Good fun game - loved the puzzle of the low commerce start with very few strong (peaceful) city spots nearby.
I went for a Space Victory this time.
After my peaceful Pre-1AD REX I got a couple more pieces on the board (Hanging Gardens complete and Construction) and went for Ethiopia. Toku DoW'd him first so I had to jump in quick to make sure I would get what I wanted. Very easy fights to take out his 3 best cities and sue for peace. When I took Aksum I got the Pyramids and switched into Representation. I made peace for Code of Laws and Monotheism, then started to tech into CS which came in at 840 AD.
I got Stalin to pleased fairly early on, he was doing well and made a useful tech buddy.
A few turns after CS I declared on Japan and took Toku's best cities with Elephants and Cats before making peace for his Machinery tech. The peace break was good with the remaining Japanese cities being a buffer between me and my mate Stalin and I needed some time for more units and army healing.
In this break I went Liberalism -> Astronomy in 1230 AD to get my international GLH trades up and running and to send some settlers to the antipodes. Around this time I built a new palace in Kyoto where I put Oxford University.
I had to quickly take out the last two puny Ethiopian cities because Stalin and Toku declared on him and sent their armies in.
Next event was 1320 AD when I made final war with Japan and took his three remaining cities. Around this time I settled Australia and New Zealand for some nice internal trade routes.
Stalin was fearing that I was becoming too advanced, but I had a plan for that, teching straight for Communism and sharing in some State Property made him a very effusive comrade.
I'm unfamiliar with optimal space racing but thought the plan for beelining Super Conductors (1610 AD) and building lots of labs was the way to go.
I built Apollo Program with aluminium in 1695 AD and actually managed to get some useful trades along the way from Stalin; Steel/Democracy/Corporation/Railroad. It was all selftech after that point though. With a big home continent full of grassland workshops I was in a "hammer economy" that would benefit nicely from Three Gorges Dam (1715 AD).
Around this time I started playing war with Khmer for some capture gold.
I launched my spaceship with all the parts in 1814 AD with one turn left on my 4th golden age.
While I was watching my ship fly through space I declared war on China and took their cities over 7 turns to give me something to do and for a higher score. Was fun playing with gunships, modern armor, bombers and marines.
This felt like a fast Space Victory for me with 1834 AD. I came out satisfied with my meta-strategy with coastal cities, GLH, emphasising production, short snappy wars, partnering with happy Stalin, and lots of settler building. I'm sure I messed some stuff up, maybe my wars were broken into too many parts, and I'm bad at micro - but that's what GOTMs are here to help improve!
Fun fact - I built exactly 0 cottages this game!