Hi all,
I just had the second most annoying ever sudden end to a Civ game in all my years of addiction (the first was about a year ago and it involved Alexander; I still haven't got over it, and I shudder whenever I realise he is on ANY game). Still, I need to get it out of my chest, because it just had to happen on this marathon Warlords game, which I had been playing for almost 16 hours.
The short of it is this: a UN message in the corner of the screen (after three rounds of voting for secretary general already), vote for Stalin/Ragnar, blah, blah, blah. Without too much thought, I vote for Stalin for what I think is his fourth consecutive tenure as Secretary General (well done him!) and carry on with this highly entertaining game. One turn later, it is game over, because the vote was really for Diplomatic Victory. Not only that, Stalin has won because of my vote!
This is my face
Then
Then
and now again
I was really enjoying having lasted so long at this level, surviving 4 challenging wars and being within spitting distance of second place (this was my current strategy, after several changes of mind: get to second, launch a charm offensive and win a diplomatic victory. I think I have been punished for dreaming).
If anybody with the power to do so is reading this, can the two voting messages be made more distinctive in future versions, please? Maybe I'm not the first one to whom this has happened, although for sure I will be much more careful in future.
While I'm at it, my game explained. After Paris, I started spreading to the West (!) to block Shaka, and had a long period fighting barbarians and building communications while I could see the Egyptians effortlessly blooming right in front of me. Got more or less to a stable situation by the 1300s, sixth on the scoreboard and behind on almost everything, but about to have my first musketeer. At this point, I had to take a whole month break from the game, for personal reasons and, when I went back, I realised that something drastic was needed or I was a sitting duck.
Now, I'm not the warring type and try always to get on with everybody, but it was painfully clear I had to try to take some Egyptian cities in order to keep in the game. The musketeers came handy, I took most of Egypt in two goes (mainland + two cities in an island to the East), and left Rameses II with just one tiny city on a frozen island which put my mind to the fate of Adam Monroe at the end of series 2 of Heroes, for some reason.
So everybody had or was a vassal by now, apart from Shaka, who seemed quite happy doing his own thing. I was going to concentrate on research and beefing up my cities, when Ragnar (and Frederick, his . .. .. .. .. .) declared war on me, out of the blue. They bombarded my coastal cities for ages, which declined because of their reliance on marine resources and the destroyers taking up sea tiles. I managed to defend the mainland by the skin of my teeth from several waves of foe landings, but lost all three of my island cities. It was a shame for Rheims (in the island south of Paris) which had got to size 17 and, apart from a bit of unhappiness sometimes, it was really doing well. After that, I had to watch how it dwindled all the way to size 2, which broke my heart.
This war went on and on, and even though I was losing, it was not in a catastrophic fashion. I was getting the techs just on the turn when I needed them to stay alive, and had a few very hairy moments. Some units pulled out real feats of heroism
When I thought my luck had run out, Stalin (and Roosevelt, his . .. .. .. .. .) declared war to the Viking/German axis, and all of a sudden the pressure was off and I even managed to take back one of the island cities. I was still in this multi-sided war when Shaka decided to declare war on me, and then it was war everywhere, a real world war. I thought that I was done in, but Shaka had got cocky on the strength of a big navy of destroyers and wasn't too strong on the land units. I defended the bottleneck cities on land while he pounded my coast, and made peace with Ragnar/Frederick in the meantime. Once Shaka's first (and only) land push was contained, I pushed south myself with the intention of pillaging, but then changed my mind when I saw that two of his cities could be taken with the forces I was commanding. The birth of a Great General at that point made up my mind.
I took the two cities, at which point I saw Shaka's first tank coming at me, and hastily made peace. I spent the next turns trying to push on research and culture, and I was within spitting distance of second place Ragnar (greatly weakened by his war with almighty Stalin) when the bloody diplomatic gaffe took place and I started swearing.
This was a very enjoyable game. I really enjoy epic and marathon settings, as their pace allows for a more involved and strategic approach, and for making up for mistakes.
Anyway, back to life (and BOTM!). Greetings to all.
by either ragnar/egypt or shaka or either side of me, trying to keep everyone happy.
Pity about the other half dozen tanks and gunships really 
I thought it was all over then, but played it out and was able to fend off his rather lame sea-born expeditionary force. So just when I was about to breathe a big sigh of relief, Shaka DOWs me from the West. I was able to make peace with Ragnar a few turns later (relations were still at about +15 -- go figure!), but couldn't negotiate a new defensive pact with him because I was already at war with Shaka. 
It was just too much, even with massive drafting & such. I retired the turn before Shaka's troops would have taken Paris. 
