Well.... I did it.
Now just 9 more challenger series games before I come back to this one and do it well.
I added two civs extra (8 opponents), since I thought there would be too much room for AI expansion if I didn't. I could have added more (up to 10 opponents) but was afraid I would not be able to expand enough to put up a fighting chance. I chose to add Asoka and Ghandi to the mix, figuring that a couple patsies would make initial expansion by military means somewhat easier.
As it turned out, I was bordered by Mansa Musa and Asoka, but Mansa settled the iron 1 turn before I got there, and the next nearest metal was miles away. I was considering a restart, but decided to play it out to see what happens. Barbs were never a factor due to land being filled quickly.
Both neighbors adopted Confu religion (founded by Mansa) and spread it to me. Charlemagne also adopted Confu, and we had us a great big love-fest of trading. (Everything but Iron was traded... I could never get iron for less than 38 gpt plus all my happy and health resources... from any civ... so I never had iron until after cavalry came along). I had horses, which were enough to keep my power high enough to avoid getting targetted early... but everyone else had spears so they would not have been much good on offense. I had 7 cities settled (I started in lower right corner, so had blocked off enough land for backsettling two after 0AD). These had more overlap than I usually prefer, but resulted in lots of quickly-matured riverside cottages. I was therefore with the highest GNP and thus highest tech rate. And trading in the confu block really kept me in the score lead most of the way (which is unusual for me at Emperor level). Add to that the Confu relig was made the AP relig by Mansa... I had enough votes to block his relig victory attempt... and I had the U of Sankore, so I made great profit from running religions. I loved the Spi trait enabling changing back and forth from OR to Pacifism as needed.
I think I had the only stone on the map, so Stonehenge, GW, Pyramids were easy to build. As was U of Sankore. I also managed the Oracle - took metalcasting iirc-(which combined with Stonehenge) gave me many Great Priests which I settled. Thus Angor Wat was also giving me some synergy and was built. My best production and my best commerce city was simultaneously the capitol, in each case by factor of at least two. I built a 2nd academy in my number two city, but might have been better settled in Madrid. I was in Representation from very early, and didn't change until very late USuff.
I was first to Civil Service, but did not prioritize it as much as usual. Bur bonus was big, so I was there almost the hole game (until late when FS gave more).
I had cottage-spammed AND got most out of my specialists (Note, I had cows, corn and two riverside grasshills in capitol settled on stone, rest of tiles were riverside towns). So I was pretty happy about how I managed my civ. Only real drawback was that it was too small to ever really take off. Probably built too many wonders, but only the GW was superfluos, imo (and it gave me 2 GSpy which ended up being 4 stolen techs... so not so terrible anyhow).
My first war came just as I was nearing Cavalry, Asoka asks me to join against Justinian. I figured I'd join but sit out the fighting as I wait for Cavs. But I saw Justinian was about to take Madras, which if I took it back would give me iron, I sent some grens there to watch and wait. It was slow waiting for Justinian to attack -- he had to bombard defenses down to zero to beat 1 LB and 2 spears with a 21-unit stack!?!?! But I was able to take Madras. Next turn, Mansa proposed AP res to return it to Asoka, and I defy (OUCH... that really hurt). As it turns out, Asokas other culture took the iron anyhow. I took Lahore to try help with the culture fight for the iron, but the MM proposes I give Lahore back to Asoka. I tried voting no, but back to Asoka it went. And still reeling from the "villian" status, When the vote came up to return Madras to Asoka, I voted YES, it passed, and my citizens are happy again.
Oddly, during that short interval with more than 7 cities, I was able to build the FP, which apparently still works after I am down to 7 again.
When I got rifles to complement my Cavs, its no more Mr Nice Guy time. I am diplomatically aided by Mansa Musa having dow'd Joao and has hands full... and Asoka is only one nearby who has no grens... so now its killin time. The war with Asoka takes long time before he will capitulate... during which I have upgraded to infantry, artillery, and then tanks (ca 1700AD). I have gained iron and have built ironworks. I may have taken peace somewhere in the middle to reload... but restarted because I needed to get Aluminum. But after the Asoka capitulation Joao's borders took over the aluminum, so Joao (who was at war almost the entire game) had to be attacked. No prob... grens/cavs versus tanks is mismatch. But time is wearing down and all I wanted was his aluminum which I now have, so time to do some AP voodoo of my own... lets end the war against kcd_swede! I think it was unanimous except for Mansa Musa... the jerk. But it passed, and now I try to just keep the peace and go for space. Note, having Asoka as vassal made me victor in AP election.
Around 1800AD MM gets MM and builds UN. He passes some trade resolution, then loses an election to me. I stop the nukes, because having already built some I want to keep a monopoly.
Of course, Joao isn't satisfied with letting me calmly go off to space, but attacks me again and again. Some close calls almost losing a worthless Indian city, but manage to hold him off by nuking his stack and then forcing peace.
Meanwhile, my space race required 7 casing, 6 thruster, 2 cockpits, and 2 stasis units due to espionage from I don't know where. Only 1 engine. I had all the espionage defense I could muster, even ran 100% esp slider at the end.. but just got creamed by those mysterious spies.
So if you play this one... watch your back.
In addition to wonders already mentioned... I built Taj, 3 Gorges, and Broadway. I maybe captured some obsolete ones too. I was first to Econ, Liberalism(Nationalism), Communism, Physics, and Fusion.
I went to workshops and stateprop while beelining Fusion (after satelites). Still got all space techs (ecology last) faster than I could build parts. I should have enabled thrusters and/or casings before beelining fusion, because the engine build wasn't so slow in my best city (6-7 turns?). Had a lot of time where I wasn't producing parts while waiting for the fusion miracle. But note that 3Gorges was finished at same time as Fusion, so not sure I lost many turns on this.
I enjoyed this game, but I must admit it didn't feel that much different from how I usually play. Of course, I would not have picked all/any of these opponents, but they bothered each other more than they bothered me.
One important thing I learned is the power of having common religion with several civs in the early game -- as long as you don't have to lift a finger getting it. Awesome.
While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we are running a series of ten games called the Hall of Fame Challenge Series. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings of one of the games will be counted towards the Challenge.
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? That makes the early game a bit harder, but they kind of sag after that...and wonders go late.
. Mansu, Justinian and Charlemange went the way of the dodo along the way.
), then to steel to forge a bunch of cannons before trading for economics, and ended up with cavalry+infantry. In the end, I was producing enough wealth/beakers to research the end of the tech tree at 1t/tech w. Mining Inc+Cereal Mills in ~35 cities.
