 10 cities in the ex-American area had finished building an average of three cultural improvements apiece.

The final FP region in ex-Iroquois land was the only one I planned carefully. It produced fairly good income and almost all of the fourteen cities surrounding this FP managed to build all five cultural improvements by the end of the game.

Culture progress:
10AD - culture 1667, gaining 85/turn
1000AD - culture 34073, gaining 803/turn
1390AD - culture 101372, gaining 1673/turn

And that's it, cultural victory in 1390AD

SirPleb: Awesome job, as usual. I have got to learn to pack my cities in tighter, I had 74 cities, and you had twice as many in the same landmass. I also didn't get many of those until after the IA, I think I had 44 cities in 1000 AD. I generally kept the AI's cities, and occasionally filled in gaps, whereas it looks like you had deliberate plans for building more cities. The "moving FP" concept is cool, I thought about a palace jump at one point, when my core had completed their culture, but I was also dependent on those cities for my income, so I didn't want them to turn corrupt.

SirPleb, terrific job. I resorted to the "extra cities with rushed improvements" midway through the Middle Ages, for reasons that will be explained in the post I'm working on now. It figures that you would have seized on it from the start.

Originally posted by Justus II
I researched toward Replaceable Parts, hoping to use Artillery and Infantry to crush the Americans. However, in 1050, they signed an MPP with Carthage, who was at the time the biggest money-producer I had, so I didn’t want to go to war and kill the golden goose.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure but that might have been a good time for one of my favorite tricks: If you signed an MPP with Carthage (and they might even have paid you for the privilege since they already had another MPP), then declared war on America and waited for her to attack first, that should result in Carthage taking your side and breaking their MPP with America.

THE QSC PERIOD

I started conventionally, building a granary on the starting location. I chose my city sites for location, and wound up with only five in the 4 range. By 1000 BC, I had nine cities with 24 citizens, 4 workers, 11 warriors, and 2 horsemen, with four barracks and a granary. Income was at 577g, despite being extorted three times!

RESEARCH

I took a different research tack than others, but with the same results. My goal was math, so I researched the alphabet. Ten turns in, I acquired it from Rome. From then on, I was in the tech lead for the rest of the game once I researched a tech. My path went from alphabet to math to polytheism to literature to republic, with a wait after literature while the AI researched Code of Laws. This put me in the Middle Ages in 750 BC.



On the next turn my first galley met Carthage. This continent was trailing in tech, but I quickly caught them up, as I wanted to trade with them, rather than with my neighbors. Carthage and England were the early tech leaders, but India eventually surpassed England, which almost succumbed to a war with the backward Kelts. (I drew France in against the Kelts, and a balance of power was maintained.) In the Middle Ages I was gifted monotheism, and researched all of the required techs except for feudalism, engineering, invention, gunpowder. I slowed down occasionally to build up gold and allow the AI to catch up, even though my natural research pace felt only average, and finally entered the Industrial Era in 870 AD.

My plan had been to manually build only one wonder in the first two eras: the Lighthouse. This is what I did, even though I had already met the other continent. Why? Because I wanted those contacts for myself for as long as possible. As it turned out, I had them all to myself from 730 BC until 500 AD.

G.A. IN REPUBLIC

I also intended to first become a republic and then have a GA. To defend myself against a likely Roman invasion, I built a few horsemen while stockpiling warriors. This worked out almost perfectly. In 550 BC, one turn before a 7-turn anarchy expired and I became a republic, the Americans tried to extort a contact from me. They had two spears with settlers next to two of my undefended outlying cities at the time. These cities had no improvements, so I bit the bullet and they declared war. The two cities were immediately taken, but I was in republic the next turn. My first move was to cut off the Americans by allying with Egypt and the Iroquois. In 370 BC my immortals retook the cities, triggering the GA I wanted: a peaceful one, where I could supercharge my core’s infrastructure.

