Game 2. I'm purposely not doing some things in this game. I'm not saying these are exploits, but I consider them either unbalanced or taking advantage of loopholes in the HOF rules. These are:
- Stick to Medium sea level (we should really specify this setting so everyone is the same)
- No restarting to get a specific resource such as marble
- Horseman may not be used to attack enemy cities (as I think they're overpowered)
- Policies must be taken as soon as they become available (saving free techs is OK)
In addition to these I also minmized the number of puppet cities that I took. This seemed to help keep my empire happy and my cashflow positive, but it certainly hurt my expansion. Ended up with 5 cities and 1 puppet.
I launched the spaceship on turn 520 (1930). My science could have been a little faster, but the main bottleneck was production. Took me 43 turns to build all the parts. I attempted to use city-states pretty heavily, and I don't think that worked out well. Even with the Patronage tree, I was spending a ton of money on them, and the resources/units/great people return just wasn't all that good. Seems to me that Patronage is really only viable for culture and diplomatic victories - it supports the other victory types, but isn't the best approach.
More details on the game:
Starting position isn't too bad. There's a river but I move a tile away so I'm near a Mountain, thinking that the Observatory is going to be more useful in the long run than a Hydro Plant. We'll see. No Marble but two gems, a sheep, and some cows in the distance. I decided not to build a Scout since islands typically have little area to explore, and went straight to a Worker in Washington. Turned out pretty well, my island was too small to get much out of the Scout anyway and I built a bunch of Warriors to kill off the Chinese. At about turn 160 I decided to start settling out my island and founded three more cities, picking up some good sources of Iron in the process. I got my first Great General at turn 235 but decided not to go on the offensive, kept him at home for defense. When I discovered Scientific Theory I found that once again my entire empire had no Coal, but Tyre (militaristic CS) did, so I cozied up to them. I also sent a Settler to colonize a far-away island that had some coal, but barbarians killed it. More resource trouble, no Aluminum. I thought I'd get some from the city-state Almaty but they built a Trading Post on their Aluminum for some reason. So I took a Roman city that had some instead. Around 1870 I got the Aluminum and Robotics, so started every city on a Spaceship Factory.
Wonders: Got the Great Library (turn 82) and the Oracle, no chance to pick up any of the other early Wonders. Built a few national wonders in Washington, and next great wonder I built was Machu Pichu on turn 221 - good for the pocketbook. Next the Porcelain Tower on turn 250, then Chichen Itza on turn 263. Got a Great Engineer on turn 274, used it to build Himeji Castle in turn 321 since one of my city states was looking for it. Built Sistine Chapel on turn 346, mainly because I didn't have anything else urgently needed in Washington at the time. Got The Louvre on turn 367, as a couple of city-states wanted it, and the Great Artists were handy for a short golden age and culture-bombing some tiles just outside my city limits to get me some Dye. Built Brandenburg Gate on turn 389, made some CSs happy and the General ran another Golden Age. Built Big Ben in turn 452. Apollo Project was complete on turn 477. By turn 485 all the cities were building spaceship parts, but I didn't finish until turn 520 (1930). Not nearly enough production.
Technology: Because of the early Worker, I took Animal Husbandry and Mining quickly, before Writing. I still managed the Great Library->Civil Service slingshot, on turn 83. I got a Great Scientist on turn 125, which I used for Currency (the most expensive option at the time). More Great Scientists born on turn 228, 250 (Porcelain Tower), 317, 367, 422, 439, and 470. I used one on Scientific Theory in turn 302, and two more on Steam Power and Railroad on turn 343. Got a free Penicillin on turn 396 from Oxford University. Then Ecology and Globalization from Scientific Revolution on turn 408. Then more Great Scientists for Rocketry on turn 435, Satellites on 439, and Nanotechnology on turn 479.
Policies: I got my first policy on turn 12 thanks to a culture ruin, unlocking Tradition. Second on turn 55, Aristocracy. Third on turn 100, open Patronage, and fourth on turn 101 (Oracle), Philanthropy. Fifth policy came on turn 134, Scholasticism. Sixth on turn 198, Aesthetics. Seventh on turn 244, Educated Elite. Eighth on turn 293, open Rationalism. Ninth on turn 348, Secularism. Tenth on turn 381, Free Thought. Eleventh on turn 408, Scientific Revolution. Twelfth on turn 440, open Order. Thirteenth on turn 479, Socialism.
Diplomacy: I met China on turn 15, a major improvement over my last game when nothing happened until turn 100. Ironically I decided to destroy them early (turn 59 I annexed Beijing behind 3 Warriors), but hey, at least they were there. I allied Genoa (maritime CS) on turn 101 right after getting Philanthropy. On turn 187 I met the Romans, quite a ways away across the seas, wasn't worth getting aggressive right away. They were a good trading partner though. Allied Brussels (culture CS) on turn 196 mostly to get their furs, but it upset the Romans so I didn't try to keep them around. Around turn 200, I met both England and the Iroquois, also far away and good to trade with. On 220 I allied Lhasa (cultured CS) again for Furs, planning to keep it this time, although Elizabeth isn't too happy about it. On turn 233 I met the Songhai and turn 257 the Egyptians, more trading partners. Then India a bit later. On 349 I allied Monaco, a cultured CS that had whales, for more happiness. On turn 381 the Iroquois talked me into attacking England, which I did mostly because I was bored - they weren't a big threat. I took London and Nottingham as puppets. Got a Great Merchant from Genoa on turn 382, which I used to conduct a trade mission with Vienna on turn 384 and allied them too. On turn 389 I allied Almaty in an attempt to get their Aluminum. Turn 445, I took Neapolis from the Romans for its Aluminum. The Iroquois declared war on me on turn 490, it appears because they were upset that I still held London and Nottingham. Once he took those two, peace was restored.