Round 1, Game 1
Part 4 - The Astonishing Conclusion
Sucks to be Sitting Bull. Justinian's team and Julius Caesar's team both declared war on him! I have to give credit to Stalin, though. Stalin was wise enough to stay with Buddhism, while Sitting Bull switched to Free Religion. Not quite a wise move.
Both JC and Justinian captured 2 cities each (yes, even JC's overseas attacks worked) but SB vassalized to Justinian due to more kills from him. Sitting Bull was no slouch, though, and captured York, which would later cause Elizabeth to break free from Justinian I.
Stalin's been the oddball this game, and he's doing it again. He was somehow first to Radio and Mass Media. You can see he's building the United Nations. Uh ... he does know he has no chance to win, right?
Caesar, naturally, won Secretary General. And he tried for a diplomatic victory.
He didn't get it.
And as you can see, by 1836 AD, Constantinople was Legendary. Would Just. threaten to win by both space and culture?
Naturally, Caesar couldn't let Justinian just sit by and win. Caesar declared war on Justinian (for the third time, I think!) and captured the formerly English city of Hastings. However, Justinian re-captured the city the following turn.
I just thought this was funny.
The resolution was to stop the war vs. Justinian. Caesar voted yes, but Toku defied it!
Julius Caesar soon made peace with Justinian, but went into WHEOOHRN mode yet again! This time, his target was Stalin. JC must know that Justinian would be too tough to crack. JC ended up taking 2 quick Russian cities. Could we possibly see another vassal for JC soon?
By the late 1800s, Justinian was the favorite to win. However, Julius Caesar was making it close. JC was behind in tech so he was behind in space race parts - but this would certainly help. In fact, after this, Caesar was displayed in the victor conditions screen as the leader in the space race.
In 1892, Thessalonica achieved Legendary culture. There was still time for Julius Caesar, though.
Caesar captures
yet another Russian city.
As Caesar was about to attack (and take) Moscow, his vassal, Hammurabi, did something that probably sealed the fate of the game.
Hammurabi took Moscow - and the United Nations - rather than Julius Caesar.
You'll see why this matters later.
Oooo, Justinian completes the Manhattan Project. (The odd thing is, though, Justinian was the only one who was building nukes - what happened to Caesar?)
Stalin actually got eliminated in 1911 AD! Our first casualty! And proof that an overseas invasion by an AI can work.
However, Justinian launched his spaceship.
But wait! There was still hope! JC had the United Nations ... so naturally, he called up a diplomatic victory.
BUT ... thanks to Hammurabi's act, JC was up against his vassal!
Julius Caesar's last hope of victory vanished. He failed to win the diplomatic victory, and
Justinian ends up winning a space race victory in 1925 AD! Kudos to him! Had Julius gotten Moscow, the result might be different, since JC would have had maybe 10-14 population from Moscow added on to his votes, as well as all of Hammurabi's votes.
Final power graph and map.
I'll post an analysis later, as well as all of the future matchups and who gets to advance.