EXPANSION AND THE WAIT FOR A LEADER

The civ I wanted to attack first was Rome, and I invaded from the rear in 90 BC, thus cutting off their iron in two turns. Facing only two legionnaires, Rome was knocked out by 230 AD. I then prepped for another mass warrior upgrade, and went after the Americans with my allies. The Americans had stalemated my allies by building the Great Wall in 530 BC – one of the most useful wonders for the AI against the AI.

So far so good, right? Well, I was missing one thing from my conquest of the Romans: a leader. And although I declared war with Egypt in 430, and after a 7-turn intermission resumed hostilities with American in 530, I did not get a Leader until 750 AD! Note how much territory I had conquered in the meantime:



This is the only way I can account for expanding well, building infrastructure steadily, and still lagging behind other seemingly similar games in culture. My culture in 750 was at 9778; 12 turns later, with an FP and 43 cities, it was at 12963. As I noted in an earlier post, I started making up for my lack of an FP by building more cities and rushing libraries. I’ll continue to do this, and see how much I can catch up.

That's a bit of bad luck Txurce, not getting a leader yet. Between dealing with the Romans and the Egyptians I imagine you've had a lot of elite wins by now. The lack of a Forbidden Palace sure will hurt - the reduced income probably has an even greater effect than the lost production. Good luck, I hope you get one soon!

PTW f1.27
Open Class

New here, and first time with the medal series - played the Persia GotM, and now this...used to think I was pretty good at the game..I was wrong

Not much to say at this point, as most of my game occurred after the spoiler allows (which should tell you a) how I screwed up from the start, and b) will explain the following)...

Was wondering if there is a prize for the latest finishing but still completeing the scenario objectives...managed it this time in 2033...and only because 1 civ was building his last spaceship part in a city that was taking 138 turns!

Under penalty of slow death by being smothered with belly button lent from fat sweaty Persian Belly dancers

Click to expand...

I looked forward to that after this miserable game My apologies anyway, cracker.

PTW 1.27

Well, bad luck is a constant for some players it seems.

I sent the worker to look at that shoreline and of course it was an inland lake, and I settled on the spot. Research Alpha at max. Meet Romans soon enough (Can we have a game without those rednecks?) Buy Alpha fro gpt...and so on....

Worked my way thro AA buying stuff and got Mapmaking around 1500bc. Rush a galley and it survives 2 enemy galleys and at 1 hp and eyeing another 2 barbs it goes to sea. Say hello to a Carthagian warrior on a mountain and then she sinks.

Full map by 1400bc and controlling everything here. Overtake Romans around 800b. Peace with everyone.

Give dyes + gold to Iroquois for Currency, which brings me in Middle age at around 700bc. 600bc or something India finishes Greal Lighthouse.

Next turn everyone on my continent hates me, someone pillaged a road somewhere and ruined my reputation forever. Buy embassies and surely enough Iroquois and America is warring.

2 turns later India knows everyone and now the whole world hates me.

The gamedestroyer number one ruined this game for me. I tried to keep it nice but did the mistake by trading before I had a harbour and so I suffered a humiliating loss.

By the time I resigned I owned all old Roman territory and was on my way to get Egypt. But I know from experience I'm dead meat if my reputation is gone and words I practised on are not allowed in this forum.

Anyhow, I had a good game going until then, and will try again with the Mongols.

@Sirpleb

I am amazed at your game, just brilliant thinking. Packing with cities obviously fasten the speed of the game.

I wish I would do some thinking instead of just doing the same thing over and over - Good thing is that I learn new tips regurlarly.

