Wanted to play a little bit of civ after a long time. Finished this in 106 turns with domination. Standard Liberty opener into Composite Bows and then some siege towers. Didn't last long enough for XBows
Opener was Scout Monument Worker
Hardest part of the map is probably raging barbs but it also slows down the AI so it's not that bad.
106 turns? That's crazy! I just tried it again and it took me 179 turns, but at least I was the dominant civ the whole game. It took about 50 turns just to get going. Didn't build any shrines or barracks or culture buildings (except monuments; monuments were a high priority) so all my hammers and GPT could go to military units, markets, coliseums, and a stable and circus at my #2 city. Because of my UA, libraries and National College were low priorities, but I built them eventually. But negative GPT still slowed me down. I was planning to settle 3 cities, but Celts somehow beat me to the spot by Kilimanjaro. First war was a joint war with Dido against Ethiopia. We totally wiped Hallie out; I got Addis Ababa and another city that I razed. Dido got a terrible 1-pop city with no luxes or resources that she kept. Next war was against Carthage. I took all her cities except that terrible Ethiopian puppet. She never did annex it, BTW.
I was just about to declare war on Boudicca when the Maya and Rome declared a joint war against me. I easily annihilated the Maya; razed all the cities except Palenque. While this was going on, I declared war on the Celts to steal a great prophet that was about to convert my city and used it to enhance my religion (I took a great prophet for the Liberty finisher) and to capture all her missionary spam. I realized the Celts would be easier to defeat than Rome because the Roman cities had castles already, trebuchets, and legions. So I took all her cities (razed one), then marched to Rome with both armies and multiple great generals. By now I had crossbows. I captured a Roman city; I think it was Cumae, then citadel-bombed Rome and captured it in about 3 or 4 turns with siege towers, pikes, crossbows, a chariot archer, and a longsword.
The barbarians were stronger than any of the AI's. I might should have opened Honor after my first few policies in Liberty. I completed Liberty, then opened Honor and took the policies on the left side (more generals, and faster XP) I built 2 wonders when I couldn't afford to build anything else that cost GPT: Machu Picchu and the Great Wall. I never annexed any of the capitals I captured, I wonder if that slowed me down? Also I never built any caravans because I figured the barbs would plunder them almost immediately.[/QUOTE]
