The plan from round 4 was to research to Economics for the trade routes and free GM. Then prepare for war with Suryavarman.
Justinian finished off Wang Kon
I got a Great Scientist before getting Economics. I used the great scientist for a golden age and the GM for a trade mission.
Civics change was made at the start of the Golden Age to Free Market and Free Religion, HR, Bureaucracy and Slavery were other 3
At the end of the Golden Age I changed to Theocracy. Theocracy with barracks would give me level 3 units out of the gate.
I popped Gems in a mine north of Kish
+1 happy, +1 happy with forge, for free, always really nice
When Rifling was in, with the money I got from the GM trade mission (2500 I think) I upgraded all my CRIII and CRII vultures to Rifleman. My stack set sail for Suryavarman, with 1 boat oddly lagging 1 square behind the others
Mansa demanded I stopped trading with Surya which I did. When my stack reached Khmer it was time to declare
I had researched Steel but I changed my mind to Mil Trad for Cavalry.
I razed Bantay Kdel, it only got stone which I didn't need urgently, I was afraid of the costs.
Surya's counterattack showed up. I took Angkor Wat the next turn and defended the counterattack inside the city. Gave some Rifle City Defender 3/ Drill 1 and some others City Defender 1/ Drill 4. Time to leverage the protective trait!
The counterattack suicided on the rifleman, the ones that withdrew were counterattacked the next turn.
Mansa put forth an AP vote for Diplomatic Victory. It gave me a good scare, I was thinking he couldn't vote himself in due to the patch. But I was still worried I had lost. Here's the tally
Noone likes him enough to vote for him
Justinian had 'enough on his hands' the whole round, and apparently the AP vote put him over the brink
He captured 1 island city and razed another.
I took 3 more cities from Surya. I think I've lost 1 rifleman total. Here's how the war is looking
Noone else has gunpowder yet, much less rifling. Plan is to finish off Surya and then take enough of Justinian's cities to give me the domination win. I've spammed some cities in the northern islands to increase my land percentage as well.
With Justinian behind in tech and busy with Mansa the backstab should go quickly and hopefully the game won before the end of next round
*Edit* Domination score