Playing Open -

SPOILER up to MODERN AGES

1250 AD : IA with Nationalism. I have only 7 workers but 22 slaves so I need to get more workforce for railroad. This is surprising to have so little workers for me. There are 2 reasons:
- I am constantly building infrastructure to maximize Culture & Cash
- I have industrials workers that work faster… so I need less work force.
1265 AD : Deals to plunder all AI to minimum cash
1330 AD : Beaten by neo carthage to Newton’s . I hate this … I now have 20 workers.
I deal steam power to carthage for Ivory & WM & 58 GPT & 115 GP
England for Silks & 11 GPT & 41 GP
I build two towns in other continent in order to grab incense in some available slot.
There is a war to France from Keltoi. I keep France alive gifting them all techs up to Nationalism. I then put a cavalry in the middle of the isthmus to preserve Keltoi from bringing more reinforcement.
1385 AD : Deals medecine to Carthage & England
1435 AD : England - Electricity vs Communism & WM & 16 GP & 31 GPT
Carthage – Electricity vs Ivory & 85 GP & 29 GPT

Final Wars …1485 AD –
I decide to finish off Iroquois in order to get some leaders. And also to finish France in order to grab silks. I bring some forces on board.
1500 AD : sneak attack from carthage
I gather Keltoi against them and England triggers an MPP with Keltoi against Carthage. It is not too bad as Carthage is the #2 in culture. I finally destroy France between 1540 and 1565.
1585 AD. I capture Sabratha with some cavs and Infantries. I grab the Sun Tzu’s. With the arrival of tanks, I then launch the onslaught on Carthage and the remaining towns. In 1645, I make peace with Carthage. I give back some towns to India in order to keep my domination limit under control.

1590 AD : MA.

towards 100K …
I keep building wonders and few cultural buildings. The towns given to India fell back to various countries.
1560 – 48111
1650 – 59136
1740 – 71675
1800 – 93888

1814 AD (lousy score 4636). Only satisfaction is that I could grab a triple victory
- Palace prebuilt for the last part of the Space-ship in Arbela (SS Planetary Launch)
- Modern Armors could easily conquer the needed tiles (by killing Carthage)
- Culture Victory 100K …

Mac 1.29

In the first two eras, I conquered 2/3 of our continent, and was pumping culture from my core, but failed until the end to get a Leader and rush a FP to jump-start a second core. This put me behind.

The rest of my game is mostly a series of dates:

750: My first Leader is used for a FP: 9778 cpts.
820: Egypt is conquered.
870: Industrial Era begins: 12963 cpts.
1000: 17031 cpts.
1020: Declare war on America.

This war was fought with immortals protected by three riflemen, with a steady stream of cavalry as reinforcements. The Americans had no iron, but had musketmen, pikes, spears, and longbowmen.

1130: America out; declare war on Iroquois; second Leader.

By now it’s all cavalry against pike, spear and longbow.

1170: The Iroquois are conquered.

1200: 25831 ctpts.

I continued to research mostly at full speed, headed for miniaturization, with occasional slowdowns to rush cultural improvements in the corrupt areas, which I settled heavily. I also began to disband my captured workers into the cities of the second core.

1300: 34927 ctpts.

1360: I build ToE, Suffrage and Shakespeare on the same turn.

1400: 49735 cpts.

The AI had slowed its research as the Kelts invaded England and took two of the five English cities, despite my gifting England nationalism and the Kelts still in the Middle Ages. I drew the other civs against the Kelts, and at one late point some ahd infantry before the Kelts had nationalism, yet the Kelts hung on. Once the Kelts were down to four cities I gave them nationalism, and everyone quit fighting. I have no idea why they were so tough.

1500: 67628 cpts.
1560: the Internet wonder is built.

Research is shut off, and all funds go to rushing universities and cathedrals in all of my corrupt cities. I steadily sell all of my techs to the AI, so that by the end, they are ahead of me in tech. My military consists of 14 cavalry, 3 riflemen, 6 immortals and 3 (captured) artillery – barely an industrial force, early in the modern era, but no one invades.

1600: 90154 cpts.
1615: Carthage starts the UN.
1625: I build SETI (a hedge against the UN).
1635: cultural domination.